Add these 10 B.C. book titles to your summer reading list
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Written by a former Hollywood assistant and screenwriter, this romp of a novel is set in 1997 and follows a young assistant with big dreams, who moves from Vancouver to Los Angeles to work for an A-list director. Once there, Charity Trickett's dream of climbing the ladder to screenwriting and producing success is stymied at every turn by a backstabbing co-worker and a big, potentially billion-dollar mistake.
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If you're a B.C.er and you're looking to stay in the province for your summer vacation, chances are, you're thinking about the Okanagan Valley. If you do decide to head for the sun, pick up a copy of this informative, entertaining and very packable book from seasoned travel writer Arnott.
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The Kelowna author of the Governor General's Literary Award finalist All the Quiet Places is back with the novel Bones of a Giant. Set in 1968 on the Okanagan Indian Reserve, where Isaac was born, the novel dives into a teenager's struggle with grief and becoming a man in a world that does him no favours.
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This cosy mystery is set in the fictional northern Oregon Coast town of Twilight Cove as it readies to celebrate an 18th-century pirate and all-around bad guy Dead Eye Dawson. Just before the day of celebration, pirate enthusiast and celebration committee member Jasper Hogan is found in a pool of blood in his study by fellow committee member Georgie Johansen. Georgie, who works at an animal sanctuary, goes into sleuth mode and sets out to find the killer. This is a perfect beach bag addition that comes with all cosy mystery signposts: murder, intrigue, love and two dogs with supernatural powers. OK, maybe that last thing is unique.
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Who doesn't like a good adventure story, especially a true one? Hughes — whose previous book Capturing the Summit: Hamilton Mack Laing and the Mount Logan Expedition would also make a great addition to your summer reading list — is back. This time Hughes looks at pioneering climbers who tried, in the early 1930s, to conquer Mystery Mountain, a.k.a. Mount Waddington. The Final Spire is a chronicle of fascinating history and good old-fashioned chutzpah.
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If the west coast of Vancouver Island is on your summer travel list, this book would be a perfect companion. Martin, whose family has spent four generations in the area, has done decades of research and interviews for this comprehensive history of Ucluelet, complete with stories about settlement and dispossession, tragedies and triumphs, First Nations history and contemporary culture. And yes, shipwrecks and sea serpents too.
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CBC
5 days ago
- CBC
Vancouver author and former MGM assistant's debut novel is based on her own Hollywood blunder
In the early 2000s, Christine Stringer worked as an assistant on film sets in Vancouver. She brushed shoulders with stars and knew the inner workings of Hollywood North. While working on a film starring Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, the director hired her to move to Los Angeles and be his assistant while they finished up the movie — Walking Tall. "It was just my dream come true," she said. But her dream became something of a nightmare when she was accused of stealing a copy of the film and investigated by the FBI for piracy after she lost a DVD. That story is the inspiration for her debut novel, Charity Trickett Is Not So Glamorous, a light-hearted, comedic take on what Stringer actually endured — which includes a scene where Charity takes a date to a movie premiere only to learn he wasn't quite what she thought. "Jack is definitely a real guy that I went on a first date with in L.A. and he used me to sneak into the premiere of Mean Girls," Stringer told CBC's North by Northwest host Margaret Gallagher. 'She's a better version of me' Stringer set the book in the '90s, a little earlier than when she found herself in Tinseltown. "I am such a lover of Hollywood and, in my mind, if I wanted to write this book and have it represent the Hollywood that I grew up with and I loved, I had to move the timeline backwards a little bit," she said. She said she has already planned two more books for Charity Trickett, which will move into the early 2000s. Charity Trickett, who gives off true main character energy, is "everything that I wish I was in my early 20s when I lived in L.A.," Stringer said. "She's feisty, she's smart," she said. "I think that hindsight and age has given Charity … she's a better version of me because of it. When I was in L.A. and I was under FBI investigation, all I could think about was how it impacted me. I didn't realize, then in my 20s, how it was going to impact my boss who was on the verge of getting married, or how it would impact the executives at the studio who had decades of experience in their industry and have kids that they have to send off to university." In the novel, things go awry for the protagonist when she loses a copy of the big film she's been working on. If this happened today, Stringer said, the fallout would have happened more quickly. "With HD, that film could be distributed globally within seconds." In Stringer's case, things did eventually settle down. She continued to work in film for a few years before leaving the industry in 2011. As for the missing DVD, she said investigators told her that she had been pickpocketed. "He was trying to extort MGM for, like, millions of dollars — this is the story I was told, mind you, and then they caught him. Nobody would tell me any details, but that's the story they gave me."
