Browsing “Vancouver Book Club”

	blank Wherein we look at some of the local books that have been published this year and give you some ideas of what to get your book-loving friends and family for Hanukkah, Solstice, Festivus, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or just because it’s a day ending with “y”.
	Don’t forget to support your local independent bookstores!

V6A – Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
edited by John Mikhail Asfour and Elee Kraljii Gardiner
Arsenal Pulp Press

Over the past few years there has been a quiet revolution happening in the Downtown Eastside. While much of the media and many outsiders focus on the negative aspects of the neighbourhood, a growing number of residents have been honing their craft in the large number of writing workshops that take place regularly. And many have pushed past the need to “find a voice” and now see their writing practice as an integral part of their daily lives.

Earlier this year saw the publication of the latest collection to come out of the community, V6A – Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an anthology of poetry, prose and essays from 32 writers, all of whom have been part of the Downtown Eastside community in some way. Some writers will be unfamiliar to many. Some, such as Stephen Lytton, Antonette Rea, Don Larson, and Patrick Foley, are well-known in the community as activists and performers and teachers. And then there are those whose names are known beyond the boundaries of Cambie, Terminal, and Clark, writers such as Wayde Compton, Cathleen With, Madeleine Thien, Michael Turner and Daniel Zomparelli. No matter where they are on the writing continuum, all the contributors share a passion for their work and the community. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

	blankWherein we look at some of the local books that have been published this year and give you some ideas of what to get your book-loving friends and family for Hanukkah, Solstice, Festivus, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or just because it’s a day ending with “y”.
	Don’t forget to support your local independent bookstores!

Had a Glass 2013
by James Nevison
Random House
also available as an ebook

You should buy at least two copies of this book: one to give away and one to keep for yourself to aid you in future gift giving (and wine drinking). This compact guide not only lists top 100 wines under $100, it is full of tips on how to buy wine, how to taste wine, and how to pair wine with food. It is a guide for everyday wine enjoyment.

Vancouver author James Nevison is an award-winning wine writer and educator, and has judged wine competitions in Canada and internationally. He has co-authored five best-selling wine books, contributes regularly to Taste and other publications,  and his column “The Wine Guy” can be found every Thursday in The Province. Western Living magazine named him one of the “Top 40 Foodies Under 40.” …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

	blank Wherein we look at some of the local books that have been published this year and give you some ideas of what to get your book-loving friends and family for Hanukkah, Solstice, Festivus, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or just because it’s a day ending with “y”.
	Don’t forget to support your local independent bookstores!

111 West Coast Literary Portraits
Photographs by Barry Peterson and Blaise Enright
Text by BC Authors
Introduction by Alan Twigg
Mother Tongue Publishing 2012

Fourteen years in the making, this beautiful book of photographs by Barry Peterson and Blaise Enright celebrates 115 emerging, mid-career and well-known BC writers. Taken in their subjects’ personal spaces, these intimate portraits showcase the range and diversity of the talented writers who call British Columbia home. In his introduction, Alan Twigg comments that this “representative panorama – reflects and celebrates a golden era of literary expansion and cultural expression prior to the invasion of big-box stores, the ballyhooed onset of ebooks and the necessity of authors to turn themselves into self-reverential bloggers.”

The photographs were shot on film, using a Hasselblad, and the film was then hand processed before Peterson printed the selected images himself on archival fibre-based paper. This slow, careful process mirrors that of the writers themselves, crafting their words in a way that often defies haste. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

A Good Book Drive is an annual book drive to bring stories to a new generation of readers, and support kids in need of new books. Running through the month of November, A Good Book Drive will be inspiring Vancouverites to purchase a new copy of their favorite kids’ book and deliver it to set locations throughout the city to be donated to this year’s book drive recipient, Vancouver literacy program The Writers Exchange. A Good Book Drive has teamed up with a great group of independent Vancouver retailers that will each house a Good Book Box. Here you can drop off your favorite kids book and personalize your donation with a special bookplate, sharing the story of why that book is special to you.

Darren Lee, City of Vancouver, donated Clifford the Big Red Dog written and illustrated by Norman Bridwell. Bridwell said when he was creating the original painting of Clifford he happened to have a jar of red paint on his desk and decided to “make him a little different.”

Darren shares the story of the compassionate Grade 1 school teacher that inspired his favorite book donation.

Learn more about the project and where to donate by visiting agoodbookdrive.com and follow on Twitter and Facebook.

A Good Book Drive is an annual book drive to bring stories to a new generation of readers, and support kids in need of new books. Running through the month of November, A Good Book Drive will be inspiring Vancouverites to purchase a new copy of their favorite kids’ book and deliver it to set locations throughout the city to be donated to this year’s book drive recipient, Vancouver literacy program The Writers Exchange. A Good Book Drive has teamed up with a great group of independent Vancouver retailers that will each house a Good Book Box. Here you can drop off your favorite kids book and personalize your donation with a special bookplate, sharing the story of why that book is special to you.

Michael Eckford, host of The Rush on Shaw TV and Rock 101, donated three books that share the common theme of adventure, exploring the world, and self discovery. Cory Ashworth, co-founder of A Good Book Drive, joined Mike on his TV show “The Rush with Mike and Fiona” to talk all things books. Watch here.

Mike tells us how Little House on the Prairie came into his life and why it had such a lasting impression on him.

Learn more about the project and where to donate by visiting agoodbookdrive.com and follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Words: Charles Demers

Somewhere at the crossroads of ‘Vancouver is Awesome’ and ‘Vancouver was Awesome’ sits the oldest bookstore in the city: the People’s Co-Op Bookstore, established in 1945 and still in operation — though, like many in book retail, facing challenging times. But this Sunday, December 2nd, starting at 5pm, the store (at 1391 Commercial Drive) will host its 2nd Annual mixing-and-mingling-and-shopping holiday open house party, with extended shopping hours, refreshments, and, most importantly, dozens of the cities most celebrated authors in attendance, including Kevin Chong, Grant Lawrence, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Michael Turner, Caroline Adderson, and two-time Governor General’s Award winner and former Poet Laureate of Canada, George Bowering.

“I went last year and enjoyed the company,” says Bowering. “I am hoping there are pickled onions again. That’s all I ate last year.” (For the record, in addition to pickled onions, more traditional holiday treats will also be on offer.)

Still owned by its members, the store was founded after WWII by a range of community and labour activists, including the Communist Party. Yes, that’s right (or… left). The East Side institution was a long-standing attraction for Russophiles and book-lovers, even if, in recent years, the store’s emphasis has shifted to literary works alongside a broad range of progressive political writing.

“[The store] is (in its former location) where I bought a record of Yuri Gagarin speaking from space. I used to buy a lot of inexpensive Russian books there. Now I find books I didn’t know about but want to buy,” explains Bowering.

“I’ll be there because writers mingle like nobody’s business,” says poet, essayist, historian and fiction writer Wayde Compton. “And People’s Co-op is a crucial site of a kind of knowledge that can’t be had in any other way — the knowledge that comes from a physical book.”

Like last year’s party, this year’s festivities will be a great chance to not only meet your favourite local writers and get all your holiday shopping done, but to support an important piece of Vancouver’s history as well as its contemporary literary scene.

“People’s Co-op is special to me,” says Compton, “because they have never, to my knowledge, sold a single scented candle.” With your help they won’t have to.

The bookstore is at 1391 Commercial Drive; the party starts at 5pm.

Charles Demers is a Vancouver comedian, author, and activist, and is a volunteer board member of the People’s Co-Op Bookstore.