The books I bought in Canada!

Back-to-back haul posts! Though there was quite a gap between the book-buying excursions – and this one was all the way to Canada. I’ve just come back from a couple of weeks visiting Calgary, Banff, and Vancouver, which were really fun. Some lows along the way (emergency dental trip; heavy rain and storms in apparently-usually-sunny Calgary) but lots of highs (beautiful Lake Louise and Moraine Lake; aquabusing in Vancouver; having lunch with Claire the Captive Reader; strolling through parks and eating a lot of pancakes, poutine and Dairy Queen). And our flat in Vancouver was so beautiful, with the most extraordinary views out over the city.

And, of course, the bookshops. We didn’t have any hold luggage, so I decided that I would be very abstemious with the books I bought.

Reader, I was deluding myself.

I bought plenty of books, relying on the fact that they don’t weigh cabin bags, and throwing out a pair of jeans that had a well-timed hole in them. I also left behind the plaid worn above, which was an emergency thrifted item when we realised that Banff was going to be about 20 degrees colder than originally forecast.

As on my previous trip, I was trying to buy only books that are hard to find here – and I stuck even better to my resolve to buy Canadian authors, with only one American author sneaking in alongside them. Here are the books I bought, divided into categories of why I bought them…

THE BOOKS I WENT HOPING TO FIND

There were a handful of books on my wishlist for this trip, and I found pretty much all of them! I don’t think any of them are very hard to track down in Canada, but they’re all pretty unusual in the UK.

The Innocent Traveller by Ethel Wilson
My Golightly and Other Stories by Ethel Wilson
I think I have everything by Wilson now. And had the happy bonus of the man in the bookshop telling me that Mr Golightly and Other Stories was one of his favourite books – I was looking for both of these throughout my trip, and eventually located them in the enormous MacLeod’s in Vancouver. It thankfully had a section devoted to Canadian authors.

Crackpot by Adele Wiseman
I didn’t know anything about this before, but when I saw it listed in the back of This Side Jordan by Margaret Laurence (which I read on the trip) and saw it had an afterword by Laurence herself, I was keen to stumble upon a copy – and stumble I did.

Wild Dogs by Helen Humphreys
And A Dog Called Fig by Helen Humphreys
Humpheys’ novels are usually historical and usually set outside Canada, and neither of those things were what I wanted – but I knew that she had an early novel, Wild Dogs, set in modern-day Canada. Not only did I find it in the basement of a shop in Inglewood, Calgary, but it was signed by her! Staying on the dog theme, I was also keen to read her newish non-fiction that traces her writing life alongside the dogs she has loved.

THE BOOKS I WAS RECOMMENDED

When I was in the lovely Pages, Books bookshop in Kensington, Calgary, I asked a couple of people for recommendations – firstly one of my fellow shoppers, who recommended the Urquhart, and then the people behind the desk. It was really fun. All I said was that I wanted Canadians writing about Canada, so I didn’t tell them a lot about my actual tastes, but fingers crossed.

Prairie Edge by Connor Kerr
I’ve already finished this novel, about a couple of disaffected young Métis people releasing Bisons into downtown Edmonton, Alberta, and I thought it was excellent. Good recommendation!

River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta
A New Season by Terry Fallis
The Whirlpool by Jane Urquhart
I don’t know much about these, other than that Fallis is apparently funny and Urquhart’s novel is set in late-19th-century Niagara Falls, but the enthusiasm of the recommendations won me over.

THE OTHER BOOKS THAT TEMPTED ME

The Irrational Season by Madeleine L’Engle
The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L’Engle
Here is my sole non-Canadian. I’ve already enjoyed the fourth of her autobiographical books, Two-Part Invention, so now I can read some of the others.

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart
No relation to Jane, so far as I can tell. A new-books bookshop in Calgary had a little slip inside all books by Canadian authors or Canadian presses (or, as in this case, both) and I went through every single one of them. None were crying out to me, until I got to the very last one in the shop – and I was very intrigued by this essay collection. I’ve finished it already, and it’s a brilliant combination of folklore with Urquhart’s (and other women’s) everyday experiences. Really well done.

Deep Hollow Creek by Sheila Wilson
A Canadian classic, according to the blurb, and written in the 1930s about a woman taking up a teaching post in a one-room schoolhouse in a frontier settlement. Yes please!

The Student by Cary Fagan
I can’t remember why I picked this one up, but fingers crossed!

The Book of Eve by Constance Beresford-Howe
Another one picked from shelves dedicated to Canadian authors (in Fair’s Fair in Calgary, possessors of the excellent sign at the top of this post) – I was tempted by the story of a 65-year-old woman walking out of her stagnant marriage and setting up in a boarding house. I read it on the plane on the way home, and really enjoyed it.

So far, I’ve read five of my new purchases already, and they’ve all been very good – watch this space for full thoughts on them all… anything that particular catches your eye?