British Columbians will be cranking up their furnaces and lighting their fireplaces as temperatures drop and snow falls across the province ahead of the Winter Solstice. For some, winter may signal a time to relax and curl up by the fire with a good book. For others, December may be a little busier, but when January arrives, there’s more time for literature. In some countries, reading is a holiday tradition. In Iceland, for example, people exchange books on Christmas Eve and then spend the night reading them, in a tradition known as Jólabókaflóðið.CBC has put together a list of recently-published books by B.C. authors to keep you warm through the cold months. Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides by Natalie PorterNatalie Porter’s Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides is available now. (ECW Press)Skateboarding has been around since the 1950s, when surfers who were looking for something to do when the waves were flat attached wheels to boards to sidewalk surf. Women have played a big role in that culture — but not a lot of people talk about that. That’s why writer Natalie Porter of Powell River has written about the impact of women on skateboarding and why they’ve been largely left out of skateboarding media in her new book Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: A History of Women Skateboarders. A skater herself, Porter got into skateboarding in 1995. She joined what she described as a “thriving” skateboarding scene in Vancouver and shortly after, while working on a Master’s thesis, delved into the identity of women in skateboarding culture. Also a librarian, she ended up creating a women’s skateboarding history archive for public consumption. “It’s just been a passion project for me,” she said. “And, I’m still skateboarding.”A Monumental Practice by 7IDANsuu James Hart and Curtis Collins7IDANsuu James Hart’s A Monumental Practice explores his many carvings and contributions over the years. (Figure 1 Publishing)Longtime Haida artist and hereditary chief 7IDANsuu James Hart’s works are featured in a new book solely devoted to his life and work for the first time, entitled A Monumental Practice.A carver since 1979, Hart worked with renowned artists Robert Davidson and Bill Reid before becoming a prolific carver himself. Since then, he said things have changed significantly in terms of First Nations visibility. “Everybody’s recognizing their territories now,” Hart said. “It wasn’t like that in the old days. We knew about those things, it just wasn’t like that in the world of Canada.… Today, things are looking up for us in a positive way.”The book features hundreds of images of Hart’s work, along with an autobiographical essay from Hart’s son reflecting on his father’s work. A Season for Spies by Iona WhishawA Season for Spies by Iona Whishaw is her 13th Lane Winslow novel. (TouchWood Editions, Anick Violette)Vancouver author Iona Whishaw can’t stop, won’t stop; she released her second book of the year in October. A Season for Spies is a prequel to the beloved Lane Winslow series, which she’s been publishing for over 10 years now. It follows a young Lane, who is pulled from her studies at Oxford to work for the war office. Her first spy mission begins when she’s asked to escort an agent into the country from an isolated area in Scotland — and she’ll use visiting her family over the holidays as cover. Lane is “lightly” inspired by Whishaw’s own mother, who “engaged in a bit of intelligence” for the British government during the Second World War — something she didn’t learn about until much later in life. But, that intel set her on the path to write her series of spy novels, the latest being the 13th Lane Winslow novel to date. Till We Meet Again by Brandon MarriottBrandon Marriott, right, is a Canadian historian currently living in Norway. Pictured on the left is his book, Till We Meet Again. (Submitted by Simon & Schuster Canada/Kristoffer Sandven)A trip to Vimy Ridge inspired a new biography from Vancouver-born writer Brandon Marriott, who details the life of Lester Harper during the First World War. While touring the site of what is considered one of Canada’s most important battles, Marriott’s wife shared stories of her great grandfather, Harper, who wrote hundreds of pages of letters to his wife from the frontlines. Marriott, a historian, was intrigued — and asked to read the letters, becoming a bit of an expert on his wife’s family. “The more I read, the more they surprised me,” he said. “Some were tragic, others were quite humorous.”Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War is described by the publisher as “remarkable,” and a new approach to telling the stories of soldiers. Revolve by Bal KhabraBal Khabra’s latest romance novel, Revolve, is out now. (Penguin Random House Canada)If you’d told Vancouver author Bal Khabra she’d be writing romance novels at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she would have laughed. But after reading hundreds of romance novels during the pandemic, she decided to give it a try. Her background is in psychology and she’d never really been a writer before, but after a year of writing whenever she had time, she published her first novel. She said the attitude toward the romance genre has certainly changed over the years. “People have been creating such a beautiful community from these books, and it’s less of a taboo than it was a few years ago,” Khabra said.Revolve, her third book in her Off the Ice series, follows a group of hockey players through their romantic encounters. It hit bookstore shelves in October, and the fourth and final installment will be out sometime in 2026. The Idea of an Entire Life by Billy-Ray BelcourtThe Idea of An Entire Life is a collection of poetry from writer Billy-Ray Belcourt. (Jaye Simpson, McClelland & Stewart)When University of B.C. associate professor Billy-Ray Belcourt wrote his first book in 2017, he says it came from a place of “desperation” — he didn’t understand how to live a full life as a queer, Indigenous person. Eight years later, the award-winning author and poet’s newest collection comes from a place of stability, in which he could think more clearly about what it means to be himself. “This book … is essentially my thunderous ‘yes’ to living,” he said. Through lyric verse, sonnets, fieldnotes and fragments, he explores love, queerness and politics, using his own experiences as a jumping off point. “I think that poetry is the closest I can get in English to evoking something of my ancestral language and of my ancestors’ ways of being,” Belcourt said. Thyme for Dessert by DL AckenThyme for Dessert features recipes using ingredients grown locally, as well as those used by local immigrant communities. (Touchwood Editions)Salt Spring Island food photographer DL Acken — known for her award-winning cookbook Cedar Salt — is returning to kitchens this year with her latest offering, Thyme for Dessert: Sweets and Treats Inspired by the Pacific Northwest Coast.Recipes in this cookbook feature West Coast ingredients, everything from spruce tips to haskaps, as well as ingredients from local immigrant communities — things like garam masala and truffles — all blended together to make delicious cookies, bars, cakes and more. “We’re so lucky here on the Pacific Northwest, we have access to so many incredible ingredients and so many flavour profiles that I just think there’s so much we can do with the foods we have around us,” Acken said. There are generally substitutes suggested for people who can’t get access to some of those ingredients mentioned, making it accessible for as many people as possible.Better This Year edited by JJ LeeJJ Lee’s Better This Year is the third volume of crummy Christmas stories he’s put out in recent years. (Tidewater Press)’Tis the season for gingerbread houses, Christmas sweaters and impressive light displays. But, the holidays aren’t all cocoa and cheer for everyone. If the holidays aren’t exactly your bag, New Westminster writer JJ Lee has put together the perfect read for you as we move through December. The third installment in Lee’s annual compilation of crappy Christmas memories, the editor brings us true tales of holiday mishaps from all sort of contributors. In a previous interview with CBC News, Lee described himself as a “bit of a Charlie Brown,” as he experiences a sense of mournfulness during the holiday season. Having noticed that same woe in others, he put a call out for stories that he’s packaged into three anthologies.”Better This Year brings together all the hard stories people wish they could share with each during a season when setbacks or bad luck seems to be in poor taste and merriment is compulsory,” Lee said. “The book breaks the silence and I think it’s a beautiful thing.”
Settle in with one or two! of these B.C. books this winter
