Bestselling author and TV personality Mike McCardell, known for his humorous and touching portraits of ordinary BC lives, turns a new page and crafts a bittersweet memoir of his own hardscrabble childhood in New York City.

Written with all the warmth and ironic humour his fans have come to know and love, Cardboard Ocean is an affectionate evocation …

Tell me, how do I write better poetry? You can't? I'm not surprised. You can write it yourself but damned if you can tell someone else how, your classes to the contrary.
—Al Purdy

The truth is none of us who write poetry should allow ourselves to make public critiques of the others, not in a small country like this where we know each other too we …

From the author of The Boreal Gourmet comes another irresistible tribute to foods of the North, and this time she devotes special attention to feasts. Michele Genest’s feasts cover the whole spectrum—for small groups or large, extensively planned or spontaneous, as elaborate as a 12-course tasting menu or as simple and satisfying as a pot of L …

Cloudwalker, describing the creation of the rivers, is the second in a series of Northwest Coast legends by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd. Their previous collaboration, Raven Brings the Light (2013), is a national bestseller.

On British Columbia's northwest coast lies the Sacred Headwaters--the source of three of British Columbia's largest salmo …

Roy Henry Vickers is known around the world for his unique artistic style marked by clean lines, vivid colours and natural themes drawn from the rugged beauty of the west coast of British Columbia. Influenced by his Tsimshian, Haida, Heiltsuk and British heritage, Vickers unites the stylized forms of his aboriginal ancestry with the realism of Euro …

If wild berry foragers followed vague advice such as "berries of red and you'll soon be dead" or "berries of blue will do harm to you" imagine how many of nature's delicacies would be passed by! On the other hand, for anyone who has thought twice before popping that delicious-looking morsel into their mouth, the reality of poisonous berries growing …

Retired fishery officer Randy Nelson's first love was catching poachers. That obsession, plus a devious mind and enthusiasm for marathon running, spelled big trouble for law-breaking fishermen. Thirty-five years in the field (and stream) netted a gold mine of stories: with hair-raising tales of grizzly bear attacks; angry axe-wielding, rock-throwin …

Writer, environmentalist and gardener Des Kennedy has gathered together his best, most outrageous and most contemplative articles and essays of the past decade into a book full of playful wit and insight.

Kennedy recounts one newspaper's April Fool's Day prank that had men across the UK buying heather in order to propagate a poor-man's Viagra, expan …

Diane Tucker's Bonsai Love is an eloquent book of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Carefully pruned, intricate in design, and sensitive to intrusion, these poems create an image of intimacy through reflection and in relation to nature, the universe, music, literature and art.

The voice that comes forth is one of self-doubt seeking reassura …

For over three decades editorial cartoonist and BC resident Adrian Raeside has trained his laser wit on a subject he knows well--the foibles of life on Canada's wet coast. From yoga devotees to redneck fishermen, political potheads to bloated bureaucrats, plus provincial pet peeves like leaky condos,ICBC premiums and smart meters, no stone is left …

The most detailed collection of North Shore hiking trails is now more comprehensive than ever!

From Horseshoe Bay and Lighthouse Park to the Baden-Powell Trail and Goldie Lake, discover the rugged beauty of the North Shore up close and on foot.

Featuring detailed information on thirty-nine routes winding through the North Shore's spectacular wilderne …

Frank White started writing the story of his life as a pioneer BC truck driver in 1974 when he was only sixty. His boisterous yarn in Raincoast Chronicles about wrangling tiny trucks overloaded with huge logs down steep mountains with no brakes won the Canadian Media Club award for Best Magazine Feature and was reprinted so many times everyone urge …

I was driving back at night from Fulford, having done a house call. There was a guy lying beside the road. He was big, but I was fairly strong at that time, so I put him in the car and got to the hospital, then phoned John to come and help me. The guy had a completely rigid belly. He'd been drinking--I could smell that. So I thought I'd better try …

End Zones and Border Wars is the story of the CFL's ill-fated period
of expansion into the United States during the early to mid-
1990s. It was a time filled with intriguing characters, from John
Candy to Nick Mileti to Pepper Rodgers, the coach who loved everything
about the Canadian game except the rules and the teams. With
a cast of investors w …

What if Mike McCardell--beloved reporter of glasses half-full and the brighter side of life--is actually dead... or, more specifically, un-dead? Suppose he has continued to walk among the living ever since he was a sapper with the famous detachment of Royal Engineers who came to British Columbia in 1859 and was known as Jock Linn--the namesake for …

First Nations are the fastest growing population in the country. There are thousands upon thousands of young First Nations people growing up today who, together with the kind of individuals whose stories are told in this book, represent a future for this country that is brighter than it has been for a long, long time.
—from the foreword by Shawn …

The tale begins in sixteenth-century Venice, when explorer Juan de Fuca encountered English merchant Michael Lok and relayed a fantastic story of a marine passageway that connected the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This tale would be the catalyst for centuries of dreaming, and exacerbate English and Spanish rivalry.