Calgary Herald
11-06-2025
- Calgary Herald
Add these 10 B.C. book titles to your summer reading list
Article content Article content Written by a former Hollywood assistant and screenwriter, this romp of a novel is set in 1997 and follows a young assistant with big dreams, who moves from Vancouver to Los Angeles to work for an A-list director. Once there, Charity Trickett's dream of climbing the ladder to screenwriting and producing success is stymied at every turn by a backstabbing co-worker and a big, potentially billion-dollar mistake. Article content Article content If you're a and you're looking to stay in the province for your summer vacation, chances are, you're thinking about the Okanagan Valley. If you do decide to head for the sun, pick up a copy of this informative, entertaining and very packable book from seasoned travel writer Arnott. Article content Article content Article content The Kelowna author of the Governor General's Literary Award finalist All the Quiet Places is back with the novel Bones of a Giant. Set in 1968 on the Okanagan Indian Reserve, where Isaac was born, the novel dives into a teenager's struggle with grief and becoming a man in a world that does him no favours. Article content Article content This cosy mystery is set in the fictional northern Oregon Coast town of Twilight Cove as it readies to celebrate an 18th-century pirate and all-around bad guy Dead Eye Dawson. Just before the day of celebration, pirate enthusiast and celebration committee member Jasper Hogan is found in a pool of blood in his study by fellow committee member Georgie Johansen. Georgie, who works at an animal sanctuary, goes into sleuth mode and sets out to find the killer. This is a perfect beach bag addition that comes with all cosy mystery signposts: murder, intrigue, love and two dogs with supernatural powers. OK, maybe that last thing is unique. Article content Article content Who doesn't like a good adventure story, especially a true one? Hughes — whose previous book Capturing the Summit: Hamilton Mack Laing and the Mount Logan Expedition would also make a great addition to your summer reading list — is back. This time Hughes looks at pioneering climbers who tried, in the early 1930s, to conquer Mystery Mountain, a.k.a. Mount Waddington. The Final Spire is a chronicle of fascinating history and good old-fashioned chutzpah. Article content Article content If the west coast of Vancouver Island is on your summer travel list, this book would be a perfect companion. Martin, whose family has spent four generations in the area, has done decades of research and interviews for this comprehensive history of Ucluelet, complete with stories about settlement and dispossession, tragedies and triumphs, First Nations history and contemporary culture. And yes, shipwrecks and sea serpents too.
Winnipeg Free Press
07-06-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Book club to survey Sinclair's essays
The Free Press Book Club and McNally Robinson Booksellers are pleased to welcome Winnipeg author (and Free Press columnist) Niigaan Sinclair for the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss his award-winning essay collection Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre. Published in May 2024 by McClelland & Stewart, Wînipêk compiles a year's worth of Sinclair's Free Press columns as well as other writing about how our perception of Winnipeg, and the ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens co-exist and survive, is a window into larger questions about colonialism and reconciliation nationwide. Wînipêk was a national bestseller, landing on a number of year-end lists of best books. Sinclair's debut collection also netted him the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction, news he was able to share with his father, Murray Sinclair, before he passed in November 2024. Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files Niigaan Sinclair In his review of Wînipêk for the Free Press, Matt Henderson says Sinclair 'takes the reader on a journey through the land, water and seasons, the underbelly and magnificence that is Winnipeg,' adding 'Sinclair identifies the overt racism as well as the legislative, calculated mindsets that have intentionally set out to destroy Indigenous Peoples and culture.' Yet Sinclair retains hope for the future of the city; 'Wînipêk is a portal into our violent past, our precarious present and the promise of tomorrow. It should be mandatory reading for all Canadians,' Henderson writes. Sinclair will join fellow Free Press columnist Jen Zoratti, McNally Robinson Booksellers co-owner Chris Hall and Free Press audience engagement manager Erin Lebar to read from Wînipêk, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers. Copies of Wînipêk are available to purchase at McNally Robinson Booksellers; there's no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion. Video of the meeting will be available for replay on the Free Press YouTube channel following the event. For more information and to register, visit Wînipêk
