PFB Top 10, 2015

Everyone keeps asking us for a best-of-the-year list.  We're not Oprah and this isn't our book club, but here's some titles enjoyed by PFB staff and regulars in 2015, not all of which were published in 2015. Go figure!  If I hadn't worked 100+ hours this week I might be amiable to a longer exegesis; as it is, names, title(s) & you're on your own, or drop in & we'll bend your ear.

Elena Ferrante, The Neopolitan Quartet

Vivian Gornick, The Odd Woman and the City

Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts

Anakana Schoefield, Martin John

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

Lucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning Women

Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang, In Real Life

Carrie Brownstein, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

Susan Musgrave, A Taste of Haida Gwaii: Food Gathering & Feasting at the Edge of the World

& our first PFB No-Prize: Aaron Peck, Jeff Wall: North & West

New Arrivals: Massive Black Lizard Collection

We've acquired 335 new, unread Black Lizard titles, the former contents of Creative Arts' California warehouse.

The books are available on a first-come, first-served basis at our Main Street shop as of noon today.

Special thanks to Jeff Maser of Berkeley, California for his kind assistance with this transaction.

Katherine Fawcett reads @ PFB Main Street

Please join Pemberton author Katherine Fawcett tomorrow night, Thursday June 25, from 7-9pm, as she reads from her debut collection of short fiction, The Little Washer of Sorrows.

Excellent review of the book over @ NPR:

"Fawcett lets her speculative side run wild. Like fellow fabulist Kelly Link — not to mention forebears such as Donald Barthleme — she finds fertile ground in the fuzzy territory between realism and surrealism. In 'BLK MGC,' a ripped-from-the-headlines pyramid scheme takes a left turn somewhere near The Twilight Zone; in 'The Anniversary Present,' an aging Mother Earth is addicted to beauty products while her husband, Father Time, has adulterous feelings for Sister Moon.

Domesticity plays as big a part in Fawcett's story as science fiction, fantasy, and mythology do. The tenderly combative interplay between the married couple in 'Lenny and the Polyamphibians' — which only intensifies when a mermaid enters into the equation — is poignantly layered, even as it sparks with snark. The couple in Little Washer's title story, on the other hand, are haunted by the most prosaic of monsters: Bankruptcy. As their estate manager begins to exhibit supernatural qualities, though, the balance of reality gets turned on its side."

May 2015 events @ PFB

A busy next few weeks for literary events @ PFB:

On Tuesday 19 May, please join Amber Dawn, Leah Horlick, Sigal Samuel and Rhonda Douglas @ PFB Main Street from 7-10pm.  Amber will read from her first book-length collection of poems, Where the Words End and My Body Begins (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2015). Sigal is launching her debut novel, The Mystics of Mile End (Freehand, 2015). Leah's most recent collection is For Your Own Good (Caitlin Press, 2015), and we also have copies of her first book, Riot Lung (Thistledown, 2012), on hand. Rhonda Douglas and her debut collection of short fiction, Welcome to the Circus (Freehand, 2015) rounds out the evening.

On Thursday 21 May, please join us offsite at Heartwood Community Cafe, 377 East Broadway, from 7-10pm, for a celebration of the life and poetry of Elise Partridge.  10+ guest readers will pay tribute to Elise's life and work; see the full line-up and further details here.

On Friday 22 May, please join North Vancouver writer Shawn Curtis Stibbards @ PFB Main Street from 7 to 9pm to launch his first novel, The Video Watcher (Biblioasis, 2015), with a special introduction by long-time friend of the shop Zsuzsi Gartner.

Finally, on Monday 25 May, please join Andrew Struthers for the launch of his new philosopho-travelogue Around the World on Minimum Wage (New Star, 2015).  Andrew will be joined by king of the Toronto small press scene Stuart Ross, whose new collection Further Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer (Anvil, 2015) is comprised of equal parts literary memoir, reckless tirade, and unsolicited advice for the aspiring writer.

(Photo: Amber Dawn, courtesy her website)

Peter Culley, 1958 - 2015

Announcing a public remembrance for Peter Culley, peerless poet, photographer, walker, critic, longtime friend of the shop, who passed away last week in South Wellington, BC.

Details:

Pulpfiction Books, 2422 Main Street, Vancouver

Saturday 18 April 2015, 8pm-late

Everyone is welcome.

"Come as you are"; bring food & booze or just yourself & memories.

PFB will supply some food & drink; New Star will bring copies of Pete's in-print books.

No agenda or schedule, just a chance to hang out with some like minded folks & remember a friend.

(Photo credit: Pete, by Ben Friedlander)

New Shelves @ Commercial Drive

Some Good News re: Special Orders & Most Hardcover Books

Over Christmas, we tried offering a little extra discount on hardcover books sourced from Canadian suppliers, by way of thanking everyone who's been coming in for years. 

That promotion was wildly successful, resulting in special order prices below those offered by our Monopolistic Online Competitor, and new book sales way out ahead of anything we have ever seen before.

Starting today, and continuing until further notice, almost all new hardcovers in the shops will be sold at 30% off Canadian cover price.  Most, but not all hardcovers special ordered from Canadian suppliers will be sold at 37%-40% off Canadian cover price. 

Once again, thanks to everyone who finds value in our work, and to those who prefer to shop in, and support, the communities where they work or live.