Local author Nikita Kiriloff will be in the store on Thursday, March 20 from 5:00-7:00pm to sign copies of his new book Voice of Translator? But No, Interpretor.
Nikita Kiriloff is one of Canada’s most successful and long-standing Russian/French/English interpreters. His career spans from Trudeau to Harper and from Gorbachev to Putin. His book includes a forward by the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien.
Coffee and snacks will be available.
We hope to see you all here on Thursday!
Denise Chong is a first-rate reporter who lives with her family in Ottawa and has written three books before this current Lives of the Family.
In this one she writes intimately of the Chinese who immigrated to towns in Canada to escape perilous times in China, that include the war with Japan and the Communist takeover. She concentrates on the Chinese who came to Ottawa, and smaller towns such as Perth, rather than the Chinatowns of centres like Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal.
The result is an up-close look at these quiet, brave people who usually ran cafes or the local laundry. They were often sending money back to China, to help bring other members of the family to Canada. It meant working almost full-time. During the 20’s and 30’s of the last century, there was no Chinese radio, or TV, or cinema. They turned to each other for company, although the book also tells of the kindness and sympathy from Canadian neighbours when they realized the situation.
By 1975, the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (OCCSC) had opened and Chong acknowledges their help in writing this book, which also has photos of the families as they got started. Chong’s earlier books are: The Concubine’s Children, The Girl in the Picture and Egg on Mao. Chong quite often gives talks in Ottawa. She gives and unusually vivid picture of the Chinese who live here.
Reviewed by Anne McDougall
Penelope Lively is a beloved British writer of fiction, and children’s literature, with the Man Booker prize and numerous awards piled up for her 80 years of production.
Dancing Fish and Ammonites is what she calls a memoir and then qualifies it to “the view from old age.” It is unusual for a writer to share so intimately the things that made her write. One reviewer says: “Her candor is refreshing, and reminds us that you don’t have to lie to yourself to live life finely until the end.”
Lively was born in Egypt where her father was posted. An only child, she later faced a lonely boarding school in England. Very early on she had and interest in archaeology, and her title refers to fossils picked up on a beach in Dorset. She turned to writing however and this book tells of the events “by which she felt most fingered,” i.e. the Suez Crisis, the Cold War, the seismic change in attitudes of the late 20th Century.
She includes her happy marriage, her children, and finally her turning to books and reading for companionship. The end of the book tells us of six objects she had picked up and kept by her as a part of her history. She lives in London.
Reviewed by Anne McDougall
There’s a promise in the air that Spring will eventually come. (perhaps more quickly for me as I will soon escape to the Caribbean for a couple of weeks). February is often a slow month for the Bookstore but this year was particularly poor so we look forward to March. The best-sellers list –given below-is shorter than usual. An interesting characteristic of the bookstore is that we sell such a wide variety of books that best-sellers do not dominate our revenues. With the issue of the paperback version of The Orenda in mid-month, Joseph Boyden’s story of life among the Hurons at the time of the early European contact surged back to the top of the list. Margaret MacMillan’s remarkable history of the years before the First World War (frightening when we compare with the Ukraine and even Syria today) is still on the list. An unusual item is poetry –Redshift by Patrick White, the former Ottawa Poet Laureate. This was the subject of a special author event at the store in mid-February. The poet has since died and there was an eloquent obituary column by Robert Sibley in the Ottawa Citizen of March 3rd.
We’re upgrading the equipment at the store; for example, new computers that will be faster and less prone to problems. We hope the migration will go smoothly but please be patient if there are any issues with the transition. There is also a new portable, lighter weight credit card reader.
We are negotiating for a special shipment of books-about a thousand- that will go on sale later this month as part of our Book Bargain Month. The details are not yet finalised but we expect to announce it here soon. Watch this space for details.
Some of you regularly use our on line bookstore (store.booksonbeechwood.ca) for browsing and ordering books but it is underutilised. There is also a terminal in the store that displays the site. You can search for books or authors, see what is in stock, what is already on order and what you would need to “special order”. You get brief descriptions of each book and author. You can save your own lists of books for future reference. You can browse by category, examine lists of national bestsellers or look for forthcoming titles and see their publication dates. It is a great resource for booklovers. You can order on line for in store pick-up or arrange delivery.
I intend to start a new review feature called “Teen Reads” on our website. We have a good selection of books in stock in the Section called “Youth” at the bookstore but we would like to encourage more interest. The new book reviews will be carried out by teenagers (we reserve the right to do some editing). We have a resident reviewer to start with but we invite submissions from others. They should be no more than 350 words, say one paragraph about the book –or series-and one paragraph on the readers reaction and recommendation. This would make a class good project for English teachers! Send the best results to us and we will give credit to authors and their schools. Send any submissions to peter.dawson@iridian.ca.
Our Bestsellers for February
1. The Orenda Joseph Boyden Fiction
2. Imposter Bride Nancy Richler Fiction
3. It’s not Luck Eliyahn Goldratt Economy
4. Redshift Patrick White Poetry
5. Dominion C.J. Sansom Fiction
6. Life after Life Kate Atkinson Fiction
7. The Last Indian Summer Robert Lalonde Fiction
8. Winter in Madrid C.J. Sansom Fiction
9. The Woman Upstairs Claire Messud Fiction
10. David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell Psychology
11. The War that ended Peace Margaret MacMillan History
Local author Willow-Marie Power will be here on Saturday, February 22 from 12:00 to 2:00pm to sign copies of her new book Real: Coming of Age – Keeping Your Soul. She will also be reading from her book at 1:00pm.
