Reading & Literary

Come join us for an evening with local author Linden Carroll as we discuss her book: Olive.

Ostracized at birth by her family, Olive’s life is that of an opportunist and black marketer. She uses sex, guile and music to move up, but everything has a price, and her children must bear the cost. Olive epitomizes the spirit and soul of the British people through two world wars; though impoverished, they still retained their strength, comradery and dignity while bearing the burden of the atrocities inflicted upon them.

Linden Carroll was born in England, and currently resides in British Columbia. She spends part of the year in the Cascade Mountain area of Northern Washington and enjoys long walks with her dog.

Registration required. Register online or at 604-984-0286, ext. 8144. 

Thank you for your interest in the Teen Advance Readers' Club. Please note that this program is now full. 

Not your average book club!

Advance Reading Copies are books that haven’t even been published yet. At the Teen Advance Readers’ club, you’ll have the chance to read and review brand new teen books that haven’t even hit the shelves!

You’ll get an exclusive sneak peek at unpublished teen fiction, then choose a book to take home and review. At the next meeting, we’ll discuss the books, with snacks of course, and do it all over again!

Don’t miss your chance to READ IT FIRST!

Paws 4 Stories is a St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Community Service that is designed to assist in helping to improve reading skills of children. In this program, children have the opportunity to read to a friendly, certified therapy dog. Reading to a therapy dog can be motivating and especially beneficial for children who are hesitant or anxious about reading.

Ages 6 -12. Sessions are 20 minutes in length -  children can sign up for a maximum of three sessions each.

Registration required. Call 604-984-0286, ext. 8141 or visit the Lynn Valley Children’s Desk. Registration is first-come, first-served, though priority will be given to those who have not participated before. 

Paws 4 Stories is a St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Community Service that is designed to assist in helping to improve reading skills of children. In this program, children have the opportunity to read to a friendly, certified therapy dog. Reading to a therapy dog can be motivating and especially beneficial for children who are hesitant or anxious about reading.

Ages 6 -12. Sessions are 20 minutes in length -  children can sign up for a maximum of three sessions each.

Registration required. Call 604-984-0286, ext. 8141 or visit the Lynn Valley Children’s Desk. Registration is first-come, first-served, though priority will be given to those who have not participated before. 

Do you enjoy talking about the book you are reading with other awesome readers? 

If your answer is yes and you are in Grade 3 or 4, join Page Turners, a kid’s book discussion group at the Parkgate Library. We will participate in book game activities, crafts and discussions. Don’t forget to bring the book you are reading!

For kids in Grade 3 & 4.

Space is limited. Register online or at 604-929-3727, ext. 8166.

Join five local authors and host John Belshaw for a night of vice to discover the dark and seedy side of society.

• Jackie Bateman, Straight Circles (Anvil Press)
• Eve Lazarus, Murder by Milkshake (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Amanda Siebert, The Little Book of Cannabis (Greystone Books)
• W.D. Valgardson, In Valhalla’s Shadows (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Iona Whishaw, A Sorrowful Sanctuary (TouchWood Editions)
• Host: John Belshaw, author of Vancouver Noir

Book sales by 32 Books & Gallery

In partnership with Read Local BC

Jackie Bateman lives with her family in North Vancouver. Her first novel Nondescript Rambunctious won a national first book competition in Canada, and grew into a trilogy of psychological thrillers. The second novel in the series, Savour, was shortlisted for the 2015 Relit Awards. Straight Circles ties up all of the disturbing threads in a grand psychotic finale. The trilogy has been optioned for a multi-episode TV series. She can be found at www.jacbateman.com.

Straight Circles

http://www.anvilpress.com/Books/straight-circles

Domestic satire meets gripping suspense in Straight Circles, the final, explosive chapter of Jackie Bateman’s Lizzy Trilogy. The original and eccentric cast of characters return in this genre-bending thriller, but not everyone’s getting out alive.

