Something a Little Fishy With These Customers

A customer in the store yesterday was telling me about her goldfish, and how it had its own Facebook page.  This was moderately cute until I realized that she was telling me that her goldfish told her what to type, and that obviously it couldn’t do it itself without a waterproof computer.  Because clearly, that’s the only impediment to fishy bloggers – the lack of good waterproofing. Cue backing away slowly, as she is telling me about her plans to mic the aquarium and live stream (no pun intended) her talking fish… On a different note, I had a customer who told me he had no idea Nelson Mandela was a member of the Illuminati.  Why did they think he was a member of the Illuminati, you may ask? Because of the Coretta Scott King award on the cover of Kadir Nelson’s children’s book, Nelson Mandela.  Sigh.

Why You Should Buy a Copy of Walking Home Right Now

Eric Walters is a bestselling writer of books, ranging from picture books for the littlest to adventure novels for teens.  Kids are drawn to his books because he doesn’t hesitate to tackle major issues – 9/11, war, poverty – but he does it at their level.  He’s also a very cool guy.

He runs an orphanage in Kenya.  He covers all the administrative fees.  He is an elder in the Kumba tribe – as he puts it, “the whitest Kumba ever.”  And Walking Home is based on true events, and some of the kids he has gotten to know there.

In Walking Home, a brother and sister have been forced to move to a refugee camp, after political violence ended in their father’s death and the destruction of their home.  While in camp, their mother dies of malaria.  Rather than be separated into different orphanages, they make the decision to slip away from camp in the night, and try to find their maternal grandparents, who they have never met, in a town no one has ever heard of.  They have no money to speak of, so the journey of hundreds of kilometres will be on foot.

It is a moving story, and it’s enhanced by the fact that Walters walked the walk – literally.  He made the journey they did, and the text has symbols throughout the book where you can go to the book’s website and watch a video clip, or see a photo, or hear the sounds of Kenya.  It is an immersive experience – and listening to Walters talk about Kenya, his compassion for her people, his amazement at their strength – well, I dare you to stay unmoved.  I certainly was touched.

In fact, my whole bookstore was touched to the point where we decided we were going to sell as many copies as we could.  Since the publisher has committed to donating $1.30 from the sale of each copy of walking home to Walters’ charity, Creation of Hope ( creationofhope.com )   we found out from Walters that selling 77 copies of the book in store was enough to run the orphanage for a day.

At last count, we had sold almost enough for three days – more than 200 copies.  We received the following photo:

So, help out.  Buy a great book, help a great cause.  You have nothing to lose, and they have everything to gain.

Christie

Bookish British Columbia

Hey fellow book peeps, I need your advice!  I will be visiting BC soon, and would like to hear your tips on which bookish destinations are not to be missed.  Libraries, bookstores, book-themed cafes… I will try to get to as many as I can.

I will be spending time in Vancouver, Victoria, and Nanaimo.  I promise to post photos of my visit.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas!

 

Carpe Libris!

Christie

The Hottest Titles for Teens and Tweens

What are the big books this summer? And why should you care?

Well, one of the things that gets people reading, adults included, is recommendations.  If kids are hearing their friends talking about this book, and once they are reading it can talk about it, how great is that? It makes a love of reading something they share, and how many times have you felt a bond with someone because they, too, adored a book dear to your heart?

With that in mind, I’ll share some of the titles that are really hot at my store right now, some of which are excellent reads, and feel free to pick them up for yourself, or steal the book when your kid is done with it.  Or before, I won’t judge you.

Target age: 9-12

This book didn’t arrive on time in-store – which was the cause of much consternation in my household.  My younger daughter is an evangelist for The Land of Stories series, dragging them with her everywhere she goes and forcing other people to read them.  They’re very good, bringing to mind classics like Alice in Wonderland or the Wizard of Oz, mixing fairytales with real life, the bizarre alongside the mundane.  And yes, it’s the Chris Colfer who plays Kurt on Glee who is the author – he really needs to save some talent for other people. A Grimm Warning is the third book in the series, and it’s worth getting them in hardcopy instead of an e-book because of the maps and illustrations in the cover.

