CURRENT EVENTS

  • Friday September 3/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! Into THIN AIR I
    - writers Charlene Diehl, Ariel Gordon and Jordan Wheeler, with music by classical guitarist Skender Sefamore ]
  • Saturday September 4/10
    11am-5pm

    Garage Sale/BBQmore ]
  • Tuesday September 7/10
    7pm

    Manitoba Independent Songwriters' Circlemore ]
  • Tuesday September 7/10
    7pm

    Speaking Crow Open Mic
    - featured reader Mariianne Maysmore ]
  • Wednesday September 8/10
    4:30pm
      $10
    Beginners' Yoga Class
    - instructor Yarden Bourlasmore ]
  • Wednesday September 8/10
    Celiac-Friendly Night at EAT!more ]
  • Thursday September 9/10
    7pm

    Terminal Moraine Reading
    - poet Ian LeTourneau, with Sherry Coffey, Jason Booth and Jason Diazmore ]
  • Thursday September 9/10
    7:30pm
      $10
    Best of Fest
    2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit StarBach's: The Coffee Cantata

    - starring David Klassen, Naomi Forman and Darren Martensmore ]
  • Friday September 10/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! Fall Arts Preview I
    - WSO resident conductor Richard Lee, Juno winner Steve Bell and U of M Jazz Studies director Steve Kirby, with music by jazz pianist George Colliganmore ]
  • Friday September 10/10
    7:30pm

    Stone Soup Storytellersmore ]
  • Saturday September 11/10
    4:30pm
      $10
    Beginners' Yoga Class
    - instructor Yarden Bourlasmore ]
  • Saturday September 11/10
    5:30pm

    Humanist Association of Manitoba presents
    Kepler, Science and Religion

    - guest speaker Rhonda Martensmore ]
  • Tuesday September 14/10
    6pm

    Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
    - speaker TBAmore ]
  • Wed Sept 15/10 - Wed Dec 1/10 7-9pm $250
    Forging the Muse with poet Chandra Mayormore ]
  • Wednesday September 15/10
    7-9pm
    $30
    Aqua U. presents How To Sell Yourself Without Selling Out
    - a marketing seminar from Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughesmore ]
  • Thursday September 16/10
    Celiac-Friendly Night at EAT!more ]
  • Friday September 17/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! Into THIN AIR II
    - Writers Festival performers Ismaila Alfa, Ignatius Mabasa and Dominique Rey, with music by Naomi Guilbert and Hiroshi Koshiyama of Fubuki Daikomore ]
  • Saturday September 18/10
    7pm

    On the Same Page Read-Off
    - nominees Catherine Hunter, Jake MacDonald, Melissa Steele and Michael Van Rooymore ]
  • Tuesday September 21/10
    7pm

    Soapbox Open Mic
    - Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Kerry Ryanmore ]
  • Wednesday September 22/10
    7:30pm
      $10
    Best of Fest
    2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit One Good Marriage

    - starring Matthew TenBruggencate and Mel Marginetmore ]
  • Thursday September 23/10
    7pm

    Platform Centre presents
    Focal Point: Photography and the Social Construct
    László Moholy-Nagy and Feminism: The Origins of his Photographic Practice

    - professor Oliver Botarmore ]
  • Friday September 24/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! Pop Star
    - music writer John Kendle and super-producer Chris Burke-Gaffney, with music by Arun Chaturvedimore ]
  • Friday September 24/10
    10:30pm

    Winnipeg International Writers Festival presents
    Afterwords

    - the Aborginal Writers Collective [ more ]
  • Saturday September 25/10
    10am

    Winnipeg International Writers Festival presents
    Writing Workshop

    - mystery writer Giles Bluntmore ]
  • Saturday September 25/10
    4pm

    Winnipeg International Writers Festival presents
    A Pint of Bitter Murder

    - mystery writer Giles Bluntmore ]
  • Saturday September 25/10
    7:30pm

    ideaExchange
    Facing the (sacred) Fire:
    Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

    - Dr. Jon Searsmore ]
  • Saturday September 25/10
    10:30pm

    Winnipeg International Writers Festival presents
    Afterwords

    - writer/rapper Ismaila Alfamore ]
  • Tues Sept 28/10 - Wed Nov 24/10 7-9pm $20
    Writers’ Support Group with poet Kerry Ryanmore ]
  • Wednesday September 29/10
    7:30pm
      $10
    Best of Fest
    2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit Unequal Harvest

