Andrew Pyper - Tuesday, April 28, 7pm at Waterloo Public Library

David Worsley reviews:

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     Ever since the publication of Lost Girls about fifteen years ago, I've dropped on the spot-whatever I was reading-for a new Andrew Pyper novel.

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     His  tales of literate, tightly plotted creepiness just get better and better, and his new one, The Damned, is among the best.

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     When Ashleigh Orchard dies in a house fire near their Detroit home, her servile brother Danny pens a bestselling "back from heaven" memoir telling of his surviving the fire and for a moment, dying.

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     The Damned picks up their lives about a couple decades later.  Danny is tormented by periodic "visits" from his deceased sister and her malevolence comes to the fore as Danny finds love for the first time.

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     Set against a wholly denuded suburban Detroit, The Damned is rich with metaphor, setting and tension.  ...And it moves like a cat.

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     This is wonderfully potent storytelling, and he's always great to talk with.

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     The event is at the Waterloo Public Library and Words Worth Books is very pleased to bring Andrew back to Waterloo with the co-operation of the WPL and the Canadian Authors Association.

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Tuesday, April 28, 7 pm

FREE EVENT - Seating is limited

MARGARET TRUDEAU - Tuesday, April 14, 7pm at Knox Presbyterian

Words Worth Books is pleased to announce that cultural luminary and mental-health advocate, Margaret Trudeau, will launch her new book The Time of Your Life on Tuesday, April 14, 7pm at Knox Presbyterian Church in Uptown Waterloo. TICKETS: $5.00 OR TWO FREE WHEN YOU PRE-PURCHASE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE.

As wife to the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and mother to Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau, she has never been far from the public spotlight. In 2010 she came forward with her book Changing My Mind-- a candid memoir about her struggles to endure public scrutiny as the young wife to Canada's most chronicled leader, and her lifelong battle with depression and mental illness.

In The Time of Your Life is found the distillation of her hard-earned wisdom.  She offers women an inspirational and practical approach to creating a healthy, happy, secure and satisfying future life. From dating and online romance to health practices and financial planning, The Time of Your Life explores the fundamentals needed for the best future by discussing cornerstone issues such as housing, money, sex, friendship and children.

Always a rebel at heart, Margaret looks at what the experts have to say and weaves through her own point of view, culling insightful and funny anecdotes from her early marriage to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau when she was a twenty-two-year-old hippie from the west coast of Canada, to her life as a single mom raising three young boys in the often hostile glare of the media spotlight. Margaret's mental health challenges, her decision to leave her second marriage, the devastating loss of her son Michel and first husband Pierre, and her re-invention as a coveted spokesperson and fundraiser make her uniquely qualified to offer her own perspective on the choices women face in their fifties and beyond.

Practical, straightforward and filled with tips and ideas for living a rich life, The Time of Your Life is the perfect book for women of all ages.

Marc & Samantha Hurwitz with Leadership is Half the Story; Friday, March 27 at 4pm

Friday, March 27 from 4pm to 7pm at Words Worth BooksMeet and greet with authors Marc and Samantha Hurwitz, authors of Leadership is Half the Story

About the book:

Can you imagine a choreographer only training one dancer to lead while his or her partner sits in the lobby staring at the wall? Yet we do this all the time in organizations. Half the partnership is missing.

Leadership is Half the Story introduces the first model to seamlessly integrate leadership, followership, and partnerships. This research-backed, field-tested book contributes many new ideas and practical advice for everyone in an organization – from CEO to HR director to front-line manager to consultant.

All of us lead, not just those with the formal title. All of us follow, not just front-line staff. In great collaborations, one moment we are leading and then we flip to following; in other words, the relationship between leadership and followership is dynamic, context-specific, and ever-evolving. This empowering perspective opens up leadership to everyone, normalizes followership, and enables more productive and innovative collaborations. Candid discussions about both roles allow for better coaching, mentoring, skill development, and interpersonal agility, and result in stronger teams.

