McNally Robinson book store at Grant Park
There’s always something interesting going on at McNally Robinson. The city’s premier book store at Grant Park is a regular host to a myriad of events, most of which, not surprisingly have a literary theme.
But not all; in addition to book launches, there are frequent musical events and even a cruise line presentation that was quite well attended recently.
The music happens on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00pm and upcoming acts will be The Burton Trio, Slow Leaves, Kevin Roy, Hollerin’ Pines, Bill Hamilton and D.B. Blues.
There’s also an open mic session the first Wednesday of every month starting at 8:30pm when 11 musicians selected by lottery perform acoustic numbers.
Every Wednesday morning at 10:00am it’s Pre-School Storytime aimed at 3 – 5 year olds.
Their Community Classroom also offers a series of courses on topics ranging from career planning to cycling or theatre and dance with well-known local director Robb Paterson.
The past couple of months though, saw some very intriguing guests in the store.
Last week was a man whose latest musical video garnered an astonishing ten million views in three days. Someone who has the potential to be one of the world’s greatest musicians, that is if he ever plays on Earth. Chris Hadfield the former commander of the International Space Station, the man who out-Bowied David Bowie with his slick extra-terrestrial version of Space Oddity complete with floating guitars was there.
Commander Hadfield talked about his new book “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth”.
A few weeks ago, it was the Right Honourable Joe Clark one of our former Prime Ministers. Clark, our 16th and youngest Prime Minister, was on hand to discuss his latest book “How we Lead: Canada in a Century of Change”.
Then on Friday, November 29 at 7:00pm it was a real literary coup as McNally’s hosted one of the world’s best-selling authors, Ian Rankin. Edinburgh native Rankin has penned 33 novels including the very popular Inspector Rebus series of crime novels set in Britain.
Rankin spoke about writing and he signed his latest Inspector Rebus book, “Saints of the Shadow Bible” the 19th book in the Rebus series.
The 24,000 square feet building hosts a restaurant, the aptly named Prairie Ink, as well as a dedicated children’s section on the mezzanine. It also has the Espresso Book Machine which like its name suggests is a book printing machine that will be of specific interest to anyone who has ever considered the self-publication option for that best-selling novel fermenting inside their head.
The machine has a capacity to produce and print books of up to 800 pages, which will take 12 minutes to print, bind and trim and is a very affordable way to see that project turned into a finished item.
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield demonstrates peeling an orange in space
