Tunnels of Time and Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink

I popped into the Red River Used Books store next to Artspace, where I was supposed to be attending a meeting of the Writer’s Guild. A miscalculation on how long it would take to maneuver through traffic and around road construction, allowed me about half an hour to spend strolling through the many crowded rows of books. Normally I’d head straight to the Mystery or SciFi section, but wasn’t really in the mood to focus on book titles in the hopes of finding something that would appeal to me, so I wandered to the back and found the YA section. One title nearly jumped off the spine at me: Tunnels of Time by Mary Harelkin Bishop.

How perfect! Anyone who has been following me for awhile will probably guess why this would attract my attention. The title simply screamed TIME TRAVEL! Since The Time Tunnelwas one of my favourite shows growing up, I had to take the book off the shelf and read the blurb at the back. (Here’s part of what Amazon tells of the book:

At a family dinner party in a local restaurant, Andrea agrees to look at what she thinks is just a phony tourist attraction: the tunnels beneath the streets of Moose Jaw. Legend has it that in Prohibition days the tunnels sheltered crooks, maybe even the notorious Al Capone! Andrea scoffs, until she has a small accident at the tunnel entrance and wakes up in another time.)

Even more perfect than I first thought! It was about the old bootlegger tunnels in the town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Most of you will not know that, during Prohibition, Al Capone is said to have set up shop in central Canada to sell booze, using tunnels beneath the town of Moose Jaw to avoid revenuers. For more information, you can check out the tunnels here.

A couple of times, we’ve taken road trips out west to visit family and friends in Alberta and B. C. and have passed through Moose Jaw. The first time, while having lunch at a roadside cafe, I noticed the brochure for the tunnels and had hoped that the next time we passed through Moose Jaw we would visit them, since they  have  reenactments of some of the things that went on back in the 1920s. Unfortunately, on our second trip, there were delays in our departure that made time too short to spend there. So, that is why I was so excited to see Tunnels of Time on the bookstore shelf. I can’t wait to dive into its pages. I’ll review it at a later date.

The other book I picked up was also of interest to me, as I have always loved the reenactments at our own Lower Fort Garry historical site. Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm is about a 17 year-old who gets a summer job working in a ‘living museum’. The book claims it’s ‘A story of crushes, corsets, and conspiracies.’ Sounds like a fun summer job, don’t you think?

Here is the Amazon blurb: Libby Kelting had always felt herself born out of time. No wonder the historical romance-reading, Jane Austen-adaptation-watching, all-around history nerd jumped at the chance to intern at Camden Harbor, Maine’s Oldest Living History Museum. But at Camden Harbor Libby’s just plain out of place, no matter how cute she looks in a corset. Her cat-loving coworker wants her dead, the too-smart-for-his-own-good local reporter keeps pushing her buttons, her gorgeous sailor may be more shipwreck than dreamboat — plus Camden Harbor’s haunted. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, Libby learns that boys, like ghosts, aren’t always what they seem.

I’ve always thought it would be fun to take part in the summer program at Lower Fort Garry, so I think this story will be fun to read, too. I’m glad I had the time to spend at that used book store. It’s never a waste of time. 🙂

Have any of you picked up some special finds in a used bookstore lately?