Target age 13+, and I really mean the plus

I loved the Divergent trilogy – and Veronica Roth didn’t wuss out on the ending either, unlike the Hunger Games.  Four is a series of short stories that take place before the Divergent trilogy, centred around Four’s life before Tris. This can be read as a present for current fans craving more, or as a prologue to the main trilogy for new readers.  Good beach reading for everyone, and if you haven’t read the original trilogy, summer is a great time to start.

Target: 9-12+

This trilogy, of which the first two are now out, is a kind of interesting twist on the fairytale theme that’s huge right now in this age group.  Every year, two girls or two boys are chosen to attend the school of Good and Evil.  One is trained to be a hero, the other a villain.  When two best friends are chosen, one golden-haired and sweet, and the other dark haired, odd, and fond of goth-y clothes, they know who’s going where.  Their own self-concepts are thrown into disarray when the golden-haired girl is sent to the school of evil, and the goth-in-training is sent to the school of good.  This book is flying off the shelves, and anything that shakes up thinking is great by me.

 

Target age: 13+

I will admit now, that I haven’t read this trilogy, and may not.  I am not always in the mood for romance and frou frou dresses.  Sometimes, though, that’s exactly what you want, and this series seems to fill that need for teens and adults alike quite nicely.  A sort of dystopian version of The Bachelor, the series started with The Selection, where thirty-five girls were in an elimination competition for the crown, and marriage to the prince.  The competition is winnowed down through the second book, and now in the third, The One is America Singer’s (cringing at the name) final chance to win the Miss America Pageant   heart of Prince Maxon, and the crown.  If you are looking for a frillier version of the Hunger Games, this is it.

Target: 13+

I adore Mercedes Lackey, and read pretty much everything she writes.  I am currently reading this series she is writing with Rosemary Edghill, a kind of Mystery at the Academy trope, but with enough interesting twists to keep it from being formulaic.  Spirit White (hippie parents) ends up at an orphanage after she is the only member of her family to survive a car accident.  She finds out once she arrives there that every single person at the orphanage has magic – except apparently her.  The orphanage – Oakhurst Academy, is run like a private school for the very rich, with the added curriculum of learning to defend yourself, both physically and with magic, against evil mages who could attack at any minute.

It doesn’t contain as much of Lackey’s signature ironic humour as I would like, but it has enough of it to make reading it enjoyable, and smarter than many teen series, since the kids in it don’t just swallow down everything they’re told and do some of their own investigating.  Like a magical Nancy Drew.

 

Target: 13+ (again, I mean the plus)

Kelley Armstrong is always a really fun read.  I loved her Women of the Otherworld series, I am impatiently waiting for the sequel to Omens to come out, and so I was delighted when this arrived, if for no other reason than I think the cover will be my next tattoo.

A really solid, epic fantasy,  twin sisters Moria and Ashyn live on the edge of the Forest of the Dead, where the worst criminals are exiled.  Moria and Ashyn are the Keeper and the Seeker – charged with keeping the souls of the damned quiet – no easy task.  This year, the souls will not be quieted – and a great evil ambushes the girls, separating them from eachother and their home, the beginning of their quest to find eachother again, and warn the emperor of what is awakening.

This is book one – I really need to cut down on the number of series I’m reading.  Or only read series that are finished.  Haha, like that’s going to happen.  Sigh.

Oh, and as a bonus for you guys, right now I’m reading Warslayer, by Rosemary Edghill, which is a FREE download on Kobo.  Imagine Lucy Lawless getting kidnapped by aliens who think she’s actually Xena and will save them all.  It’s silly fun, and perfect for the patio and a cold drink.

Happy summer reading!

Christie

There’s A Duck On My Pancake!

