Riley staff seem to have Star Wars on their brains:

Enchantment Emporium

So- I came across a booklist called: Calgary Reads - Fiction Set in Calgary that someone had kindly put together and there was one fantasy/science fiction title on it; “The Enchantment Emporium” by Canadian author Tanya Huff.

I thought ‘Nice! My patriotic book duty will soon be fulfilled.’ I tend (for no good reason) not to read Canadian books by Canadian authors, unless they have fantasy or faery content, for example: I can’t get enough of Charles de Lint and his urban faery tales. In his books it’s so easy to step between worlds and something about that really catches my interest. I have to know more! They make me want to make travel plans to walk down the same streets as the characters and see if the café that they ate at has the same feeling as was emoted in the book.

Yep, bit of a nerd that way. :D

Anyways, I’ve read Tanya Huffs’ “Blood” novels and really enjoyed them, (what a thrill to see colourful Canadian money in her “Blood Ties” TV series!) and I thought it would be interesting to try out this recommendation. A fantasy book set in Calgary! I picked up the MP3 audio version so I could listen to it in my car and by the time the main character had reached Calgary and was on a whirlwind taxi ride through the downtown core headed towards the antique/junk shop in Inglewood that she had inherited from her grandmother, I was hooked. I haven’t finished the MP3 yet but I’m really enjoying its quirkiness - also, today while unpacking brand new paperbacks – I noticed that its sequel “The Wild Ways” has just been published! More magic in Calgary!

So - time to plan a trip to the antique shops in Inglewood, a walk down Atlantic Ave S.E. in search of a good cup of coffee from a fellow named Kenny and check in at Fort Calgary, just to make sure there aren't any stray portals into the faery realms... You never know :)

On a hunt for magic!

Check out "Mighty Uke" a Canadian documentary“Shhhhh! - Don’t you know this is a library?” - aren’t really words you have to worry about anymore. Especially when you know that the librarians have a secret ukulele club.

Whoops.

People keep telling me that the first rule of ukulele club should be “don’t talk about ukulele club,” and the second rule should be, “why are you talking about ukulele club?!” I totally don’t agree! Ukuleles are too awesome to not talk about. They are small simple unassuming instruments that you can take anywhere. Children are fascinated with them because they are ‘just the right size’ and they make adults giggle, grin and sometimes groan – but it’s usually in good humour!

We’re all still pretty new at this and getting to know our ukes, but – we’ve pretty much mastered ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ (new achievement unlocked!) which coincidentally has the exact same chords as two other songs (Woo! Three with one blow! We’re doing awesome!) Now we’re working on ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ and there’s a few more chords in it (five instead of two) and singing, strumming and counting is sure tough to do at the same time, but what a lot of fun!

So now some nights, after dark, when the library should be quiet and calm, if you hear the odd strumming and buzzing of strings and a few stray stanzas being caterwauled… don’t be alarmed, it’s just your local librarians ‘rocking out’ on their ukes. AWESOME.

We still need a little encouragement though; we’d love to know,

Who else is out there in a secret ukulele club?

What was the first song that you learned and

What do you think we should we tackle next?