Octopus Books

Join us to celebrate the launch of Deborah's poetry collection Love, Death, and Poetry.

📍 Octopus Books, 116 Third Ave.
🕒 Doors open at 6:30pm, program begins at 7:00pm
RSVP at octopusbooks.ca/events/6165420261015

Deborah Harriet is an independent author currently based in Montreal. She was born and raised in Ottawa and recently began pursuing a Master's degree in Economics at Concordia University. Writing has always been one of the ways she processes life's deepest emotions, and poetry has become a space where she can explore themes of love, grief, healing, identity, and hope. Through her work, she hopes readers feel seen, understood, and reminded that beauty can exist even in our most difficult seasons.

This is more than a collection of poems—it's a journey through the depths of love, desire, sorrow, loss, death, and addiction, unveiling the pain that lives in the shadows. Each poem is a testimony, a story that begins with love, then slowly unravels into loss and heartache. Yet, as each page turns, a quiet transformation takes shape—moving from shadow to light, from pain to healing. This book was written for those who have felt hopeless, broken, silenced, or unseen, offering not only a reflection but a gentle reminder that healing is possible. May you find pieces of yourself here, and may you leave with a new sense of hope.

Join Great Canadian Theatre Company and Octopus Books as we discuss Rogers v. Rogers: The Battle for Control of Canada's Telecom Empire by Alexandra Posadzki, our book pairing with the GCTC's production of Rogers v. Rogers, the stage adaptation of the book. The conversation will be led by Paul Park, a journalist with The Wire Report.

📍 GCTC, 1233 Wellington St. West, Ottawa
🗓️ Sun Oct 25th, 12:30pm-1:30pm

Based on deeply sourced, investigative reporting of the iconic $30 billion telecom and media giant, Posadzki takes us inside a company that touches the lives of millions of Canadians, challenging what we thought we knew about corporate governance and who really holds the power. Rogers v. Rogers is also a story of family legacy and succession, of an old guard pushing back at the new guard, and of a company struggling to find its footing in the wake of its legendary founder’s death. At the heart of it all is a dispute between warring factions of the family over how they each interpret the desires of the late patriarch and the very identity of the company that bears their name.

is a book talk series hosted by Octopus Books, exploring themes from GCTC’s mainstage shows. Expand your theatrical experience by joining us for a discussion with a local expert on a book specially selected by Octopus Books to compliment the show. Then, stick around for the pay-what-you-decide performance!

🚨 GIVEAWAY 🚨

We are teaming up with The Taro Group to give away 4 pairs of tickets to see Run Terry Run (releases Oct 9) at your local Cineplex Theatre any time/day! 🚨 TO ENTER: tag who you’ll bring with you if you win!

Octopus Books is excited to share that we will be selling Housing Inc at this year’s Massey Lecture in Ottawa with Leilani Farha! The event takes place at 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 29, at Babs Asper Theatre (1 Elgin Street).

We are also offering a discount code (CBCIDEAS) to get 25% off for those interested in purchasing tickets! You can get tickets at NAC’s website.

The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is a reminder of the long history of settler colonialism in Canada, the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the ongoing fight for reconciliation. But reconciliation takes more than a day each year. This year, no progress has been made towards the 94 calls to action.

These are some books in store to help you continue thinking about reconciliation and actionable steps you can take, beyond the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

A big thank you to Barbara Sibbald for stopping by and signing a few copies of Almost English! Blending history, biographical fiction, and nonfiction, Almost English is a fascinating and deeply moving read. The novel brings to life the grueling realities of racism and poverty faced by a mixed-race Anglo-Indian family during the British Raj in India.

Signed copies are available at octopus books!

Thanks to everyone who came out to Library and Archives Canada to hear Sara Donnelly speak about the release of her book “Seagoing Women” which features the stories of 33 women, including Donnelly’s own, on the sea.

📔From our events coordinator, Sarah: “As someone who spent time as a tree planter, working in remote areas and tight-knit communities, the stories of women at sea really resonated with me. The book captures the way working far away from everyone and everything is both isolating and liberating and reaffirms the beauty of our natural world.”

Signed copies are available at Octopus Books 🐙

Meet local authors for outdoor signings of their new books, this weekend at Octopus!

Saturday afternoon from 1pm-3pm, Barbara Sibbald presents Almost English. Melding history, bio-fiction and nonfiction, Almost English brings to life the grueling racism and poverty faced by a mixed-race, Anglo-Indian family during the British Raj in India.

Sunday from 11am-1pm, Elysia Rourke presents Whale Fall, a debut novel in the tradition of Black Beauty and The One and Only Ivan, in which a young orca who dreams of becoming the matriarch of her pod instead finds herself living a life in captivity.

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the launch of Lamble’s book “unsafe: the carceral roots of the anti-trans backlash.”

“The fiercest battles over gender today aren’t just about identity or womanhood-but about punishment, fear, and control.”

Lamble is a community organizer and professor of criminology and q***r theory at Birkbeck, University of London.

Copies of “unsafe” are available at Octopus Books 🐙

Join us to celebrate the launch of On Treason: Alberta Separatism, Foreign Interference, and Canada's Survival in a Revolutionary Age. Author Patrick Lennox will be joined in conversation by Mark Bourrie.

📍 Social Innovation Atelier, 95 Clegg St., Ottawa
🗓️ Tues Sept. 29th
🕒 Doors open at 6:30pm, program begins at 7pm
🎟️ This event is free and open to all. RSVP to help us know how many guests to expect at octopusbooks.ca/ontreason

Born of fraud and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alberta separatist movement and its enablers in the quasi-separatist United Conservative Party are engaged in treason against the Canadian people. They wear the obscuring masks of grievance, but behind those masks are the faces of traitors. On Treason reveals those faces to be a gaggle of hucksters, conmen, and megalomaniacal politicians who are enabling our enemies to loosen through disinformation, covert and overt interference (and possibly worse) our will to self-determination as a nation.

Co-presented by Biblioasis