Women's History Network of British Columbia
WHN/BC
BOOK NOTES & EVENTS 2008
New books about & by women in British Columbia:
Traditions of Faith and Service by Jacqueline Gresko. A popular history of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, BC. illustrated with historical photographs and archival documents and including profiles of each parish. Celebrating the Archdiocese's centennial. Details and ordering information: www.rcav.org/book/index_new.htm
Seeking Balance: Conversations with BC Women in Politics by Anne Edwards. Based on interviews and discussions with more than eighty British Columbia women politicians. Anne Edwards herself was the M.L.A. for Kootenay constituency for 10 years and served as British Columbia's Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources from 1991 to 1996. Published 2008, Caitlin Press. For more information, see the Caitlin Press website: www.caitlin-press.com/what.html#lseeking
100 Years of the BC Women's Institutes, 1909-2009, published in 2008 by the British Columbia Women's Institute, a commemorative history. For more information, contact the Kamloops office at: info@bcwi.org BCWI website: http://www.islandnet.com/~swan/bcwi
Labor of Love: A Memoir of Gertrude Richards Ladner 1879 to 1976 by Valerie Grant, Sheila J. Rankin Zerr & Glennis Zilm. 2006. Limited Edition. $30 & $5 shipping in Canada. To order, contact Sheila J. Rankin Zerr, 5333 Upland Drive, Delta BC V4M 2G3. Email srzerr@telus.net
Based on an enchanting memoir of a young nurse of the early 1900s, this book provides insights into the life of a remarkably spirited and independent young woman. She does not fit the commonly held image of a passive woman at the turn of the last century – and her account gives a different historical picture of a professional nurse of 100 years ago.
Labor of Love: A Memoir of Gertrude Richards Ladner 1879 to 1976 is based on a short family document dictated by Gertrude Ladner to her daughter, Edna G. Ladner, and on family photographs and documents. The book also contains background on the Richards and Ladner families, both of whom made important contributions to the history of the B.C. Lower Mainland. The Richards family were early Vancouver entrepreneurs, and Gertrude married into the pioneering Ladner farming and fish-canning dynasty after whom the Delta community is named. Two chapters contain primary data on the history of the Provincial Royal Jubilee Hospital and on nursing uniforms of the day and will be of interest to nursing historians and researchers. Softcover, 8 x 10 inches, approx. 130 pages, illustrated, bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-9780814-0-4
Stella: Unrepentant Madam, by Linda Eversole, Touchwood Editions, Heritage Group: Nanoose Bay, B.C., Canada, 2005
Publisher's website: http://www.heritagehouse.ca/press_releases/stella_press.htm
The Canadian Housewife: An Affectionate History, by Rosemary Neering, Whitecap Books, 2005
Interview "The H Word" with Sally Johnston, December 8th, 2005, TorontoSun.com: http://www.torontosun.com/Lifestyle/2005/12/08/1343763-sun.html
Discovering Emily, a life of Emily Carr for young people, (8-11 years), by Jacqueline Pearce, Orca Young Readers Series, Orca Book Publishers, Victoria, B.C., 2004. For a teacher's guide (pdf), see the Orca Book Publishers website
"The Hebrew Ladies of Victoria, Vancouver Island", Cyril E. Leonoff, The Scribe, The Journal of the Jewish Historical Society of B.C., Volume XXIV, No. 1 & 2, 2004. Now included in a joint issue of The Scribe and Western States Jewish History ( Volume XV, No. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2005) available through the Jewish Historical Society of B.C at 206 - 950 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 2N7 Telephone: (604) 257 - 5199
Website: http://collections.ic.gc.ca/jhs/
This joint volume includes articles by various authors: The Hebrew Ladies of Victoria, Vancouver, Island; Julius Silversmith: Pioneer Pedagogue and Publisher; David Belasco: From Frontier to Fame; Shipwrecked; Traders on the Frontier; Victoria’s Curio Dealers; Dawson City, Yukon Revisited, 1898-1998; Hannah Director’s Album of Memories; The Adelbergs, Homesteading the Peace; Silver King Mike of the West Kootenay, B.C.; The Trail Years: A Memoir; Jews in Greater Vancouver.
