BC Books From the Mainland/Southwest

Jean Coulthard demonstrated that a Canadian woman could be a successful professional composer, whose music was, and still is, played extensively in concert halls across Canada and internationally. Through her seven-decade career she composed in every genre of traditional classical music: opera, symphonies, concerti, chamber music, keyboard, voice, and choir. Coulthard's story was more than that of artist and teacher. She made a place for herself in a male-dominated university and, as a westerner …

A Thrilling Rideinvites fans to relive the greatest moments of the Canucks’ most celebrated season and historic achievements. Vancouver’s best sports writers—including Ed Willes and Gord McIntyre of The Province and Cam Cole and Iain MacIntyre of The Vancouver Sun—share their insights into the stellar play, the determined players, the overtime heroics, and the passionate fans, while more than 125 full-colour photographs record the dramatic action. The book also includes a heartfelt forew …

Thirty-year-old Casey Holland likes being a transit security cop. It brings out the best of her compassion, perseverance and courage. After capturing a suspect who’s been groping female bus passengers, Casey learns that her father was murdered in his West Vancouver home the previous evening. The trouble is, Casey buried her dad at an open-casket funeral service three years earlier, and he never owned a house in pricey West Van. Convinced that the police are mistaken, Casey accompanies them to …

At fifteen, Ethan is on the fast track to nowhere. In and out of group homes and constantly in trouble, Ethan is fighting to find a sense of who he is. After breaking into an amusement park and being savaged by a police dog, he is befriended by a paramedic. Offered a choice of court or going on a ride-along in an ambulance, Ethan takes what he thinks is the easy way out. On Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Ethan comes face to face with the horrific truth from his past and must learn to deal with w …

A behind-the-scenes story of a global superstar's rise to fame.

In 1993, Beverly Delich discovered an 18-year-old singer named Michael Bubl� in a Vancouver talent contest, became his manager, and moved with him to Toronto, and then L.A., as he tried to break into a tough, unforgiving business. This book is her vivid, behind-the-scenes story of the making of a modern-day superstar, from the early days when she and Bubl� struggled to get bookings, to the giddiness of hobnobbing with music …

In this lavishly produced hardcover volume, Plaskett has created an autobiography as colourful as his finest paintings. Plaskett begins with his early family life in New Westminster, BC, relates his encounter with abstract expressionism under Hans Hofmann, and then discusses the development of his mature style. Included are an introduction by the late George Woodcock, some 30 full-colour reproductions of Plaskett's paintings and over 90 black and white photos.

Slumach's Gold chronicles what is possibly Canada's greatest lost-mine story. It searches out the truth behind a Salish man's hanging for murder in 1891 and tracks the intriguing legend about him that grew after his death. It was a legend that turned into a drama of international fascination when Slumach—the hanged criminal—was mysteriously linked to gold nuggets "the size of walnuts." The stories claimed that Slumach had placed a curse on a hidden motherlode to protect it from interlopers …

Longlisted for the ReLit Award

Editor's Pick, Vancouver Sun

Dirtbags is a novel about reckoning - with one's past, one's choices, and one's expectations for the future. Spider is a scrappy kid growing up in rural B.C., and when a tragic event causes her world to implode she heads to Vancouver for solace, distraction, and experience.

We witness a shifting morality as Spider moves through chaos and anarchy, often of her own choosing, with no certainty of truth besides what is found in brief encounter …