Valerie Laken, Author of Dream House appearing Saturday March 14

Come meet Valerie Laken, the highly acclaimed author of Dream House (HarperCollins), a novel the New York Times Book Review calls "the perfect haunted house story." She will be appearing at The Bookstore on Saturday, March 14th at 1pm, where she will sign copies of her new book.

Valerie Laken is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the UW-Milwaukee, and just happens to be the niece of Glen Ellyn's own Jessica Pekny, owner of Renaissance Art Studio, just a few doors down from The Bookstore on Main Street in Glen Ellyn. Clearly, creative talent runs in the family! Come give Valerie Laken a real Glen Ellyn welcome. E-mail us at justbook475@yahoo.com or call us at (630) 469-2891 to reserve a copy of the book.

Valerie's new book has received terrific reviews from both the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. Click here to see what the New York Times had to say just this past Sunday: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/books/review/Crime-t.html?_r=1&ref=books. Anybody who already saw the NYT review is probably wondering about the cool faux mug shot photo of Valerie featured in the article. I had a chance to interview Valerie recently about this mug shot, and this is what she said:

Q: Are you a little worried about your photo in the NYT Book Review that makes you look like a criminal? Is there anything you'd like to disclose?

A: Yea, it's surreal! I always dreamed of getting a good review in the New York Times, but who knew they would also include a sort of mugshot of me? I love it. Especially because I look so carefree and unfazed by my apparent arrest.

Valerie Laken is a true midwesterner and a Big 10 gal. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Iowa and received an MFA from the University of Michigan. In fact, Dream House is based on a fixer-upper house she and her husband bought in Ann Arbor. Even more interesting, I thought, was the fact that she'd studied Russian as an undergrad, so I asked her the following question:

Q: I notice you have a background in Russian and Slavic languages. Any chance you'll be utilizing these talents in a future book? Did you ever think about joining the CIA and doing covert ops in Eastern Europe?

A: Ha! When I was an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, the CIA actually used to come to our building trying to recruit people. But we ignored them (as far as you know). I have used that background to write a few short stories set in Eastern Europe, which are included in my next book, a story collection called Separate Kingdoms. The collection deals with characters whose bodies are failing them, and the ways that people attempt to cope with disability and loss.

So, there you go. The tabloids could read as follows: Acclaimed author Valerie Laken, once recruited by the CIA, is unfazed by her apparent arrest! Come to The Bookstore on Saturday and meet this fascinating person!

Slightly more serious Q and A's about her book can be found here:

http://fictionwritersreview.com/interviews/interview-with-valerie-laken-dream-house

http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/view_le.php?articleid=656

http://www.onmilwaukee.com/ent/articles/vlaken.html

March Madness Bracketology for Books! The Morning News' Fifth Annual Tournament of Books

It's March, and if you're anything like me, that means it's almost time to fill out your NCAA brackets with a hilarious lack of information. Aside from the seedings, my criteria include such factors as whether I know anybody who went to college there, or if the team mascot is cool, naughty or just plain bizarre (that would include Bucky Badger, the Stanford Tree, and George Mason's Oscar the Grouch). I often do better in the pool than the real sports fans in the family, which of course drives them absolutely crazy.

If I can do that much with my mascot methodology, I'm thinking I just might have a real chance with a bracketed tournament for books, the wacky brainchild of the folks at The Morning News, http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/the_rooster/the_2009_tournament_of_books.php.

Every March, they start with a roster of 16 books matched up in brackets. Hand-picked judges, including many noted authors, choose one book in head-to-head competition to advance to the next round.

The folks at The Bookstore thought it would be fun to join in. Any customers who would like to participate, click here to print out a bracket:

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/2009/ToB-2009-Brackets.pdf, and bring your completed brackets to The Bookstore by 4pm on Sunday, March 8th. Subscribe to The Morning News for judge's picks, and then check in at The Bookstore or here on the blog at the end of March to see if you beat out The Bookstore staff!