    - starring Kami Desilets and Brent Hirosemore ]
  • Thurs Sept 30/10 - Thurs Dec 2/10 7-9pm $225
    Through the Looking Glass
    - a YA fiction writing intensive with Anita Dahermore ]
  • Wednesday September 30/10
    7:30pm
      $20
    Frontier College presents
    An Evening with Harvey Levy
    more ]
  • Friday October 1/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! Fall Arts Preview II
    - Larry Desrochers (Manitoba Opera), Columpa Bobb (MTYP), Casimiro Nhussi (NAfro Dance) and Steven Schipper (MTC), with music by Prairie Jewelmore ]
  • Wednesday October 6/10
    7:30pm
      $10
    Best of Fest
    2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit When The Killer Mutant Lizards Attack

    - starring Brent Hirosemore ]
  • Thursday October 7/10
    7pm

    The Secret Signature of Things Launch
    - poet Eve Joseph, with Patrick Friesenmore ]
  • Saturday October 16/10
    8pm
      $10
    Best of Fest
    2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit unADULTeRATED me

    - starring Rachelle Fordycemore ]
  • Friday October 29/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! Halloween
    - illusionist Brian Glow and SF writer Nick DiChario, with music by Absent Soundmore ]
  • Thursday November 4/10
    7pm

    TELL: Tales from the 204more ]
  • Friday November 26/10
    7pm

    Kelly Hughes Live! 42
    - CFL legend Troy Westwood and greyhound rescuer Michaela Lamoureux, with music by Newfie rocker Elton Adamsmore ]
  • Thursday December 2/10
    7pm

    Canada's History Magazine presents Teachmeetmore ]
  • Saturday December 4/10
    11am-5pm

    Crafty Minions: The Handmade and Vintage Salemore ]
  • Jan Horner wins the 2010 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie
    more ]

274 Garry St.
(Between Portage
& Graham)

Winnipeg, MB
Canada  R3C 1H3
204-943-7555

OPEN
Tues-Sat 11am-9pm
Sun-Mon Closed

EMAIL
kelly@aquabooks.ca

We accept Interac, Visa and Mastercard too

What people are saying:

I always love reading your newsletters Kelly, but this is the best. Shame on the city and thanks to you Kelly for helping out your faithful customers. By the way you do have the best bookstore and eatery in the country bar none. This from a shameless book addict. - Rea, Winnipeg

STAFF

Ariel Gordon

Ariel Gordon - Talent Wrangler


Ariel Gordon is the author of three recent small press poetry chapbooks. She is a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press' books section and, each September, is Blogger-in-Chief of HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR (i.e. the Winnipeg International Writers Festival). Her first full collection of poetry is slated for publication with Palimpsest Press in spring 2010. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms. Ariel can be reached at ariel@aquabooks.ca.

Ariel'S TOP 10 + 2 BOOKS (titles that come to mind when asked the hated 'favourite' question)

The Burning Alphabet - Barry Dempstern
A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
Girls Fall Down - Maggie Helwig
The Studhorse Man - Robert Kroetsch
The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery
Tom Thomson's Shack - Harold Rhenisch
Traplines - Eden Robinson
More Than Three Feet of Ice - Brenda Schmidt
Moo - Jane Smiley
Reading by Lightning - Joan Thomas
Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets - edited by Zachariah Wells
Soft Geography - Gillian Wigmore



Kelly Hughes - Mayor of Winnipeg's
Cultural City Hall

Kelly Hughes

Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes has been called "staccato and laconic" by poet Méira Cook, "so funny I peed myself" by CBC Radio's Shelagh Rogers, and "off-putting, rude and tasteless" by an angry fellow named Chris. Kelly Hughes is the guy who hosts Kelly Hughes Live!, writes This Week at Aqua Books, was nearly sued by Campbells Soup, and was practically arrested by the Winnipeg Parking Authority. Armed with nothing more than a few jokes and half a theatre degree from the U of W, he runs Aqua Books. Not wanting being a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!) to be his only claim to fame, he created Aqua Books out of white glue, tissue paper, macaroni and half an egg carton. He had an adult help him with the scissors.

