As we count down to the end of 2024, we would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you who has supported us throughout the year.
-Happy Holidays Amy, Sue, Erin, Kiara, and Sophia.
We started 2024 with a “Crewe Brew Tea” with Lesley Crewe. Crewe Brew is a limited edition tea made by Teamancy in Cape Breton. Teamancy describes Crewe Brew as a gorgeous blueberry black tea with hints of lemon, created in partnership with Lesley’s release of Recipe for a Good Life. Lesley told us that the blueberry was for her granddaughter whom she calls Blueberry and the tea idea came from a publicist in Toronto. Since Lesley has so many people sitting around the table drinking tea in her books why not come up with a brew- Crewe Brew? We also served Vintage Tea Pot and Cup cookies made by Jen at BZ Cookies & Crafts at the event.
In February Dartmouth Book Exchange was the bookseller at Nova Swoons. This meet-cute event held at The Carleton in Halifax was organized by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia as a fundraiser for their many amazing programs including creative writing workshops, the residency program at Jampolis Cottage in Avonport, the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, and Writers In the Schools. The evening was filled with fun, flirty, and sexy readings, and hosted by local drag artist Anna Mona Pia. The event, which had more than 70 people in attendance, featured 8 Nova Scotian authors of romance fiction, from historical romance and rom-coms to the supernatural. Halifamous readers included NDP MLA Lisa Lachance, meteorologist Cindy Day, CBC’s Portia Clark, and the fabulous Anna Mona Pia who did several readings. This was just one of several events that we were the booksellers for in off-site locations in 2024 including the Chester Playhouse, The Nova Scotia Museum of The Atlantic, the Woodlawn Library, and The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.
In April we held a successful Not A Snow Day, But a Crow Day Corvid Tea. We served Edgar Allan Poe’s Nevermore Inspired- Buttered Rum Black Tea made by NovelTea. Storyteller Cindy Campbell-Stone began the evening by reading Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven published in 1845. Nicola Davison discussed her Ann Conner Brimer award-winning novel, Decoding Dot Grey. Concluding the night was special guest Vernon Oickle. We were the first stop on the launch of his 8th book in his crow series; Eight Crows for a Wish set in Liverpool Nova Scotia. Between our guests, no one who attended the event will look at a crow the same way again.
In May we played host to “A Dbex Crime Spree Tea”. We served NovelTea’s Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime & Punishment Inspired- Vanilla Bean Black Tea. Donalee Moulton introduced her new historical crime novel Conflagration. CP Daly spoke about her new suspense stand-alone crime thriller Bloody Water set in Halifax. Laura Churchill Duke spoke about her historical creative nonfiction true crime novels Two Crows Sorrow and Rooted in Deception, both set in rural Nova Scotia in the early 1900s. It was an evening of suspense, deceit, murder, the justice system, and a healthy amount of discussion about the history of hangings in Nova Scotia.
In June we were the hosts in a “Be a Warrior, Not a Worrier Empowerment Tea” with local authors; Heidi Tattrie-Rushton (Pet Tales) and Melanie Mosher (Bertie Stewart is Perfectly Imperfect). Therapist Jean Mason and Psychologist Naomi S. Aquino joined us to round out and enrich the event. We enjoyed Persuasion Inspired – Chamomile Herbal Tea by NovelTea, a variety of cookies inspired by Grammy Stewart (made by Melanie), short readings by both authors, and lots of questions and contributions from all those in attendance.
We sold our first Blind Date With A Book on October 9th, 2014. In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we hosted a “Blind Date With a Book Speed Dating Night”. A Blind Date With A Book or a mystery book are books that are wrapped in brown craft paper so you cannot see the cover. For our Speed Dating Night, we wrote the genre of the mystery book on the outside. Then the opening sentence or two was typed on a card slipped into the fold of the brown paper. The opening sentence of a book is very important; it must grab the reader’s attention, enticing them to continue past the first page and keep reading. The first sentence also allows the author to showcase their writing style, introduce their main character, or establish an event that upsets the status quo. For our Blind Date with a Book Speed Dating night, the opening line or two served as the Blind Date’s “Pick-Up” line. This very successful event will be repeated on February 13th, Galentine’s Day with special guest Jane Doucet, the queen of first lines.
A great time was had at our ‘Haunting Good Evening’ in October. We served Wuthering Heights-inspired tea, a S’Mores Black Tea by NovelTea. We hosted special guest authors B.R. Myers (The Third Wife of Faraday House) and Deanna Foster (A Pocket Full of Blood), whose latest releases fall under the genre Gothic Mystery, with a pinch of romance and storyteller Cindy Campbell-Stone. After the event, Deanna did Tarot readings for guests.
On Saturday, November 30, we celebrated L.M. Montgomery’s 150th Birthday in style. We hosted a tea with special guests; Hope Dalvay, Susan White, and Mere Joyce, three of Canada’s 10 young adult fiction authors whose stories were chosen for “The ANNEthology” released in June. We served Anne of Green Gables inspired Raspberry Cordial Herbal Tea by NovelTea and Anne’s Devine Delights Milk & Dark chocolates imported from the Island.
In December we gathered on the Anniversary of the Halifax Explosion with special guests Donna Jones Alward and her new historical fiction novel, When The World Fell Silent, Jennie Marsland and her historical romance Shattered, and Katie Ingram and her nonfiction, Breaking Disaster: Newspaper Stories of the Halifax Explosion. We served NovelTea’s Cider House Rules inspired Apple Chai-der Herbal Tea and talked about the Halifax Explosion.
We had 12 great Locally Authored Book Club Meetings this year, hosting several Special Guests including Richard Levengie author of the middle-grade novel Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve, Anne Louise O’Connell who presented Awfully Hilarious: Period Pieces, Amanda Crewe and her novel Of Peat Moss + Prayers, Barbara Emodi and her Gasper’s Cove cozy mystery series, Gina N. Brown and her latest novel The Sugar Bowl Feud, and Susan LeBlanc, who presented her book The Nowhere Places. Of special note was our June meeting with special guests Lorelei Nicoll- MLA Cole Harbour-Dartmouth, and Bretton Loney who presented Bretton’s book Joe Howe’s Ghost. The night started like our regular meetings do. Our members presented their books to the group and when finished, they placed them in the basket. Then came Joe Howe’s Ghost. It was our biggest meeting to date.
We had many more exciting events this year including Amelia Earhart- The Woman, The Myth, The Legend with Canadian author Heather Stemp who visited us from Ontario. We were the booksellers at Michelle Robinson‘s book launch of her picture book Lobster’s Vacation and Lesley Crewe‘s Book Launch of Death and Other Inconveniences both held at the Woodlawn Library. The booksellers at Donna Jones Alward‘s Book Launch for When The World Fell Silent and her Tuesday Night Book Talk at the Museum of the Atlantic: Hidden Helpers- Stories of Women and their Relief Efforts of the 1917 Halifax Explosion. The 6th annual Bookstore Romance Day with guest authors Michelle Helliwell, Deanna Foster, and from Ontario Jamie Anderson. We served Emma-inspired Novel Tea and ate decadent chocolate mini cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream icing. We also had numerous authors visit our store this year including Canadian Crime Fiction Writer Rick Mofina.
We had a wonderful year full of fun events, some pretty great-tasting tea, and several great readings. We hope to continue to make more community connections in the New Year and we thank you for your continued support of the store.