January 2020 – Books On Beechwood

Tim Plumptre Signing

Local author Tim Plumptre will be in the store on Saturday, January 11 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm to sign copies of his book The Intrepid Nonprofit.

About the book:

“The Intrepid Nonprofit is a playbook for nonprofit leaders to help them navigate the turbulent environment ahead.

It examines difficult challenges facing nonprofits, such as shrinking or stagnating revenue sources, technological change, under-performing boards, staff turnover, mission drift, or measuring intangible results. Drawing insights from organizations that have not only prospered but sometimes achieved outstanding results, the book outlines practical strategies for success, including some out-of-the-box approaches to leadership. It also calls upon governments and foundations to do more to support the sector.

Tomorrow’s nonprofit leaders will have to be intrepid—resolute, imaginative, adaptable, and courageous. This book will inspire and sustain them when the going gets tough.”

Annual Inventory Sale!!

From now until Saturday, January 18

All books 20% off
All gifts (cards, puzzles, mugs, bags) 25% off
Calendars 30% off
Christmas cards and crackers 50% off
Christmas chocolate bars 40% off
Christmas gift wrap 30% off
Christmas books 25% off

Following our sale, we will be CLOSED on Sunday, January 19 to do our annual inventory taking.
Regular store hours will resume on Monday, January 20.

**CDs, DVDs, magazines, and special orders not included in sale**

Winter 2020 Book Club List

January: Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper

Date: Wednesday, January 29 at 7:30pm

LONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
From Emma Hooper, acclaimed author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a People magazine “Pick of the Week,” comes a “haunting fable about the transformative power of hope” (Booklist, starred review) in a charming and mystical story of a family on the edge of extinction.

Newfoundland, 1992. When all the fish vanish from the waters and the cod industry abruptly collapses, it’s not long before the people begin to disappear from the town of Big Running as well. As residents are forced to leave the island in search of work, ten-year-old Finn Connor suddenly finds himself living in a ghost town. There’s no school, no friends, and whole rows of houses stand abandoned. And then Finn’s parents announce that they too must separate if their family is to survive.
But Finn still has his sister, Cora, with whom he counts the dwindling boats on the coast at night, and Mrs. Callaghan, who teaches him the strange and ancient melodies of their native Ireland. That is until his sister disappears, and Finn must find a way of calling home the family and the life he has lost.

February: An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma

Date: Wednesday, February 26 at 7:30pm

The “superb and tragic” Booker Prize finalist about a Nigerian poultry farmer who sacrifices everything to win the woman he loves, by the author of The Fishermen (Boston Globe)

Set on the outskirts of Umuahia, Nigeria and narrated by a chi, or guardian spirit, AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES tells the story of Chinonso, a young poultry farmer whose soul is ignited when he sees a woman attempting to jump from a highway bridge. Horrified by her recklessness, Chinonso joins her on the roadside and hurls two of his prized chickens into the water below to express the severity of such a fall. The woman, Ndali, is stopped her in her tracks.

Bonded by this night on the bridge, Chinonso and Ndali fall in love. But Ndali is from a wealthy family and struggles to imagine a future near a chicken coop. When her family objects to the union because he is uneducated, Chinonso sells most of his possessions to attend a college in Cyprus. But when he arrives he discovers there is no place at the school for him, and that he has been utterly duped by the young Nigerian who has made the arrangements.. Penniless, homeless, and furious at a world which continues to relegate him to the sidelines, Chinonso gets further away from his dream, from Ndali and the farm he called home.

Spanning continents, traversing the earth and cosmic spaces, and told by a narrator who has lived for hundreds of years, the novel is a contemporary twist of Homer’s Odyssey. Written in the mythic style of the Igbo literary tradition, Chigozie Obioma weaves a heart-wrenching epic about destiny and determination.

March: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Date: Wednesday, March 25 at 7:30pm

The mega-bestseller with more than 1.5 million readers that is soon to be a major television series
One of five Summer 2019 reading picks by Bill Gates
“The novel buzzes with the energy of numerous adventures, love affairs, [and] twists of fate.” —The Wall Street Journal

He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

January 2020 Newsletter

December Bestsellers

1. Coconut Lagoon by Joe Thottungal
2. Ottawa Rewind by Andrew King
3. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
4. Not Mentioned in Dispatches by RHOMA
5. The Cockroach by Ian McKewan
6. Truth Be Told by Beverley McLachlin
7. Murdered Midas by Charlotte Gray
8. Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carre
9. Under Occupation by Alan Furst
10. Flight of the Highlanders by Ken McGoogan

Bestsellers of 2019

1. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
2. Coconut Lagoon by Joe Thottungal
3. Truth Be Told by Beverley McLachlin
4. Brave: Living with a Concussion by Kanika Gupta
5. Ottawa Rewind by Andrew King
6. Effin’ Birds by Aaron Reynolds
7. Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carre
8. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
9. Murdered Midas by Charlotte Gray
10. Becoming by Michelle Obama

Greetings Book Lovers!