One of the greatest benefits to working in a bookstore is the amazing and eccentric coworkers.  Today, one of my coworkers wrote a poem based on my incredulity at the cover of Toronto Life Magazine – A photo of duck and blueberry pancakes, which my mind won’t process.  Here is the poem:

There once was a duck

Who ran into some bad luck

When I drenched her in maple syrup.

There’s a duck on my pancake!

What a surprise!

I was only expecting a side order of fries!!

 

I love my job so much.

 

Christie

 

Poem credit to Alisha Fournier 😉

I’m Baaaack

Having apocalyptic weather pretty much creates reading time, since it’s a leisure activity you can do without power or heat.   I’ve read a few great books of varying genres, which have helped me keep what little sanity I have left.

I love, love Alan Bradley’s character, Flavia De Luce. If you haven’t started this wonderful mystery series, do so now.  A young chemist whose passion is poison, an old estate, and a series of dead people make for beautifully written, highly addictive books.  The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie is the first one.  The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches is the most recent, and just as great as the first, which doesn’t always happen.

The Impossible Knife of Memory is a YA title, but definitely isn’t just for teens.  Hayley Kincaid has been on the road with her truck-driver father for years.  They have returned to their hometown so Hayley can attend high school.  Her father, Andy, is struggling with steadily worsening PTSD, a legacy of his service in Iraq.  Hayley is taking care of her father, while hiding the truth of his condition from everyone else, trying to preserve their independence.

A wonderful, wonderful story, funny and sad and dead on.

I have been re-reading the Chronicles of Elantra series, by Michelle Sagara.  A combination of epic fantasy and police procedural, this is one of my favorite fantasy series, and I own every single one.  Michelle Sagara West is a fellow book-seller and Torontonian (Bakka Phoenix, you should visit it if you’re in town), so I feel happy supporting her.  She also writes as Michelle West.

More soon, and happy (non-apocalyptic) reading.

Christie

 

One Hour With Roberta Rich

I was very excited (and nervous) about this meeting with Roberta Rich.  I love meeting people, especially authors, but one on one is a bit intimidating.  I still feel like I’m pretending to be a writer, as a blogger, and this lady is definitely the real thing.  Would I think of good questions?  Would I remember to let her talk (once you get me going, duct tape is occasionally necessary, particularly on the topic of books)? Thankfully, even if I had no idea what I was doing, she definitely did.

I brought up her former law career, and the fact that most lawyer/writer transitions ended up with legal thrillers.  Instead, she went with a midwife in 16th century Venice.

RR: There is a bit of legal… there’s a bit of Jewish law in The Harem Midwife.  You know, when I started writing, I was writing mystery stories, contemporary mystery stories, and I was writing… those were about a divorce lawyer in Vancouver.  Those are still in my filing cabinet, and have yet to see the light of day.  And in 2007 I was in Venice and I was in the Jewish ghetto and I was quite transfixed by it, and had the idea for a novel that was set in the ghetto.  I kind of wrote the novel that I wished had been available for me to read, because there are no novels that are set in the Jewish ghetto except for mine… It is a rich environment and I was quite surprised that I didn’t find anything.  This is a gap.  This was definitely a gap.

I told her I liked how she presented the conflict between morals and law, in both books.  Hannah, the midwife in question, keeps coming up against the laws of the country, the good of her family and community, and having to balance them against her moral duty, her ability to help people.   Should she do nothing, in order to protect herself and her family and community, or should she help when able?  Particularly at the time these books are set, as a member of the Jewish community a wrong action on her part could set off retribution against everyone Jewish. This is still relevant today, that conflict between what is legally right, and what is morally right.  That need to be aware of your effect not just on your own sense of right and wrong, but how your actions could potentially, for good or ill, affect everyone around you, particularly in this age of social media and instant fame.

Which, of course, us being in Toronto, brought up Rob Ford.

RR: It’s very hard to turn around these days without seeing Rob Ford’s (unflattering mutter) face everywhere you go.  He’s shameless, really, isn’t he and there are people who think it’s okay! We don’t want an average guy running a city. We want superior guys, right?