The search for the fabled Northwes …

When Dr. Alan Swan took the job as doctor at Pender Harbour's 13-bed mission hospital in 1954, his first challenge was locating the place. The tiny hospital served a vast coastal frontier occupied by loggers, fishermen and recluses who seldom asked for help, but when they did you knew it was serious. Almost as soon as he arrived, Dr. Swan was calle …

Whether readers are interested in logging history, a good yarn or folk art, they will be enthralled by Now You're Logging, British Columbia's first graphic novel and a enduring West Coast classic, published in celebration of what would have been Bus Griffiths' 100th birthday.

Now You're Logging is the story of Al and Red, who go to work in a small W …

In 1886, the discovery of rich goldfields in the Klondike precipitated a flood of gold-crazed men and women rushing north to the Yukon territory. Suddenly, the northern wilderness and its aboriginal population were overwhelmed by the newcomers. The presence of large numbers of American miners challenged Canada's sovereignty. Yet it was
no lawless …

Roderick L. Haig-Brown is one of the world's most beloved and popular fly-fishing writers. His books bring together exquisite prose and the limitless art and joy of fishing, along with solid and timeless advice.

First published in 1959, and the most popular of Haig-Brown's fishing titles, Fisherman's Summer includes absorbing descriptions of fishing …

Nature heals! This compact waterproof field guide introduces readers to 26 common Canadian wild plants with extraordinary healing properties. Use arnica blossoms to heal muscle inflammation, improve digestion with chickweed and soothe a toothache with yarrow root--learning to identify and use wild medicinal plants is both fascinating and useful.

Eac …

Was that a lynx or a bobcat? A nuthatch or a chickadee?

A Field Guide to Wildlife of the Rocky Mountains is a must have for any visitor to the Rocky Mountain region of British Columbia, Alberta, Montana and Idaho. Featuring over a hundred superb full-colour photos, this waterproof pamphlet provides an essential look at the variety of animals one is …

Do you know a tanager from a towhee? A goatsucker from a grosbeak? Here, after much demand, is a waterproof, portable 8-fold guide featuring 112 photos of the common birds found in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska. Each species is labelled with common name, size, distribution range and favoured habitat. This full-col …

Sea Salt is a gorgeous new collection of over a hundred sea-tested gourmet recipes suitable for meals aboard but equally satisfying for the home dining table. The authors are themselves dedicated sailors and bring readers on a voyage around Vancouver Island aboard their classic wooden sailboat Aeriel, drawing inspiration from the area's seafood, fa …

In a time when darkness covered the land, a boy named Weget is born who is destined to bring the light. With the gift of a raven's skin that allows him to fly as well as transform, Weget turns into a bird and journeys from Haida Gwaii into the sky. There he finds the Chief of the Heavens who keeps the light in a box. By transforming himself into a …

Here, at last, is a book about commercial salmon fishing, by well-known fisherman and industry analyst Dr. Don Pepper--one that is sure to become a West Coast classic. Pepper fished salmon as a crewman every season from 1953 to 1969. After a hiatus in the '70s, he returned to fishing in the '80s, balancing his life at sea with a career as a profess …

What vegetables can I plant as winter crops? How can I avoid bitter bolting lettuce? When is the best time to cut back rhodos? How do I overwinter my geraniums and fuchsias? What fastgrowing evergreen hedge will work for my narrow urban yard? How late can I plant spring-flowering bulbs? What should I do about the chafer infestation that is destroyi …

The crows pick at the waste on the asphalt.
The men push jingling shopping carts. Or stand and mimic life
in a prison yard. The wild white swan is dead. Where I caught
trout as a child, no trout swim now. The drives
and crescents gouge ravines, make creeks disappear. Where wild
baby fish run, they run the gauntlet of penned fish. They are eaten al …

This tale of a young man's first summer as a commercial salmon fisherman on the BC coast, written in 1948 by the renowned fisherman and outdoor adventure writer Roderick Haig-Brown, has become a modern classic.

Don Morgan has made enough money trapping on northern Vancouver Island to realize his dream: he has bought himself a 32-foot West Coast salm …

Dogs are tops--35 percent of Canadian households include at least one canine--and anyone who's been owned by one (yes, that's right) will tell you why: we share in each other's joy and pain; they cheer us up when we're blue; they strive to please us and are indispensable workers, serving us even at their peril; we pamper and play with them, train t …

Centuries before steel, fibreglass, aluminum and automation were applied to shipbuilding, early twentieth-century British Columbian shipwrights hand built fish boats entirely out of wood. Guided by their intuition and knowledge of the sea, they used only basic tools to craft thousands of vessels that shaped the way shipwrights and marine architects …

In her bestselling book The Zero-Mile Diet (Harbour, 2010), gardening activist Carolyn Herriot inspired readers to put organic homegrown fruits and vegetables on the table, using time-saving, economical and sustainable methods.

