There's nothing better than curling up with a good book, our editors share their favourite reads:

Will Ferguson’s Canadian Pie serves up slice-of-life stories the humour writer has collected throughout his career, all of which confirm we live in a delightfully quirky country. $32 at Shelf Life Books, 100, 1302 Fourth St. S.W., Calgary, 403-265-1033, www.shelflifebooks.ca — Jaelyn Molyneux, Calgary editor

Watership Down is one of my favourite books. My husband read it recently and he was enamoured. It is the beautiful story of a group of rabbits running away to start a new life, and a perfect feel-good-make-me-smile novel. $9.98 at www.amazon.ca —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg, Vancouver fashion editor

For some spine-tingling spookiness pick up Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children ($14.43), peppered with vintage photographs for a multi-sensorial reading experience. At www.amazon.ca —Jennifer Nachshen, Montreal editor

If you read one book over the holidays, let it be Téa Obreht’s debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife. What a beautifully written book from a young author with startling talent. $12.27 at www.amazon.ca —Athena Tsavliris, Toronto editor

Of the several books published on Coco Chanel just this year, Intimate Chanel gives us an unprecedented glimpse into her private life, thanks to Chanel’s grandniece and only living relative, who opened the family archives to the author. Through family photographs, correspondence, gifts from her friends and lovers, the book has a voyeuristic feel, like rummaging through someone’s secret drawers. In this case, it’s “Auntie Coco’s.”  $42.64 at www.amazon.ca — Anya Georgijevic, Vancouver beauty editor

I really loved Jeffrey Eugenides’s last book, Middlesex, so I’m going to spend some quality time with my couch this holiday and power through his just-published tome The Marriage Plot. $24.31 at www.amazon.ca —Kelsey Dundon, Vancouver lifestyle editor

For a seriously good cry nothing beats the tragic romance of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audery Niffenegger. Make sure you have ample Kleenex, a cozy blanket and glass (or bottle?) of red wine while you wallow in the delicious sadness of this beautifully written novel. $15.88 at www.amazon.ca —Kelsey Mulyk, Managing editor

Who doesn’t love a good picture book?

Especially one with some real weight to it. Annie Leibovitz’s new tome Pilgrimage follows the photographer across one continent and part of another. In it, she’s just a woman with a camera (and an assistant) photographing places and objects that tell a story of influential writers, big-thinkers and hip-shakers like Virginia Woolf, Charles Darwin, and Elvis Presley. It’s perfect coffee table material. So you can go on a pilgrimage of your own, without the legwork. —Kelsey Dundon

$34.49 at www.amazon.ca

The publishing world was turned upside down when Carine Roitfeld resigned from Vogue Paris earlier this year: the gossip, the speculation, the scandal!

Whatever it was, Carine is back in the spotlight as the face of Barneys New York and with a new scrapbook-style memoir aptly titled Carine Roitfeld: Irreverent, set to be released on October 18th. Love her or hate her, the book is a goldmine for peeks into her glamorous world, from her early modeling days (just look at that fresh face!) to her tenure as rédacteur-en-chef, complete with letters, personal notes and behind-the-scenes scoop. —Anya Georgijevic

Carine Roitfeld: Irreverent is available for pre-order from Amazon, www.amazon.ca ($68.97)

These lit picks have earned a spot in our sand- and sunscreen-filled beach bags.

The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
The fact that it’s written by one of Vancouver’s own is just one of the reasons we love this tense (like, really, really tense) tale of a city under siege.

Making Ideas Happen
by Scott Belsky
Just because we’re sunning our bottoms at the beach doesn’t mean we can’t also be productive. Or at least read about being productive.

Monocle, the magazine
It’s fashion, it’s design, it’s travel, it’s culture. Come to think of it, it’s starting to sound very familiar.

On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
With the movie adaptation coming out soon, we figure now’s a good time to brush up on this classic.

iPad 2 by Apple
So we can bring Vitamin Daily to the beach too. (We kid, we kid. We’d totally read canonical literature on it.)
—Kelsey Dundon

Tucked amidst the sound studios and mechanic shops are cafés and boutiques so chic, they’re reinvigorating the Armoury District, an emerging neighbourhood just north of Fourth.

Café Bica
The impeccable décor, the cold-brewed coffee, the tempting pastries—we’d happy wile away the hours in this charming spot.

Mint Interiors
After an outdoor dinner party, we’ll keep our guests warm well into the evening with one of Mint’s new wool throws by Jonathan Adler.

Patisserie Lebeau 
Their savoury waffles (hello cheese and green onion) make us forget all about that low carb diet we’re on.

Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks
We picked up coveted finds like Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty and Leon’s Naturally Fast Food and walked out feeling like culinary geniuses.