Exactly, Roberta.  Can we get her on the voter’s list, somehow?

So, back to the books.  I told her I had been up ridiculously late reading her books, had, in fact, read them back to back.

RR: Did you read them in sequence?

BP: There are people who read books out of sequence? But yes.

And then she asked me which one I preferred.  All of a sudden, I felt like I was being asked to tell a mother which one of her children I liked better.  Um…

So told her that I preferred The Midwife of Venice, because her descriptions were so vivid, I felt like I was right there.  The Harem Midwife was also excellent, but was a little more plot focused, with a little less character development.  In The Midwife of Venice, I felt immersed, I could see the sights, smell the smells.

RR: Well, I hadn’t really considered writing a sequel, I must say, to The Midwife of Venice, and I was quite bowled by the success of The Midwife of Venice, delighted of course, and Random House offered me a two book contract. So then, of course, I had to apply my mind to what I was going to write. So I wanted to write a sequel and the logical place was Istanbul, Constantinople, and I had been there several times, and so I was very happy at the prospect of doing research.  So, I was there, and I had been there years and years ago, and then I went back with my husband, we were there for two weeks, and then we went back the following year, and we travelled to Istanbul and various other places in Turkey. It’s a very interesting country.”

BP: One of the reasons I really enjoyed your books is because it’s funny, you think that all that stuff is in the past, but it’s not as in the past… as we would like to believe. Like polygamy.

RR: Polygamy is an interesting topic for me. The idea of the levirate marriage, for example.  I was talking at a book club in Toronto last year, about the idea of a levirate marriage, and a woman at the book club, who was Muslim, and her family was from India, said that that had happened in her family. So, levirate marriage, which happened five hundred years ago in my book, is something that happens in modern life.  There are… so called “honour killings.” It’s a terrible name for it, it’s a dishonour, not an honour killing.

I told her about the hymen repair surgery specialist in Toronto (Do you think it’s too late for me?” she snickered). The idea of virginity being a vital commodity is raised more than once, particularly in The Harem Midwife.

RR: I’ve spoken to a couple of doctors about this. There is no real way to tell from examining a woman whether she is a virgin or not. Girls that are sporty and athletic probably don’t have hymens that are intact. It’s not a thing that you could tell.  When you see women as property, it suddenly becomes very important.

We moved on to the book business. Amazon (my nemesis) was a topic of conversation.

RR: Amazon is really selling at a loss, they don’t care what they sell their books for. There have been a number of articles about Amazon recently, and their labour policies, which are nasty, nasty.  They’re paying some kids minimum wage to work in these vast warehouses, they’re under the gun, time-wise, they’re – I couldn’t believe this when I read it – the one in Arizona is not air conditioned.  That’s a serious problem in a place like Arizona.  These kids are running around, running around, running around… they have a beeper that tells them how long it should take them to get to a particular stack of books, get a book, and put it in a box, and if they don’t make that, that time limit, they get beeped! I think that would make me crazy.

I mentioned Chapters Runnymede’s imminent closing, and recommended she visit  She expressed disgust at it being turned into a drug store. “Oh god, oh that’s so depressing. ” were her exact words.  Right there with you, Roberta.

RR:   I thought, two years ago (I don’t really know anything about the business from before two years ago) I thought e-books were going to take over, take over, take over.  And it was twenty percent then and it’s forty percent now but I think, it seems as though it’s going to continue at forty percent.  People like holding a book in their hands.  And it’s not just people my age. It’s also young people.  With social media… I often wonder how much information… well, there’s a tremendous amount of information about me, I’m sure.  For anybody who’s interested in finding it out. But, we’ve sacrificed privacy for convenience, haven’t we? That’s the trade-off that most of us have made, myself included.

I recognize the irony that this article is being shared on at least three different types of social media.

