Paul Quarrington & Harry Potter

Paul Quarrington, noted Canadian writer, musician and filmmaker, will be at Pennywise on Saturday, May 5 at 3:00 to sign copies of his books.

Quarrington, whose works have been nominated for some of the most prestigious awards in Canada, will be in Brandon with his band Porkbelly Futures. This group will be performing two shows at the Music Studio that evening.

It is a true honour to host this signing, and I encourage you to hurry down to pick up a copy of one of his books (and I mean HURRY -- we're already down to only a few copies of three titles).

On another note: plans are coming together for our Harry Potter party. We have received permission to close the street in front of the store and have booked all sorts of entertainment and attractions. This party will take place on the evening of Friday, July 20 leading up to the opening of the store at 12:01 AM for the release of the final book in the Harry Potter series!

If you want to get involved in any way, or simply to ask more about anything happening at Pennywise, call us at 728-BOOK (2665) or email us at pennywise@westman.wave.ca.

Manitoba Book Week... and other stuff

Manitoba Book Week will be celebrated across the province from April 22 to 28. During this week, the focus is on celebrating Manitoba's locally published books. We will have our display of books out on the shelf in the next day or two, so be sure to drop in to check out a sampling of the quality books that are published in our province. Visit the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers website for more information.

For our part, we will be hosting an encore reading of "To the Grave" by the author, Mike McIntyre.

To the Grave is, undoubtedly, one of the hottest selling local-interest books of the past season. I know that we sold out repeatedly!

Now that many of you have read this book, I'm sure that you have questions you would like answered. Or, perhaps, you want to get your copy signed by the author. Maybe you don't even care about the signature, but you just want to meet Mike.

Mike will be at Pennywise Books on April 27 and will begin his reading at 7 PM. Let us know if you have any questions.

On another note, remember that on Sunday, April 22 at 7:00pm, Crocus Plains High School will host Mr. Stephen Lewis for a Community Evening in the Gymnasium.

All of Brandon 's citizens are invited to hear Mr. Lewis's passionate message and call to action against the devastating consequences of Africa's HIV/AIDS pandemic. Mr. Lewis will also be the keynote speaker for the student conference on Africa on April 23. The conference will be the highlight of the school's year - long focus on local and global awareness and citizenship.

Tickets are $10.00 and are available in the Front Office of Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School. For further information please contact Katie Bonk at bonk.katie@brandonsd.mb.ca.

If you would like to read Mr. Lewis' book "Race Against Time" prior to hearing him speak, we have plenty of copies in stock and will also be selling copies at the event.

Andrea Nair - March 29

On March 29 at 7:30 PM, former Brandonian and BU alumna Andrea Nair will be here at Pennywise Books to read from, discuss and answer questions about her book "Stripped Down Running" - a novel about Hannah, a young woman with a painful childhood that threatens to destroy her adult life.

Andrea, after teaching teenagers for a decade, has been studying the effects and recovery of traumatic experiences in childhood. She is passionate about helping children foster a love of learning, heal early wounds and regain self-esteem. She also guides parents to overcome their own challenges, therefore becoming more connected with themselves and their children.

If you have any questions about this event, please don't hesitate to call us.

Glenn Hopfner - January 25

Welcome to 2007! After a small break during the holidays, we are now back with a new year of what I hope will be a year filled with fascinating authors signing wonderful books.

The first signing of the year goes to Glenn Hopfner. A resident of Ste. Rose, Glenn is pleased to be coming to Brandon to read, discuss and sign copies of What Happened, his second book.

Glenn Hopfner is a natural born story-teller a delight to listen to at any time. For those of you who don't have the chance to meet him in person, reading the story of his life is the next best thing. It's pretty much like sitting around the kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee while an interesting person speaks entertainingly about interesting things. Glenn is an ordinary man who is living an extraordinary life. He's had plenty of close encounters with death, and more adventures than most people will ever know. He loves work and play, music and nature and animals and machines and people or all sorts. Most of all, he loves his family. Glenn is a spirited individual whose inspiring story will leave you asking for an encore.

His first book, Tales from the Tundra, is a compilation of stories Glenn has gathered while working for the Tundra Buggy company as a guide, interpreter, trouble-shooter, mechanic, and entertainer in Churchill during bear season.

On Thursday, January 25 at 7 PM, come on down to Pennywise Books at 1031 Rosser Ave to listen to Glenn's stories and meet this area author in person.

Book Launch - December 14

We here at Pennywise Books are pleased to be hosting the launch of "Dancing Winds" by James C. McCrae. On December 14 at 7:00 PM, Mr. McCrae will be reading from and signing copies of his first published novel.

Dancing Winds is the story of the forbidden love between a Jewish boy and the daughter of an SS officer in Hitler's Germany. A story of love, war, murder and forgiveness, this is a book that spans the years and the range of human emotions.

For more information about this book or the event on Dec. 14, please feel free to contact us here at Pennywise at (204) 728-2665.