Now Herriot is back with even more ideas to cook up fresh food from the garden throughout the year. The Zero-Mile Diet Cook …

A Field Guide to the Identification of Pebbles has sold over 50,000 copies, and now this extremely popular title is also available in French. The Guide practique d'identification des cailloux is a full-colour, laminated, accordion-folded, easy to use guide with over 80 beautiful photographs of pebbles from beaches and rivers. A great resource for F …

History in BC grows profusely and luxuriantly, but with odd undergrowth," observed historian J.M.S. Careless many years ago. This claim is fully borne out by this impressive anthology of some of the province's most distinguished historians, geographers, and writers gleaned from over forty years of British Columbia's leading scholarly journal, BC St …

Clarke had no interest in "trophy climbs" and never did ascend many of BC's highest peaks. On the other hand, he explored more virgin territory and racked up more first ascents than any other climber--perhaps more than any climber who ever lived.

Although he came to be honoured far and wide and is one of the few mountaineers to be awarded the Order …

Seymour lies between the City of North Vancouver and Indian Arm and includes the communities of Dollarton, Deep Cove, the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation and the popular Mount Seymour winter sports complex. Compiled with the help of knowledgeable Seymour seniors of the Deep Cove Heritage Society, Echoes Across Seymour provides unparalleled insight into …

Salt Spring, Pender, Galiano, Mayne and Saturna are the best known of the Southern Gulf Islands. Their residents value a rich food and drink heritage, and experiment busily with new foods and approaches to improve diversity and flavour, and support special diets and local sustainability. They celebrate slow foods--and slow islands; and many embrace …

This follow-up to the bestselling book Fishing with Gubby (Harbour Publishing, 2010) continues the adventures of Gubby, a commercial salmon fisherman, who heads home to his village on the Sunshine Coast at the end of another long season. His beloved old boat, the Flounder, is worn out and he commissions a Japanese-Canadian boat builder in historic …

Christine Allen and Michael Kluckner's portrayal of life on Killara Farm moves thoughtfully through a year of gardening with a rich, detailed narrative that evokes the many pleasures of life in rural Southwestern BC.

Allen, a master gardener, is also a lyrical writer, expressing the tiny details of life on the farm--the "winter jasmine, doggedly flo …

Bestselling author Chris Czajkowski returns with more revelations of life in the far reaches of the Chilcotin.

After nearly three decades of wilderness dwelling far from neighbours and roads, with the nearest community accessible only via float plane or days of hiking, Czajkowski purchases a derelict homestead with rough road access at Ginty Creek, …

For more than a decade, the Globe and Mail has featured comprehensive obituaries of notable British Columbians by columnist Tom Hawthorn. He recounts the lives of the recently departed in an engaging style, finding anecdotes to illuminate personality, giving voice to those who no longer have one. These stories are not about death, but about life in …

Publishing sensation and popular Global TV personality Mike McCardell returns with a new collection of hilarious, heartwarming and honest stories. These are stories of the defender of a handicapped parking spot, a woman who has delivered homemade Valentine cards to neighbours for twenty years, and love between a widower and a woman who had never be …

Carrying on "Irregardless" is a handsomely illustrated paperback based on the first exhibition to focus on humour in Northwest Coast First Nations art. The show, mounted by the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver is titled after one of Bill Reid's favourite deliberate grammatical blunders that were part of the sense of humour that …

Song and Spectacle, the third collection by award-winning poet Rachel Rose, is composed of fierce hymns to the particular and universal struggles of birth, passion and loss, and the paradoxical quest for non-attachment in a treacherous, unpredictable and yet deeply beloved world.

Rose delves into the world of myth, using the stories of Daphne and Pe …

Diana Phillips, daughter of Canadian folk legend Pan Phillips, shares more extraordinary tales about her life on the ranch in the remote British Columbian backcountry.

Two years after publishing Beyond the Chilcotin, her remarkable memoir about growing up on her famous father's pioneer ranch in the Chilcotin, Diana Phillips continues her story. Dis …

Trucks are everywhere--crowding the highways, lining up for the ferries, roaring down dusty logging roads--and yet trucking is often left off the list when talk turns to British Columbia's major industries. It shouldn't be, as this gorgeous new illustrated history celebrating the BC Trucking Association's 100th anniversary shows. With annual revenu …

Mushroom expert Daniel Winkler has returned with another easy-to-use field guide to help hunters track down their favourite fungi in California! Use this region-specific guide to identify over thirty common and easily-recognized edible mushrooms--and stay away from their not-so-edible look-alikes. From chanterelles and boletes to ascomycota and aga …

While interest in sustainable food practices is spreading, for urban dwellers who don't have much space or suburbanites who aren't ready to rip out the front lawn and replace it with hills of potatoes, growing any significant amount of food can seem like an impossible endeavour. But it doesn't have to be! Edible Landscaping demonstrates just how si …