---

Eve Lazarus is a Vancouver writer with an Aussie accent and a passion for true crime stories, cold cases, and non-traditional history. She is the author of three Arsenal titles: Cold Case Vancouver: The City's Most Baffling Unsolved Murders (2015), a BC bestseller and 2016 finalist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award at the BC Book Prizes; Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver's First Forensic Investigator (2017); and Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer. She is also the author of Sensational Vancouver (2014),Sensational Victoria: Bright Lights, Red Lights, Murders, Ghosts & Gardens (2012), and her book At Home with History: The Untold Secrets of Greater Vancouver's Heritage Houses was a 2008 City of Vancouver book award finalist. 

Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer

http://arsenalpulp.com/bookinfo.php?index=487

When forty-year-old Esther Castellani died a slow and agonizing death in Vancouver in 1965, the official cause was at first undetermined. The day after Esther's funeral, her husband, Rene, packed up his girlfriend, Lolly; his daughter, Jeannine; and Lolly's son, Don, in the company car and took off for Disneyland. If not for the doggedness of the doctor who treated Esther, Rene (then a charismatic and handsome CKNW radio personality) would have been free to marry Lolly, who was the station's pretty twentysomething receptionist. Instead, Rene was charged with capital murder for poisoning his wife with arsenic-laced milkshakes in one of British Columbia's most sensational criminal cases of the century. Rigorously researched, and based on dozens of interviews with family, friends, and co-workers, Murder by Milkshake documents the sensational case that kept Vancouver spellbound, while providing a snapshot of the city's Mad Men-esque social and political realities in the 1960s.

---

Amanda Siebert is an award-winning journalist and photographer best known for her work as the first-ever cannabis editor at the Georgia Straight. When she’s not writing, making photographs, or indulging in the herb, she enjoys road trips, practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and taking her dog, Honey, to the beach.

The Little Book of Cannabis: How Marijuana Can Improve Your Life

https://greystonebooks.com/collections/all/products/little-book-of-cannabis

Cannabis. Weed. Bud. Whatever you choose to call it, it’s been a health aid, comfort, and life-enhancer for humankind for more than three thousand years. But while cannabis is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, more than a century of prohibition has resulted in confusion about its status. In this fun, illuminating book, cannabis journalist Amanda Siebert delves deep into the latest research to separate marijuana fact from fiction, revealing ten evidence-based ways this potent little plant can improve your life. She speaks with some of the world’s top researchers, medical professionals, and consultants to answer your burning questions. The Little Book of Cannabis is pragmatic and informative look at better living through cannabis.

---

W.D. Valgardson is an Icelandic-Canadian writer. He taught creative writing at the University of Victoria for thirty years. He has won several awards, including the Books in Canada First Novel Award for Gentle Sinners (Oberon Press, 1980) and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for The Girl with the Botticelli Face (Douglas & McIntyre, 1993). Born and raised in Gimli, MB, Valgardson now lives in Victoria, BC.

In Valhalla's Shadows

http://www.douglas-mcintyre.com/book/in-valhalla-s-shadows

A timely and compelling Canadian Gothic crime novel from esteemed Icelandic-Canadian writer W.D. Valgardson. Ex-cop Tom Parsons’s life has been crumbling around him: his marriage and career have fallen apart, his grown children barely speak to him, and he can’t escape the dark thoughts plaguing his mind. Leaving the urban misery of Winnipeg, he tries to remake himself in the small lakeside town of Valhalla, with its picturesque winter landscape and the locals who make it clear that newcomers, especially ex-RCMP, are less than entirely welcome. Tom has barely settled in the town when he finds the body of a fifteen-year-old Indigenous girl on the beach, not far from his home. The police write off Angel’s death as just another case of teenagers partying too hard. But the death haunts Tom, and he can’t leave the case closed—something just doesn’t add up.

