Christmas Eve
Open 9:30-3:00
Closed December 25th, 26th, and 27th
December 28th and 29th
Open 9:30-6:00
December 30th
Open 9:30-7:00
New Year’s Eve
Open 9:30-3:00
Closed January 1st and 2nd
Regular Store Hours Resume January 3rd
We Wish You All a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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To find us on Twitter: our account is beechwoodbooks
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Debut author Nathalie M Leblanc will be at Books on Beechwood on Saturday, December 18, from 1-3pm, signing her book “Shrinking Forward.” This is the first book in Nathalie’s fantasy series “The Magic Coat Series.”
From the jacket:
“Samantha did not like the idea. Her best friend, Catharine, wanted to celebrate her birthday by exploring the abandoned house that was said to have weird voices coming from inside. Little did they know the imminent danger close at hand.
The two junior high school students are lured into a supernatural reality that includes an evil wizard, magical faeries, dragons and other terrifying beasts.
Unwillingly thrust into the continuing battle between good and evil, their only tools are their friendship, their wits and a mysterious Magic Coat with a mind of its own.
Will they ever be able to return home?”
For more information about Nathalie or her book, visit her website at www.nathaliemleblanc.com.
We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday! Come by to meet the author, buy a book (or two) and get it signed!!!
Barbara Fradkin is a Montrealer who has lived in Ottawa for the past several years and knows both cities well. It gives her Inspector Green series a special flavour. You really feel you are hopping off a bus in Westboro, or driving up Cote des Neiges to a corner of the cemetery on Mt. Royal.
“Beautiful lie the Dead” covers both cities. The plot is intricate but convincing. The families include a leading McGill law professor known as much for his extra-marital affairs as his brilliant lectures. In Ottawa ,a prominent surgeon is two weeks away from his upcoming marriage when an old scandal out of Montreal completely disrupts his plans.
The unflustered Ottawa Police Inspector MIchael Green is well-known to readers of Fradkin’s seven novels before this one. Here, his calm judgment is put to the test by the constant trips and calls back and forth between Ottawa and Montreal. It makes for a highly readable book and keeps Fradkin on the list of active members of Canada’s crime-writing community.
She lives in Ottawa and works as a child psychologist, a profession offering plenty of scope for her writing. Her mysteries have been called “insightful writing that stirs up questions and emotional responses – and the satisfaction felt from a good book”. (The Hamilton Spectator).
Review by Anne McDougall
Don’t know what to do with your children this coming Sunday afternoon between 1:00pm and 3:00pm? Bring them down to Books on Beechwood to meet children’s illustrator Rachna Gilmore and illustrator Ben Hodson! Rachna will be signing her latest books “Catching Time” and “The Trouble With Dilly.” Ben Hodson will be here – with pencil and paper in hand – to sign his latest, “Richard Was A Picker.”
“The Trouble With Dilly” (ages 8-12) is the story of a young girl named Dilly who sees the new boy in her community, Gedion, shoplifting from her parent’s store. After tattling on him to her parents, Dilly realizes that there are certain things that should just be left unsaid. To make up for what she’s done, Dilly decides to plan a Christmas party for Gedion’s family. Before she knows it, the whole community is behind her. Will Dilly be able to see the project through to the end or will people start saying the the trouble with Dilly is that she always starts things that she doesn’t finish?
From author’s website:
“A story of friendship and laughter, good heartedness and community—and what it means to be truly generous.”
“Catching Time” (picture book)
From the jacket:
“With a preserve jar from Mom’s cupboard in one hand and a butterfly net in the other, [Sara] sets out to capture time itself. But where can it be? Is it underneath a desk, or is it twinkling in the sunlight?”
(…)
“With lively text by multi-award winning author Rachna Gilmore, and beautifully airy illustrations by Kirsti Anne Wakelin, Catching Time is the perfect remedy to today’s fast-paced lifestyle – a vivid reminder that time with family is precious and, in the end, the very best time of all.”
“Richard Was A Picker” (picture book) is the story of a young boy who, one day, when trying to pick his nose, gets his whole body stuck up inside his nose, essentially turning himself into one big booger. Richard thinks he has a solution to his problem, but before he can get to his destination, a mob forms up and chases him all through town. Will Richard make it to his destination without getting picked to pieces on the way?
From the jacket:
“Richard Was A Picker is zany and fun. Packed with rhythm, music and rhyme, it may even be a cure for nose-picking.”
For more information on either Rachna Gilmore or Ben Hodson, visit their websites, www.rachnagilmore.ca and www.benhodson.ca.
We hope to see you all on Sunday afternoon, kiddies in tow!
Come by Books on Beechwood on Saturday, December 11 between noon and two o’clock to meet Angela Marcus. She is the author of the new book “One Cat’s Life: Telling Horatio’s Tale.”
From the jacket:
“Anne and Bruce Barnaby were not aware that they needed a pet, until the afternoon a cat appeared on their patio, and took them over. Horatio chose them as his second family, although he already had a family and a comfortable home in the neighbourhood.”
