Today is Book Lovers Day, which means you get to shout your love of books from the rooftops (well, not really but you do you)!
We all have different dating styles, and we’ve got the perfect book based on what your idea of the perfect date is. Love holding hands while out in nature? Or would you rather snuggle on the couch enjoying a movie and dessert? We’ve got just the book to match your romantic vibe.
Join us as we crush over the latest that BC books have to offer.
Between the Bell Struck and the Silence by Pamela Porter (Caitlin Press)
Enjoy taking your date out to museums and art galleries to revel in the beauty of art? You’ll also enjoy this profound offering that delves into the essence of what it means to be an artist and to experience the striking state of being alive, with all of its joys and sorrows.
In this poetry collection, Pamela Porter skillfully reimagines familiar emotions: joy, loss, and healing are made new through descriptions of the flight of music, the spirits that dance between dusk and dawn, the blessings of coyotes and chickadees. Themes of Christian theology and the life and work of Van Gogh are woven throughout this rich tapestry of philosophical exploration and the healing powers of art. With this introspective collection, Porter invites a generous appreciation for the world and life itself.
Out now!
Escape to Clayoquot Sound: Finding Home in a Wild Place by John Dowd and Bea Dowd (Heritage House Publishing)
Do you dream about running away together and living life off the grid, away from the daily grinds and instead immersed in nature with all its charms and challenges? This book might just become your guide.
Twenty years ago, two empty-nesters with a love of the outdoors stumbled upon a vacant beach house on a small island in Clayoquot Sound, part of an off-grid, ten-acre stretch nestled within a provincial park reserve. Escape to Clayoquot Sound, a BC Bestselling title, is an extended love letter to this place, chronicling the decade John and Bea Dowd spent as year-round caretakers of the property. Told with humour and heart in alternating voices, and lavishly illustrated throughout with stunning natural photography, this book is a story of joyful solitude, of living in harmony with wildlife and respecting the forces of nature.
Out now!
In the Belly of the Sphinx by Grant Buday (TouchWood Editions)
Do you enjoy being spooked together at haunted houses and ghost tours? You’ll love this book.
Beloved BC author Grant Buday is back with another lovely historical fiction story set in BC. The story’s protagonist is the young, precocious, book-loving Pearl as she navigates the world in this delightful coming-of-age story, imbued with the Victorian fascination for auras and the afterlife, Once again Grant Buday has turned distant West Coast history upside down and created a vivid world intimately relevant to us today.
Out now!
Blue Runaways by Jann Everard (Stonehewer Books)
Do you love nothing more than a long walk and a genuine heart-to-heart with your date? This short story collection about love and loss will scratch that same itch.
As diverse in situation as it is controlled in theme, this collection serves as a multifaceted exploration of loss, love, and what it takes to move on. With a keen eye for landscape and an uncanny knack for inhabiting hearts and minds, Everard ventures into her character’s darkest days. By confronting the sorrow of being alive, Blue Runaways reveals the joy of knowing we are not alone.
Out now!
Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek (Talonbooks)
Love cozying up on the couch and living in your own little bubble with your lover? This collection of “Covid meditations” will resonate with you.
The poems of Song & Dread seek quietude, order, refuge, and space within. They remind us of community, connectedness, and what is inherently shared. These works are of their time, while remembering an existence outside it. With a keen eye, Bitek observes the contradictory, symbiotic relationship between the quotidian and the extraordinary.
Out now!
Echo Loba Loba Echo: Of Wisdom, Wolves and Women by Sonja Swift, foreword by Winona LaDuke (RMB | Rocky Mountain Book Publishers)
Do you like watching wildlife documentaries or spotting animals in the wild together? Then this unique look at the cultural, environmental, historical, literary, metaphorical, and political role of the wolf is for you.
Echo Loba, Loba Echo is a story about the metaphor of the wolf and how this is echoed in the lives and minds of people. A metaphor that embodies worldviews colliding, and the collision, the fallout, we live with still. It is a story about wolves’ own cultures, survival stories, acts of rebellion, and vital roles in maintaining healthy territories. And it is also a story about what we have been told to forget, or never even know, and what wolves show us about ourselves.
Out now!
Mr. Good-Evening by John MacLachlan Gray (Douglas & McIntyre)
Is an escape room challenge your idea of a good date? Then this murder mystery will give you the same puzzle-solving thrill.
The open-and-shut case of the Fatal Flapper just won’t stay closed in this thrilling and immersive novel of 1920s Vancouver. In this third installment of the “Westcoast Noir” trilogy, author John Maclachlan Gray takes us down the dodgy streets of 1920s Vancouver where, at the edge of the British Empire, world history plays itself out in murderous ways.
Out now!
It’s a They! by Lindsay Herriot (Orca Book Publishers)
Dream of playing with chubby little cherubs or already loving that family life? You’ll want to read this one.
In this board book told in sweet rhyming couplets, we are invited to celebrate a new baby, and their gender-neutral pronouns, from the point of view of their excited siblings. It’s a They! is one of the first baby board books acknowledging families choosing to use gender-neutral pronouns for their babies, a choice embraced by more and more families who wish to let their child choose their own pronouns when they’re ready. The author has worked extensively with trans youth and has her own “theybies” at home, who inspired her to write this book.
Out now!