Scoring as folows: 1 point for each correct first round entry, 2 points for each in the second round, and so on. The grand prize: a guided tour of the backroom Advance Reader's Copy shelves with your choice of three courtesy copies, along with an official Rooster T-shirt from The Morning News. For anyone who can outscore any of our Bookstore staff in total points, your name will appear in a special list of "Rooster Champions: Customers Who Are Definitely Smarter Than The Bookstore Staff" on our blog. And then of course you would put that on your resume.

Don't be deterred by the fact that you haven't read all the books in the brackets, because neither have we! However, if you're one of those goody two-shoes who always did their homework, come on in and purchase any of the Tournament of Books titles at a special 10% discount. Just remember the secret password: "Cockadoodledoo." (I apologize -- that's an entirely meaningless joke unless you followed the link to The Morning News.)

If you won't be able to read them all, you might want to pick some other arbitrary critieria, such as pretty book covers, funny titles or authors from places you'd like to visit. Hey, like my mascot-ology, it just might work! For a sneak peak at the odds on each book, along with a chance to place a bet that goes to a worthy book related charity, go to: http://www.coudal.com/tob2009.php.

We'd love to hear the reasons for your selections -- did you love one book and hate the other? Do you love to play in a Dart League at Home with a Partisan's Daughter? If so, your picks will be easy! Feel free to comment below on your strategy. The loopier the better. If you're basing your picks on book covers, here you go:

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Wild Card Entry? Happy March from The Bookstore!

A Bookseller's Tour of London

What does a bookseller do in London?

Well, after the obvious, such as trying a steak and mushroom pie at the Guinea Grill (what was I thinking? I prefer vegetarian!), a bookseller goes on the hunt for a great bookstore.

The first day I ventured up Charing Cross Road and found several
bookstores, from Borders to Waterstone's to the independent Foyle's, and although I was fascinated by the different titles on the shelves in England (and different covers!), I was a little underwhelmed. Where was that classic British bookstore that lives and breathes history and culture and literary passion? Where was that UK title I've been unable to get in the States? Luckily, I had dinner that night with an American who lived in London, so I asked her. She grabbed my notepad and wrote down Daunt Books, Marylebone High Street.

Daunt Books is undoubtedly the prettiest bookstore I've ever seen. Not to put down our own little bookstore in Glen Ellyn, but really. I felt like I had conjured this bookstore right out of my imagination and onto the street in front of me. It was welcoming, with its doors wide open in the middle of a London winter -- which admittedly is no match for a Chicago winter, but still! Inside there were shelves and shelves of highly varnished dark oak, and natural light filtered down through ancient skylights. My favorite section: not cooking but "cookery." Say that with a Monty Python accent and try not to giggle.

At first I didn't even notice, but then it sank in. There weren't any flashy marketing posters or Oprah Book Club displays. There weren't even any shelf-talkers or handwritten staff pick notecards. Okay, I did find a title with a sticker from the UK Richard and Judy Book Club (Netherland by Joseph O'Neill -- great choice in case you're wondering), but when I asked at the desk, they didn't even have a list of the Richard and Judy selections. Nobody interrupted my bookstore pleasure with pushy suggestions or one of those looks that says "buy something already!" And sure enough, I was able to find a copy of Chris Cleave's Incendiary, which I couldn't seem to find anywhere else. But it was the searching and the browsing that made it feel like I'd nabbed a trophy.

That's when I realized that given the right environment, books will sell themselves. Make your store inviting, welcoming and warm, and people will come. People love to browse, because there is something about the search for a good book that is part of the pleasure of reading. We might be searching for enlightenment or education or maybe even escape, but we are really just searching for enjoyment. The pleasure is in the quest. Throw in a little conversation about books with the staff, and it's better than an hour at a pub. Definitely better than steak and kidney pie.

I'm more convinced than ever that independent bookstores shouldn't fear the Kindle. A Kindle can't open its door on a cold winter day and warm your heart better than a pint of lager. Cheers!

Little Bee Is Causing Quite a Buzz in Glen Ellyn

Little Bee Buzz:

Copies have been flying off our shelves since this powerfully emotional book went on sale a couple of weeks ago, and now we have the pleasure of sitting back and getting the feedback.