Happy New Year! Well, what a season it’s been! Busy to the last, 2019 definitely ended with a bang for us. We hope you all had a lovely holiday and that Santa brought you everything you asked for…especially the books! After a brief break in business, we’re right back to work getting the store ready for another year full of nifty gifts, exciting events, and wonderful, wonderful reads!

The first order of business this month (and this year) is to tell you about our Annual Inventory Sale! From now until Saturday, January 18, we’re having a sale on almost everything in the store! All in-stock books are 20% off, all in-stock gifts are 25% off, and our 2020 calendars are now 30% off! In addition to all those discounts, our Christmas things are all on sale too! Christmas books are 25% off, Christmas wrap and tags are 30% off, Christmas chocolate bars are 40% off, and Christmas cards and crackers are 50% off! So many savings!! The only items not included in the sale are special orders, CDs, DVDs, and magazines. Once our sale is over, we will be CLOSED on Sunday, January 19 so we can do our annual inventory. Counting everything in the store can take us a while, even with all hands on deck, so the more you take advantage these discounts, the happier we will be! Plus, just think about how much further those gift cards you found in your Christmas stockings will stretch over the next two weeks! We look forward to seeing you and helping you fill in any gaps that Santa may have left on your wish list!

As the year is just getting started, we don’t have any events nailed down just yet, but we wanted to give you all a little heads up about our Titles@Table40 series. It’s coming back…sooner than we thought! While our dinner events usually take place in the fall, it looks like this year we might be blessed with a small winter/spring series! Featuring some returning favourites as well as exciting new faces, this series of events will touch on our country’s relationship to war history, will take us into the centre of a tumultuous (yet artistically fruitful) marriage, and guide us through 1930s Montreal on the coattails of a young nursing student. Be sure to keep your eyes trained on your inbox, our Facebook page, and our website for up to the minute information on the who and when of our first Titles@Table40 events of 2020! Details to come soon!

There haven’t been too many new arrivals here in the store since we talked to you last, so we thought we’d give you a sneak peek at what you can expect to see on our shelves in the coming weeks. Here are a few titles that we’re looking forward to getting our hands on: Successful Aging by Daniel Levitin (January 7), The Second Midnight by Andrew Taylor (January 7), 19 Love Songs by David Levithan (January 7), The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs (January 14), Brain Wash by David Perlmutter (January 14), Foresight by Ian Hamilton (January 21), A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (January 21), Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker (January 21), Obsidian: A DreadfulWater Mystery by Thomas King (January 28), Highfire by Eoin Colfer (January 28), When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald (January 28), Murder in an Irish Pub by Carlene O’Connor (January 28), Witches: The Transformative Power of Women Working Together by Sam George-Allen (January 28), Things in Jars by Jess Kidd (February 4), Story Boat by Kyo Maclear (February 4), Brother & Sister by Diane Keaton (February 4), Bloom by Kenneth Oppel (February 11), Alone in the Wild by Kelley Armstrong (February 11).

The festive season might be drawing to a close but with that, a new year is just getting started! With great new books on the horizon, exciting events in the works, and all of our wonderful customers, we’re sure 2020 is going to turn out to be a banner year!

Happy Reading!

— The Staff at Books on Beechwood

Annual Inventory Sale!!!
From now until Saturday, January 18

Following our sale, we will be CLOSED on Sunday, January 19 to do our annual inventory taking.
Regular store hours will resume on Monday, January 20.
**CDs, DVDs, magazines, and special orders not included in sale**

Hilary’s Bookshelf

What I’m Reading: A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers
Released Date: February 11, 2020

“Filled with magic, witches, curses, reincarnation, deals with the devil, and doomed love affairs, it almost feels like this book was written just for me!
I was completely taken in by the characters and couldn’t wait to see where our heroine, Helen, was going to end up next. From late 19th Century France to 1930s Hollywood, through 1970s California to modern day Washington, D.C., this story is a historical tour-de-force that will keep you riveted from beginning to end!”