CBA LIBRIS BOOKSELLER OF THE YEAR - 2011
Booksellers' Favourites
Dawn
Dawn is a well rounded woman. She's a music lover, a bookworm and a food aficionado, She has her finger on the pulse of the music scene and is always introducing us to new performers. She has this wonderful habit of working out her stress by cooking fabulous treats and keeps us very well fed indeed! Dawn is the founding member of the now legendary, "Wine Between the Lines" book club. She reads like a maniac and is a very competitive bookseller.
Spring 2012
There are a lot of wonderful mysteries out there, I am going to share a couple I have just read...
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear - Maisie is a "psychologist and investigator", living in London, post-World War I. There are nine books in the series, start with Maisie Dobbs, where you are introduced to the main characters. Maisie is a young housemaid who makes her way into Cambridge because of her intelligence and patronage of her employers. During World War I she goes to the front as a nurse. When she returns, she opens her own detective agency and her first assignment finds her revisiting the horrors of the Great War and the things she left behind. I encourage all mystery lovers to pick up this series - you will love it.
And:
Still Life by Louise Penny - join Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues in rural areas of Montreal. This book introduces you to the Inspector and his forces. After reading the first you will definitely want to continue on in the series.
Also try:
The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie by Alan Bradley - A Flavia de Luce Mystery, part Harriet the Spy, Part Sherlock Holmes - you will love Flavia.
Summer 2011
Some of Dawn's favourites:
One of my favourite authors this summer is Sarah Addison Allen. All of her books have a hint of romance and mystery with fairy dust and magic sprinkled in them. Try - Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased The Moon and The Peach Keeper.
The Paris Wife - Paula Mclain
Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
The Long Song - Andrea Levy
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt - Beth Hoffman
The Invisible Bridge - Julie Orringer
Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
For Teens:
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Blood Red Road - Moira Young - First in the Dustlands Series, if you loved The Hunger Games this is for you.
Forgotten - Cat Patrich
Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs - This book has a very unique premise, it combines a story with vintage photographs. The tale is chilling but also whimsical.
January 2011
I Remember Nothing...and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron
Unbearable Lightness, A Story of Love and Loss by Portia de Rossi
The Hobbit by J. R. Tolkien - this is a graphic novel adaptation of Tolkien's work. The story is true to the original and the illustrations are amazing.
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Matched by Ally Condie
All The World by Liz Garton Scanlon
Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown
January, 2010 - see Dawn's latest reviews below for Darklight by Lesley Livingston, The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.
Some of Dawn's Favourites:
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie - Alan Bradley
Coventry - Helen Humphrey
Other recommendations:
Need by Carrie Jones
Captivate by Carrie Jones
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
If you like memoirs...
- The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman
- The Color of Water - James McBride
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
If you like fiction...
For mothers...
For Twilight fans (you know you're out there)...
Dawn 's Books Reviews
The Hunger Games | |
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Twenty- four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North Ameri... |
The Glass Castle | |
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As a child, Jeannette and her three siblings drifted from California to West Virginia, with two eccentric, nomadic pa... |
Wondrous Strange | |
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I recently had the privilege to meet author, Lesley Livingston, whose debut novel, Wondrous Strange, is the type of b... |
The House at Riverton | |
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This is another definite page-turner. It recounts the crumbling of the Ashbury family in the years surrounding WWI, as s... |
The Help | |
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his is a debut novel set during the beginning of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi. It is full ... |
Darklight | |
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This is the second novel in Livingston's trilogy...she once again delivers magical characters with just the right amo... |
Friday Night Knitting Club | |
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Nice read, starts out as a knitting club, but as the story progresses, these women form a sisterhood. Jacobs sp... |
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand | |
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This is a charming, comedic debut novel about unexpected love, family and overcoming cultural barriers. Her wri... |
The Invention of Hugo Cabret | |
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This is a novel in both words and pictures. The very act of turning the pages tells the story with accuracy and... |
The Unwanteds | |
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Every year in Quill, thirteen year olds are sorted into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go to University ... |
Wonderstruck | |
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This is a story of two children trying to find out where they belong in the world. There are two different stor... |
The Long Song | |
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In this novel, the author explores her Jamaican heritage more than ever before. This is the story of July - a s... |
Rules of Civility | |
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This book is receiving buzz everywhere and deservedly so. It is a debut novel for the author, who writes like ... |
Violets of March | |
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A wonderful story that mixes love, betrayal, history and mystery. Emily accepts an invitation to spend the mont... |
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt | |
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Unfortunate circumstances land 12 year old CeeCee under the care of her "Great Aunt Tootie" a souther... |
The Blitz: An Illustrated History | |
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This book is a fine example of the harsh realities of war. The winter of 1940-1941 was the season of The Blitz.... |
Salt | |
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For those who loved The Hunger Games and find themselves hungering for more, check out Salt by Mauri... |
A Family of Readers | |
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This is a book for anyone who has ever loved children's books and wants to pass the wonderful experience onto others.... |
Swamplandia | |
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This is the story of Ava Bigtree, a twelve year old alligator wrestler who goes on an improbable journey through the ... |
The Peach Keeper | |
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Willa Jackson returns home to a small Southern town to be thrust together in an unlikely friendship. She learns of m... |
The Paris Wife | |
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Ernest Hemingway is by far one of the most captivating writers of the twentieth century. This novel tells his story ... |
Matched | |
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This book is a must read for fans of The Hunger Games. For Cassia, she has always been content allowing The Soc... |
The Paper Garden | |
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This story, about the life of Mary Delaney is a perfect gift for any book lover. It is part biography, part mem... |
The Boy In The Oak | |
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This elegantly designed book tells the story of a young boy who shows cruelty and disrespect to a large oak tree behi... |
My Brother Charlie | |
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Twins Callie and Charlie have a lot in common, but they are also very different. Charlie has autism. Call... |
Tempestuous | |
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Kelly and Sonny are caught in the middle of a war - only faith and love can set things right. This is the final... |
Russian Winter | |
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This is a wonderful, moving debut novel. A mysterious jewel holds the key to a life-changing secret, in ... |
Above All Things | |
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This is a fictional version of George Mallory, the English mountaineer, who was determined to conquer Mount Everest.&... |
Heading Out To Wonderful | |
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"Let me tell you something son, when you're young, and you head out to Wonderful, everything is fresh and bright... |
The Aviator's Wife | |
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Anne Morrow meets and finds a kindred spirit in Charles Lindbergh. This historical fiction is rich in detail of the ... |
Wonder | |
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This is the fictional story of August Pullman, who is born with a facial deformity. He reluctantly decides to a... |