events

Join Coho Books at the Landmark Cinemas on Dogwood Steet as we celebrate the release of the movie based on Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'hoole series of books. Read the book, see the movie, and meet Shakespeare, a real owl from M.A.R.S. Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society!

This year the Haig-Brown festival will have some exciting new attractions to compliment the existing events and displays that you will recognize from past years.

Once again, Coho Books will be set up at the festival and we will be sure to bring a selection of Roderick Haig-Brown's books.

Teachers are invited to join us for an evening at the store featuring:

- information about new titles for the fall

- free promotional info/posters etc.

- snacks and wine

- special discounts

- prizes

This has been a popular evening with teachers who have attended in the past.

Join us for a reading and book signing by humourist Arthur Black!  If you love a laugh you will not want to miss this great evening with the well-known writere and CBC commentator from Saltspring Island.

A Chip Off the Old Black, Black's latest collection of stories, will knock a sense of humour into any reader, boasting nearly a hundred tales featuring everything from yarnbombing to Bambi, from Black's love of the Farmer's Almanac to his loathing of snowmobiles and his . . . problem . . . with David Suzuki. With a talent for ranting, minus the malice, Black sticks up for the chocolate-covered marshmallow confection of New Zealand--
the politically-incorrect "Eskimo" candies. Those inclined to kvetching--a Yiddish word describing the tendency to complain persistently about everything--may just reconsider after reading A Chip Off the Old Black. After all, as Black demonstrates, it's far more enjoyable to take the opportunity to laugh.

This event is still in the early planning, but it will be a great Friday evening out.

Rumble Seat is an evocative, poetically-written memoir of artist Helen Piddington’s childhood in the Victoria suburb of Esquimalt—and what a childhood it was! The Piddingtons arrived from Quebec in 1924, and settled into a life that in many ways typified well-off Victoria families of the period. Helen’s father, Major Arthur Grosvenor Piddington, was a bit of an eccentric whose preferred attire, after his British army blazer, was jodhpurs and riding coat or drill shorts with knee socks held up by brightly-coloured garters. He dabbled in gentlemanly pursuits such as sheep ranching but his true passion was riding. Helen’s mother was “expected to make and receive social calls and entertain with tea parties, dinners and dances” but she had help—a governess, a nanny, a housemaid, a cook and faithful Tim the gardener. The Piddingtons occupied an imposing home designed by Victoria’s favourite residential architect, Samuel Maclure, with a grand entrance hall and private garden, tennis court, stables, paddock and meadows bordered by golf links. Family amusements included hosting garden fetes, playing tennis and polo, summering at Savira, their cottage on Shawnigan Lake and motoring in their mother’s Morris roadster—the one with the coveted rumble seat.

During the 1930s the Piddington’s life of privileged comfort vanished thanks to the Great Depression and Major Piddington’s bad luck in business. From then on the elder Piddingtons were forced to look after their vast brood themselves, the Major growing their food and Mrs. P. belatedly learning to cook, keep house and
care for Helen, her youngest child. Difficult as the adjustment was, there was new satisfaction to be found in sharing and making do.

With sharp descriptions of the artifacts, mannerisms and characters recalled from her early years, Helen Piddington’s Rumble Seat is a captivating record of a way of life gone by and a valuable addition to the social history of British Columbia.

When Coho Books first openened we had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful woman named Caroline Woodward.  Caroline spent several days with us, answering all of our questions about running a bookstore, and has provided us with much advice and support.  She was also our first real author event, where we had a lovely tea and book reading.

Caroline has a new book out for October 2010 called Penny Loves Wade, Wade Loves Penny.

Penny Loves Wade, Wade Loves Penny is a contemporary story about middle-aged love enduring despite prolonged separations. The story winds around Penny Toland, resolute ranch wife and part-time teacher, and her husband, Wade, reluctant rancher and good man, adrift behind the wheel of his long-haul truck. Wade loops south on an odyssey from the Peace River region to the West Coast and across the province through the Okanagan and Kootenays. At home, Penny endures covetous neighbours, not-so-friendly bank managers, and suave strangers, while Wade encounters lotus-landers, biker gangs, and a ravishing all-woman country punk band called The Sireens. As the first winter blizzard blankets the north country, Wade makes a desparate push home to prove his love for Penny.

Caroline has been a bookseller, publisher rep, lighthouse keeper and of course an accomplished writer.

After two years of intensive exploration, Motherstone: British Columbia’s Volcanic Plateau is a book that will become an important part of BC’s natural history.

Award winning author Harold Rhenisch did the research and authored the book in collaboration with Harris’ incomparable photography; all verified by Dr. Mary Lou Bevier of UBC who was the scientific consultant.Chris will share his visual journey of discovery with behind-the-image stories of adventure. His search for beauty, and previously unknown landscapes, will take you to areas where no one has walked for 10 million years.It is with a sense of reverence that Chris presents these images; his hope is to bring conscious awareness to the imperative need to protect British Columbia’s biodiversity and natural beauty.

Following his unprecedented book on BC’s grasslands, Spirit in the Grass: The Cariboo Chilcotin’s Forgotten Landscape, Chris Harris, acknowledged as one of Canada’s most respected photographers, presents a stunning volcanic topography unknown and unseen by most British Columbians.

Come out to a book signing featuring this rising star in Canadian Books.  Rob is the events co-ordinator at Bolen Books in Victoria, an accomplished book reviewer and author. His previous book, Before I Wake had great reviews and was a hit with book clubs.

Bedtime Story

Following his bestselling 2006 debut, Before I Wake, Wiersema returns to his exquisitely plotted blend of supernatural thriller and domestic drama.

Novelist Christopher Knox began his writing career with a bang. The echo of that success still rings in his ears as he sets to work every morning on his second novel, ten years later. His wife feels like a single parent, and with Chris living in exile in a studio above their garage, it won't be long before she is.

Chris discovers a fantasy novel by an obscure author he loved as a child and gives it to his son, David. Father reads to son nightly, and To the Four Directions soon enthralls him. Until one night, when young David is reading alone, an inexplicable seizure leaves him in a mysterious state of unconsciousness. As his seizure recurs every night, his father learns that only one thing will calm it, a bedtime story from his strange new book.

Convinced that the secret of David's collapse is within its pages, Chris traverses the continent in search of the truth. Meanwhile, David wakes up within the story he has been reading, and as his father struggles to free him David struggles to survive, facing perils unimaginable in a world created to capture the hearts and souls of children like him. Both father and son are headed toward a fateful collision of worlds, and a showdown with ancient evils, both fictional and very real.