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George Lange

PICTURE THIS

This is how you take an unforgettable Photo: 228 ideas, tips and secrets for taking instantly better photos.

The Unforgettable Photograph - George Lange

WHAT TO GIVE | Are you casting around for an inexpensive gift for someone you don’t know all that well, or for someone you do know well but, for whatever reason, everything you can think of to give that person doesn’t feel like a fit?

You won’t go wrong by shooting them a copy of esteemed American photographer George Lange’s The Unforgettable Photograph, written with the assistance of journalist and onetime Vancouverite Scott Mowbray. Everyone is snap happy these days—it’s not for nothing that “selfie” was named Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year for 2013—and most of what is being shot would be instantly improved by adopting any of the 228 dead easy non-technical suggestions put forward in this meaty $6 picture book.

Here are three favourite takeaways from my now dog-eared copy. Read more

Two Ways To Have Books Shipped For Free

Wow! Finally a website where some third party sellers offer free shipping for their used books online—plus, how to get free shipping on new book orders under $25.

Old Books—Shutterstock

 

FREE IS GOOD | While both Indigo.ca and Amazon.ca offer free shipping on the books you purchase through their companies when you spend a minimum $25, the same is not true for used books they list that are offered by third party sellers. These books always come with an added shipping cost, making what might look like a steal of a deal anything but once these extra charges are tacked on. Read more

The Dukan, The Duchess & Me: Diet Like Royalty

Kate Middleton followed the Dukan diet before her wedding. Now the book is also reduced.

Kate Middelton

 

LOSING IT | Losing weight wasn’t at the top of my To Do list. It hovered somewhere between sorting out the basement and organizing the family photos, promising to be just as much of a chore. Then recently, I looking around on Abebooks.com and I noticed that they are practically giving away copies of the The Dukan Diet.  Read more

Used University Textbooks - C. Phaisalakani

17 Ways To Save On Textbooks

Hey, post-secondary students, Belinda Bruce has found 17 ways to save on schoolbooks this fall.

Used University Textbooks - C. PhaisalakaniCHEAPER IS BETTER | Buying textbooks at the campus bookstore is so old school. Post- secondary education is costly enough without forking over a premium for course materials. With the average full-time student spending between $900 and $1,200 a year on textbooks, it’s easy to understand why alternatives to the campus bookstore are cropping up everywhere. Read more

Bagging Fashion Trophies in Portland, Oregon

Bagging some serious fashion trophies at a Portland, Oregon, thrift shop.

Tod's loafers C. PhaisalakaniSAVE ON CHIC | Stuff like this never happens to me, so when it finally did I was gobsmacked—though I shouldn’t have been, because my former sister-in-law Ruth, a Portland attorney with a sharp mind and a gimlet eye for bargains, had been telling me for years that Portland’s Goodwill thrift stores were awesome places to find top brand apparel. Read more

Eat, Read, Swim—Ms. McIntosh Does YVR

Culinary personality Barbara-jo McIntosh shares her favourite “free, cheap or worth it” things to see, do or buy in Vancouver.

Barbara-jo McIntoshThe owner of Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks, Barbara-jo McIntosh has served on the prestigious James Beard Awards cookbook selection committee and received a Vancouver magazine lifetime achievement award for her many contributions to the local culinary scene.  McIntosh reveals a softer side in her recently published third book, Cooking for Me and Sometimes You: A Parisienne Romance with Recipes. It’s a tale of  “cooking with tenderness in Paris,” says fellow food writer Mia Stainsby in The Vancouver Sun, who thinks its sweet words and delightful recipes will inspire readers to cook more mindfully—and with love. Read more