I gave her, as a souvenir of Toronto, a maple bacon chocolate bar, which considering that they’ve been making maple-bacon flavoured everything here the last while, including a burger at the Ex, seemed quite apt.  She did a credible imitation of being glad to get it, which I hope she was, but you know, not everyone thinks maple bacon chocolate sounds wonderful.   We chatted about Toronto, and its historical buildings, and from the window I pointed out the church spire that used to be Toronto’s tallest structure.  She said she thought that Toronto had done a better job of maintaining its history than Vancouver (her hometown), and was enjoying her visit greatly.  She was staying with a friend in Toronto’s Cabbagetown area, and had determined that if she ever lived in Toronto, that is where she would live.

She had a quick glance at my web site, and thought it was hilarious that the first article that popped up was the one about copies of Fifty Shades of Grey in the library having herpes virus.  She teased me that I was supposed to be encouraging reading, wasn’t I? I said Fifty Shades was an exception to that rule.   She said she read the first chapter, it was available as a free download, and thought it was boring, and the heroine insipid.  She’d had people tell her, a hairdresser, for example, that it had just aroused them incredibly, which she found laughable.  “It obviously doesn’t take much to arouse them, does it?”  Did I tell you I love this woman?

We parted after an hour.  I thoroughly enjoyed the interview.  She headed off for lunch, and I headed home, very impressed.  Roberta Rich is a hell of a woman, and a hell of an author, and you should go buy her books.

Happy reading – and thinking!

Christie

An Hour With Roberta Rich

I was very excited (and nervous) about this meeting with Roberta Rich.  I love meeting people, especially authors, but one on one is a bit intimidating.  I still feel like I’m pretending to be a writer, as a blogger, and this lady is definitely the real thing.  Would I think of good questions?  Would I remember to let her talk (once you get me going, duct tape is occasionally necessary, particularly on the topic of books)? Thankfully, even if I had no idea what I was doing, she definitely did.

I brought up her former law career, and the fact that most lawyer/writer transitions ended up with legal thrillers.  Instead, she went with a midwife in 16th century Venice.

RR: There is a bit of legal… there’s a bit of Jewish law in The Harem Midwife.  You know, when I started writing, I was writing mystery stories, contemporary mystery stories, and I was writing… those were about a divorce lawyer in Vancouver.  Those are still in my filing cabinet, and have yet to see the light of day.  And in 2007 I was in Venice and I was in the Jewish ghetto and I was quite transfixed by it, and had the idea for a novel that was set in the ghetto.  I kind of wrote the novel that I wished had been available for me to read, because there are no novels that are set in the Jewish ghetto except for mine… It is a rich environment and I was quite surprised that I didn’t find anything.  This is a gap.  This was definitely a gap.

I told her I liked how she presented the conflict between morals and law, in both books.  Hannah, the midwife in question, keeps coming up against the laws of the country, the good of her family and community, and having to balance them against her moral duty, her ability to help people.   Should she do nothing, in order to protect herself and her family and community, or should she help when able?  Particularly at the time these books are set, as a member of the Jewish community a wrong action on her part could set off retribution against everyone Jewish. This is still relevant today, that conflict between what is legally right, and what is morally right.  That need to be aware of your effect not just on your own sense of right and wrong, but how your actions could potentially, for good or ill, affect everyone around you, particularly in this age of social media and instant fame.

Which, of course, us being in Toronto, brought up Rob Ford.

RR: It’s very hard to turn around these days without seeing Rob Ford’s (unflattering mutter) face everywhere you go.  He’s shameless, really, isn’t he and there are people who think it’s okay! We don’t want an average guy running a city. We want superior guys, right?

Exactly, Roberta.  Can we get her on the voter’s list, somehow?

So, back to the books.  I told her I had been up ridiculously late reading her books, had, in fact, read them back to back.

RR: Did you read them in sequence?

BP: There are people who read books out of sequence? But yes.

