Books

Retired music promotions rep RayMan Ramsay, a South Surrey resident, with the two “Promo Monkey” books he’s authored. (Photo: Tom Zillich)

‘Promo Monkey’ a B.C. man’s glimpse inside the world of rock stars and record-selling

RayMan Ramsay writes about some of the world’s most famous musicians and B.C. music-biz insiders

Retired music promotions rep RayMan Ramsay, a South Surrey resident, with the two “Promo Monkey” books he’s authored. (Photo: Tom Zillich)
FILE - Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. The wave of attempted book banning and restrictions continues to intensify, the American Library Association reported Friday. Numbers for 2022 already approach last year’s totals, which were the highest in decades. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Book ban efforts surging in 2022, US library association says

681 challenges to books through the first 8 months of this year, involving 1,651 different titles

FILE - Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. The wave of attempted book banning and restrictions continues to intensify, the American Library Association reported Friday. Numbers for 2022 already approach last year’s totals, which were the highest in decades. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Andrew Weaver explores sustainable aviation fuel for one of his return blog posts in a bid to spur conversation and interest. (Courtesy Andrew Weaver)
Andrew Weaver explores sustainable aviation fuel for one of his return blog posts in a bid to spur conversation and interest. (Courtesy Andrew Weaver)
Yves Côté and the book he co-authored, Metamorphosis: My path to transformation. Côté spent 32 years behind bars for serious crimes including murder, but he says this book is meant to show that change is possible. (Paul Henderson/ Chilliwack Progress)

B.C. man’s book co-authored by criminologist examines a life of murder and crime

Yves Côté spent just 11 months out of 32 years out of jail, but he believes in real transformation

Yves Côté and the book he co-authored, Metamorphosis: My path to transformation. Côté spent 32 years behind bars for serious crimes including murder, but he says this book is meant to show that change is possible. (Paul Henderson/ Chilliwack Progress)
Henry Winkler arrives at the 25th annual Critics’ Choice Awards, on Jan. 12, 2020, in Santa Monica, Calif. Celadon Books announced Wednesday that it has a deal with Winkler to tell his life story. The memoir, currently untitled, is scheduled for 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Henry Winkler gets book deal, memoir to come out in 2024

‘The Fonz’ currently starring in HBO series ‘Barry’

Henry Winkler arrives at the 25th annual Critics’ Choice Awards, on Jan. 12, 2020, in Santa Monica, Calif. Celadon Books announced Wednesday that it has a deal with Winkler to tell his life story. The memoir, currently untitled, is scheduled for 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Author Christopher DiRaddo is seen at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, Friday, May 6, 2022, in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Canadian authors, booksellers say COVID-19 has both helped and hurt their industry

Book sales are up compared to pre-pandemic levels, but supply chain woes loom large

Author Christopher DiRaddo is seen at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, Friday, May 6, 2022, in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
January 31, 2022 - Writer Barbara Black in the standalone studio in the backyard of her Oak Bay home. Don Denton photo

Oak Bay “serial artist” Barbara Black turns to fiction

Short story collection Music from a Strange Planet

  • Apr 4, 2022
January 31, 2022 - Writer Barbara Black in the standalone studio in the backyard of her Oak Bay home. Don Denton photo
Jackson Kuhn, 7, of Chilliwack gave away a bunch of his books to other kids on Friday, March 25, 2022. (Jenn Kuhn photo)

B.C. boy, 7, spends spring break giving away own books to other kids

Jackson Kuhn of Chilliwack decided to hand out books he no longer reads to fellow young readers

Jackson Kuhn, 7, of Chilliwack gave away a bunch of his books to other kids on Friday, March 25, 2022. (Jenn Kuhn photo)
One local woman was upset with Indigo’s display of vibrators in the bookstore’s self help section. (Matthew Claxton/Langley Advance Times)

Langley mom upset by vibrator display in bookstore

Indigo said it is responding to customer demand for sexual wellness products

One local woman was upset with Indigo’s display of vibrators in the bookstore’s self help section. (Matthew Claxton/Langley Advance Times)
There is a wide variety of reading material available, although efforts have been made to challenge, suppress or ban certain works. (Black Press file photo)

QUIZ: How much do you know about the freedom to read?

The week of Feb. 20 to 26 is Freedom to Read Week in Canada

There is a wide variety of reading material available, although efforts have been made to challenge, suppress or ban certain works. (Black Press file photo)
The Choirboy and the Bellydancer is a memoir written by Christine Potter. It is a love story of the Fort Langley couple who met in the U.K as teenagers and moved to Canada in late ‘90s.

