Latest news with #LouisePenny
CBC
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Cranbrook Public Library celebrates 100 years of accessible literature
The public library in Cranbrook, B.C., is celebrating a century of serving the community. The library in the East Kootenay city turned 100 on July 4, garnering congratulatory greetings from the likes of authors Louise Penny, Ann Patchett and John Grisham. Simon Tolkien, a historical fiction writer and grandson of Lord of the Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien, sent a video offering well wishes. "What a journey the library has travelled, from such humble beginnings in 1925 ... with just 95 members to the thriving institution you are today, with a membership of over 10,000," Tolkien said in a video to library staff. "Congratulations to you all on this wonderful occasion." According to its website, the library opened its doors to the public on July 4, 1925 with a small collection of donated books and was open nine hours a week. Mike Selby, deputy director of the Cranbrook Public Library, said the mayor at the time checked out the first library book. Libraries nowadays often make headlines around issues such as banned books and drag queen story time. The Cranbrook library got its first taste of controversy in 1939 when a patron destroyed a copy of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men because he didn't think it was a decent book. According to the library's website, the patron was "thoroughly admonished by the Library Board and told that members were not to act as censors." In the late '50s, the library had outgrown its original space and moved into a new building. As demand for books grew, and technology changed over the decades, the Cranbrook library — like many libraries — has had to adapt. Selby, who has worked at the library for almost two decades, said a lot has changed during his time there. But one thing remained: the citizens and leaders in Cranbrook believed in free access to books and information, Selby said. "To have that go for 100 years is really something special." B.C. Premier David Eby said libraries are important now more than ever. "In an age of disinformation and misinformation, you promote literacy, as well as the critical thinking necessary to separate fact from fiction," he said in a video. Chief librarian Ursula Brigl said libraries are about much more than just information. "It's also a place where people can come to work, to study, to breathe, to relax, to get out of the elements. It's also a place where people are free to be themselves. It's a place where they can explore and be curious and discover something new.
CBC
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Louise Penny in conversation with Mattea Roach at a live Toronto event this fall
Social Sharing Mattea Roach will be hosting an evening in conversation with bestselling Canadian author Louise Penny on Nov. 28 at Massey Hall in Toronto. It will be broadcast on a future episode of Bookends with Mattea Roach and CBC's Live at Massey Hall series on CBC Gem and YouTube. Quebec writer Penny will answer Roach's questions in an on-stage interview and celebrate the Oct. 28 release of her latest Chief Inspector Gamache novel, The Black Wolf. The Black Wolf is the 20th mystery in the Inspector Gamache series and follows the investigations of the head of the homicide department of the Sûreté du Québec. In this latest adventure, Gamache and his team uncover and prevent a domestic terrorist attack in Montréal, arresting a man known as the Black Wolf. But the arrest only uncovers a deeper conspiracy, most notably a sinister plot to make Canada the 51st state of the United States. "When I wrote The Black Wolf, I worried I'd gone too far. I no longer have that fear," Penny said in a statement. Penny is a celebrated writer best known for her mystery series following Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. The book series includes The Grey Wolf, Still Life, Bury Your Dead, A Trick of the Light and A World of Curiosities. It has sold more than four million copies worldwide. In 2022, the series was adapted into an Amazon Original eight-episode series called Three Pines. Penny won the 2020 Agatha Award for best contemporary novel for the 16th book in the series, All the Devils Are Here. In 2013, she was named to the Order of Canada. "I'm beyond excited to chat with Penny as she celebrates the release of the 20th novel in her Inspector Gamache series," said Roach. "She is not only a talented writer, but also an amazing advocate for Quebec and Canada, and her love for her home in the Eastern Townships is evident in all her work." "I'm also so honoured to be bringing Bookends to the iconic Massey Hall for this live show. Massey has been the site of some of my fondest concert-going memories and getting to take the stage there myself feels like a great gift."
Wall Street Journal
30-05-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
How a Small Library in Vermont Became a Symbol of Resistance for Canada
DERBY LINE, Vt.—The stately, stone-and-stained-glass library in this tiny border town in the rolling hills of Vermont plays a pivotal role in Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny's forthcoming novel. In the book, a shadowy cabal has hatched a plot to tap Canada's vast resources by making it the 51st state. Penny's beloved Chief Inspector Armand Gamache meets with a U.S. contact at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, trying to foil the plan.
Edmonton Journal
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
'Disproportionately punish Canadians': Book industry worries about the possibility of tariffs in trade war
Article content Thousands of Canadian authors have dreamed of the success of blockbuster Canadian author Louise Penny, whose internationally beloved Inspector Gamache books are indisputably Canadian content, set in the made-up, quirky Quebec hamlet of Three Pines. But where a Canadian story is imagined, written, agented, printed, published, and promoted for maximum international market impact — these elements can be inextricably interwoven, even more so than a Chevy's various border-crossing automotive bits and parts — and impossible to reduce to the strict simplicity of a tariff.
CBC
30-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Louise Penny says attacks on Canadian sovereignty are ‘beyond disconcerting'
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Canadian author Louise Penny about cancelling the U.S. dates on her book tour and supporting the Haskell Free Library and Opera House on the Canada-U.S. border.