And then she asked me which one I preferred.  All of a sudden, I felt like I was being asked to tell a mother which one of her children I liked better.  Um…

So told her that I preferred The Midwife of Venice, because her descriptions were so vivid, I felt like I was right there.  The Harem Midwife was also excellent, but was a little more plot focused, with a little less character development.  In The Midwife of Venice, I felt immersed, I could see the sights, smell the smells.

RR: Well, I hadn’t really considered writing a sequel, I must say, to The Midwife of Venice, and I was quite bowled by the success of The Midwife of Venice, delighted of course, and Random House offered me a two book contract. So then, of course, I had to apply my mind to what I was going to write. So I wanted to write a sequel and the logical place was Istanbul, Constantinople, and I had been there several times, and so I was very happy at the prospect of doing research.  So, I was there, and I had been there years and years ago, and then I went back with my husband, we were there for two weeks, and then we went back the following year, and we travelled to Istanbul and various other places in Turkey. It’s a very interesting country.”

BP: One of the reasons I really enjoyed your books is because it’s funny, you think that all that stuff is in the past, but it’s not as in the past… as we would like to believe. Like polygamy.

RR: Polygamy is an interesting topic for me. The idea of the levirate marriage, for example.  I was talking at a book club in Toronto last year, about the idea of a levirate marriage, and a woman at the book club, who was Muslim, and her family was from India, said that that had happened in her family. So, levirate marriage, which happened five hundred years ago in my book, is something that happens in modern life.  There are… so called “honour killings.” It’s a terrible name for it, it’s a dishonour, not an honour killing.

I told her about the hymen repair surgery specialist in Toronto (Do you think it’s too late for me?” she snickered). The idea of virginity being a vital commodity is raised more than once, particularly in The Harem Midwife.

RR: I’ve spoken to a couple of doctors about this. There is no real way to tell from examining a woman whether she is a virgin or not. Girls that are sporty and athletic probably don’t have hymens that are intact. It’s not a thing that you could tell.  When you see women as property, it suddenly becomes very important.

We moved on to the book business. Amazon (my nemesis) was a topic of conversation.

RR: Amazon is really selling at a loss, they don’t care what they sell their books for. There have been a number of articles about Amazon recently, and their labour policies, which are nasty, nasty.  They’re paying some kids minimum wage to work in these vast warehouses, they’re under the gun, time-wise, they’re – I couldn’t believe this when I read it – the one in Arizona is not air conditioned.  That’s a serious problem in a place like Arizona.  These kids are running around, running around, running around… they have a beeper that tells them how long it should take them to get to a particular stack of books, get a book, and put it in a box, and if they don’t make that, that time limit, they get beeped! I think that would make me crazy.

I mentioned Chapters Runnymede’s imminent closing, and recommended she visit  She expressed disgust at it being turned into a drug store. “Oh god, oh that’s so depressing. ” were her exact words.  Right there with you, Roberta.

RR:   I thought, two years ago (I don’t really know anything about the business from before two years ago) I thought e-books were going to take over, take over, take over.  And it was twenty percent then and it’s forty percent now but I think, it seems as though it’s going to continue at forty percent.  People like holding a book in their hands.  And it’s not just people my age. It’s also young people.  With social media… I often wonder how much information… well, there’s a tremendous amount of information about me, I’m sure.  For anybody who’s interested in finding it out. But, we’ve sacrificed privacy for convenience, haven’t we? That’s the trade-off that most of us have made, myself included.

I recognize the irony that this article is being shared on at least three different types of social media.

I gave her, as a souvenir of Toronto, a maple bacon chocolate bar, which considering that they’ve been making maple-bacon flavoured everything here the last while, including a burger at the Ex, seemed quite apt.  She did a credible imitation of being glad to get it, which I hope she was, but you know, not everyone thinks maple bacon chocolate sounds wonderful.   We chatted about Toronto, and its historical buildings, and from the window I pointed out the church spire that used to be Toronto’s tallest structure.  She said she thought that Toronto had done a better job of maintaining its history than Vancouver (her hometown), and was enjoying her visit greatly.  She was staying with a friend in Toronto’s Cabbagetown area, and had determined that if she ever lived in Toronto, that is where she would live.

