Everyone on Your Holiday List Will Love These BC Books

It’s a complicated puzzle figuring out what to give everyone for the holiday season, but the look on someone's face when they unwrap something they will treasure is worth it, and books are something your loved ones can cherish forever!

This season, get more out of your shopping list by gifting your loved ones a customized reading experience and, at the same time, giving back a little by boosting a local independent bookstore’s business.

Here are nine B.C.-published books for everyone on your list. For more gift-giving recommendations, visit Read Local BC for a rich collection of local book lists for every taste — everything from B.C. through the seasons to Black Lives Matter to words for wellness.

To kick off a season of supporting local authors, publishers and booksellers, Read Local BC is giving away one $100 gift certificate to the indie bookstore of a Tyee reader’s choice. Stay tuned on these pages later this month!

For the anxious dog owner

Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful or Reactive Dog
By Zazie Todd
(Greystone Books)

Our best and most faithful friends can also struggle with fear-based behaviours, and they need the support of their humans to feel safe and secure in their forever homes.

In Bark!, Zazie Todd provides ways to get to the roots of your dog’s fear, anxiety or reactivity with expert advice and practical steps. Whether it’s separation anxiety, a fear of the vet, biting, shyness, food guarding or aggressive barking, find tips and techniques to create a safe haven for your dog in yourself and your home.

For the little one who is ready to learn about climate change

SOS Water
By Yayo
(Tradewind Books)

With humour and a touch of poetry, this picture book features a sailor named Lalo, and Rosa, a goldfish, as they deal with the pollution caused by plastic water bottles. Lalo wants to find a safe and clean place for his fish friend, but everywhere they go has been invaded by plastic water bottles.

The author and illustrator, Yayo, has won the Charles Biddle Award, the Concours Lux and the Golden Smile from the First International Biennial of Caricature. The illustration cover for SOS Water was awarded the Gold Prize at the International Cartoon and Illustration Exhibition on a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind 2024, in China.

For the artist struggling with the demands of productivity

Bad Artist: Creating in a Productivity-Obsessed World
By Nellwyn Lampert, Pamela Oakley, Christian Smith and Gillian Turnbull
(Brindle & Glass, an imprint of TouchWood Editions)

This collection of essays features the lived experiences of 21 Canadian and international artists, each on their own journey to find meaning in their art beyond what capitalism ascribes to it.

An excerpt:

“Art without commerce is a hobby.”

These words, spoken with much authority to a group of senior fine arts majors, are the kind that those who create art are unable to ignore. We fret over this idea — the thrum of this judgement never far from our thoughts — that if we are not engaged in commerce, then we are not professional; and if we are not professional, can we even call ourselves artists?

Art of any form, by its very nature, cannot or should not be quantified, and yet writers measure pages and words; visual artists measure canvases completed; fibre artists measure pieces created all in an effort to appear “productive,” to perhaps justify this impulse to create. The notion of creating for art’s sake is then seen as hopelessly romantic and nearly indefensible. Of course one can engage in art, but it better be for money…

For the forager with a love of mycelium and the culinary arts

The Deerholme Mushroom Cookbook: From Foraging to Feasting
By Bill Jones
(TouchWood Editions)

The original edition of The Deerholme Mushroom Cookbook was shortlisted for a 2014 Taste Canada Award; this new edition expands the world of mushroom foraging and cooking. An expert in the field of wild foods and a celebrated chef, Bill Jones explains what to look for when foraging for fungi or buying it in a store, how to grow your own mycelium world, and how to harvest them for 120 delicious recipes. This cookbook also goes into the medicinal and cultural uses of mushrooms.

An excerpt:

Most of our lives are spent wrapped in civilization. We are nestled in our cars, houses, offices and landscapes. Stepping outside of this comfortable zone, we find the wildness lurking at the edges of our world. It is here that the mushrooms live, waiting to feed us, kill us, heal us, or alter our perception of reality. But which ones do what? That is a really good question. Such a question started me on my journey into the world of fungi. Little did I know it would be a path of fascination, delight and wonder that has kept me learning for more than 20 years.

