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The Herald Scotland
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
I love the Scottish bookshop that only sells romantic fiction
But it isn't just the cities the indies are colonising. Far from it. London dominates, unsurprisingly, but data shows that in Scotland it's the south-west which leads the way – also unsurprising given that it hosts Wigtown, home of the Wigtown Book Festival and Scotland's acknowledged book town. There's an almost equally good spread across the Highlands and Islands. A newer development in the world of independent bookshops is the rise of outlets catering to niche tastes or particular genres, a sure sign of confidence in the market. With the boom in the romantasy genre and the rise of TikTok as a means of promotion and the dissemination of pithy reviews there has been a slew of romance-centred bookshops opening across the Pond and inevitably the trend is now reaching these stores. Read More: In Edinburgh you'll find Book Lovers Bookshop, which was the first in the UK to open and which specialises in romance fiction. The capital also hosts Rare Birds, which specialises in writing by women. For those wanting something with a keen political edge there's Glasgow's venerable Calton Books. It styles itself 'the best wee radical bookshop on the planet', though if you wanted to test the theory you could also head for Lighthouse Books in Edinburgh. Sci-fi, comics and graphic novels? Hit Edinburgh's Transreal Fiction or Glasgow's City Centre Comics. We have nothing in Scotland to match Cambridge's crime specialist Bodies In The Bookshop – but it's surely only a matter of time. Blood list Stirling's crime fiction festival Bloody Scotland has just announced the 13-strong longlist for the prestigious McIlvanney Prize. It contains a pleasing bevvy of heavy hitters – Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Alan Parks and Ambrose Parry all feature, as does Liam McIlvanney after whose father the prize is named – while DV Bishop, whose Cesare Aldo novels are set in Renaissance Florence, makes the longlist for the second year running. Sir Ian Rankin (Image: PA) Among the other contenders are Lin Anderson, Daniel Aubrey Heather Critchlow, Allan Gaw, Callum McSorley, and Douglas Skelton, while Edinburgh-based Tariq Ashkanani steps up having won the Best Debut prize in 2022. He's one of five longlisted authors who have been previously shortlisted in that category. Quite the production line, then. 'It is great to see so many authors graduating from the debut shortlist to the main prize and slugging it out with more established names,' says festival director Bob McDevitt. 'I'm glad I don't have to pick a winner.' No indeed. That invidious task falls to the judges – BBC Radio Scotland presenter Nicola Meighan, journalist Arusa Qureshi and crime blogger Gordon McGhie. They will announce their decision on September 12, the festival's opening night. And finally I admit I had grave doubts about how Lana Del Rey would come across at Hampden Park. For over a decade now nobody can touch her for moody, Goth-tinged torch songs wrapped up in a lyrical and aesthetic conceit which turns LA into a hazy and sometimes hazardous playground. A singer with her feet in the 2020s and her beehive in the mid-1960s, Del Rey is quite simply incomparable. But intimacy is her calling card and that's difficult to achieve in a stadium setting. So how did it go? The Herald's Gabriel McKay was there to see. Elsewhere music critic Keith Bruce travelled to the East Neuk Festival for the opening concert which featured the Scottish Chamber Orchestra performing with Sean Shibe, one of a series of concerts Edinburgh's guitar wunderkind is giving across the programme. The theatre are hotting up as well – literally as well metaphorically, given the weather – and critic Neil Cooper has been busy. In Glasgow he caught a performance of Peter Arnott's dark and troubling monologue The Inquisitor at Òran Mór in Glasgow while across the city at the Tron Theatre he was in the audience for Douglas Maxwell's heart-warming Man's Best Friend. At the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, meanwhile, he watched a production of Ali Milles' The Croft, a ghost story set against the background of the Highland Clearances.
CBC
08-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Solution to housing crisis flails in practice as RareBirds calls it quits
The RareBirds Housing project in Kamloops was a pioneer in the world of co-op housing. But now, as CBC's Shelley Joyce reports, the 6,000 square foot home, which was once shared and co-owned by six housemates, is up for sale.
CBC
06-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Kamloops's RareBirds Housing Co-op calls it quits
A bold Kamloops experiment in shared living is coming to an end. Founding members of the RareBirds Housing Co-op reflect on what worked — and what didn't — after a decade in their 6,000-square-foot dream home.
