Little Mysteries Books (1663 Barrington Street) has been holding it down, selling books, crystals, oils and tarot readings downtown for 20 years. “In retail years, we’re positively ancient,” laughs Vanessa Smith who owns the store with her mother Sandra. Some web buzz arose in the last couple of weeks when a For Lease posting popped […]
Books
Posted inNews + Opinion
Happy birthday, dear Woozles
The story of Woozles children’s bookstore (1533 Birmingham Street), a wonderland of knowledge and imagination, began back in 1978. That makes this October its 35th, and also makes the downtown Halifax institution Canada’s oldest children’s bookstore—a pretty big deal if you ask us. And deals this big call for celebration. This Saturday, October 19 Woozles […]
Posted inArts + Music
Writers write… and win prizes
Writing is a lonely art. But if you do it right, you will be heaped with praise. Why, just today The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) revealed the winners of the 35th Atlantic Writing Competition (AWC). Judges Susan White and Sue Carter Flinn (both past AWC winners); Devon Code, winner of the Writers’ Trust […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Waterproof Bible, Andrew Kaufman (Random House)
Andrew Kaufman’s All My Friends Are Superheroes had its own magical powers: the thin novella was a surprise hit when it came out almost seven years ago. The former Coast contributor’s first novel, The Waterproof Bible, still reads like multiple novellas. There are the intertwined stories of Rebecca, a young, grieving woman whose emotional powers […]
Posted inArts + Music
Just Kids, Patti Smith (Random House)
If Ian Edelman, the creator of HBO’s How to Make it in America, thinks his show’s sucky protagonists and their loft-living artist friends are having a tough time of it in the Big Apple, he might want to travel back to Patti Smith’s 1970s New York, where bloody walls and lice were as much part […]
Posted inLifestyle
The Best Books and Comics of 2009
BOOKS Boy in the Moon, Ian Brown (Random House) The old cliche of “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry” stands true for Ian Brown’s essays on his son, who was born with a rare genetic defect. Brown lets down his macho journalist persona and delivers an incredibly honest reflection on manhood. —SCF February, Lisa Moore (Anansi) I […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Go local in the South End
Paper pleasures Before there was the internet, there was Atlantic News (5560 Morris Street, 429-5468), full of newspapers and magazines from around the world. The legendary newsstand remains a destination for your periodical needs—often going directly to the publisher to get titles you’re looking for—and more besides. Co-owner Michele Gerard shows us the new stationery […]
Posted inArts + Music
Rebecca Born in the Maelstrom, Marie-Claire Blais (Anansi)
Rebecca was born in the Maelstrom, but you’re perhaps not so prepared for the swirling, crushing vortex of Marie-Claire Blais’ latest offering. Her GG Award-winner, composed in one paragraph and with pages-long sentences, is as clear as the Income Tax Act. It’s the fourth novel in a series, which could be to blame for my […]
Posted inArts + Music
Ryan Turner tests What We’re Made Of
If you ever meet Ryan Turner, watch out for his little tan notebook. The Moleskin pad has a spine barely half the width of your pinky, but it holds the secrets to many of Turner’s characters—and one of them might be a piece of you. “Once in a while, someone will say something that I […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Book
“Made of wet boots and rain and shiny black ravens on chimney smoke lanes,” sang Tom Waits in his song “November.” We recommend you dig out Waits’s Black Rider album to spin while you dig into Steve Vernon’s book—published by Nimbus—on the darker corners of our seaside town, the restless spirits that stalk our old […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Second-hand Bookstore
If you love books and have never been in Doull’s, treat yourself. It’s the kind of place where if there isn’t enough room on the shelves for new stock it gets stacked on the floor, providing towers of words to hide behind, to get comfortable with and to explore. And while new books are amazing, […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Independent Bookseller
“It’s the time of year when we’re being flooded with new releases,” says manager Mike Hamm, predicting that Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro, the grand dames of Canadian fiction, will lead the charge this season with their new novels. There’s great interest in the new John Irving book as well, and the world’s most famous […]