The Shelf Life: Champaca Bookstore Blog

This little note about Octavia Butler’s Parable Series was written by Kavya Murthy in May 2020, when things around the lockdown were very pressing. Read Kavya’s review, and get Butler’s books from Champaca, available as a limited edition gift box.

This month, Nirica Srinivasan reviews Patrik Svensson’s The Gospel of the Eels, a unique natural science memoir. Buy it on our online bookstore. 

In Peter Swanson’s Rules for Perfect Murders, a bookseller idly recommends a few of his favourite crime reads on the bookstore blog. Years later, a detective shows up at his door: she’s looking for a serial killer, who appears to be killing people in the same style as the “perfect murders” on his blog post. 

We don’t want to inspire a serial killer — but we were inspired to put together some spooky recommendations for you, and October seemed the perfect time to do that.

Our favourite part of our little bookstore (other than the books!) is our visiting cat who pops by to say hello and demand food. We often see her sunning herself on our roof, with just her tail hanging over the edge!

Have you ever wondered why cats love bookstores? Jason Diamond traces it back to ancient Egypt, when cats were revered (and some cats still act like they’re royalty!). Cats were trained to protect papyrus rolls from being eaten by pests. Over the years, they were kept around libraries and bookstores, trained to protect books from mice, rates, lizards, you name it! Our little cat comes from a long history of indie-bookstore felines.

This month, we’ve put together recommendations for cat-lovers, across poetry, graphic novels, science, and fiction. Read on for our recommendations, and find them on our online store!