(…)
“This story is based on the life and character of a cat who did exist. Horatio started out as a stray, and the story tells how he corralled a life for himself through his looks, character and charm. From the picturesque village of Merrickville to Canada’s capital, Ottawa, a band of humans loved and supported Horatio through his relationships with a variety of people, a business venture, illness, modest celebrity, and philanthropic deeds. He even almost learned to type.”
(…)
“Horatio opened up an unexpected world for his second family, whose tale is inseparable from his.”
We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!
Author Gordon Forbes will be at Books on Beechwood on Sunday, December 5 from 1:00 – 3:00pm signing his book “We Are One: The Story of the Worst Peacetime Disaster in the History of the Canadian Navy.”
From the jacket:
“This book describes the background to that day [October 23, 1969], the details of the actions of the men during that horrible day, and the aftermath of the event culminating in the emotional gatherings for the fortieth anniversary in Plymouth, England and in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is a story of everyday men doing heroic things to save their ship and of the emotional drain that haunted many of them for years afterward.”
Come by to meet the author, buy a book, and get it signed! We look forward to seeing you!
The books for the 2011 half of the 2010-2011 Book Club have now been chosen, and are listed (and kept up to date) on our Book Club page.
In the month prior to every Book Club meeting, the book in question is always 20% off for Book Club members and store customers. New members to the Book Club are always welcome.
10:30am-12:30pm David Dyment is here signing his book Doing the Continental: A New Canadian-American Relationship
Come down to the bookstore between 10:30am and 12:30pm and meet author and teacher David Dyment.
From his website:
“David teaches political science at the University of Ottawa and at Carleton University where he is senior research associate in the Centre on North American Politics and Society. He has served on the staff of the governor general of Canada and as a senior policy adviser in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
As a media commentator, he has been heard on CTV, CBC Television and Radio, Radio-Canada (in French), and BBC. He received his doctorate from the Université de Montréal.”
Come by and meet the author, buy a book, and get it signed! We look forward to seeing you all here at the store on Saturday morning! If you’d like more information about David, visit his website at www.daviddyment.ca.
1:00pm-3:00pm Catherine McKenzie is here signing her novel Spin
Once you’ve had a nice lunch break after meeting David Dyment in the morning, make your way back to Books on Beechwood for a second round of book buying and signing. Catherine McKenzie will be here from 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon signing her book Spin.
From the book jacket:
“‘Imagine if Bridget Jones fell into a million little pieces, flew over the cuckoo’s nest, and befriended Lindsay Lohan along the way, and you are beginning to grasp the literary roller coaster ride that is Catherine McKenzie’s Spin. Filled with brutal honesty and wry humour, Spin is a story for anyone who has ever woken up hungover and thought, ‘Do I have a problem? Yes – I need to find a greasy breakfast.’ And by that I mean everyone I know.’ – Leah McLaren, Globe and Mail Columnist, author of Continuity Girl.”
(…)
“Spin is whip-smart and hugely engaging fiction from an exciting new talent.”
Come down to Books on Beechwood to meet and chat with the author, buy a book or two, and get them signed! We look forward to seeing you all there! For more information about Catherine, visit her website at www.catherinmckenzie.com.
Whether you spend part of your Saturday at the bookstore for one book signing or two, we very much look forward to seeing you here supporting your local book community and two great first time Canadian authors!
You don’t connect racial tension with the shores of Lake Erie, in rural southern Ontario. But Jane Urquhart’s new novel tells of unexpected violent trauma on these beautiful shores that colours the lives of the fifth and sixth generations who live there.
The heroine of her story, Liz Crane, is an entomologist whose job is to study the complex routes of the Monarch butterfly as it leaves Sanctuary Research station for points south, and back again. The job gives Crane a chance to leave Toronto and live in the old farm-house she has known all her life as a summer visitor. With the familiar enviroment come back to her memories of her own growing-up days. She remembers the tempestuous, charismatic Uncle Stanley whose disappearance has never been explained. She looks back to the days when the farm lands planted strawberries, cherries, peaches, pears, tomatoes, apples in a strict rhythm of ripening, which was then gradually brought down to orchards only. She recalls the crumbling bunk-houses that used to house the Mexican workers flown up each year. She is on her own in the old farmhouse, with her mother not far away in a suitably named retirement home, The Golden Field. It makes the memories all the more vivid.
Urquhart writes skilfully and moodily about the Butler family’s long-ago life in poverty-stricken Kerry, Ireland and their move to the new world. We are drawn in totally to all generations, one of the latest dramas being the death in Afghanistan of Liz’ close cousin, Mandy.
Jane Urquart is a well-known Canadian writer with a long list of prizes to her name. This is her seventh novel. She was born in Little Long Lac, Ontario, and now lives in Northumberland County, Ontario, and sometimes Ireland.
Review by Anne McDougall