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Words
Worth Staff or "Your Personal Shopping Service"
Staring at a wall of books can be an intimidating or
an exciting prospect. Let our staff help by clarifying your needs and placing the best books in your hands. From the thousands of
books we have collectively seen and read, each of us has gleaned the
gold from the dross and we want to pass this onto you! We all have gifts
to buy through out the year and we all know how hard it can be to find
the perfect gift. And a book is always the perfect gift - for yourself
or loved ones! Feel free to contact or email staff individually
for the book advice. Click on their name for their email address.
Also check out our list of the top 25 books that
we created to celebrate our 25th Anniversary. You can read the list
HERE.
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Tricia
- Co Owner & Head of
Safety Committee |
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The "mama" of Words Worth, Tricia does
the bookkeeping and loves to hand sell so much that she feels
like every day is a party at the store. Tricia is a lover of great
fiction. She is always involved in Uptown
issues, knits while watching movies, and gardens passionately. Seek
her out for knitting and gardening books as well as general history,
parenting and the perfect picture books to read to grandchildren.
Click
HERE to read books previously recommended by Tricia Currently Reading:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
is a cross between Lord of the Flies and 1984, mixed with the
television program, “Survivor”. This is a futuristic novel where
Panem, the country that has replaced North America, has a lottery in
each of its twelve districts every year of one girl and one boy, to
fight to the death in a televised games arena. The “games” are
punishment for an uprising that was held in the country 75 years
earlier. The story is told in the first person by Katniss Everdeen
who chooses to replace her 12 year old sister, Prim, the pick from
the lottery. Because the story is in the first person we know she is
going to win the games but how she does it and what the games
involve kept me reading far into the night. The first of a trilogy,
I rushed back to the store to get the second volume,
Catching Fire, which I whipped through in a day it was so
intriguing. Now I have to wait until August to get the final volume,
Mockingjay! |
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Bronwyn - Event Coordinator &
Marketing Nit-picker |
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From the age of twelve, Bronwyn has worked at Words Worth and has done
almost every job in the store (blindfolded, backwards and in heels)!
Bronwyn is an African and Black history aficionado. Also ask her about
anything with art instructions and crafts, and we mean the whole gamut!
Her other passions include
armchair travel, books for parents and expecting moms and only the
coolest and smartest books for kids of
all ages.
Click
HERE to read books previously
recommended by Bronwyn
Really Enjoying:
The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson
The extraordinary story of a young North
American's conversion to Islam and her ensuing romance with an Egyptian
man, The Butterfly Mosque is a stunning articulation of a Westerner
embracing the Muslim world
After graduating from university, Willow Wilson, a young American — and
newly converted Muslim — impulsively accepts a teaching position in Cairo.
There, she meets Omar, a passionate young nationalist with a degree in
astrophysics. Omar introduces Willow to the bustling city, and through him
she discovers a young, moderate nationalist movement, a movement that both
wants to divest itself of western influence and regain cultural pride.
When the two find themselves unexpectedly in love, despite their deep
cultural differences, they decide that they will try to forge a third
culture, a new landscape that will embrace some of each of their cultures,
and give their fledgling romance some hope of survival. Wilson weaves this
engaging personal story with deep insights into faith in a fractured
world, and gives westerners rare insight into an important young reform
movement. Butterfly Mosque is an inspiring account of an unlikely
cross-cultural love, and the moving story of two young people working
within the boundaries of contemporary religion and culture to forge a life
together against the odds.
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David - Manager & Scotch lover |
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Since 1999 David
has been a mainstay of Words Worth Books. "Consider it done" is David's
motto, and it is true. For the hard to track book or any book-related
chore, we count on David for help. His knowledge of books is amazing, and
his sense of humour keeps both customers and staff grinning. David has
read almost every piece of fiction that has graced our shelves, pick his
brain in particular for stellar mysteries, and the
best in current events and politics. He also seems to have the location of
every book in the store tattooed to his
brain - always helpful in a pinch.
