August 11, 2026
Lighthouse Books is a Lighthouse
It’s been ten years since the first time we turned up at Lighthouse Books in Brighton, ON, totally by accident (I swear!), on the tail end of a weekend of camping at Presqu’ile Provincial Park, completely unaware that there was a wonderful bookstore in town. But we were fast besotted and have returned almost every year since, even in 2020 when Kathryn was selling books at a table at the door and we were all wearing masks, and she recognized me even incognito, which is just one of the reasons why Kathryn is such a wonderful bookseller. (Seriously. Who knows the name of a customer who makes one annual visit??)
The other reason is Kathryn’s taste in her books, and her focus on Canadian titles, and her highlighting of regional picks. Lighthouse Books is just such a lighthouse, really, and I was so happy for the chance to sign copies of my novel there, and to see #DefinitelyThriving on the featured Canadians shelf in such excellent company.
And then everybody in my family went to pick out one book each, except that most us chose two. I love that I have customer accounts at bookstores all across Ontario, and had acquired enough points at Lighthouse Books to save $15.00 on our latest purchase—who says that publishing is not an economically lucrative endeavour?!?
PS I might have forgotten about our first trip to Lighthouse Books ten years ago and that I’d written an entirely blog post about it, except that Kathryn had printed out that post and it’s been on display in the bookshop ever since!
