Book Express
355 Hespeler Rd N1R 6B3 Cambridge, ON, Canada

A Thousand Small Sanities by Adam Gopnik Adam Gopnik is a vigorous advocate for the small-l liberalism that encompasses the views of moderate Liberals and Conservatives around the world. He spends part of the book on the Enlightenment roots of modern liberalism, but his primary purpose is to demonstrate the absolute practical virtue of moderate, incremental, democratic, social progress. He argues that the quick fix alternative creedscommunism, fascism, authoritarian national...ism, Trumpian stupidityare all delusional, offering false promises that always end in tears, or worse, for almost everybody. Reading this book we are reminded of Winston Churchill’s argument that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. The point for Gopnik, as well as for Churchill, is that we now have a few centuries of evidence about what works and what does not work when it comes to forms of government and political attitudes. We should pay attention to the evidence and be skeptical of the charlatans among us with their always coercive, violent, and intolerant alternatives.

Monsieur Ka by Vesna Goldsworthy Some books require of the reader some specific advance knowledge. Before starting Monsieur Ka it is necessary to know Tolstoy’s great novel, Anna Karenina, and also to have a reasonable grasp of what happened in Europe between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. For the reader armed in this way, Monsieur Ka is a delight. The story is set in England in 1947 and all of the main characters are dislocated Europeans who have washed up in London during the preceding chaotic decades. The past is overwhelming and the future is uncertain, so there is considerable intensity to peoples’ relationships. And the shadow of Anna Karenina hovers over everything.

Come join us this Saturday and meet some awesome local authors. Maybe you'll get to name a dragon!

Come join in the fun this weekend, just in front of our store, for a Cambridge Authors event. Saturday from 1-3pm