Dave loves mysteries - click
HERE for some of his favorites and
click HERE to read other books
previously recommended by David
Loved:
John Doyle's
The World is a Ball:The Joy, Madness and Meaning
of Soccer is a traveling man's look at
the last few World Cups and European
Championships from the perspective of a fluid
writer, knowledgeable fan and apparently an
excellent drinking companion. The Globe and
Mail's TV columnist knows from spectacle and it
shows.
One of the joys of soccer at an elite level is
how differently it's played from continent to
continent. Broad brushes aside, the European
game differs from the South and Central African
variety, and as for the Africans well...
whenever African teams put a scare into the
powerful European clubs, it makes for an
electrifying spectacle. Doyle does this
particularly well. He's great when describing
an upset in the making and is equally able to
convey the artistry of Brazilian soccer and the elan common to the French game, as well as what
it all means off the field.
Soccer is politics, history, and inexorably
linked to the blood of many dozens of nations.
Doyle illuminates many of them and has a good
deal of fun doing it, sometimes on the Globe and
Mail's dime; occasionally on his own. He makes
the point early that he's not a sports writer
and The World is a Ball is no mere sports tome.
Rather, Doyle gets out of the stadium and onto
the streets and bars to get a look at fans the
world over. The result is a breezy, funny and
poignant look at nothing less than what makes
most of the world tick.
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Chris - Receiver & Resident
Techie |
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Chris is our
soft-spoken guy with quiet sarcastic humour. He does most of the processing of
book shipments and knows all that's worth knowing about J.R.R.
Tolkien. He also knows his way around our Science Fiction and Fantasy
Shelves, both for adults and children/teens and keeps his eye on all great
graphic novels. We're not
sure if he can do anything backwards and blindfolded except riding his
bike!
Click HERE to read books previously
recommended by Chris
Is Savoring: Market Day by James Sturm
An all too common tale of a craftsperson not being able
to make a living because of cheaply made rubbish. Mendleman, a proud
artisan, takes his donkey-drawn cart to the market only to be turned away
when the distinctive shop he once sold to now only stocks cheaply
manufactured merchandise. What follows is a heartbreaking unravelling as
Mendleman tries one shop after and the realities of the market place sink
in. James Sturm has drawn a quiet, reflective and beautiful portrait of
Eastern Europe on the brink of the industrial revolution. Market
Day is an ageless tale of how economic and social forces can affect a
single life.
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Mandy - Magazine &
Newsletter
Guru |
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Mandy has a particular mission in life to
make sure that pre-teens and teens are reading only the best books
available. Her other interests include books on world religion,
spirituality and children's titles. She is our magazine manager and loves
to track down hard-to-find-magazines. And Mandy also takes charge of our
amazing blogs and edits our e-newsletter. We are used to her
harassing us at the end of the month for book reviews for her Words
Worth marketing endeavors.
Click HERE to read books previously
recommended by Mandy
Relished: Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Inspired by the glory
of Tang Dynasty China in the eighth century, Guy
Gavriel Kay melds history and the fantastic into
something both powerful and emotionally
compelling. Under Heaven is a novel on the
grandest narrative scale, encompassing the
intimate details of individual lives in an
unforgettable time and place.
Shen Tai is the son of
a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in
that empire's last war against their western
enemies from Tagur, twenty years before. Forty
thousand men on both sides were slain beside a
remote mountain lake. General Shen Gao himself has
died recently. To honour his father's memory, Tai
has spent two years of official mourning alone at
the battle site among the ghosts of the dead,
laying to rest their unburied bones.One spring
morning, he learns that others have taken note of
his vigil. The White Jade Princess in Tagur is
pleased to present him with two hundred and fifty
Sardian horses, given, she writes, in recognition
of his courage, and honour done to the dead. You
gave a man one of the famed Sardians to reward him
greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him
above his fellows, and earn him jealousy, possibly
mortal. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable
gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor. Tai starts
east towards the glittering, dangerous imperial
capital and gathers his wits for a return from
solitude by a mountain lake to his own
forever-altered life.