From the jacket:
“‘Real is a beautifully written introspection that took me on a journey from Willow-Marie Power’s reflections to my own and back again. This book will stay with me. Willow’s prose and poems remind us that life is absolutely beautiful, but only when we dare to actively drive into it – vulnerable, naked and free of any illusion. This requires extraordinary amounts of self-awareness, humility and love. You’ll find all three on every page.’ – Anais Navarre, writer and translator.”
About the author:
“Willow-Marie Power is a writer, counselor and consultant. All her work explores women’s experiences of spirituality and coming of age. Drawn from her Celtic background and love of myth and ballet, it has been featured in poetry journals as well as in recital and dance at conferences and festivals since 1994.”
Visit her on-line home: http://willowmariewrites.com
We look forward to seeing you all here on Saturday!
Readers will recognize Robert C. Sibley as the author of The Way of the 88 Temples, which came out in 2013 and tells the story of his pilgrimage around one of Japan’s four main islands.
In this book he takes us on an earlier pilgrimage he made along the famous Camino de Santiago. This crosses northern Spain and leads to Santiago de Campostelo on the coast. It crosses the Pyrenees, the green valleys of Navarre and Rioja, the plains of Castile and Leon and the alpine mountains of Galicia. It is a trip of five hundred miles and Sibley walked it in five weeks.
The result is an intriguing book, full of the people he met, the beauty of the countryside, unusual plants, unknown birds, lovely old towns with their cathedrals and long views. In spite of some difficult days of blisters and very sore leg muscles (which disappeared as he got used to walking) he found it “one of the most satisfying travel experiences of [his] life.” He loved the periods of solitude which brought back memories he hadn’t thought of for decades. He was not seeking for a renewal of his religious beliefs but there were many times when the beauty and mystery of creation brought these back to him.
At the end he says the real gift of the Camino was to give him a place in his imagination he could return to and recreate a heightened awareness of the world – an awareness that disappears in our world of technology, rush, and consumerism.
Sibley is an award-winning Senior Writer at The Ottawa Citizen, and Adjunct Professor in political science at Carleton University.
Reviewed by Anne McDougall
Robert Lalonde, along with his translator Jean-Paul Murray, and Patrick White will be here to sign their newest books, The Last Indian Summer and RedShift, respectively, on Sunday, February 16 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm.
From the jacket of The Last Indian Summer:
“Michel’s village is a prison where life is to be feared and betrayed, where duty and hypocrisy are the fashion. His Native friend Kanak will help him escape, introducing him to nature, freedom and forbidden games, teaching him to balance spiritual needs and natural desires. But Michel’s relationship with Kanak shocks the village because it involves an Indian. For his crime, the clan forbids Michel from seeing Kanak again and sentences him to confinement and solitude.
A post-colonial novel of protest, The Last Indian Summer is a bewitching and beautiful summer night’s dream, a hymn to passion, nature and freedom that condemns hypocrisy and intolerance.”
From the jacket of RedShift:
Patrick White is the former poet laureate of Ottawa. He has published eight books of poetry and his work has been translated into five languages and appears in hundreds of national and international periodicals and anthologies, including Poetry (Chicago), Dalhousie Review, Texas Quaterly, The Fiddlehead, and Georgia Review. Winner of the Archibald Lampman Award, Canadian Literature Award, Benny Nicholas Award for Creative Writing, he was also runner-up for the Milton Acorn People’s Poet Award.
Local author Beth McKenty will be here on Saturday, February 15 from 12:00 to 2:00pm to sign copies of her new novel Pages from a Prairie Saga.
Excerpt from Pages from a Prairie Saga:
“It’s the last day of July, a bright, perfect day for harvesting a crop. The flat, sometimes rolling land in southern Manitoba, chosen in 1880 by an underage, hopeful settler from Ontario, later home for almost the first six years of my life, refuses to be forgotten.
Only now, seven decades later, is the focus real, the debt accepted, my heart acknowledging it to be immeasurable. Time lines are blurring, exact details no longer important, just the urgent longing to say across the years, ‘I would not change a day of the journey! God be with you, ’til we meet again!'”
About the author:
Beth is a retired teacher who has lived and taught all over the world. She is a recent winner of the Governor General’s “Caring Canadian” Award.
We hope to see you at this great event!
Local author Bob Abell will be in the store on Sunday, February 9 to launch his newest novel Trails. He will be here from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and will also be available to sign copies of his two previous books: a novel called The Corporation and a business book called Salvaging Capitalism Saving Democracy.
From the jacket of Trails:
“When Shelley, a 25-year old Ph.D. ecology student, is caught in a sudden rainstorm while hiking in the canyons of an Arizona mountain range, her life takes an unexpected turn – throwing her highly organized and disciplined personal life into turmoil.
It also exposes an international intrigue involving criminal activity – and posing great danger to Shelley and all those around her, as well as to the environment.”
We hope to see you on Sunday!
Snacks and refreshments will be served.