---

Iona Whishaw is a former educator and social worker whose mother and grandfather were both spies during their respective wars. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband. Visit her at ionawhishaw.com

A Sorrowful Sanctuary: A Lane Winslow Mystery (book 5)

https://49thshelf.com/Books/A/A-Sorrowful-Sanctuary

In the fifth book of the series that the Globe and Mail calls “terrific,” Lane Winslow Lane Winslow is enjoying a perfect, sunny day at the lake when she spots a gravely injured young man drifting in a sinking rowboat. Hypothermic, bleeding, and soaked in icy, bloody water, he is unable to speak, leaving Lane at a loss. What series of events brought him to this grisly fate?

---

Host: John Belshaw

John Belshaw is a writer, professor, consultant, and an award-winning historian. He is the author of several books, including Becoming British Columbia: A Population History, and articles in subTerrain and The Walrus. He is also the co-author of Vancouver Noir: 1930-1960 (Anvil Press, 2011), and Private Grief, Public Mourning: The Rise of the Roadside Shrine in BC (Anvil Press, 2009). He is the editor of the anthology Vancouver Confidential (Anvil Press, 2014), a collaborative project involving more than a dozen writers, filmmakers, and artists. He is currently writing an OpenText on Canadian history.

Throughout the centuries, the wolf has appeared in legend and lore in many forms: supernatural being, apex predator, ruthless killer and protector. In recent years, the habitats of humans and wolves have continued to overlap, and safe coexistence has become of greater concern. Through remarkable images, startling facts and incredible stories, Paula Wild dispels the myths surrounding this icon of the wilderness and reveals the real wolf.

Paula Wild is the author of seven books including The Cougar (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013), which was a gold winner in the Foreword Reviews IndieFab Awards nature category. She’s feasted on fresh oolichan grease in the Bella Coola Valley, paddled the piranha-infested waters of the Amazon River and lived off the grid in the rainforest of northern Vancouver Island. She currently calls Courtenay, BC, home.

Thank you for your interest in the Teen Advance Readers' Club. Please note that this program is now full. 

Not your average book club!

Advance Reading Copies are books that haven’t even been published yet. At the Teen Advance Readers’ club, you’ll have the chance to read and review brand new teen books that haven’t even hit the shelves!

You’ll get an exclusive sneak peek at unpublished teen fiction, then choose a book to take home and review. At the next meeting, we’ll discuss the books, with snacks of course, and do it all over again!

Don’t miss your chance to READ IT FIRST!

We’ll supply the books and the tea; you just have to read the book and show up ready for a good discussion! 

October 11: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 

All are welcome to the Afternoon Tea Book Club. Whether you are well-seasoned in Book Clubs or have never been in one, we invite you to participate in our Afternoon Tea Book Club at Parkgate Library.

No registration required. Drop in! Call 604-929-3727, ext. 8166 for more information.  

Paws 4 Stories is a St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Community Service that is designed to assist in helping to improve reading skills of children. In this program, children have the opportunity to read to a friendly, certified therapy dog. Reading to a therapy dog can be motivating and especially beneficial for children who are hesitant or anxious about reading.

Ages 6 -12. Sessions are 20 minutes in length -  children can sign up for a maximum of three sessions each.

Registration required. Call 604-984-0286, ext. 8141 or visit the Lynn Valley Children’s Desk. Registration is first-come, first-served, though priority will be given to those who have not participated before. 

Paws 4 Stories is a St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Community Service that is designed to assist in helping to improve reading skills of children. In this program, children have the opportunity to read to a friendly, certified therapy dog. Reading to a therapy dog can be motivating and especially beneficial for children who are hesitant or anxious about reading.

Ages 6 -12. Sessions are 20 minutes in length -  children can sign up for a maximum of three sessions each.

Registration required. Call 604-984-0286, ext. 8141 or visit the Lynn Valley Children’s Desk. Registration is first-come, first-served, though priority will be given to those who have not participated before.