Category: Our Events

Author and Great War Historian, Tim Cook, will be at Books on Beechwood on Saturday, November 6, from 11:00am to 1:00pm, to sign his new book “The Madman and the Butcher: The Sensational Wars of Sam Hughes and General Arthur Currie.”

From the jacket:
“Award-winning author Tim Cook turns his narrative powers to the conflict between two towering Great War figures: Sir Arthur Currie, Canadian Corps Commander, and Sir Sam Hughes, Canada’s war minister. Set against the backdrop of Europe’s battlefields and Canada’s political tumult, The Madman and the Butcher explores the nation’s discomfort with heroes, the need to place blame, and the very public war of reputations that raged on after the guns fell silent.”
(…)
“The Madman and the Butcher is a powerful double biography of Sam Hughes and Arthur Currie. Using newly uncovered sources, Cook creates a haunting portrait of our greatest battlefield general and the man who tried to destroy him.”

Come down to the bookstore to visit with the author, buy a book, and get it signed! Refreshments will be served during this event. We look forward to seeing you here!

Local Ottawa author, Colin Alexander, will be in the store on Saturday, September 18 from 1pm to 3pm signing copies of his book “The Lady Who Lassoed Me: Popular and Humorous Traditional Verse about Living, Loving & Money.” The book includes stories such as “The Lady Who Lassoed Me,” “Dinah Saw the Dinosaur” and “The Ghost of the Yellowknife Inn.”

From the book jacket: “This book is fun for readers of all ages. It’s a collection of comic and narrative verse that rhymes, scans and (mostly!) makes sense – like the tongue-twister Dinah Saw the Dinosaur. The Lady Who Lassoed Me was inspired by a real lady of the street on a sunny summer day in Ottawa. The Ghost of the Yellowknife Inn is a narrative ballad about the epic search for gold in the Canadian Arctic. This book is in the traditional light verse by A.A. Milne, Alfred Noyes (The Highwayman) and Kipling, and by Robert Service (The Cremation of Sam McGee). It also looks back to comedians whose work was literary, clever and acerbic, like Tony Hancock, Peter Ustinov, Peter Cook, and the Harvard Maths professor Tom Lehrer.”

We hope to see you at the event!

Alastair Sweeny will be in the store from 1:00pm to 3:00pm on September 11 to promote his newest book, “Black Bonanza: Canada’s Oil Sands and the Race to Secure North America’s Energy Future.”

Quoted from Publisher’s website:
“Black Bonanza takes the reader on a tour of the fabulous tar sands of north west Canada, the world’s largest single deposit of oil, greater than that of the entire Middle East. In fact, the 1.7 trillion plus barrels of oil in the tar sands just about equals the world’s entire stock of proven reserves of conventional petroleum.

The global economy is dependent on access to energy and stable market prices are a large factor of its overall health. In contrast to the oil reserves held by other nations, the oil sands in North America represent an opportunity to ensure that we will not be held hostage by countries that would dictate fuel prices. Already the Alberta oil sands have become a major factor the world economy, and certainly represent the promise of a viable and stable source of energy for North America. The result is that the world’s major energy companies are getting deeply invested in the tar sands, and one third of multinational giant Shell’s reserves are now there. Until the 2008 downturn, institutional investors flocked to buy a piece of the action, and even Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have been recent visitors to the site, and all of this action made Alberta second only to China in its growth rate and has made the oil sands a huge target for environmental criticism and controversy.

Black Bonanza is the first major look at the modern engineering feat-and the promise-that is Alberta’s Oil Sands, primarily from a business and political perspective. It is one of the few books to focus on the positives and upside of this enormous project rather than the downsides of the development of this resource. This book will give readers a close-up of the great environmental and engineering challenges of developing the black bonanza that is the Oil Sands.”

For additional information on “Black Bonanza,” you can visit the author at his website, www.alastairsweeny.com or check out the publisher’s website, www.wiley.com. We look forward to seeing you at the event!

Synopsis, copied verbatim from the publisher’s site!

“Greta Ludwig, a 29-year-old Franco-Ontarian and Métis widow, is a successful bookstore owner in Ottawa. Due to the many stressors she encounters in her young life, she experiences a mental breakdown and requires psychiatric hospitalization. Once she is discharged, she is introduced to a psychiatrist who begins to play an important role in her life. To facilitate her recovery, she volunteers at the Shepherds of Good Hope, an organization serving the homeless in Ottawa. Once she regains her self-confidence, she becomes a frontline worker in their men’s shelter but is physically assaulted by one of their residents. Will this incident trigger another manic phase of her underlying illness? Will she be able to return to work with the homeless? Will the support of family, friends, professionals and her unfailing faith in her Creator and Mother Earth be sufficient to give her the strength to cope with life’s future challenges?”

You can follow Raymond’s adventures on his web site: raymondtremblay.blogspot.com

From a review on True North Perspectives;

“… Matt and the Wonder of Wishes by Nepean, Ontario author Bobby Hawley.

In this masterfully written book, Queen Zephania is the ruler of the fairy realm and can be found in the forest glade not far from a magnificent landscape of flowers. Should you become one of the chosen, you might even be given a wish. The fairies were attracted to this location by the display of colors and the heavenly scents coming from a beautiful garden right at the forest’s edge.