For the dark fairytale lover

The Three Sisters
By Paul Yee
(Tradewind Books)

Facing a tyrannical emperor bent on war, three sisters in China, sublimely gifted in music, fend for themselves and their parents with the power and magic they create with their instruments. This tale explores how the beauty of music can change hearts and foster peace.

The author, Paul Yee, has won numerous prizes, including a Governor General’s Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People. The illustrator, Shaoli Wang, lives in British Columbia where she has taught art to children for 25 years.

For the reconciliation believer who knows that, sometimes, historical revisionism is important

When Heroes Become Villains: Helmcken, Trutch, Bowser and the Streets, Lakes and Towns Named after Them
By Jon Bartlett and Brian Robertson
(New Star Books)

John Sebastian Helmcken, Joseph Trutch and William Bowser are historical figures that loom large in the colonial creation of “British Columbia.” They are also figures caught up in the naming controversies of spaces and places in this region, from which Indigenous Peoples were displaced and alienated. Bartlett and Robertson revisit the established legacies of these erstwhile heroes, and how a more transparent and unflinching version of history is not only rewriting these legacies but also unsettling the region’s maps.

An excerpt from the introduction:

Over the past two centuries western societies have progressively enshrined the fundamental political and legal rights of all individuals in the form of national constitutions and independent judiciaries. This has led inevitably to the often controversial re-examination of national histories and the evident wrongs that in the past were visited upon less powerful segments of society and which continue to plague their development today.

Many of the people who led us through the past centuries to this materially prosperous era have been viewed as heroes and celebrated by having places and institutions named in their honour. But much of this prosperity, especially in North America, has had dubious origins such as the exploitation of slave or ill-paid labour working upon stolen lands, and that has created a crisis of conscience affecting current political and legal culture. These days, many of these “heroes” now look more like racists and sociopaths.

For the one who believes in the healing power of music

The Piano Teacher: A Healing Key
By Dorothy Dittrich
(Talonbooks)

In this play, acclaimed playwright and musical director Dorothy Dittrich explores what it means to love and to lose, and how music can see one through the brightest and darkest moments in life. Classical pianist Erin, who is reeling with the loss of the life she knew, and Elaine, who re-acquaints Erin with her instrument, both go through a journey that teaches them about grief, friendship, self-deception, compassion and healing through music.

An excerpt:

Sometimes when I first wake up, I don't know where I am. Images start to flood my mind. It's like being stuck in an endless loop of looking back, and it's always perfect, the past is perfect and we were always happy.

For the kiddo who already hears the call of the wild

I Hear You, Mountains
By Kallie George
(Greystone Kids)

The third instalment in the “Sounds of Nature” series, I Hear You, Mountains is an excellent resource for kids aged 3 to 7 for social-emotional learning, outdoor education, mindfulness, observation and imagination. The young readers can learn all about the different sounds to expect in the mountains, from the roar of waterfalls to the chatter of chipmunks and the singing of birds.

For the adult who grew up from an outdoors-loving kiddo to an environmentally-minded art lover

My Soul Lives in These Mountains
By Peter Scott
(Hancock House Publishers)

Artist and storyteller Peter Scott grew up in the shadow of the Chilliwack Cascades, home to such iconic mountains as Mt. McGuire, Cheam and Slesse Peak. In this memoir, Scott braids together his love for his hometown and his respect for the deep-rooted Indigenous culture of the area and the traditional Stó:lō stories he grew up hearing from his uncle and local Elders. He paints a rich sensory picture of the wild landscape that he spent his life recreating in his art and poetry.

Part personal narrative and part a call to conservation, this memoir invites readers to marvel, cherish and safeguard the Chilliwack Cascades for future generations.

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Read Local BC (a project of Books BC) celebrates the vibrant community of authors, publishers, bookstores and libraries that make up our province’s literary landscape.

Read Local BC acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, Creative BC and the City of Vancouver.