I ran into a friend at the Jewel who couldn't stop to talk: "I'm sorry, but I have to get back to Little Bee! I'm on page 150 and Sarah just lost her finger!" Another customer stopped in today who'd read it in nearly one sitting and was clearly enthralled. I know it's cliche to say you can't put a book down, but it's utterly and completely true. It's haunting but yet deeply satisfying. The ending seems to demand the reader to get engaged, to imagine and will into existence a hopeful, peaceful future.

For those who haven't read it yet and are getting awfully curious, or for those like me who have finished and are just plain sorry it's over, check out author Chris Cleave's own blog posting, "Behind the Scenes of Little Bee" at www.chriscleave.com/main/?p=33#more-33. He plans to be in Milwaukee on Monday, March 2nd for a book reading at the indie bookstore Schwartz's on Downer Ave. Check out their website at www.schwartzbook.com/events.php, and their manager's blog at www.boswellandbooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/im-little-freaked-out-about-how.html. Little Bee fans, we'll see if he'll be appearing in the Chicago area in case you'd like to meet him, or you can always join us on a road trip to Wisconsin! E-mail us your interest at justbook475@yahoo.com, and we'll keep you posted.

The Bookstore's 9th Annual Wine and Cheese Party for Book Groups

Book Club
Picks by
Bookstore
Staff at the
9th Annual
Wine & Cheese
Party for
Book Groups












Jenny's Picks:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
The Seamstress by Frances de Ponte Peebles
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
























Jane's Picks
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Don't Miss Your Life by Charlene Ann Baumbich
Dream House by Valerie Laken
Farm Girl by Karen Jones Gowen
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Annie Barrows
The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Shack by William Young

Sue's Picks:
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Piano Teacher by Janice Lee
This Must Be The Place by Anna Winger
























Margie's Picks:
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Commoner by John Burham Schwartz
City of Thieves by David Benioff
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberly
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
by Elizabeth McCracken
Gossip of the Starlings by Nina de Gramont
Home by Marilynne Robinson
How Not to Look Old by Charla Krupp

Book Club Favorite Picks of 2008:
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Shack William Young
Crashing Through by Robert Kurson
How Not to Look Old by Charla Krupp
Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles Shields

Glen Ellyn Area Book Club Profile: "Booked on Tuesdays"

"Booked on Tuesdays" is a Glen Ellyn book club that will be celebrating its 10th anniversary later this year. The club has welcomed a few new members over the years, but most of the members have been together since 1999.

Over the years, the club has developed a lot of fun traditions, including its annual Christmas party, featuring a hilarious White Elephant Exchange (favorites include a crochet toilet paper cover from someone's mother-in-law and the dried puffer fish wind chime!) and the annual summer backyard deck meeting with fabulous food and copious amounts of wine.

The club has a wide range of interest in books, from classics to biography to pop culture. Their picks have ranged from "Pride and Prejudice" to the beauty and style guide "How Not to Look Old." Its favorite pick of 2008 was Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. The club likes to adopt a charity when it fits with a book, such as a food pantry for "The Glass Castle " or the real Kenyan library foundation for "The Camel Bookmobile." If there is a movie tie-in to a book, the club loves gathering at a member's house with a basement theater. Plans are underway to read and watch Brideshead Revisited in April.

One tradition that works well for this club is the way they've agreed to discuss the books. Each member gets a turn to express their opinion (sometimes a quick rating system from 1 to 10) before the floor is open for more animated discussion. That way, everyone has an equal voice, and no one person can dominate the conversation.

The club has recently developed its own blog (on Google's easy blogspot.com) as a virtual meetingplace. Members can log on, check out the schedule, post comments and links about the books, and share photos from recent meetings. They've even used the blog as a way to vote on their next selection or their favorite book of the last year. For example, when they read "The Glass Castle," members were able to log on and watch a video of the author and her mother, which enhanced the book.

If other book clubs are interested in learning how to use a blog for their book club, e-mail The Bookstore at justbook475@yahoo.com, and we can give you some tips. If there's enough interest, we would be happy to offer a Book Club Blog Seminar. Also, please e-mail us if you would like your book club featured next month!

