The Next Page is one of two lovely Calgary book shops in the community of Inglewood. It sells both new and used books, boasts a small theatre in the basement and has further unique charm thanks to the wall art and vintage style. They even have a seed library. I picked up a beautiful copy of one of my favourite spring reads, An Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim.
An Enchanted April humorously examines the restorative benefits of vacations, friendships and a general change of pace. Four women who are weary of rain and cold, unsatisfactory relationships and loneliness deciding to share the cost of an idyllic retreat in Italy, despite being strangers. Each undergoes a sort of transformation in her break from ordinary duties while experiencing the joys of a glorious Italian garden in springtime.
“… Why, it would really be being unselfish to go away and be happy for a little, because we would come back so much nicer.”
“All the radiance of April in Italy lay gathered together at her feet. The sun poured in on her. The sea lay asleep in it, hardly stirring. Across the bay the lovely mountains, exquisitely different in color, were asleep too in the light; and underneath her window, at the bottom of the flower-starred grass slope from which the wall of castle rose up, was a great cypress, cutting through the delicate blues and violets and rose-colors of the mountains and the sea like a great black sword.
She stared. Such beauty; and she there to see it. Such beauty; and she alive to feel it.”
Everyday Cheer 