Fullhouse Vintage Modern
We’re trying to find an excuse to re-do our entire home in their industrial mid-century modern style. Check out the vintage post office furniture in this new, highly-curated location.

—Kelsey Dundon

With destinations like these, we could road trip to the Emerald City every weekend.

eat: Sitka & Spruce
Tucked into the back of quaint Melrose Market, this beautiful Northwest restaurant has us dreaming of the raw sockeye with crispy morel mushrooms. 1534 Melrose Ave. E., Seattle, 206-324-0662, www.sitkaandspruce.com


shop: AllSaints

Now that Vancouver has its own Anthropologie we need a new excuse to head south on the I-5. This stylish British export is exactly that. 1511 Fifth Ave., Seattle, 203-508-0018, http://www.allsaints.com/

read: Elliott Bay Book Company
With an average of 10 author readings a week, we feel like literati the moment we step inside. 1521 Tenth Ave., Seattle, 206-624-6600, www.elliottbaybook.com

drink: Tavern Law
That phone on the back wall? It’s the key to a private upstairs room where there are no menus, just a few dozen seats and a bartender who shakes up custom cocktails. 1406 12th Ave., Seattle, 206-322-9734, www.tavernlaw.com

treat: Molly Moon's

The homemade honey lavender ice cream is well worth waiting in the constant out-the-door lineup. Three locations, www.mollymoonicecream.com

—KD

Tina Fey released a hilarious tell-all memoir, Bossypants, full of witty self-deprecation and helpful advice on everything from surviving adolescence to being the boss lady. We could go on and on, but here are five things we learnt from our imaginary BFF Tina.

1. Your awkward teenage years will inevitably turn into awkward adult years. Embrace it!
2. It might be possible to have “bad nail beds,” although no one really knows what this means. “Lunch lady arms,” on the other hand, we totally understand.
3. Avoid cruise ships at all costs. This also means that we should also try and avoid marrying a man with a fear of flying.
4. Boys are gross. And they sometimes pee in jars. Enough said.
5. Turning forty means that we can take off our pants as soon as we get home. We really look forward to that. —AG

$14.99 at Amazon.ca

When you're faced with planes, trains and automobiles with kids in tow, dragging along their 100-piece Playmobile set just isn't in the cards. And until they learn Gin Rummy, you'll need another solution.

Hello Books for boys and girls (ages 4-7) are extremely light and compact (think the size and weight of a greeting card) yet accordion out into an interactive book with buildable stickers for kids to create their own stories.

"Once upon a time there was a little Princess who always ate her vegetables, put her gowns in the laundry and went to bed on time...."

Now that's what I call fiction. —SB

From $10.99 at www.raspberrykids.com

Whether you’re satisfyingly single or contentedly coupled-up this Valentine’s Day, these gifts go either way. Herewith, five special things from steal to splurge that don’t wilt like roses:

Fanny Brawne needn’t be the only one to feel John Keats’ heat. With Love Letters from the Everyman’s Library, we can too. Within is a post office’s worth of mad-about-you mail penned by other well-known wordsmiths. $12.40 at Amazon.ca

Smell and memory are inextricably linked, so make a sweet and spicy impression with an all-natural signature perfume by Vancouver perfumer Ayala Moriel. Have yours in a mini bottle, beautiful French flacon or pretty pendant. $48-$150 at www.ayalamoriel.com

In Victorian times, keys were signifiers of guardianship, knowledge and liberation, and what do you know, that’s the key to our heart. Pyrrha boasts a variety cast in reclaimed silver from real vintage keys (and even a medieval one). $128-$275 at www.pyrrha.com/shop

Whether you’re hot or just bothered, a duotone alpaca throw from 18 Karat, dark grey on one side, red on the other, amends to your mood and keeps you cuddled and bundled. $375 at 18 Karat, 3039 Granville St., Vancouver, 604-742-1880, www.eighteenkarat.com

A dip-dyed Agent Provocateur floor-length silk Barbetta kimono that morphs from black to crimson, with shades of aubergine in the middle, makes lounging around luxurious. You’ll feel loved up even when home alone watching The Bachelor. $2,195 (in store Tuesday), Agent Provocateur, 1020 Alberni St., Vancouver, 604-688-2712, www.agentprovocateur.com

If this is the year you embark on building your own freelance business—whether writer, photographer or nude painter—it’s not a bad idea to read up before you leap.

Creative, Inc. is your starter guide for going out on your own, with oodles of practical advice from two women who’ve been there/done that, creatives Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho. From the basics of setting up shop to the precarious job of managing clients and negotiating fees, it spares the beginner umpteen phone calls to that self-employed friend—yet packed with Q & A’s of those in the field, it’s like having eight on speed dial.

That’s getting fit for profit.

$14.40 at Amazon.ca