She had a quick glance at my web site, and thought it was hilarious that the first article that popped up was the one about copies of Fifty Shades of Grey in the library having herpes virus.  She teased me that I was supposed to be encouraging reading, wasn’t I? I said Fifty Shades was an exception to that rule.   She said she read the first chapter, it was available as a free download, and thought it was boring, and the heroine insipid.  She’d had people tell her, a hairdresser, for example, that it had just aroused them incredibly, which she found laughable.  “It obviously doesn’t take much to arouse them, does it?”  Did I tell you I love this woman?

We parted after an hour.  I thoroughly enjoyed the interview.  She headed off for lunch, and I headed home, very impressed.  Roberta Rich is a hell of a woman, and a hell of an author, and you should go buy her books.

Happy reading – and thinking!

Christie

Meeting Chris Hadfield

Now, before you get too excited, I met Chris Hadfield for all of twenty seconds, most of which were because I brought five copies of his book for him to sign.  I do love Chris Hadfield, and think that he is possibly the coolest person ever, as an astronaut/musician/photographer/pilot/father… the list goes on.  The reason I went to see him, and get the books signed, was far more important, however.

I have an eight-year-old daughter who wants, with all her tiny being, to be an astronaut.  I don’t mean in a “maybe a fairy princess or a doctor or an astronaut” kind of way.  I mean in an “I will go into the air force and get them to pay for my engineering degree at university and then start training for Mars” kind of way.  And what made her really, really excited about space was me sharing Chris Hadfield’s posts on facebook, videos, science experiments, music.  She realized that she could be an astronaut who loved music.  Or maybe a musician who loved space.  So when I heard Chris Hadfield was going to be signing his brand-new book in Toronto, it wasn’t even a question, we were going.  Sadly, my older daughter was feeling very ill, so she couldn’t come with us.  We promised pictures, and headed downtown.

We got there early, and boy it’s a good thing we did.  The Indigo store hosting the signing was huge, two floors, and by the time Chris Hadfield was going to speak, the line took up two floors too.  Kudos, by the way, to the Indigo events staff and the marketing guys from Random House, for doing an incredible job of managing a huge, huge crowd of people and making that line go faster than I thought possible. The line snaked through the shelves, and we passed the time chatting with other people in line, and looking at the books on the shelves.  Boy, if you have to wait, a bookstore is a great place to do it.  My daughter bonded with the woman directly behind us in line when she revealed that she had the Star Finder app on her smart phone, and they passed the time together gleefully looking for favorite constellations.  Geek heaven.  The only truly awkward moment was when the line stalled in front of the sex books, and I thought I was going to have to do a lot of awkward explaining of titles and covers.  Thankfully, I managed to direct her eyes elsewhere for just long enough.

Heather Reisman, Indigo’s CEO, interviewed Chris Hadfield (she calls herself Chief Booklover and I want her job), and she could have been a TV host to rival Barbara Walters, so skillfully did she guide the talk.  She invited the kids in front up to the stage so they could see.  She asked him the question she knew everyone was wondering, which is “How the heck do you pee up there?”  And she managed to corner him into admitting that Canada needed better science and tech funding, particularly for space exploration.  I’m also fairly sure she volunteered him for Prime Minister, which I would happily get behind.

Chris Hadfield is remarkably down-to-earth (ha ha) for someone who has become an international icon.  He credited his wife and family with the inspiration for putting so much of his space life on social media, and was modest about his accomplishments, attributing them to always aiming his life in the direction of readiness, just in case the call to be an astronaut ever came.  When he described waiting to find out whether he had been accepted for Canada’s space program… I think the entire audience held our breaths and waited for that phone call with him.

That is what his book is like, too.  Warm, humble, and you are rooting for him the whole time.  There are unbelievable stories, and excellent wisdom and advice from someone who managed to get hold of his impossible dream, and then share it with the world.  I am reading it with my daughter.  It is one of the coolest things we have ever done together.

