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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.

Tricia - Co Owner & Head of Safety Committee

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: Galore by Michael Crummey

is a multi-generational novel set in a small out port community in Newfoundland. I admit I have a bias in favour of Michael’s books: everything he has written I have loved and this book is no exception. I could smell the ocean, taste the food, shiver on the beach, weep over the sad parts and laugh teary-eyed at the antics while reading this book. It is a joy to read.  

Bronwyn - Event Coordinator &  Marketing Nit-picker

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: Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn

I'm only half way through this book and I feel like my eyes are opened at every chapter on issues affecting women in "developing" countries. I think most of us are aware of the trafficking of people (mostly women and children) but with so many other issues stalking our media landscape, this slips into a forgotten corner. The authors are trying to bring these important issues back to the forefront. One idea that I am already impressed with is a solution to fighting terrorism: educate girls - most countries that breed terrorism are extremely patriarchal.

David - Manager & Scotch lover

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: Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
One wonders how many great reviews Dan Chaon has to amass before he breaks into best seller status.

Three connected stories around absence, shifting identities and actual identity theft converge in a thriller like climax, but Chaon has literary chops like few other American authors. His characters are full and entirely human and he writes perfect sentences. Dan Chaon is on my shortlist of favourites and I’ll bail on most anything else to read new work from him.

Chris - Receiver & Resident Techie

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 reading his bike!

Click HERE to read books previously recommended by Chris

 

Is Savoring: Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson

At the heart of a brilliant narrative that stretches from Renaissance Italy to the moons of Jupiter is one man, the father of modern science: Galileo Galilei.To the inhabitants of the Jovian moons, Galileo is a revered figure whose actions will influence the subsequent history of the human race. From the summit of their distant future, a charismatic renegade named Ganymede travels to the past to bring Galileo forward in an attempt to alter history and ensure the ascendancy of science over religion. And if that means Galileo must be burned at the stake, so be it.From Galileo's heresy trial to the politics of far-future Jupiter, from the canals of Venice to frozen, mysterious Europa, Robinson illuminates the parallels between a distant past and an even more remote future—in the process celebrating the human spirit and calling into question the convenient truths of our own moment in time.

Mandy - Magazine & Newsletter Guru

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: The Space Between by Don Aker
Once bitten by a werewolf, a person will spend time switching back and forth between wolf and human until only in cold weather will he or she remain a wolf. Then, after so many years of living as both, a person becomes a wolf fully, leaving their human life. Grace was dragged into the woods by wolves when she was younger, but never changed. Ever since she has had a connection with one yellow-eyed wolf in particular who watches her from the edge of the woods by her house. Until one day she meets Sam and can't shake the feeling that she "knows" him somehow. Grace and Sam have a few dilemmas around their romance as Sam's pack attack a too important human and the whole town is up in arms. Read more HERE

Carolyn - Everyone's Favorite Bartender

Carolyn 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.

 

Just Loves: The Witch of Portobello Road by Paulo Coelho

How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves—even if we are unsure of who we are?

That is the central question of international bestselling author Paulo Coelho's profound new work, The Witch of Portobello. It is the story of a mysterious woman named Athena, told by the many who knew her well—or hardly at all. Like The Alchemist, The Witch of Portobello is the kind of story that will transform the way readers think about love, passion, joy, and sacrifice.

Erica - Our Kids Expert!

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: Swim by Marianne Apostolides.

Swim entwines the present with those past actions and consequences that have brought Kat to the Greek mountain village where her father was born. She swims laps while her fourteen-year-old daughter reclines on a chaise lounge, poolside, reading a book. Without ever leaving the pool we enter discrete scenes with Kat's parents, daughter, husband and lover. On entering each point in this history, Kat reveals an undertow of sound, rhythm and words in their rippling meanings. Each new lap moves Kat closer to her impending decision: whether she will leave her husband. But the deeper tension within this innovative novel derives from the writing itself its vital urgency that extends the possibilities of narrative beyond the fixed and into the fluid.

Laura - Our  Part-time Fiddler
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: Red Bird by Mary Oliver

"Red bird came all winter / firing up the landscape / as nothing else could." So begins Mary Oliver's twelfth book of poetry, and the image of that fiery bird stays with the reader, appearing in unexpected forms and guises until, in a postscript, he explains himself: "For truly the body needs / a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this work, / the soul has need of a body, / and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable / beauty of heaven / where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes, / and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart."

This collection of sixty-one new poems, the most ever in a single volume of Oliver's work, includes an entirely new direction in the poet's work: a cycle of eleven linked love poems-a dazzling achievement. As in all of Mary Oliver's work, the pages overflow with her keen observation of the natural world and her gratitude for its gifts, for the many people she has loved in her seventy years, as well as for her disobedient dog, Percy. But here, too, the poet's attention turns with ferocity to the degradation of the Earth and the denigration of the peoples of the world by those who love power. Red Bird is unquestionably Mary Oliver's most wide-ranging volume to date.

Chuck - Co Owner (currently on sabbatical but still avidly reading)

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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100 King St South, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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last updated January 19, 2010. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited.
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