Paperback Writer (the Beatles)

Paperback Writer (the Beatles)

The Beatles Wanted You To Know We Have Some Great Paperback Writers at The Bookstore!

(A special shout out to the book club gals who love Paul - was he great at the Grammys or what?)

The folks at The Bookstore have been marvelling lately how many of our favorite books of 2008 have recently come out in paperback. Great titles at a recession-beating price, including: A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, and Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Every single one of these would make a great book club choice!

To find out more about any of these great paperbacks, or any other book club choices, stop in The Bookstore for a fun chat, call us at (630) 469-2891, or send us an e-mail at justbook475@yahoo.com.

Electronic ordering is also available on our website at http://www.justthebookstore.com/. Just search by title, author or key word, link to the review, and press the order button. If it's a book club order, make sure you mention your 10% discount! You can use a credit card on the secure website, or pay at pick-up. Shipping is available too.

Let us know in the comments below if your book club has read any of these recommendations yet, and if so, what you thought.

Don't forget to send a representative to our 9th Annual Book Group wine and Cheese Party on Thursday, February 19th from 7:30-9pm.

Get Fancy and Receive A Fancy Nancy Gift Pack!

Fancy Nancy Fans!

Fans of the Fancy Nancy books who come to The Bookstore dressed up will receive a special Fancy Nancy Gift Pack, and if the store isn't too busy, we will have a little Fancy Nancy storytime just for you!

Here are two lovely little ladies who were dressed to the nines: tiaras, sunglasses, jewels, the works! After their visit to The Bookstore, they were planning on a fancy lunch with their moms, pinkies up, of course!

For the little boys out there who just don't understand this fancy craze, we also have a Slobby Bobby gift pack behind the counter as well. Just show us your messy hair or dirty jeans!

Plans are underway for a Fancy Nancy Tea Party in the spring. Details will come in our future e-newsletters, so if you're not on our e-mail list or a member of the free Fancy Nancy Club, sign up now. E-mail us at justbook475@yahoo.com.

Take A Road Trip With Some of Your Favorite Authors!

Book Review: State by State, A Panoramic Portrait of America, edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey ($29.95)

Are you stuck home in the middle of this endless winter with nothing but a "staycation" in your immediate plans? Then come in, get this book and take your brain on a road trip. Some of your favorite authors are riding shotgun.

This book features 50 essays by well-known writers on the 50 states. The editors asked for a personal story about a state they grew up in, had lived in, or maybe just visited. They asked them for "the kind of story the enlisted soldier tells his boot-camp bunkmate about back home."

The result is a hip, funny collection of essays that will leave you feeling buoyant and nostalgic, sometimes laughing out loud. It includes Dave Eggers on Illinois, Susan Choi on Indiana, Ann Patchett on Tennessee, and Joshua Ferris on his family's move from Illinois to Florida when he was a kid. You're going to love Dave Eggers' piece, which somehow ranges from Abe Lincoln to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. (Did you know that Ronald Reagan was a Cubs announcer before he went to Hollywood?) Eggers' anecdote about running out of gas on I-57 on the way down to U of I will make you proud to be from the heartland.

To top it all off, there is a hilarious appendix that includes 30 different tables ranking the states in a variety of categories, including Roller Costers Per Capita (Illinois is 30th), Toothlessness Rate (Illinois is 25th), and Alchohol Consumption (Illinois moves up to 9th, behind our neighbor Wisconsin at #1. Anyone who's ever been to a Packer-Bears game knows exactly why that is. You need a little somethin' to wash down the brats and cheese curds!).

To order a copy, e-mail us at justbook475@yahoo.com.

Snowy, Blowy Winter Party at The Bookstore

Last Sunday, January 25th, The Bookstore hosted a fun little children's party based on Bob Razcka's latest book, Snowy, Blowy Winter. Bob Razcka is from Glen Ellyn, so he knows winter. If you can't beat it, you might as well enjoy it!