I don’t know what we’ll do to top that night, though.  The night Chris Hadfield said to her “Go.  Be an astronaut.”

Wow.  It may have only been a few seconds, but it was an important few seconds.  My daughter’s hero just told her to live her dream.

Happy dreaming.

Christie

P.S. This is the fun display I made of his book:

One Of The World’s Most Beautiful Bookstores is Closing

It’s the final curtain for the iconic Chapters bookstore in Toronto, often in the top ten lists of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.

There was a lot of controversy when Chapters bought the old Runnymede theatre, but instead of bulldozing it they renovated it, restoring the building to its former glory and creating a shopping experience beyond belief. I published a blog post a long time ago, wishing I could work there, since a supposedly haunted bookstore in an old theatre sounds straight out of a Nancy Drew novel.

The reason it’s closing, however, makes me pretty damned angry.  I refer you to this article by Lisa Rainford, Torstar News:

“It’s a great store that’s served the neighbourhood incredibly well,” said Drew McGowen, vice-president of real estate and development at Chapters Indigo. “We’re at the end of our lease and the landlord can get far, far more money than we are able to pay.”

Since its opening in November 1999, Toronto’s commercial and housing real estate market has experienced “such a boom,” McGowen said. Chapters must vacate the premises by March 31, 2014, however, McGowen could not confirm when the store would be closed to the public. As for its employees, they have been notified and all will be relocated to other stores, he said.

“I want to offer our greatest, greatest thank you for your loyalty,” McGowen said, speaking to Chapters’ customers. “We hope you’ll stay with us as our customer even though we’re moving out of that immediate market. We hope you’ll still shop with us.”

McGowen called the store “an icon.” Its architecture and heritage “goes hand-and-hand with a bookstore.”

“The neighbourhood is so fantastic. It’s a store that has little to no parking, but people walk to it all the time. They’re so loyal,” he said.

He said he suspects the store won’t close quietly. Not if local resident and frequent Chapters customer Gwen O’Connell, who has lived in the Bloor West Village for 27 years, has her way.

“It’s really sad for the community,” said O’Connell, who knows some of the local Chapters employees. “It’s a historical building and (Chapters) maintained its dignity and history. It’ll be extremely sad to see it go.”

People from all walks of life rely on Chapters as a community hub, O’Connell said.

“It’s an integral part of our neighbourhood,” she said, recalling a recent visit by acclaimed local boxer George Chuvalo, who attracted as many as 200 people to the store for a signing of his new book, ‘Chuvalo: A Fighter’s Life: The Story Of Boxing’s Last Gladiator.’

Parkdale-High Park Councillor Sarah Doucette had just been informed of the news. If Chapters does indeed vacate the property, the councillor said she would hope that any new tenant would maintain the interior of the former theatre. Its exterior is protected by a heritage designation, she said.

According to rumblings in the neighbourhood, O’Connell said she’s heard a large-scale pharmacy is looking to relocated to the building.

In 1999, Chapters redeveloped the old theatre, the “Runny” as it was affectionately called, into a bookstore while keeping the cinema’s atmospheric interior intact. Built in June, 1927, the vaudeville theatre – designed to transport patrons to exotic places – was the first of its kind in Toronto. Designed by Alfred Chapman, it was known for its music and stage shows and could seat as many as 1,400 people. The ceiling was painted to depict a blue sky with puffy clouds; its complex lighting system projected a starry night and airplanes.

The atmospheric-style theatre is one of only three left in Canada.

So, there you have it.  It’s being closed because of the property owner’s greed.  Visit while you can, because the interior does not have to be left intact by the new tenant.  I honestly can’t imagine how a pharmacy would manage to do the beautiful space justice.

As a side note, don’t forget to submit your questions for my interview with Roberta Rich! The most interesting ones will be used.  You can post to my blog, contact me via my Twitter account @Bibliophiliacs , or the Bibliophiliacs facebook page.