Steeple Green Books

08/27/2026

While still a teenager, Patrick Leigh Fermor made his way across Europe, as recounted in his classic memoirs, "A Time of Gifts" and "Between the Woods and the Water". During World War II, he fought with local partisans against the N**i occupiers of Crete. But in "A Time to Keep Silence", Leigh Fermor writes about a more inward journey, describing his several sojourns in some of Europe’s oldest and most venerable monasteries. He stays at the Abbey of St. Wandrille, a great repository of art and learning; at Solesmes, famous for its revival of Gregorian chant; and at the deeply ascetic Trappist monastery of La Grande Trappe, where monks take a vow of silence. Finally, he visits the rock monasteries of Cappadocia, hewn from the stony spires of a moonlike landscape, where he seeks some trace of the life of the earliest Christian anchorites.

More than a history or travel journal, however, this beautiful short book is a meditation on the meaning of silence and solitude for modern life. Leigh Fermor writes, “In the seclusion of a cell—an existence whose quietness is only varied by the silent meals, the solemnity of ritual, and long solitary walks in the woods—the troubled waters of the mind grow still and clear, and much that is hidden away and all that clouds it floats to the surface and can be skimmed away; and after a time one reaches a state of peace that is unthought of in the ordinary world.”

$22.99

08/26/2026

SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUB
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Wednesday, Sept 30th, 7pm

Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Perhaps best known for Fahrenheit 451 and his science fiction books The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928.

Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley's bell on a hazy afternoon. It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.

As usual, we'll meet on the last Wednesday of the month at 7pm. Everyone is welcome, no sign-up required, just read the book and come on over.

08/26/2026

If you’ve stopped by the store in the last month you might have noticed a change—thousands of used books! This most incredible collection has come from the Millman Family of East River Point, NS, who has generously donated the late, great Greg Millman’s library to Steeple Green.

To say that I’m grateful is an understatement. These books will be an essential part of the shop for years to come, and I’ve made wonderful new friends in the Millman family. Boundless appreciation to Greg for being interested in everything and having the book to prove it.

To celebrate and honour this donation, this month’s book club is the Greg Millman edition! At our last meeting everyone was invited to pick something from Greg’s library and come back to share it. I can’t wait to see what gems folks discovered because there are so so so many.

Most of all, my deepest thanks to Paul, Sally, and the whole Millman family. Big love to books and the people who love them.

08/24/2026

✌💚🌈🕺

08/20/2026

An essential introduction to trans history, from ancient times to the present day, in full-color graphic nonfiction format. Deeply researched, highly readable, and featuring a broad range of voices.

What does “trans” mean, and what does it mean to be trans? Diversity in human s*x and gender is not a modern phenomenon, as readers will discover through illustrated stories and records that introduce historical figures ranging from the controversial Roman emperor Elagabalus to the swashbuckling seventeenth-century conquistador Antonio de Erauso to veterans of the Stonewall uprising Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. In addition to these individual profiles, the book explores some of the societal roles played by trans people beginning in ancient times and shows how European ideas about gender were spread across the globe. It explains how the science of s*xology and the growing acceptance of (and backlash to) gender nonconformity have helped to shape what it means to be trans today. Illustrated conversations with modern activists, scholars, and creatives highlight the breadth of current trans experiences and give readers a deeper sense of the diversity of trans people, a group numbering in the millions. Extensive source notes provide further resources. Moving, funny, heartbreaking, and empowering, this remarkable compendium from trans creators Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett is packed with research on every dynamic page.

$23.50

08/20/2026

Saturday!

🌈Dancing with the Qu**rs

Get ready to hit the dance floor! We're thrilled to be back at Steeple Green for an unforgettable night of music, community, and Pride celebration.

Bring your friends, wear whatever makes you feel fabulous and dance as our DJ spins a mix of throwback favourites and today's biggest hits. Whether you're a dance floor superstar or just looking to enjoy a fun night out with community, this event is for you! Come as you are and dance the night away!

🗓 August 22nd, 8pm
🔞 19+ Event
🍹 Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages available by donation

Come ready to move, laugh, connect, and celebrate q***r joy on the Eastern Shore. We can't wait to see you on the dance floor! 🌈💖✨

**rs 💃🌈🪩✨🎶

08/17/2026

On Saturday, August 22nd Dustin Scott Harvey of XOSECRET is bringing AWAKE & STILL DROWNING to Steeple Green. Dustin is one of my very favourite artists, the best kind of mad scientist, and this piece is a truly special experience.

AWAKE & STILL DROWNING is a hands-on mixed-reality performance where audiences move together as a flock of seabirds attempting to cross the rapidly flooding Chignecto Isthmus—the narrow land bridge connecting Nova Scotia to mainland Canada.

Wearing Meta Quest headsets, participants navigate a shifting landscape guided by quiet narration, hand-drawn/animated text, and a bird companion.

The work is designed as much as choreography as it is VR. Passthrough keeps participants aware of one another, so the movement of bodies in the room becomes part of the piece: people cluster, pause, adjust, and respond together as the sea rises. Those waiting to enter the headsets observe the group from outside the play space, then roles switch.

Rooted in Atlantic Canada’s coastline and climate realities, AWAKE & STILL DROWNING invites audiences to feel environmental change not as a distant headline, but as something shared, physical, and unfolding in the present.

This special presentation at Steeple Green Books in Musquodoboit Harbour takes place before the work travels to Art in the Open in Charlottetown.

Capacity is extremely limited. Advance reservations are recommended.

Four small showings:
1pm / 2pm / 3pm / 4pm

Pay What You Decide.
http://AASD.eventbrite.ca

Duration: 60 mins

Age Guidance: 12+ (younger participants may attend with a guardian; VR headset fit varies)

08/15/2026

Bram Stoker's iconic and immortal tale of desperate battle against a powerful, ancient vampire, with a foreword by acclaimed film director Robert Eggers, in a new Penguin Classics hardcover, a Penguin Speculative Fiction Special.

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: a ship runs aground on the shores of Whitby, its crew vanished; beautiful Lucy Westenra slowly succumbs to a mysterious, wasting illness, her blood drained away; and the lunatic Renfield raves about the imminent arrival of his "master." In the ensuing battle of wills between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries - led by the intrepid vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing - Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian s*xuality and desire.

Penguin Speculative Fiction Special is a hardcover series of horror, science fiction, fantasy, and more published by Penguin Classics. Featuring custom endpapers, specially commissioned cover art, and introductions by scholars and notable figures, these collectible editions celebrate classics that invite us to ask, “What if?” and that, through bold imagination, alternative visions, and magical realms, transform our perception of our world.

$34.00

08/13/2026

We're closing a bit early at 5:30pm today, Thursday August 13th, so we can attend the Annual General Meeting of the Old School Community Gathering Place.

If you're local to the Eastern Shore, consider attending the AGM at 6pm and becoming a member—this organization does truly invaluable work in our community and needs our support more than ever.

Learn more about the organization at theoldschool.ca.

08/12/2026

The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.

$15