The kids had a blast making little snow forts out of sugar cubes and frosting, but the big hit of the party was the Snow, Blowy Ice Cream recipe from the back of the book. We brought in a big tupperware container of fresh snow, added sugar, milk and vanilla according to the recipe, and presto! We had a fantastic snack. Of course we added chocolate syrup, sprinkles and miniature chocolate kisses. The kids begged for seconds! Thanks to all the parents for braving the cold to bring your wonderfully behaved kids to the party! Here's hoping for some fresh snow so we can go make some snow angels.

Little Bee Is Here!

Little Bee Is Available!

E-mail us at justbook475@yahoo.com -- we'll put your name on one and hold it on the shelf for you!

The folks at The Bookstore can't wait to share this fantastic book with you. If you're one of those readers who loves being on the leading edge of a great book, then you'll want to stop by soon. The buzz around this book is getting hot, so it might sell out quickly. Waiting would be a terrible thing! If you don't believe me, here is a review by Marilyn Dahl, posted on Shelf Awareness, that claims the book is so good booksellers should offer a money back guarantee!

Chris Cleave's novel, Little Bee (Simon & Schuster, $24, 9781416589631/1416589635, February 10, 2009), will amaze and delight you, and break your heart. It's one of the finest books I've read in years, from its lyrical opening lines to its surprising end. It tells the story of a young Nigerian refugee, Little Bee, who has made her way to England but has ended up in a detention center. She is looking for an English couple, Andrew and Sarah O'Rourke, whom she met on a Nigerian beach two years earlier. Told from the viewpoints of Little Bee and Sarah, the story is tragic and sweet; its wisdom and power last long after the finish.In the detention center, Little Bee learned to make herself undesirable, binding her breasts and cutting her hair. But she has a secret:

"Once a week, I sat on the foam mattress on my bed and I painted my toenails. I found the little bottle of nail varnish at the bottom of a charity box . . . If I ever discover the person who gave it then I will tell them, for the cost of one British pound and ninety-nine pence, they saved my life. Because this is what I did in that place, to remind myself I was alive . . . underneath my steel toe caps I wore bright red nail varnish. Sometimes when I took my boots off I screwed up my eyes against the tears and I rocked back and fro, shivering from the cold. "

When she leaves the detention center, after a paperwork mix-up, she looks at the scars of another girl:

". . . a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty . . . Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.In a few breaths' time I will speak some sad words to you. But you must hear them the same way we have agreed to see scars now. Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive. The next thing you know, something fine will happen to her, something marvelous, and then she will turn around and smile."

Sarah, at the funeral for her husband, Andrew, wonders what to tell her son about Little Bee, while she massages the stump of her middle finger:

"I miss my finger most on deadline days, when the copy checkers have all gone home and I'm typing up the last minute additions to my magazine. We published an editorial once where I said I was "wary of sensitive men." I meant to say "weary," of course, and after a hundred outraged letters from earnest boyfriends who'd happened to glance at my piece on their partner's coffee table (presumably in between giving a back rub and washing the dishes), I began to realize just how weary I was. It was a typographical accident, I told them. I didn't add, it was the kind of typographical accident that is caused by a steel machete on a Nigerian beach. I mean, what does one call the type of meeting where one gains an African girl and loses E, D and C? I do not think you have a word for it in your language--that's what Little Bee would say."

If I were still a bookseller, I'd sell Little Bee with a money-back guarantee.--Marilyn DahlFrom Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Copyright © 2008 by Chris Cleave. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcending: Words on Women and Strength by Kelly Corrigan

Kelly Corrigan is the author of The Middle Place, currently available in paperback at The Bookstore for $14.95.

Read Any Good Books Lately? Customers, Please Let Us Know!

Even before I started selling books, I'd get this question a lot. The answer was always (obviously) yes. Now that I work at The Bookstore, I've discovered a wonderful flipside to the question-- I now love to pose it to our customers. There's no such thing as a bad answer, but I especially like it when a customer tells me about a book we haven't even heard of before.

Here's an example. I started chatting with a customer who enjoyed The World To Come by Dara Horn, one of my favorites. We started comparing notes, and found out we had similar taste. She told me about Love's Executioner And Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom -- she liked it so much she had it tabbed and highlighted -- so of course I ordered it.

