Category: Our Events

Injecting some slightly rude humour into our event roster, we’re looking forward to welcoming Aaron Reynolds and his hilarious (and often profane) bird book, Effin’ Birds, to the store for a book launch on Wednesday, October 23 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Full of detailed ornithological drawings and based on the popular Twitter account of the same name (@EffinBirds), this book is perfect for fans of birding and tongue-in-cheek humour.

About the book:

“A compact, comprehensive, and very silly field guide featuring more than 200 of the rudest birds on earth.
Effin’ Birds is the most eagerly anticipated new volume in the grand and noble profession of nature writing and bird identification. Sitting proudly alongside Sibley, Kaufman, and Peterson, this book contains more than 150 pages crammed full of classic, monochrome plumage art paired with the delightful but dirty aphorisms (think “I’m going to need more booze to deal with this week”) that made the Effin’ Birds Twitter feed a household name. Also included in its full, Technicolor glory is John James Audubon’s most beautiful work matched with modern life advice. Including never-before-seen birds, insults, and field notes, this guide is a must-have for any effin’ fan or birder.”

Local writer and political commentator, John Delacourt will be in the store on Sunday, September 15 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm to sign copies of his new novel, Butterfly.

This fast-paced thriller ticks all the right fiction boxes and is sure to capture your imagination from page one!

About the book:
“Lucien and Nataša might have slipped toward love, if her past in Sarajevo hadn’t caught up with her. Nataša finds work modeling for a painter in Toronto, but he is murdered. Nataša disappears that night, running for her life. Her vanishing is connected to the discovery of a video, secretly filmed in a small town in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war. ‘Butterfly’ is a novel that charts a controlled descent through the dark legacy of war and the underbelly of the global art scene…into a world ruled by a desperate hope for impossible redemption.”

Be sure to join us on Friday, September 13 between 5:30pm and 7:30pm for the launch of local author Ken Newport‘s brand new novel No Dress Rehearsal.

About the book:
“Change, and how we deal with it, is the central theme to ‘No Dress Rehearsal’, the poignant retelling of a tumultuous year in the lives of three people who have no connection other than a neighbourhood coffee shop. Telling their stories in first-person narrative, Terry, Lee, and Grant struggle in their relationships, careers, family and health in this fast-paced story stitched together by a music-board in the coffee shop. With short “song tracks” for chapters, ‘No Dress Rehearsal’ is perfect for today’s busy reader, telling a complex story in short, stand-alone, diary-like entries.
No Dress Rehearsal is wonderfully rich in dialogue, with surprising twists in plot, and readers will be pulled along by what turns out to be a most extraordinary year for all three protagonists, a year in which they each realize there is no second chance at life – there truly is no dress rehearsal.”

Books will be available for sale during the launch.
We look forward to seeing you!

Please join us on Thursday, May 23 at 7:00pm for a book signing with David Moscrop, author of Too Dumb for Democracy, and Sid Ryan, former CUPE President and author of A Grander Vision.

David Moscrop is a political theorist with an interest in democratic deliberation and citizenship. Moscrop is a regular writer for Maclean’s, a contributing columnist to the Washington Post, and a regular political commentator on television and radio. He has also authored pieces in numerous other newspapers and magazines including the Globe and Mail and National Post.

Sid Ryan served six years as both the president of the Ontario Federation Labour, where he represented over one million workers. Previously, he had served seventeen years as president of CUPE Ontario and general vice-president of CUPE National. He lives in Whitby, Ontario.

Local poet Nicola Vulpe will be here in the store on Saturday, May 11 from 12:00-2:00pm to sign copies of his new book of poetry Insult to the Brain.

About the book:

“We breathe, then we don’t. We are, then we are not. Dark, despairing, wry, comical – suprising, Vulpe’s Insult to the Brain engages with the great and not-so-great poets of the last century to ask as only a poet can: What does it mean to die? What does it mean to be human?

Visit us on Wednesday, May 1 between 5:00pm and 7:00pm to meet Ottawa poet Jacqueline Bourque as she launches her new chapbook of poetry, The Dune As Bookmark.

“Jacqueline Bourque grew up along the ocean shores of New Brunswick. She spent the better part of her career in Ottawa working as a communicator for a public sector organization. Her poems have appeared in a number of chapbooks, anthologies, and journals, including The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Queen’s Quarterly, and The Dalhousie Review.”