KELLY'S TOP 10 BOOKS (in order of appearance)

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
The Hobbit - Tolkien
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance
The Inklings - Humphrey Carpenter
The Red Pavilion - Robert Van Gulik
Two for the Lions - Lindsey Davis
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
The Eyes of the Heart - Frederick Buechner
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

KELLY'S WORST.BOOK.EVER

One Million Centuries - Richard A. Lupoff



Chandra Mayor

Chandra Mayor - Velvet Hammer/Shop Girl


Chandra Mayor is an author and editor. She is the author of three books, August Witch (poems), Cherry (a novel), and the Lambda-nominated All the Pretty Girls (short stories). She has received several awards, including the John Hirsch Award for most promising Manitoba writer, and the Carol Shields Winnipeg book award. Her work has been widely published in magazines and anthologies, and she has appeared at festivals and venues across the country. She is also the Poetry Co-Editor for Prairie Fire magazine. She has a secret fondness for historical Christmas romance novels, a bit of a chick-lit fetish, minimal retail experience, but a great deal of enthusiasm.

CHANDRA'S TOP 10 BOOKS (in order of importance of author's sex)

Mistress Masham's Repose - T.H. White
Bastard Out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison
Home of Sudden Service - Elizabeth Bachinsky
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Dangerous Angels - Francesca Lia Block
Eva Luna - Isabel Allende
Sister/Outsider - Audre Lorde
The Book of Eve - Constance Beresford-Howe
Morning in the Burned House - Margaret Atwood
Kissing the Witch - Emma Donoghue
Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
Satan Says - Sharon Olds
Who Do You Think You Are? - Alice Munro

CHANDRA'S WORST.BOOK.EVER

Since Chandra can't count, she doesn't get a 14th choice.

NO LONGER STAFF (but still loved)

Dave Burrows - Tumblemaster

Dave Burrows

Dave Burrows was a college graduate, and BC transplant who was sucked into the Winnipeg vortex. (Until BC sucked back - and yes, BC does suck.) At AB he fought n00bs on the internet, smooth talked belligerent people, gave tours, sold books and gave radio interviews. He also earned his street cred by updating the Aqua Books Tumblelog and working on all our other social media sites. He is currently living in Uncle Russ's basement in Surrey, writing the future bestseller, Best Pick-up Lines Overheard At a Book Store.

DAVE'S TOP 10 BOOKS (in order of author's height)

Collected Poems - W.H. Auden
A Confession - Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Coming Through Slaughter - Michael Ondaatje
Baseball: A Literary Anthology - ed. Nicholas Dawidoff
The World According to Garp - John Irving
Antiworlds and The Fifth Ace - Andrei Voznesensky
Fear and Trembling - Søren Kierkegaard
The Stranger - Albert Camus
Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball - Stephen Brunt

DAVE'S WORST.BOOK.EVER

Anthem - Ayn Rand

Julia Michaud - Copyright Hacker

Julia Michaud

Julia Michaud was the veteran graphic designer responsible for executing all of our illegal trademark-busting activities. When not conceptualizing brilliantly home in her PJs, she can be found hanging upside down on Tatsu® in Southern California's Magic Mountain® rollercoaster theme park. She's available for freelance work, online Scrabble®, James Brown singsongs and Peter Sellers film festivals.

JULIA'S TOP 10 BOOKS (in ascending order of silliness)

It's Always Something - Gilda Radner
The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence
Shogun - James Clavell
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories - ed. Greenberg
Schindler's List - Thomas Keneally
Knock Wood - Candice Bergen
Erotic Dreams: The Secret to Understanding Women's Hidden Mysteries - Gillian Holloway, MD
Bunny Bunny - Alan Zweibel
When You Look Like Your Passport Photo It's Time to Go Home - Erma Bombeck

JULIA'S WORST.BOOK.EVER

Neuromancer - William Gibson



Sherman Reimer

Sherman Reimer - Web Sherpa


Sherman Reimer is a designer, programmer and K-Tel recording artist. Sherman moved back from Vancouver and bought a house in Winnipeg because his wife was tired of living in a van down by the river.




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