I was a little doubtful, because the book looks and sounds a little weird. I mean, who wants to read a bunch of true stories about people in therapy? (I've got my own problems!) But I loved it. It was fascinating and insightful. In one of the stories, it explains how existential therapy asks the simple question, "what do you want?" Even between perfect strangers, this question can generate some pretty intimate answers. Between a psychotherapist and patient, it can bring out the deep anxieties that underlie bizarre obsessions. Between friends, it can help us make sense of our perfectly normal denials and secret longings. I think it could be a really interesting book club discussion book. A little like group therapy, maybe?

While Love's Executioner might not be for everyone, I thought it was great, and I've recommended it to others since. But the point is, I don't think I ever would have found out about this book if it wasn't for a customer.

So, here's your chance, customers! What have you read lately that we should know about? We'd love to hear about your new find! Post a comment and be the source of a hot new read at The Bookstore.

The Best Job in the World: Bookseller/Matchmaker

Not too long ago I had one of those days at The Bookstore that made me realize that selling books is one of the best jobs in the world. Sometimes you just click with a customer, and you learn enough about them to be able to recommend some really good books (that are luckily all in stock!). You end up in this happy-reader zone together, and it makes you feel like a matchmaker at a wedding.

This particular customer was a religious librarian going on a mission trip to Africa. I couldn't imagine a better fit than The Camel Bookmobile, about a New York librarian who volunteers with a camel bookmobile in Kenya, What is the What, Dave Eggers' beautiful fictionalized autobiography of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, and A Prayer for Owen Meany, a classic must-read about faith and fate by John Irving.

It's a perfect trio of books for our customers who have been involved in mission trips to Africa or South America, through our local churches or Wheaton College. Also, keep your eyes open for a staff favorite coming out in the U.S. in February, Little Bee, by Chris Cleave. I have a rapturous post about this book when the advance copy first arrived in October. It's a shimmering, hopeful story about an illegal immigrant who escapes the horrifying civil war that descended on her village in Nigeria. I can't wait to sell it.

"Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History"

Book Review: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Viking 2008, hardcover $24.95); The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (Harcourt, Inc. 2007, paperback $14.95)

We've all heard that "well behaved women seldom make history." Well, it also seems that well behaved women seldom make good novels. On the other hand, give me a complicated, defiant woman, place her in a 19th or early 20th century novel, and you've got the foundation for a great read.

This is the case for both The Secret Scripture, a 2008 Man Booker prize nominee, and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, now in paperback. It was just coincidental that I read the two books back to back, but I'm glad I did. They were a great fit.

These books certainly made me grateful I didn't live back then. Aside from missing i-pods and microwaves, I could have run into trouble with the apparent cultural tendency to have unconventional women committed to insane asylums against their will. Thank goodness we live in the 21st century, where spunky women can dye their hair pink and sing catchy tunes about life as a rock star. Or where opinionated women can become litigators, Senators, or stars on The View.

However, if you were a young, beautiful Irish girl of the 1800's like Roseanne McNulty in The Secret Scripture, and your only crime was to defy and alienate the parish priest, then you too could end up in a mental hospital in County Sligo until your 100th birthday. Similarly, if you were a troubled young English girl who never quite recovered from witnessing your little brother's death, rendering you a bit too quirky and "unfit" for marriage, then you could have shared the fate of Esme Lennox, who found herself in a mental hospital for 61 years.

Coincidentally, in each book, the mental hospital is scheduled to close. The hospital staff begin to search patient histories to find next of kin, and the patients themselves began to piece together their past. In each case, a fascinating story emerges about the times and events that led Esme and Roseanne to their fate.

Despite suffering decades of undeserved isolation, both Roseanne and Esme emerge from their mental hospitals with new freedom, new narratives and newly discovered relatives. Which gives hope to all the not-so-well behaved women out there, no matter what your age.

Both of these books would be terrific for book club discussions, but I really loved The Secret Scripture for the beauty of the writing and its irresistable Irishness. I'm definitely picking up Sebastian Barry's other novels.