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Caroline -
Everyone's Favorite Bartender |
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Caroline is our newest full-time staff
person. She still bartends part-time at Jane Bond which explains
her meows and winking eyes. Guaranteed she will call you honey or
dude or if you're really lucky both! Carolyn loves hanging out with
the magazines or doing displays.
Click HERE to read books
previously recommended by Caroline
Just Loves:
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel
Christ by Philip Pullman
In The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
Philip Pullman seems to tread closer to
agnostic territory than to the atheism with
which he is usually associated. Having not
read the His Dark Materials series, I wasn't
familiar with Pullman's previous approach, but
I have heard him described as "atheism for
children". The Good Man Jesus and the
Scoundrel Christ is part of The Myths Series
from Knopf, and when they approached Pullman
to write a book for it, his decision to write
about Jesus was a controversial one- the back
of the book reads simply: THIS IS A STORY.
Which is an assertion some Christians might
take exception to.
In Pullman's version of the story, Jesus is
doubled. There is Jesus, but there is also his
twin brother, who is nic-named Christ. Jesus
is a good, upstanding man who becomes a
spiritual leader, where as Christ is portrayed
as weak and studious. In following the two
characters, Pullman illustrated the difference
between the historical Jesus, an elusive
figure that actually existed and about whom we
don't know very much, and the figure of
Christ, who was largely a creation of the
early Church used to inspire devotion.
What I really enjoyed about the book, which
was surprisingly easy to read despite dealing
with pretty weighty subject matter, was the
focus on the scoundrel character. Pullman
never tells us the corrupt twin's name, but he
is clearly meant to represent Judas. He comes
pretty close to expressing the same idea the
great Argentinian writer Jorges Luis Borges
makes in his short story Three Versions of
Judas, that Judas is the real sacrificial
figure. In order for Jesus to become our
redeemer, Judas had to betray his friend and
be reviled throughout history. Where Pullman
differs from Borges here is in his focus on
the early church, and the machinery of
religion, that blurs the facts of history and
creates a story that will captivate people for
centuries and ensure their belief.
Fascinating stuff, if you're a lapsed Catholic
who's still captivated by the
historiographical mysteries of religion, like
me.
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Erica
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Our Kids Expert! |
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 School
supply teacher by day and super bookseller by night, Erica is eager to
share her love
of kids books and fiction with you.
We hope that she will want to use her teacher talents during our monthly
kids events, provided she isn't to tired from school children during the
week!
Click HERE
to read books previously recommended by Erica
Thought Highly Of: An
Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Colin Singleton always falls for girls
named Katherine--and he's been dumped by all of them. Letting
expectations go and allowing love in are part of Colin's hilarious
quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere. |
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Laura
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Our Part-time Fiddler |
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Laura is a university student, taking international
development courses. Naturally sociology, current events and history are
some of her favorite sections. When not reading or studying Laura plays
a fiddle in a rock band and loves to bike. She may be quiet, but she has
strong opinions!
Click HERE
to read books previously recommended by Laura
Devoured: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with
the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west
with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition
head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a
completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named
Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the
necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and
friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising
resources in apparently empty places.
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Chuck - Co Owner (currently on
sabbatical but still avidly reading) |
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The "papa" of the bookstore, Chuck is a
jack of all trades. Computer expert, book buyer and visionary, Chuck
reads constantly and writes reviews for the local newspaper. Chuck
always has a carpentry project on the go. You can see him with an
electric drill at hand as he dreams about his next sailing trip. A
typical gentleman; Chuck knows his way around nautical books,
architecture, woodworking, house building, plus topics in
spirituality, psychology, self-help, and physics.
Chuck writes a regular book column for The
Record. Read the latest column
HERE |
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