The new BC mushroom book has proved to be too popular--the first printing sold out in a few weeks. A new printing was deleyed by COVID supply chain and labour issues. The new printing is now done! Bookstores across BC are being quickly restocked. The Royal BC Museum Shop has lots of copies.
BC Museum is releasing a video in its This Week in History series about its new travelling exhibit on mushrooms. The CHEK news report from November 15, 2021 contains the video. The panels of the display, which is currently at the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary, can be seen in this report.
A good article (Guardian, 11 Nov 2021) by a writer who really knows the subject that she is writing about.
The book Mushrooms of British Columbia has been joined by a sister production from the Royal BC Museum. A new museum travelling exhibit on "BC's Marvellous Mushrooms" is now available for exhibitors to lease. The exhibit is currently on display at the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary. The installation features 16 large colour panels and 3 exhibit boxes. The panels were authored by Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther. Much of the content in the panels is based on material from the Mushrooms of British Columbia, especially the book's box essays. Dr. Cara Gibson, Executive Director of the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary, stands in front of the new BC Museum travelling exhibit The initial panel of the exhibit introduces the display, emphasizing the many ways that mushrooms are important to the people of BC. Halfway through the exhibit, one of the panels takes the reader on a tour of the major mushroom groups. Some views of the panels in the travelling exhibit. Two of the exhibit boxes have lifesize models of 10 of BC's best edible…
This week Mushrooms of British Columbia, which has been a BC #1 bestseller for two weeks, leaped to #2 on the Canada-wide nonfiction list maintained by Booknet Canada. Because of its popularity, this new guide has become increasingly hard to find. The distributors have emptied their shelves of the first printing, so bookstores can't restock (hint: the biggest supply in the metro Victoria area seems to be at Munro's Books). In addition, Amazon Canada is promising to have books in stock by December 8. A new printing is in progress, so the books should be back on bookstore shelves by the end of December. If you are hoping to get this book by Christmas, and Munro's or Amazon Canada are not options for you, then we suggest that you order directly from Royal BC Museum Books site--copies ordered from there will ship directly from the printer on December 17 and may arrive in time for Christmas, depending on the mails.
Mushrooms of British Columbia is now the #1 bestseller in BC! Canada-wide, it's #5.
At the recent mushroom festival in Bamfield, guides (l. to r.) Kem Luther, Juliet Pendray, and Andy MacKinnon demonstrate their perfect consensus about where to find mushrooms. Photo by James Holkko.
On September 12, the new Mushrooms of British Columbia (BC Museum Books, 2021) was officially launched at a book signing at Munro's Books in Victoria, BC. Pictures by Thor Henrich, with permission.
Refugees endangered by unfamiliar mushroomsGuardian, September, 2021.