Words Worth Books is Changing Hands!

Words Worth Books, a 26 year institution in Uptown Waterloo, is changing hands! Chuck Erion and Tricia Siemens, who founded the store in 1984, are retiring and selling the business to long-time employees, David Worsley and Mandy Brouse, as of February 1st. "It is vitally important to us that Words Worth Books continue its cultural legacy in Waterloo. We are confident that the bookstore will continue to thrive as Mandy and Dave take the helm" said Erion and Siemens.

David Worsley has been at Words Worth Books since 1999 and worked at KW Book Exchange prior to that. His prowess at connecting books and customers was recognized in 2006 with the HarperCollins Handselling Award. Mandy Brouse, also an alumna of KW Book Exchange, began at Words Worth in 2005. She is the magazine manager; school board accounts manager as well as social marketing coordinator. Mandy was awarded the Young Bookseller of the Year Award from the Canadian Booksellers Association in 2010. She was also a guest at Rideau Hall in November 2010 for the Governor General Literary Award ceremony.

Erion and Siemens, have been familiar figures on the literary scene in Waterloo Region, not only in the store but on stage for author events held in local theatres and churches. Erion notes with pride that hundreds of authors have appeared at Words Worth events, ranging from local poets to very famous writers including Timothy Findley, Jane Urquhart, John Irving, Karen Armstrong, Peter Gzowski, Christopher Moore, Sebastian Faulks, Robertson Davies, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Jean Chrétien."Waterloo readers are an enthusiastic audience," said Tricia Siemens, "we were happy to organize author appearances as they were always well attended."

Siemens and Erion both said that spending time with book-loving customers is what they will miss most once they leave the store. "We've developed some very loyal friends, who I'm sure will continue to support Words Worth's new owners," said Erion.　
Worsley and Brouse are excited to take the store into its next chapter. "I'm honoured to be entrusted with such a legacy, a store that we've helped shape, and February 1st will be business as usual except maybe with a little more importance for Dave and me!says Brouse. "We look forward to putting into practice everything we've learned from Chuck and Tricia. Their passion for books and readers has been a defining experience for us and for all the staff at Words Worth. We're very excited and honoured to take up their mantle," adds Worsley.

Words Worth Books invites customers to celebrate the change in ownership on Saturday, February 27, at the store. This will be a time for well-wishers to greet Chuck, Tricia, Dave and Mandy!

Little House Books

I grew up reading Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Eventually I started to read Anne of Green Gables (the arguably Canadian counterpart) when I was a bit older and could get through the bigger words. But I would always revisit the Wilder's books. I now enjoy sharing them with my children and watching them read the series on their own. Right now all the books in the series are on sale at the store. Each title is available for $4.99. If you would like to revisit your childhood or share these lovely books with a child this is a perfect opportunity to pick up any titles in the series that you are missing.

Some of my favourite books in the series are:

Little House in the Big Woods
Laura Ingalls's story begins in 1871 in a little logcabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Four-year-old Laura lives inthe little house with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and theirtrusty dog, Jack. Pioneer life is sometimes hard, since the family must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But it is also exciting as Laura and her folks celebrate Christmas with homemade toysand treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their firsttrip into town. And every night they are safe and warm in their little house,with the happy sound of Pa's fiddle sending Laura and her sisters off to sleep.

Little House on the PrairieThe adventures continue for Laura Ingalls and her family as they leave their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin and set out for Kansas. They travel for many days in their covered wagon until they find the best spot to build their little house on the prairie. Soon they are planting andplowing, hunting wild ducks and turkeys, and gathering grass for their cows. Sometimes pioneer life is hard, but Laura and her folks are always busy and happy in their new little house.

On the Banks of Plum CreekThe adventures continue as the family leaves their little house on the prairie and ravel in their covered wagon to Minnesota. They settle in a little house made of sod beside the banks of beautiful Plum Creek. Soon Pa builds a wonderful new little house with real glass windows and a hinged door. Laura and her sister Mary go to school, help with the chores, and fish in the creek. At night everyone listens to the merry music of Pa's fiddle. Misfortunes come in the form of a grasshopper plague and a terrible blizzard, but the pioneer family works hard together to overcome these troubles.

