Your batteries have run down? You can’t take your iBook or iPad with you to read in the bathtub? Why not go to an actual, paper book? Why be satisfied with looking at tiny pictures on your cellphone when you can see beauty in a large, eye-filling format in a new book?
Give books as gifts this Christmas – they will still be there, with your name and good wishes in them, long after virtual books are erased. Here is a selection from local publishers, beautiful to look at and interesting to read, for yourself or a good friend.
VANCOUVER LIGHT: Visions of a City, photography by David Nunuk (Harbour Publishing): All the great views of Vancouver in the photographs you wish you had taken. This is a truly beautiful book, and, while coffeetable size, it’s worth it for the size and clarity of the photos. A great gift for yourself, or to lure friends to Vancouver.
VIEWS OF THE SALISH SEA: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change Around the Strait of Georgia, by Howard Macdonald Stewart (Harbour Publishing): This is a treasury of information, charts, maps and photographs for anyone interested in almost any aspect of our local coastal waters. Whether it’s original lighthouses, hatcheries, beaches, old resorts, Georgia Straight as our sewage dump, old and new ports and shipping, it’s all here in an attractive format for pleasurable reading or informative history source.
A MARINER’S GUIDE TO SELF SABOTAGE, by Bill Gaston (Douglas & McIntyre): Intriguing short stories with characters in situations, mundane or bizarre, that keep you reading to see how it will all work out, by this multi-award winning Canadian author.
THE WHITE ANGEL, by John MacLachlan Gray (Douglas & McIntyre): Gray has immersed himself in 1920s Vancouver life, so much that you time travel there with him as you read his account of this true unsolved mystery, its investigation and ramifications. It’s an engrossing read, and you are left to come to your own conclusions. A great choice for book clubs, so you can argue about whodunnit.
SPEAKEASY, by Alisa Smith (Douglas & McIntyre): What’s the connection between prohibition rum-runners in the ’30s on our West Coast, and Second World War interceptors and decoders of Japanese messages in 1940? You’ll enjoy reading this thriller to find out.
ALASKA HIGHWAY TWO-STEP, by Caroline Woodward (Lost Moose Press/Harbour Publishing): Combining a mystery with characters with ESP and a looming unidentified disaster keeps the suspense building to the end as the author takes you with her right into her frightening visions.
THE ORANGE BALLOON DOG, by Don Thompson (Douglas & McIntyre): Have you ever wondered why some paintings go for such seemingly outrageous prices? This book describes some of the ways they are valued and/or prices manipulated. A fascinating look into the world of art auctions and dealers
GOLD DIGGERS OF THE KLONDIKE, by Bay Ryley (Watson & Dwyer): Prostitution was a part of the Yukon Gold Rush, in much the same way as in the present. However, Ryley has created a fascinating, non-salacious overview of how it went on, how it ran down, the “proper” prominent people who profited behind the scenes, and how it’s now used as a nostalgic look at racier times by the tourist trade.
THE PROMISE OF PARADISE: Utopian Communities in British Columbia, by Andrew Scott (Harbour Publishing): An expanded, well-illustrated new edition describing hopeful new beginnings in B.C., settlements that disappeared and others that assimiliated, from the Nordic settlements along the coast, the Doukhobors and English aristocracy in the Interior, to more suspect religious sects, such as those of Brother Twelve - all fascinating history.
SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE: Discovering the Woman Behind Robert Burns, by Melanie Murray (Nightwood Editions): While Robbie Burns waxed poetic about the women he admired and loved, he had a wife as well, his first muse, “Bonnie Jean,” the mother of his nine children. A portrait of a strong, loving woman, who may have been the bulwark that allowed him the freedom to create his timeless lyrics.
HARRY: A Wilderness Dog Saga, by Chris Czajkowski (Harbour Publishing): Written from a dog’s viewpoint, you follow the author’s trials and travels living and running adventure trips in the north. Photos bring extra life to the interesting narrative. Should be a hit with dog lovers.
O CANADA CROSSWORDS Book 18, by Gwen Sjogren (Nightwood Editions): Crosswords that test your knowledge of Canadiana, as well as those seldom used words such as “etui,” which seem invaluable to crossword makers. Always a pleasure to work on and sure to be popular with your crossword friends.
100 EASY-TO-GROW NATIVE PLANTS FOR CANADIAN GARDENS, by Lorraine Johnson (Douglas & McIntyre): From barren strawberry to zig-zag goldenrod, they are all here in this revised third edition of a classic. The photographs are large and clear, the descriptions and how to find and cultivate, also. Great gift for a gardening friend who wants to “go native” - with plants, that is.
FOR YOUNGER READERS:
THE FERRYBOAT RIDE, by Robert Perry, illus. Greta Guzek (Nightwood Editions): Lively colourful illustrations of the ferry boat ride, with the catchy rhymes for each should make this a bedtime and read-alone favourite for ages two to five.
FROM THE STARS IN THE SKY TO THE FISH IN THE SEA, by Kai Cheng Thom, illus. by Wai-Yant Li and Kai Yun Ching (Arsenal Pulp Press): Charmingly magical and eye-catching illustrations make this a beautiful book about loving the natural world for its diversity and how children can be different and still loved, as well.
