February 4, 2009
Good Egg
We maintain a list at our house of small businesses unlikely to weather the economic downturn well. Already, the pillow shop on Queen Street has gone out of business, and I don’t have high hopes for organic dog bakeries and fromageries. Though that our local tea boutique is flourishing means that Good Egg might stand a chance. At least, I really, really hope it does, because I liked the place a lot.
Another bookstore in Kensingston Market, and that this one specializes in cookbooks is only half the story. They’ve got display tables crowded with kitchen stuff, all your heart so desires but doesn’t especially need, which does nothing to negate that desire– perhaps I should have that ninth teapot. And though usually I’d think twice about any store that sells books and gifts together, Good Egg has selected their books with such obvious care that I really can’t help but forgive them.
The books take up about half the store, and aren’t just cookbooks, but food books, and all varieties of food books. Their children’s section is lovely, stocked with food-themed books for babies and up (I spotted Green Eggs and Ham, The Carrot Seed, The Giving Tree, though there were plenty more), as well as non-food books that are just delicious. Similarly are non-food books for adults stuck in amongst the other shelves, though I got the feeling that if I thought about them hard enough, I could discern how they might fit in with motif. Fiction fascinatingly scattered in the manner of a treasure trove around cookbooks from all over the world, food essays, chef bios, books on agriculture, and the Omnivore’s Dilemma. Every shelf yielding a surprise– an etiquette section, India Knight’s new book on thrift, a book on the art of letter writing, as well as numerous crafty delights.
The whole effect sounds a bit kitschy, but there was substance to it. (Oh, and aren’t Tessa Kiros’ cookbooks the most beautiful in the world?) Every single book in Good Egg had been selected so deliberately, arranged so artfully, and the entire place was a delight to explore just like every good bookstore should be.
January 10, 2009
New (Canada Reads) Books!!
I really believe that Ben McNally couldn’t have picked a better location for his bookshop than right next door to the building where my husband works. And I am very grateful for a husband kind enough to pick up the Canada Reads stack on his lunch break, just because I can’t wait another day for them. Four new books (because I owned Mercy Among the Children already)!! A couple of which I’d never have picked up otherwise, due to a variety of literary prejudices that I’m pleased to be challenging in the coming weeks. And unlike my usual reviews (where I only write about the books I like enough to do so) I’ll be reading with a critical eye, and ranking these five picks to find a winner. Then I’m looking forward to seeing how my opinion compares to the official panelists’, and to opinion at large.
June 24, 2008
Bookish Happenings
I visited This Ain’t the Rosedale Public Library this weekend at their new location in Kensington Market. Which was my first time at This Ain’t… altogether, actually, so I’ve nothing to compare it to, but I was impressed. A great selection of journals and magazines, and shelves and shelves of bookish spines. I bought Girls Fall Down by Maggie Hellwig, because all the reviews I’ve read have intrigued me, and because I love the quality of Coach House books.
In other bookish news, I am beyond excited to discover that my favourite poet has a new book forthcoming: Jennica Harper’s What It Feels Like For a Girl is out in September by Anvil Press.
May 10, 2008
Fiery First Fiction
Oooooh– Fiery First Fiction! A fantastic promotion by the Literary Press Group. Events are being held across the country, and I’m looking forward to attending Monday night’s in Toronto at Supermarket. FFF is promoting 14 first novels published by Canadian small presses. Buy one at participating independent bookstores and get a free durable book bag– I just got mine, and durable IS the word. I love it. Though I could only get one book today (I am trying to curb book buying habits to no more than one daily) so I selected Things Go Flying by Shari Lapeña. And yes, I chose it by its cover, but I think I’m on to something good.
I was at the bookshop with my friend Bronwyn, which has always been one of my favourite experiences. She’d also brought her spare copy of Rebecca to pass along to me, so it’s been an evening of fine new acquisitions.
February 12, 2008
Monday Monday
Another wonderful day, and our faces are sun-kissed. Sea food, sea cruise, sea lions, sea air. City Lights was exceptional. We got Hobart (with a story by Stephany Aulenback), Twilight of the Superheroes, San Francisco Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Stuart got The Maltese Falcon for a bit more local flavour.
February 2, 2008
Specific Requirements
Well done, Type Books! We went down there this afternoon (and Trinity Bellwoods Park was winter wonderland, though my right boot sprung a leak in the slush [bollocks]), with very specific requirements, and they satisfied every one of them. Plus they’ve started stocking Miffy. (The girl who worked there said she was the buyer and they’ve always been stocking Miffy, which is absolutely untrue, but I didn’t question her authority). Anyway, enough with the brackets.
Specific requirements: we got When You Were Small for the baby we’re going to visit in California– whose name is Henry, like the boy in the book. We bought Townhouse for his mom. And then, of course, just because I was there, as soon as I saw the hard-to-find Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk, I had to have it. Brilliant!
December 6, 2007
Parentbooks Contest
Though I’m not a parent, the Toronto bookshop Parentbooks still has much to offer. In addition to their specialty books, they’ve got a lovely little kids book section (Corduroy! Be still my heart!) and they’re running an Olivia promotion. Stop in (on Harbord, just west of Bathurst) to enter to win a marvelous basket of Olivia tricks. Contest closes December 14th.