Farmer BoyWhile Laura Ingalls grows up in a little house on the western prairie, Almanzo Wilder is living on a big farm in New York State. Almanzo and his brother and sisters help with the summer planting and fall harvest. In winter there is wood to be chopped and great slabs of ice to be cut from the river and stored. Time for fun comes when the jolly tin peddler visits, orbest of all, when the fair comes to town. This is Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved story of how her husbandAlmanzo grew up as a farmer boy far from the little house where Laura lived.

Slowly I turn

After a long period of inactivity, we're back at the controls around here, and to my mind what better kick off than the 2011 Tournament of Books sponsored by the venerable Powells.

A round robin bloodsport that's similar in some ways to Canada Reads, but on a larger scope.
And what a list!
The rules are inside the link.

The 16 Books That Will Compete in Our Seventh Annual Battle Royale

Booksellers and readers, please note that we’ll soon have a beautiful brackets poster that you can use for displays, gambling, cubicle decoration, etc. Keep an eye on TMN and Twitter.

• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender
• Nox, by Anne Carson
• Bad Marie, by Marcy Dermansky
• Room, by Emma Donoghue
• A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
• Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen
• Lord of Misrule, by Jaimy Gordon
• Bloodroot, by Amy Greene
• Next, by James Hynes
• The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson
• Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray
• Model Home, by Eric Puchner
• So Much for That, by Lionel Shriver
• Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart
• Kapitoil, by Teddy Wayne
• Savages, by Don Winslow

Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

I picked up Cleopatra: A Life, mostly inspired by the Globe and Mail review, but also because I have a deep deep love for Liz Taylor's depiction of the Queen in the classic 1963 film. Stacy Schiff, in her new biography of the Queen, references Taylor's "limpid lilac eyes", and says that the image of Cleoptara has been overwhelmed by Hollywood's imagining (Crazy, huh? What an accusation). Specifically Schiff speaks about our traditional view of Cleopatra as a sexy, seducing man-eater. Her book, which is as much a telling of the time and about the political figures around her as it is about it's main subject, renders this woman as intellectually and politically saavy. But also a lover of the land she ruled. And compared to her family line, a breath of fresh air as a monarch. During her reign, Egypt saw a time of economic prosperity not seen in generations; Cleopatra managed the details of her land's commerce on a day-to-day basis very well. She lived and partied lavishly, but never raped her land for it's resources. Instead she was shrewd, as in most aspects of her life, and reaped the benefits.

What director Joseph Mankiewicz absolutely had right about the Queen is her deep love of lavish displays. She wore jewelry everywhere, pearls in her hair, and perfumed every part of her body as well as anything she sat on or touched. But all of the opulence also politically advantaged her. Cleopatra dressed symbolically because she knew her people respected a truly mysterious symbol. She became synonymous with the image of Isis into her adulthood, sitting next to her son, who would then be seen as the god Horus. I'm pretty sure she won over both Caesar and Anthony with her charm mostly, but also with the suggestion that she might actually be a half-god. She also claimed descent from Alexander the Great, and both men had a mancrush on this early conquerer. Both men also aspired secretly (or not so subtley) to godhood, so Cleopatra spoke to a few of their political desires.

There is not a lot of source material about the Queen and I truly enjoyed the depiction's from Cicero. His juvenile vindicitveness is hilarious and possibly mostly to blame for the Queen's notoriety, "Cicero was accustomed to being the most articulate person in the room. It was annoying that Cleopatra shared his sardonic wit. And was it really necessary for her to act regally?" Schiff asserts that even during her time, Cleopatra was the victim of gossip which eventually overwhelmed any actual truth about the woman.

But even without much source material on Cleopatra particularly, I was amazed by Schiff's ability to create this woman's life in vivid colours. The part about Cleopatra stealing herself into her own palace in a sack, hoping to speak with Caesar directly (her brother was poisoning his ear against her) was riveting. Schiff gives all this background history about Caesar explaining exactly why the leader would have been so impressed with her political deftness and bravery. Actually the whole book more or less reads like fiction, without fabricating any details. Schiff is a fabulous biographer and writer.

Although I have to admit that when I finished it, I was up for a Liz Taylor/Cleopatra rewatch!

Cleopatra: A Life
Stacy Schiff
Little, Brown and Company
2010
$33.99

- Mandy