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Walk With Nature, Walk With Books

Featured Top Picks • August 23, 2023 • RLBC

Beautiful British Columbia is awash in nature in all its glory. We have mountains, lakes, beaches, snow, oceans, rivers—the list is neverending. This collection of books offers guided insight into the details of that beauty: plant identification, personal memoir, conservation law, Indigenous land rights, and more. 

Expect to learn, grow, and have fun in pace with what surrounds you.

The wildfires currently affecting many areas of Turtle Island, including BC, are on our minds. These tragic events have identifiable causes and can be mitigated in the future if we work together to protect our province.

E. J. Hughes: Life at the Lake by Robert Amos (TouchWood Editions)

The fourth installment in Robert Amos’ series on the life and work of beloved Canadian painter E. J. Hughes is an enchanting look into the artist’s private life on Shawnigan Lake. Expect a collection of oil works, sketches, and the daily memorabilia of the life of Hughes’ family, friends, and the nature and small town that surrounded them. 

Coming October 24, 2023!

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Lha yudit’ih We Always Find a Way by Lorraine Weir with Roger William (Talonbooks)

Told from the perspective of the Plaintiff, Chief Roger William, joined by fifty Xeni Gwet’ins, Tŝilhqot’ins, and allies, this book encompasses ancient stories of creation, modern stories of genocide through smallpox and residential school, and stories of resistance including the Tŝilhqot’in War, direct actions against logging and mining, and the twenty-five-year battle in Canadian courts; the first case in Canada to result in a declaration of Aboriginal Rights and Title to a specific piece of land.

Coming September 9, 2023!

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Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast, expanded edition by Collin Varner (Heritage House)

This full-colour guide to edible and medicinal plants is a clear and concise accompaniment to new and experienced foragers alike. Its practical, user-friendly, and safe pages can help you become familiar with the environment around you. 

 

Out now!

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Invasive Flora of the West Coast: British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest by Collin Varner (Heritage House)

Invasive plants are ubiquitous in our yards, roadsides, and forests, but can we distinguish them from the native plants they are encroaching on? This guide will help you identify invasive plants as well as highlight their threats and point out their uses and dangers.

Out now!

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Capturing The Summit: Hamilton Mack Laing and the Mount Logan Expedition of 1925 by Trevor Marc Hughes (Ronsdale Press)

Ninety-eight years ago, 1,600km north-west of Vancouver, a naturalist and a mountaineer joined an expedition to climb Mount Logan. The account of that climb is told in Hamilton Mack Liang and Fred Lambart’s own words, from their own diaries. The account, according to the Vancouver Sun, offers “the reader a visceral experience of the North and its mighty landscapes.” Whether you wonder why, oh why do people climb mountains or want to do it yourself, this book will interest you.

Out now!

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Instructions for a Flood: Reflections on Story, Geography and Connection by Adrienne Fitzpatrick (Caitlin Press)

Instructions for a Flood is a non-fiction account, in the form of personal essays and vignettes, of a life in the central interior and coastal regions of British Columbia. This book is a decade’s worth of reflection on personal reconciliation and life in these regions and the waterways and the social ties that necessitate bonds in the unrelenting isolation of the natural landscape of BC.

Out now!

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Remnants: Reveries of a Mountain Dweller by Natalie Lang (Caitlin Press)

With stunning clarity, thoughtful meditation and Walden-esque prose, Natalie Virginia Lang invites readers to join her in reexamining our relationships to the natural world. Focussing on the social, historical, cultural, and environmental infringement on Sumas Mountain, Remnants bridges the gap between science, philosophy, academic theories, and the social sphere.

Out now!

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Drawing Botany Home: A Rooted Life by Lyn Baldwin (Rocky Mountain Books)

The beautifully illustrated natural history memoir of teacher and plant conservation biologist Lyn Baldwin is about her return, after three decades away, to her home of Kamloops. Tutored by the plants of forest and garden, wilderness and wetland, Lyn realizes that her botany never has been, and never will be, a placeless science. 

Out now!

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Paradise Won: The Struggle to Create Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve by Elizabeth May (Rocky Mountain Books)

First published in 1990, this book is the story of the creation of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, an archipelago of 138 islands in the territory of the Haida people. This remarkable story highlights the power and importance of Indigenous rights and how activism can spur average citizens to action in order to fight climate change and protect fragile ecosystems everywhere.

Out now!

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Medicinal Perennials to Know and Grow by Dan Jason & Rupert Adams, illustrated by Lyn Alice (Harbour Publishing)

Plant experts from Salt Spring Seeds and BC Eco Seed Co-op teach you how to grow your own medicine and empower yourself in this new book. Watercolour illustrations accompany explanations of the nature of each plant, how to grow them, their medicinal properties and other potential perks, such as their ability to produce dyes or attract pollinators.

Out September 2, 2023!

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Hot Springs of Western Canada by Glenn Woodsworth & David Woodsworth (Harbour Publishing)

Looking to surprise someone? Become part of an exclusive club: knowing where the hot springs are in any given area in Northwestern North America. With extensive and long-standing backcountry experience, the authors bring you a guide of the hot springs they have discovered.

Out September 30, 2023!

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Protecting the Coast and Ocean by Stephanie Hewson, Linda Nowlan, Georgia Lloyd-Smith, Deborah Carlson & Michael Bissonnette (UBC Press)

Protecting the Coast and Ocean is the first comprehensive guide to marine protection law in British Columbia. Although the compound impacts of climate change, overfishing, and pollution seem overwhelming, Protecting the Coast and Ocean convincingly demonstrates that Indigenous, federal, provincial, and local governments have the legal tools to protect coastal and marine ecosystems, reverse species extinction, and plan for a resilient ocean.

Out now!

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Cherokee Earth Dwellers by Christopher B. Teuton and Hastings Shade, with Loretta Shade and Larry Shade, illustrated by MaryBeth Timothy (UBC Press)

Cherokee Earth Dwellers is a unique collection of over 600 Cherokee language names for birds, animals, edible plants, reptiles, amphibians, trees, insects, plants, and fish that Cherokee elder Hastings Shade spent his life recording and teaching. The book weaves together a chorus of voices in order to explore how contemporary Cherokee knowledge keepers understand and engage the natural world and the relationships that form the core of Shade’s collection.

Out now!

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