Top 10 Books on 2023
1. Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons by Charlotte Gray
2. Eleanor’s Moon by Maggie Knaus
3. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
4. Private Power, Public Purpose by Thomas d’Aquino
5. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
6. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
7. Best Hikes: Ottawa-Gatineau by Vickie Lanthier
8. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
9. Snow Road Station by Elizabeth Hay
10. Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood
Greetings Book Lovers!
Happy December! Can you believe it’s the last month of the year already? Time has certainly been flying by! Although the weather has been a bit up and down recently, we can no longer deny that winter is here to stay. With the ice and snow piling up outside, and that nippy air starting to throw its weight around, there’s nothing we’d rather do than curl up at home with a good book! Before we can do that though, we do still have a few pre-holiday tasks to accomplish. Read on to find out what will be happening in and around the store between now and December 24th!
With Christmas fast approaching, our shelves are full to bursting with great reads, fun games, neat puzzles, and beautiful gift items of all shapes and sizes – in other words, lots of goodies for everyone on your holiday gift list! Whether your shopping M.O. involves detailed lists of gift ideas or casual browsing until something special catches your eye, our bookstore elves will be in-store and on-hand to help with all your shopping needs!
As we’re just over a week away from Christmas, most of our order deadlines for “guaranteed Christmas delivery” have now passed, but there are still a couple of suppliers who will be able to get books to us in time for the big day! So, if there is a certain special book you’d really like to have wrapped and under the tree this year, please don’t hesitate to ask us about it! There is still a chance we may be able to get it for you. Please note that our final “in time for Christmas” orders will be going out this coming Thursday (December 15), so be sure to contact us before then if there’s a certain title you’d like to order. If the book you’re looking for happens to be one we don’t have and can’t order, we’re always happy to see if one of our fellow independent stores might have it – just one of the perks of sharing a database with your other go-to Ottawa bookstores! Even though our order deadlines have mostly passed, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be getting anymore books between now and December 24. We’ve been busily placing orders daily with all our suppliers over the last few weeks, so there are lots of great titles and gifty goodies still winging their way to us. Be sure to keep an eye on our social media pages to get the latest on all our newest arrivals!
In other holiday news, our special 12 Days of Christmas promo is back for another year! Starting on Wednesday, December 13, we will be counting down the days to Christmas by featuring one great book each day at 25% off! This year’s countdown will include the likes of store favourite Charlotte Gray, fantasy superstar Rebecca Yarros, and Canadian sport hero Donovan Bailey, among many others. This promo will be available in store and online, and each book will only be discounted on its specific day. Keep your eyes on this space and our social media pages for daily announcements on when each book is stepping into the spotlight! (Please note that since we will be closed on Sunday, December 17th, that day’s promo will be available online only.)
While we have you here, we also wanted to let you know what our store hours will be like over the next ten days. We will be maintaining our regular hours of operation (Monday to Saturday, 10:00am to 5:00pm) in these last days leading up to December 24, and while we will remain closed on Sundays, we will be open from 10:00am to 3:00pm. on Sunday, December 24. After all the hubbub of holiday shopping is over, we will once again be closing up shop for a week to give our staff a much-deserved rest. The store will be shut from Monday, December 25 through to Monday, January 1. Regular store hours will resume on Tuesday, January 2, 2023.
While we love being in the store all year round, there’s just something extra special about the holidays. From the fascinating books arriving everyday to the seemingly endless “Best of” lists, the copious gift items filling our shelves to the many literary prize winners, there’s just an extra little frisson of excitement in the air. If we had to pick our very favourite thing about the store though, no matter the time of year, it would of course be all of you. While our bookstore itself is made up of bricks and mortar, and staffed by happy booksellers, it’s all our lovely customers that really breathe life into it. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do what we love and “the little bookstore that could” wouldn’t be the community hub that it’s become. Thank you so much for your continued support of our little shop. It really means the world to us, especially after facing some unprecedented events over the last few years. We’ve encountered a number of bumps in the road since first opening our doors in the fall of 1994, but now as we approach our 30th anniversary, we know that no matter what we face going forward, we have the kindest and most supportive customers to help us along the way.
From the bottom of our book-loving hearts, we want to thank you for all that you do, and wish you and yours a lovely holiday season filled with peace, joy, and laughter! And maybe a few books too!
Happy Reading!
Take good care,
The Staff at Books on Beechwood