| Because you’re not going to get it from The Globe and Mail, or maybe even from the Calgary Herald, here is a locally-biased seasonal gift book guide. "Local" means Calgary, or Calgary and area. You can get most of these books at your local independent bookstore. And look, just in time for Christmas, there’s a new one in Bankview.
The aptly named Bankview Books is located at 2507 - 14th St. S.W., next to the Tumble Beans coffee shop. Proprietor Tom Phillips has been selling books in Calgary since the Canterbury’s era, so his book knowledge is voluminous. He’s also been known to duck behind a towering display of political bios and re-emerge, strumming, as a Man of Constant Sorrow. Hurtin’ songs and bookselling: an apt combination – except in December, when everyone’s mood is just so rosy. Looks like the store will open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, but call 815-5372 if you want to confirm those hours.
So now you’ve cleverly avoided the mall-parking demolition derby and strolled in a relaxed manner to your local bookstore. What to select for the visual arts person/lover of prairie light on your list? Place: A City on the Prairie might be just the ticket. This collection of photographs by Geoffrey James and writing by Rudy Wiebe combines a sophisticated eye with local roots. It’s a perfect mail-out gift for your cousin in Brampton or Longueuil (or even for yourself, if you choose to self-gift). For curl-up-by-the-fire fiction, try Calgary novelist Fred Stenson’s Lightning, or locally-published author Art Norris’s stories in Succession. (You can test-read an excerpt at www.brindleandglass.com/magazine/index.htm.) If you’re not planning to curl up alone, a slim volume of poetry can stuff a stocking nicely. You have many choices here: Rajinderpal S. Pal’s Pulse, Sheri-D Wilson’s Between Lovers or Weyman Chan’s Before a Blue Sky Moon are all notable recent arrivals from poets just down your street. And if you read over a few poems before gifting, you can later "spontaneously" flip through and read a few choice lines aloud without stumbling over the rhythms.
If, for you or your giftee, holiday reading means mental travels to quite different climes, Calgary’s Paulo da Costa can help you with The Scent of a Lie, set in lovely Portugal. And if you’re buying books for one of the many readers who demands the fibre of "real history" in their stories, a plenitude of local authors have already obliged. There’s Brian Brennan’s Scoundrels and Scallywags, or Ken McGoogan’s new book Ancient Mariner: The Amazing Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Walked to the Arctic Ocean. University of Calgary Historian David Bercuson is a favourite wartime chronicler; try his book The Destruction of the Bismarck.
For younger readers, there remains a whole world beyond Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s many shrewd imitators. In 2002, Cheryl Foggo followed up her Governor General’s Award-nominated 1997 novel One Thing That’s True with I Have Been in Danger. Judd Palmer was a Governor General’s finalist this year with his book The Maestro. And for a proliferation of true Canadian tales of manageable length (not just for young readers), catch up on the Amazing Stories series from the Bow Valley’s Altitude Publishing. There are dozens of titles, from Rescue Dogs to short bios on Banff pioneers Mary Schaeffer and Peter and Catharine Whyte.
Finally, for a year-long gift of local letters, think about subscriptions. For $22, filling Station magazine will arrive at your loved one’s mailbox for a year. You can subscribe at www.fillingstation.ca. And Alberta Views will do the same for $19.26; see www.albertaviews.ab.ca. Or just buy an issue and use the little card they put in there. |
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