"The Hebrew Ladies of Victoria, Vancouver Island", based on newspaper reports, the minutes of Victoria's Congregation Emanu-El and memoirs and interviews, traces women's participation in the Jewish community on Vancouver Island from about 1858, including the establishment of the Hebrew Ladies Association of Victoria in 1890 and the building of the Hebrew Ladies Hall in 1892-93. It includes brief biographies of some of the families of prominent women, for example, Alice Mallek, a Victoria businesswomen, and, in her time, the only woman member of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce. From 1950-53, as the president of Temple Emanu-El, she became the first women president of a Jewish congregation in Canada.
For back issues of The Scribe, ($10.00 including postage), write to the society at Suite 206-950 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V5Z 2N7 or see the society's website at http://collections.ic.gc.ca/jhs/
And Some Of Us Much Worse, The Memoirs of Pamela Healey Odgers. Pamela Odgers grew up in England, and "framed her personal story within the wider picture of class-based divisions, the background to the world wars, and similar social and political issues of her formative years," says Deborah Yaffee, University of Victoria. "The writing is both gracious and tart." wrote George Cuomo. Trafford Press, Victoria, B.C., 2003 $30.00. Also available at Ivy's Book Shop, 2188 Oak Bay Ave., Victoria, B.C.
Women of the West Coast: Stories of Clayoquot Sound, Then & Now, by Marnie Andersen, with a foreward by Alexandra Morton, is a sensitive look at how the lives of women on Vancouver Island, on B.C.,'s west coast, have changed since 1993, when Marnie Andersen's first version of this book was published. Just issued, Women of the West Coast, is well worth reading. Sand Dollar Press, Sidney, B.C., 2004 $23.95
Off Our Rockers and Into Trouble, The Raging Grannies, by Alison Acker and Betty Brightwell, both Raging Grannies themselves. "When the Raging Grannies sprang up in 1987 in Victoria, B.C., the group didn’t realize they’d be starting a worldwide movement. They just wanted to protest, but in a different way. And they do. Their weapons are outrageousness, satire, and song. And they were the beginning of more than 50 chapters of Raging Grannies that now thrive throughout Canada, the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Europe. " (Touchwood Editions, The Heritage Group, Surrey, B.C., 2004. $19.99
Read January Magazine's review of Off Our Rockers, by Cherie Thiessen, here. "Reading history has never been more entertaining," she says.
Read more about Victoria, B.C., Canada's branch of the Raging Grannies in "Musically Challenging--Raging Grannies Strike a Chord, " Herizons, Fall issue, pp. 26-27, 45. by Rachelle Delaney.
" The Raging Grannies do not strive for flawless performances....They may be tone-deaf, but the Grannies certainly strike a chord on social justice issues, from endangered marmots to corrupt politicians....[Their group] "holds no subject sacred."
Cathy Magee of New Westminster, B.C., has written and published We Were Well Received, a history of the British Columbia Institute of Technology's independent union, "The British Columbia Institute of Technology Staff Society." The story of the B.C.I.T. Staff Society (today known as the Faculty and Staff Association) is symbiotically tied to the story of B.C.I.T. The Staff Society began in 1964 as a fellowship of new staff and evolved to become a certified labour union in 1974 - a union whose first Collective Agreement became the standard to which all other post-secondary schools in the province aspired. Please contact her c/o diane_rogers@shaw.ca for more information.
Maria Mahoi of the Islands, Jean Barman's biography of a Gulf Island pioneer. (New Star Books, Vancouver, 2004)
The Remarkable World of Frances Barkley, 1769-1845, by Beth Hill with Cathy Converse. A new edition of the 1978 book by Beth Hill based on Frances Barkley's Reminiscences , now revised and expanded by Cathy Converse. (Touchwood Editions, The Heritage Group, Surrey, B. C. 2003)
Watch for Merna Forster, historian, naturalist, photographer & author of
100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces. ( Toronto: Dundurn Group, 2004)
See www.heroines.ca for more info
Book Signings, Prizes & Other Book Related Events:
Watch for more authors at The Word on the Street Festival, Library Square, Vancouver, B.C., Sunday, September, 2010
Looking for Books about Women in Canada
for Young People?
Check out the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia's specialty catalogue, Women's Studies, on-line. (A limited number of printed copies are available. Contact the A.B.P.B.C. for information.)
If you would like to submit a book review for possible publication on our website or our newsletter, please contact WHN/BC. Thank you.
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