The Independent
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Best book subscription boxes for a monthly literary treat
Whether you're an avid reader looking to broaden your book collection in 2025 or are looking to bestow a bookworm with a gift that keeps on giving, the best book subscription boxes need to be on your radar. Delivering a box of literary treats right to your door each month, these subscription services offer an inventive way to discover new tomes and find fresh voices. Whether it's a crime caper, a historical drama or a romantic comedy, the books delivered can be accompanied by anything from a bottle of wine, a mocktail can or a pack of coffee and tea, with some book subscription brands even throwing pampering essentials into the mix. Just like a subscription to your favourite recipe box or beauty brand, you can choose the regularity of your deliveries. Most brands also let you decide the genre but the exact title is left as a surprise. Other companies keep it more general by categorising titles into bestsellers or classics. With so many exciting debuts, hotly anticipated follow-ups and viral TikTok titles, it can be tricky to know where to begin when selecting your next read but the best book subscription boxes remove the guesswork, by offering tomes chosen by insider literary experts. From the Edinburgh-based bookshop Rare Birds, which picks out the best of new fiction each month, to Words With Wine, which aims to pair a bottle of vino with a captivating read, the clubs are run by self-confessed bookworms. Some aim to champion under-the-radar authors such as the feminist Good Book Club, which chooses new books by women, queer men and non-binary writers, while others (including Bookishly) add a unique touch by designing bespoke dust jackets for classic books. Keep scrolling to find out more. How we tested From offerings for fans of crime novels and historical fiction to children's titles for young bookworms and romance novels to enjoy with a glass of wine, we've rounded up the best book subscription clubs in the UK. Considering what each offers in their boxes, as well as the variety available, we assessed the delivery service, packaging and quality inside. Of course, we also read each book in the monthly box, to see if it was worth the subscription. Here's our verdict... Why you can trust us Daisy Lester is our senior shopping writer here at IndyBest. She specialises in fashion and beauty but also in all things books. She has her finger on the pulse when it comes to new releases from debut authors and acclaimed writers. Daisy loves books of every genre, from satire to mystery and crime, so, rest assured there will be a book for every taste in her round-ups. She knows what makes a gripping, moving or important story, whether it's a romantic comedy or historical drama.
Boston Globe
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Celebrity Series's Stave Sessions defies easy classification, again
Seven years later, satisfying the AI — or whatever's powering the streaming service of the day's algorithm — has Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up On Tuesday evening, the small audience entered to find the lights already dim, and Providence-based singer and composer (and Bent Knee cofounder) Courtney Swain's setup onstage blanketed with artificial roses. Swain stood behind a flower-strewn keyboard for most of her almost seamless one-hour set with collaborating guitarist Tim Doherty; with her hands so obscured and the layers of her supple, strong vocals wreathing the room, she often seemed to be coaxing music from the blooms. The apocalyptic but strangely consoling lyrics set against the gentle instrumental background made for a meditative, inward-looking experience. Only near the end of the set did she address the audience, hinting that this might be one of her last shows under the Courtney Swain name as she formalizes this new artistic project under a different moniker. Advertisement Singer, sound artist, and composer Courtney Swain at Somerville's Crystal Ballroom on Feb. 11, the first night of Celebrity Series of Boston's 2025 Stave Sessions. Robert Torres On Wednesday, That's a process in itself. So, unsurprisingly, the group's setlist mostly consisted of repertoire from its upcoming album, 'Rare Birds,' which releases March 15. There were two originals by Owls cellist and composer Paul Wiancko; a hearty arrangement of a piece by Norwegian/American folk duo Trollstilt; a fascinating and kaleidoscopic inverse-quartet arrangement of Couperin's harpsichord piece 'Les Barricades Mysterieuses.' The most memorable was Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh's ecstatic 'Raqs,' written originally for Kronos Quartet — which, not so incidentally, has 50 percent overlap with Owls by way of Wiancko and violinist Ayane Kozasa, and newly installed Kronos second violinist Gabriela Diaz was in the audience. The adventuresome, try-anything spirit of Kronos is clearly in capable and joyous hands. If the number of professional musicians-about-town in the audience was any indication, Owls just might be a member of your favorite orchestra's favorite quartet. Cellist Seth Parker Woods is also a familiar face around Boston, having collaborated several times with local organizations such as Castle of Our Skins; Thursday, he presented his touring program 'Thus Spoke their Verse,' consisting of three sections he called 'hypersuites.' These used sarabandes from Bach's cello suites as launchpads into mostly contemporary repertoire, with mixed but mostly satisfying results. Particularly striking was the transition from the Sarabande from Suite No. 1 into the plucked Calvary Ostinato from Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's 'Lamentations, 'Black/Folk Song Suite,'' which Woods anchored with a hauntingly calm repeated bassline while making the higher strings wail and twang like a banjo. Advertisement Also unforgettable was Fredrick Gifford's 'Difficult Grace,' for layered cello and voice. Reciting excerpts from Dudley Randall's 1968 poem 'Primitives,' Woods adopted a vintage storyteller's resonant tones, which morphed on a dime into a ghostly whisper, all while adding eerie wordless commentary from the cello. I wished he had provided the text of the poem in his program notes — the message was clearly powerful, but chopped up into collage for artistic effect as it was, it wasn't easy to process individual phrases. Woods's keen stage presence helped bridge that gap, however; several times throughout the evening, it seemed he was looking right at me, and I wonder how many others felt the same way. There's an experience no AI can replicate. STAVE SESSIONS Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston. At Crystal Ballroom, Somerville. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