One night just before dusk a young lad by the name of Matthew spotted a box moving toward the forest glade, and on the side of the box was written an invitation to a wish. He followed the box and there he glimpsed the magical kingdom.

He felt sure he was one of the chosen, so the next day he returned with his young friends Jake, Katie, Danielle, Ana and Max. The Queen granted a wish to each child so that the special dream held in their hearts could be fulfilled.

Bobby Hawley is a retired teacher who loves working with children. She has published two children’s books on bullying since retiring and has frequented many schools, doing readings and discussing the importance of empathy. She has written and published a book of illustrated children’s poems as well as a couple of chapbooks.”

Frank Koller will be at Books on Beechwood, on Thursday the 6th of May from 6 to 8pm, reading from, discussing, and signing copies of his book “Spark: How Old-Fashioned Values Drive a Twenty-First Century Corporation! SPARK is a fascinating glimpse into how capitalism can, and should, work in North America – to protect people as well as profits.

Long time CBC economics reporter and foreign correspondent, Koller tells the story of how one unusual and profitable Fortune 1000 multinational company challenges the conventional wisdom shaping modern management’s view of the workplace by refusing to lay off its workers in tough times.

Norman A. Berg, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School says in his review:
“Frank Koller has done a remarkable job of presenting both an economic and a moral argument for the value to society of the unusual policies followed with great success by Lincoln Electric for over a hundred years. The book is excellent in both the historical overview and the numerous interviews with current and past employees. There is much that modern management can learn about the benefits to employees, customers, shareholders, and communities by examining the role of the ‘old fashioned’ culture of Lincoln Electric.”

Michael Enright, The Sunday Edition
“A fascinating story.”

Harvard Business Review
“A fascinating depiction of a rare human resource practice in a company with a long and hearty track record—food for thought for the rest of us.”

Written for children in the age range of 10 to 14 years; Elizabeth MacLeod will be here signing and reading from her latest book, “Royal Murder: The deadly intrigue of ten sovereigns.” Danger and drama among the monarchs!

What would you do for absolute power? For many monarchs throughout history, it was a question that ruled their lives. Step into the world of palatial intrigue, where holding the throne means evading death… or causing it.

Some sovereigns were cunning at avoiding their killers. Cleopatra of Egypt once rolled herself into a rug and was carried out past her enemies’ noses. Other royals were brutal when dealing with foes. VIad the Impaler’s monstrous methods inspired the legend of Dracula the vampire.

From monarchs murdered at the hands of their subjects to kings killed on the battlefield, the stories of these ten royals are told:

* Cleopatra of Egypt (69 BCE-30 BCE)
* VIad III the lmpaler of Wallachia (1431-1476)
* Richard III of England (1452-1485)
* “Bloody Mary” 1(1516-1558)
* Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)
* Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
* Louis XVI (1754-1793)
* Marie Antoinette (1755-1793)
* Elisabeth of Austria (1837- 1898)
* The Romanovs of Russia (1872-1918).

A final section offers examples from the 20th century — from assassination attempts in England to a royal massacre in Nepal.

Blending dramatic storytelling and historical fact, and complete with fascinating photographs and artwork, Royal Murder is a compelling account of scheming sovereigns.

Adrian Harewood, from CBC, will be interviewing Lawrence Hill, author of ” The Book of Negroes”, after which Lawrence will be signing copies of his book.

Details of the event can be found on the Museum’s Site

Saturday the 13th, from 1 to 3pm, we’ll be hosting a booksigning!

“I Found My Thrill on Parliament Hill” An entertaining look at the storied life of Trudeau era cabinet minister, Bud Cullen, Member of Parliament for Sarnia-Lambton.

“Bud Cullen was a rare politician who never let success inflate his ego. At times funny and sad, serious and light, thoughtful and candid, this memoir holds true to Cullen’s wonderful sense of humour and unflinching honesty of spirit.”
Mayor Mike Bradley, City of Sarnia.

“Bud Cullen had a rare gift for personal relations with both colleagues and critics and was highly respected by Government and Opposition members alike, a quality of significance in that contentious environment. He was known for his amicable temperament and his unfailing willingness to work on the resolution of a task, no matter how unpalatable.
Honourable Donald Macdonald

A four-month cycling trip from tip to tail of Africa – in the company of like-minded individuals, accompanied by a support team – was the perfect way for Beryl and Bernie Doiron to marry their joy of cycling with their love of travel and to escape the Canadian winter.

Departing Cairo with its pyramids, they cycled through ancient Egypt, the deserts of Sudan, the mountains of Ethiopia, the lush rolling hills of Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia, the beautiful terrain of Botswana and Namibia and along the Atlantic Ocean of South Africa to Cape Town: a fifth of the journey on clay, washboard, rock, sand, and dusty roads.

It all made January to May 2008 a memorable summer: 10,000km down roads less travelled, time to interact with some of the world’s poorest people, pitching tents in desert and on bush ground and eating local foods.

Again and again, the authors were struck by the welcoming faces of people with very few of life’s amenities, who appear to live in peace and harmony with their surroundings. In small village and countryside, the people and lifestyle also triggered memories of early childhood, growing up on a family farm and nearby fishing village in Prince Edward Island, Canada.