A hearty thanks to all our lovely and loyal customers who have been supportive of us from the beginning of our endeavor.  You’re the best!

Right now everything in the store is up to 70% off.

Come early for the best selection.  If you have a gift certificate, please redeem it now. There won’t be a better opportunity.

We all know that  ”April showers bring May flowers” and we’re ready for Spring.  We have a very nice selection of gardening books, cookbooks that stress fresh and seasonal fruits and vegetables, and books about nature and the environment.  If you need a handy guide for planting your garden or a guide to local flora and fauna, you can find it here.  It’s time to get your spring on!

Do you love poetry?  Would you like to fall in love with a new poet?  We have an excellent selection of poetry, including the work of local poets.  April is National Poetry Month, so this is the perfect time to visit us.  In fact, any time is perfect for a visit!

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.”

–Sylvia Plath

We’ve just received two shiny new copies of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel, with cover illustration by the infinitely talented Sarah Young, published by Faber & Faber as part of their 2010 poetry series. Other titles in this collection include Kid by Simon Armitage (cover illustration by Peter Clayton), Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis by Wendy Cope (cover illustration by Ed Kluz), The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin (cover illustration by Michael Kirkman), Dart by Alice Oswald (cover illustration by Jonathan Gibbs), Nil, Nil by Don Paterson (cover illustration by Charles Shearer). There is also a classics series featuring collections of selected works by T.S Eliot, W. B Yeats, Ted Hughes, and (my all-time favourite) W. H Auden. I’ve picked up my copy of Ariel. Only 11 more to go. Books in series are a harsh mistress.

l

Sylvia Plath's Ariel - cover illustration by Sarah Young

This Thursday, 10 March, 7:00-8:30pm, Rachel Wyatt will read from and discuss her  new novel Letters to Omar. (For details about this and other events at Ardea Books & Art check out our Events Calendar.)

q

Happy International Women’s Day! 

Dina's March Pick

Humans and animals have a complex relationship. Animals have been domesticated for our amusement, eaten for sustenance, hunted to extinction, kept in zoos for preservation and in many cases, inadvertently moved from one land mass to another, a by product of great exploration and conquering. In T.C. Boyle’s When the Killing’s Done the implications and ramifications of non-native fauna on California’s Channel Islands is just the beginning of this story. The conflicts that arise as a result of activists and government workers,  ideologies at odds, trying to preserve what each believes to be the natural order take the forefront. With a rich backstory, well-researched history of the area woven throughout the narrative and characters that surprise, cause sympathy and enrage, When the Killing’s Done kills it. In the colloquial sense. As always, Boyle’s writing is vivid and compelling and his ability to leave a reader satisfied, yet still debating the issues is pretty damn impressive.

“Personally, I think it’s down to familiarity. You get used to having something around; you take it for granted, and then it’s just so easy to bemoan its fate when the seemingly inevitable happens. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead we, as readers, just need to face some very real commercial realities. Books have always been considered expensive – Orwell made this point in his essay “Books vs Cigarettes” 65 years ago – yet compared to a night at the cinema, a bottle of pub wine or a few take-way coffees they remain astonishing value for money, even without deep discounting…

…If you love your local shop and you wish to see it thrive, don’t wait for emails or “to let” signs, go out and buy a book a month, every two months, or every fifth book you buy, from them. Let’s use their knowledge and enthusiasm. Let’s use them before we lose them for good.”

– Excerpts from Stuart Evers’ “As well as World Book Night, let’s have a Local Bookshop Year“

Suzanne's March Pick

I like food writing, cookbooks, new restaurants, and the Vancouver Farmers Market. I’ll admit it: I’m a bit of a “foodie.” While I’ve not been too bothered by this moniker in the past, recently I’ve felt a certain tinge of shame during my usual fretting over whether or not this beef has been grain-fed, or that tea fairly traded. To be sure, I don’t blame myself. Instead I blame The Atlantic and Portlandia. The former for this article–”The Moral Crusade Against Foodies: Gluttony dressed up as foodie-ism is still gluttony“–and the latter for this sketch–”Is It Local?” Having been exposed via these media as little more than a pretentious glutton, I was decidedly hesitant to read Gabrielle Hamilton’s new memoir Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, which since its 1 March release has had the food-set all aflutter.

However, I did read it. And I did enjoy it immensely. Hamilton is, in additon to a great chef, a wonderful writer. (She holds a MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan). Sure, it is reasonable to label Blood, Bones & Butter a food memoir, given the significance of food to Hamilton’s life and career, but good writing, honest and evocative, is good writing, and exceeds genre limitations. So please read it. Blood, Bones & Butter: It’s not just for gluttons.