Month: November 2016

A Weekend Full of Signings

elfconspiracyWe have a great lineup of book signings on tap for you this weekend!

First up, Kass Williams will be here on Saturday, November 19 from 11:00am to 1:00pm to sign copies of her new novel The Elf Conspiracy.

About the book:

“What’s a jolly fat man to do? He’s burned out after 1,000 years on the job. His elves are plotting to take over the world, the CIA thinks he’s a white-bearded Islamist terrorist, four incrementalisthackers have broken his greatest secret, and his wife consorts with demons. Christmas may never be the same.”

Later on November 19, Ian McKercher will be on hand from 1:00pm to 3:00pm signing his new novel (and the sequel to The Underling) The Incrementalist.

A truly Canadian story, this novel follows Frances McFadden as she tries to come to grips with her new position among the upper echelons of the Bank of Canada as the country goes to war.

biotsodysseyLocal sci-fi author, Alex Binkley will be in the store from 1:30pm to 3:30pm on Sunday, November 20 to launch his new book A Biot’s Odyssey, the sequel to Humanity’s Saving Grace.

Binkley continues the story of a biological robot named Genghis, who became a hero to both humans and Beings thanks to his role in the Nameless War. Now, charged with a new task and with the help of Wood, a maverick robot, Genghis sets off on a new adventure through the stars.

We look forward to seeing you all this weekend!

“Mad Enchantment” by Ross King

madenchantmentThis is another intriguing book by Ross King, who brings an artist to life by a skillful blending of biography and art history.

Claude Monet may be France’s most famous painter. Here we see how he was successful very early in his career, particularly at the Paris Salon in 1865. He went on to get higher and higher prices for his works and was now showing with a group of artistic rebels: Pierre-August Renoir, Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne whom critics called “Impressionists.” Monet had a famously keen eye for light and painted landscapes and interiors in and around Paris. He preferred the country, however, and in 1883 moved to a small picturesque town north of Paris called Giverny. Here, in a large comfortable house, he had servants, a studio and a number of cars. Friends came down from Paris including the Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau.

Monet’s first wife had died young but he remarried, taking on quite a large family. He concentrated on the gardens which came with his Giverny house and enlarged them by building ponds, and put in a Japanese bridge. By 1914 his second wife died, also his own son. Monet almost stopped painting entirely, until he conceived the idea of bringing in exotic water lilies, in different colours and did a whole series of paintings on extra large canvases. They gave him a new lease on life and brought in big prices. This book has excellent photos of Monet’s work and how it developed to peak with the water lilies which made him world-famous.

Reviewed by Anne McDougall

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Nathan Greenfield Book Launch

reckoningLocal historian, Nathan Greenfield will be here on Sunday, November 6 at 2:30pm to launch his brand new book The Reckoning: Canadian Prisoners of War in the Great War.

About the book:

“Conditions in German POW camps were generally vile, with soldiers having little to eat but thin soup and putrid meat. Canadian men were used as slave labourers in salt mines and coal mines, and those who refused the work were beaten. Any soldiers thought to have engaged in sabotage were beaten and tortured, and some were murdered.

In The Reckoning bestselling author and Governor General’s Award–nominee Nathan M. Greenfield explores life and death in the camps, as well as the attempts to run for freedom. These are the forgotten stories of our soldiers at war and in the camps, and of how they never gave up hope of making it out alive.”