Celebrity Chef Art Smith and Author Helen Puckett De France at Cookbook Signing

Cookbook author Helen Puckett De France came to The Bookstore on Sunday, Dec. 14th to sign copies of her newest cookbook, At Home Cafe. Accompanying her was her good friend and celebrity chef Art Smith, who wrote the forward to her book. Art Smith has been Oprah's longtime executive chef, and is rumored to be on the shortlist for White House chef. Extra signed copies of the cookbook are still available. Just call (630)469-2891 and we will hold one for you.

Fancy Nancy Holiday Parties Sparkled!

Thank you to all the sweet little girls who joined us for our Fancy Nancy Holiday parties this past week! We are sorry we didn't get to post everyone's photo, but here are a few! Aren't they cute with their little fancy elf hats? Please make sure your daughter is signed up for our new Fancy Nancy Club starting in January, 2009. Just call The Bookstore at (630) 469-2891 or e-mail us at justbook475@yahoo.com with the heading "Fancy Nancy."
We plan to have a newsletter, offer coupons, more parties, and a Fancy Nancy treat bag for all little girls who come to The Bookstore looking fancy!

Fancy Holidays to one and all from your friends at The Bookstore! See you again soon!

Intriguing Read: Travel Writing by Peter Ferry

Travel Writing (Harcourt, Inc., $24.00), is a new novel by Peter Ferry, an Evanston, Illinois author/teacher/travel writer. It's a great mind-bending kind of a read, like an Escher painting. I highly recommend it.

The narrator is an English teacher and travel writer named Peter Ferry (hmm...) who is trying to show his students how to tell a story. He tells them an intriguing story (he claims he's making it up off the top of his head) about a woman he saw get killed in a car accident on Lake Shore Drive. He feels guilty because he thinks he could have prevented it. As a reader, you think, wow, this character's a really good teacher; that's a clever way to get your class to practice using their imagination: take a possibly real event and spin a complicated, regretful tale from it.

But then he launches into minute details about the accident and his obsessive interest in the life of the victim, Lisa Kim. The book takes off with several chapters about his creepy investigation into the cause of the accident, and the problems this obsession is having on his relationships. You forget that it all supposedly started "off the top of his head."

Just when you're on a roll with the (real?) story, the narrator takes a break for a segment back in his English class, and he is having a conversation with his students about his fictional love for Lisa Kim. It's like waking up from a vivid dream and realizing none of it ever happened. But then the story advances further, with so much detail that he couldn't be just making it up. So, did it really happen, or is the teacher just using it as a launching point for his imagination?

As the book jacket says, this novel explores the idea that "the line between fact and fiction is negotiable." It's a clever premise, and the mystery is a compelling page-turner. And if the plot isn't disturbing and intriguing enough, there is the dedication page: to Lisa Kim. I have this creepy feeling that if I googled Lisa Kim I'd find her obituary. Read the book and then post your thoughts. It's so weird you can't just put it down and forget about it!

Book Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Available in paperback, translated from French, $15.00.

This is a surprising, enchanting love story about a curmudgeonly concierge, a precocious, suicidal teenager, and a wealthy Japanese man who live in the same apartment building in Paris. It’s about all the big things in life: our search for beauty, meaning and love; our deep human longing for art, music, literature and philosophy. But the magic of the book is revealed when these flawed, lonely people learn how to recognize and respond to this longing in each other.

The story starts out slowly, with a couple of irritating chapters that might make you feel impatient or stupid or both, as if the author is just showing off, but then the story blossoms and the characters become absolutely irresistible.

If you’ve ever been struck by a perfect line of Tolstoy’s prose, brought to tears by a beautiful Vermeer painting (okay, not tears - but maybe you were just a little "verklempt"?), or deeply bothered by some nitwit’s bad grammar, then you must read this book and get to know the endearing little hedgehog of a concierge named Renee. Then, like me, you’ll be passing the book on to friends, insisting that they take the time to enjoy this elegant little story.

My favorite things: "happy families are all alike," camellias on the moss, synchronized diving, yellow carpeting, pure kindness. Sue, how 'bout you?