Galena Bay Odyssey is one of our great November giveaways. 

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Galena Bay Odyssey: Reflections of a Hippie Homesteader is a memoir about how I, a nice Jewish girl raised in the suburbs of New York, ended up moving to the wilderness of British Columbia and embarking on an entirely new lifestyle. The books below are an interesting assortment. Some were instrumental in teaching me about the environment and ecology. Some helped me understand this new country I was living in: Canada. Some parallel my hippie homesteading journey. And some are just plain fun. 

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A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold

OK, this is not a Canadian book, but I had to include it. A Sand County Almanac was the first book I read after moving to Canada that introduced me to the idea of ecology: that everything in nature—soil, water, plants, animals, and people—is interwoven. In beautiful, moving prose, Leopold introduces the concept of a “land ethic” as a moral compass for how humans should live on the Earth. Inspiring and challenging.

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The Road to Appledore: Or How How I Went Back to the Land Without Ever Having Lived There in the First Place, by Tom Wayman

Tom Wayman’s journey mirrors my own. The book covers Wayman’s adventures and misadventures since moving from Vancouver to southeastern BC’s Slocan Valley in 1989. With humour and insight, he relates mishaps, misadventures, and moments of delight, from having to deal with a bear cub in his kitchen, to engaging in a vigilante action to protect a community water system, to the quiet satisfaction of growing his own food and flowers.

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Field Study, by Helen Humphreys

Helen Humphreys is one of my favourite Canadian authors. In poetic prose, she explores the world of herbariums and the people who amassed collections of plant specimens in the 19th and 20th centuries, from Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau to countless unknown amateur naturalists. Over the course of a year, Humphreys considers life and loss and the importance of finding solace in nature. I related to the sense of wonder she discovered in contemplating plants.

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Schooled, by Gordon Korman

Capricorn Anderson, the hero of Schooled, could have been my kid. Homeschooled on a farm commune by his hippie grandmother, Cap has never watched television or tasted pizza. But when his grandmother lands in the hospital, Cap is forced to move into town and attend the local middle school. While Cap knows a lot about tie-dyeing and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school. Somehow Cap’s weirdness and idealism triumph in this hilarious and wise YA novel. 

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Tracking Giants, by Amanda Lewis

I had the pleasure of presenting alongside Amanda Lewis at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. Her memoir details how she set herself the challenge of visiting all the “champion” trees in British Columbia. Along with her, we experience the wonder of encountering majestic trees and complex ecosystems, and, also, the joy of discovering smaller, more intimate treasures in nature.

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Alone in the Great Unknown, by Caroll Simpson

I thought I was embarking on a huge adventure when I moved to the Kootenays, but it paled in comparison to Caroll Simpson’s ordeal. After she and her husband bought a remote wilderness lodge on Babine Lake in northern BC, her husband died suddenly. This heartfelt memoir tells Simpson's story—of living in the remote wilderness and managing the lodge, becoming an accidental environmental activist, fending off wild animals, working as an angling guide, and becoming a spokesperson for the wilderness tourism industry.

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Mya’s Strategy to Save the World, by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

This is a terrific book for kids about idealism and commitment. Mya Parsons runs her school's social justice club with her best friend. Her lifelong desire is to work for the United Nations and change the world, and then bask in all the ensuing adulation. She also wants a cellphone. Sadly, Mya never does win the Nobel Peace Prize she’s sure she deserves. But she does grow in unexpected ways—even without that cutting-edge phone.

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Who Has Seen the Wind, by W.O. Mitchell

This was the first book I encountered after moving to Canada that showed me the heart and soul of the Canadian prairies. Hailed as a great Canadian classic on boyhood, Who Has Seen the Wind gives readers a memorable glimpse into the ins and outs of small-town life during the Depression years. It creates a poignant and powerful portrait of childhood innocence as the protagonist, young Brian O’Connal, comes to terms with the mysteries of life and death.

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Green Grass, Running Water, by Thomas King

How does Thomas King do it? Somehow he always finds the middle ground between Indigenous tradition and the modern world. In this book, a cast of wacky characters come to the Blackfoot reservation for the Sun Dance. There they will encounter four Indian elders and their companion, the trickster Coyote—and nothing in the small town of Blossom will be the same again. Laugh-out-loud funny, yet thoughtful and pointed.

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Learn more about Galena Bay Odyssey: Reflections of a Hippie Homesteader: 

In 1972, my boyfriend, Bill, and I packed our green Volkswagen Beetle and drove north from Pennsylvania to the Canadian border. Like many young people of the era, we intended to go “back to the land.” Driven by idealism, a sense of adventure, we sought a simpler, purer, more natural lifestyle.

Bill and I ended up buying twenty acres of second-growth forest in a place called Galena Bay in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. Forty-eight kilometres from the nearest town, Galena Bay was as far from my suburban, middle-class, consumerist upbringing as I could imagine. 

The book chronicles my adventures in Galena Bay, from building a cabin to slaughtering chickens to cooking “carbon cakes” on the woodstove. And—oh, yeah—the time a bear climbed through an open window into our cabin. 

Living in Galena Bay was hard. It was wonderful. And it taught me everything I needed to know about living more fully, honestly, and ecologically.