Marc and Samantha Hurwitz give us a category-busting book that “practically glows with energy and vision,” according to Marshall Goldsmith, executive coach and best-selling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

Pamela Mordecai with Red Jacket; Thursday, April 2, 7pm

Pamela Mordecai, author of Red Jacket will be at Words Worth Books on Thursday, April 2 at 7pm for a reading, Q&A, and signing. About the book:

Growing up on the Caribbean island of St. Chris, Grace Carpenter never feels like she really belongs. Although her large, extended family is black, she is a redibo. Her skin is copper-coloured, her hair is red, and her eyes are grey. A neighbour taunts her, calling her “a little red jacket,” but the reason for the insult is never explained. Only much later does Grace learn the story of her birth mother and decipher the mystery surrounding her true identity.

About the author:

Pamela Mordecai was born in Jamaica. She has published five collections of poetry and an anthology of short fiction. She has also written many textbooks and edited or co-edited groundbreaking anthologies of Caribbean writing. Her poetry for children is widely anthologized. Her poems have been shortlisted for the Canada Writes CBC Poetry Prize and the Bridport Prize (U.K.).

Beth Powning, author of A Measure of Light

Beth Powning – A Measure of Light

Wednesday, March 18, 7pm at Words Worth Books

Beth Powning has proven herself adept at making the past come alive in her fiction.  With delicacy and finesse she brings atmosphere and authenticity to bear on each of her characters to the point that they seem to actually breathe.  One such character is Mary Dyer who counts among the first American Quakers to practice in the New World.

Like many Puritans who wished to worship freely, Mary Dyer came to the British colony in New England in the 1630s.  Unfortunately, the strictures of the Old World followed them.  With measures enacted to restrict facets of worship, trade, and custom, the lingering spectre of patriarchal Christianity was set at odds against the “New Jerusalem” that came to be the hope of the settlers.

Mary befriends Anne Hutchinson, a midwife who leads increasingly popular Biblical discussion groups in her home.  Ever watchful for heretics, they both come to the attention of the Puritan leadership, and when Mary births a deformed stillborn child, word spreads that her offspring is punishment for her support of Hutchinson’s sacrilegious Quaker beliefs.  What follows is a story of persecution, despondency, banishment, and martyrdom.

A chronicling of the corrupting effects of power has long been a literary mainstay, and that perhaps is at the heart of some truly great books.  Beth Powning has written a standout novel that finds its modern correlates in extremist movements throughout the world.  How power germinates, how it is enforced, and where are found the blind-spots of those who decree morality; all are examined here with sensitivity, grace, historical accuracy, and high style.

Since her first appearance at Words Worth with her inimitable Hatbox Letters, Beth Powning has been a favourite around here and we are very pleased to welcome her back.

Wednesday, March 4, 7pm: Elisabeth De Mariaffi & Claire Cameron

Given the prolonged deep freeze outside, no one needs a reason to welcome an early spring this year more than we do! In that spirit, Words Worth Books would like to kick off our spring events with a couple thrillers that will get your blood pumping!

In a year of Gone Girl-mania, (and now an assortment of copycat novels,) Elisabeth de Mariaffi's The Devil You Know offers welcome respite from a quickly tiring formula.

There's not much we like more than a truly fine thriller, and de Mariaffi's second novel, following the Giller-longlisted How to Get Along with Women, works on every level.

Evie is a young reporter for an Ontario paper in the early 90s. She is covering a developing story involving a series of missing girls and a possible serial rapist. Resourceful and mercurial, Evie is uncomfortably aware of her unique personal and professional connection to the story; she is haunted still by the unsolved murder of Lianne, her best friend from childhood.

The Devil You Know is atmospheric, very smart, and there's much more going on here than most thrillers allow for.

Whatever Elisabeth de Mariaffi does next will be worth the wait.

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Claire Cameron first came on the scene with her spare and harrowing novel, The Line Painter. Her new book, The Bear, has garnered international acclaim with reviews in The Globe & Mail, The National Post, Independent (UK), Chatelaine, and O Magazine.

Told in the voice of five-year-old Anna who, with her little brother, fights to survive in the Algonquin wilderness after their parents are killed in a savage bear attack. Sure of hand and large of heart, Cameron has crafted a gripping and mesmerizing exploration of the Anna’s psyche as she struggles to protect her brother while at the same time protecting herself from fully realizing the horror of her situation.

Clear, propulsive, and poignant, The Bear is worthy of the attention it has received.

Join us at the store on Wednesday, March 4 at 7pm in welcoming Elisabeth de Mariaffi and Claire Cameron for a reading, Q&A, and autograph session. Free Event!