Choir boy and belly dancer settle in B.C. after roller coaster love story

Christine and Christopher met as teens in the United Kingdom

The Choirboy and the Bellydancer is a memoir written by Christine Potter. It is a love story of the Fort Langley couple who met in the U.K as teenagers and moved to Canada in late ‘90s.
William Shakespeare’s First Folio, published in 1623, acquired by UBC Library. (UBC handout photo)

UBC Library gifted Shakespeare’s 1623 First Folio

The first folio, published in 1623, features 36 of 38 known Shakespeare plays

William Shakespeare’s First Folio, published in 1623, acquired by UBC Library. (UBC handout photo)
This group of CP Rail passengers helped remove rock from the tracks on Oct. 29, 1978. This photo, along with many other recently digitized photos, can be found in former CP conductor John Cowan’s new book. He hopes the book will help him reconnect with those helpful passengers that day. (John Cowan photo)

Former CP conductor on the hunt for helpful strangers in 70s photo

John Cowan is looking for the group of strangers who helped clear the tracks east of Golden in 1978

This group of CP Rail passengers helped remove rock from the tracks on Oct. 29, 1978. This photo, along with many other recently digitized photos, can be found in former CP conductor John Cowan’s new book. He hopes the book will help him reconnect with those helpful passengers that day. (John Cowan photo)
Johnny Cash, June Carter and others pictured on a page from “Memories From the Mountain,” a new book that documents the history of Merritt Mountain Music Festival in photographs by Surrey’s Dee Lippingwell. (Photos: Dee Lippingwell)

Merritt country music festival’s ‘crazy-ass scene’ recalled in photographer’s new book

Campground C party zone and more remembered in Dee Lippingwell’s third book

Johnny Cash, June Carter and others pictured on a page from “Memories From the Mountain,” a new book that documents the history of Merritt Mountain Music Festival in photographs by Surrey’s Dee Lippingwell. (Photos: Dee Lippingwell)
Nanaimo children’s book author and illustrator Lindsay Ford’s latest book, ‘Candy Bar War,’ recounts the time children protested the rising price of chocolate. A mural commemorating the protest is on display in Chemainus. (Photo courtesy Joseph Lyons)

Author tells true story of the B.C. kids’ post-war candy protest that swept the country

‘Candy Bar War’ tells the tale of when chocolate jumped from 5 to 8 cents and the kids didn’t take it

Nanaimo children’s book author and illustrator Lindsay Ford’s latest book, ‘Candy Bar War,’ recounts the time children protested the rising price of chocolate. A mural commemorating the protest is on display in Chemainus. (Photo courtesy Joseph Lyons)
Eleonore Alamillo-Laberge, 6, reads a book in Ottawa on Monday, June 12, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Parents will need to fight ‘COVID learning slump’ over summer: B.C. literacy experts

Parents who play an active role in educating their children this summer can reverse the slump by nearly 80%, says Janet Mort

Eleonore Alamillo-Laberge, 6, reads a book in Ottawa on Monday, June 12, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019 file photo, Britain’s Meghan, Duchess of Sussex launches the Smart Works capsule collection at John Lewis in Oxford Street. (Mark Large/Pool via AP, File)

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to release 1st children’s book

Meghan and Harry are expecting their second child, a girl, later this year

FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019 file photo, Britain’s Meghan, Duchess of Sussex launches the Smart Works capsule collection at John Lewis in Oxford Street. (Mark Large/Pool via AP, File)
A copy of the book “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” by Dr. Seuss, rests in a chair, Monday, March 1, 2021, in Walpole, Mass. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the business that preserves and protects the author and illustrator’s legacy, announced on his birthday, Tuesday, March 2, 2021, that it would cease publication of several children’s titles including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo,” because of insensitive and racist imagery. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

6 Dr. Seuss books won’t be published for racist images

Books affected include McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer

A copy of the book “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” by Dr. Seuss, rests in a chair, Monday, March 1, 2021, in Walpole, Mass. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the business that preserves and protects the author and illustrator’s legacy, announced on his birthday, Tuesday, March 2, 2021, that it would cease publication of several children’s titles including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo,” because of insensitive and racist imagery. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Nanaimo children’s author and illustrator Lindsay Ford’s latest book is ‘Science Girl.’ (Photo courtesy Lindsay Ford)

B.C. children’s writer encourages girls to pursue the sciences in new book

Lindsay Ford is holding a virtual launch for latest book, ‘Science Girl’

Nanaimo children’s author and illustrator Lindsay Ford’s latest book is ‘Science Girl.’ (Photo courtesy Lindsay Ford)
Former park warden George Mercer has turned to writing fiction since his retirement and move to Vancouver Island. Photograph by Lia Crowe

Into The Wild With Writer George Mercer

A passion for parks sets the backdrop for novel series

  • Jan 6, 2021
Former park warden George Mercer has turned to writing fiction since his retirement and move to Vancouver Island. Photograph by Lia Crowe
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