Chatting Books Online Day 103 . Today’s recommended book : “Every Day A Word Surprises Me” & Other Quotes by Writers is one I refer to often while coming up with slogans , memes , sandwich boards and writing blogs . If you have ever wondered where I find the quotes I use they are from this book . With sections titled : grammar , ideas, love , reading , subjects, writers block and many , many more there is pretty much an appropriate quote for all things bookstore and really all situations in life !
This 334 page hardcover sells for $24.95 . It is a great gift book for your writing or book loving friends - or for yourself !
Day 102: A Wrinkle in Time
Chatting Books Online Day 102. Today's recommended book can be best summed up by the statement: The Book was Better. So even though there is a recent star studded movie made of Madeleine L'Engle's classic "A Wrinkle n Time" do yourself a favor and read the book instead.
This is a magical book , voted one of the 11 best Children's Books of all time (don't get me started on why they chose 11 and not 10 or 12, that is a rant for another day). In the book Meg Murray and her brother Charles Wallace set off on a mission to save their father, the scientist who has disappeared mysteriously while working on a tesseract project for the government. A tesseract you see is a hole or "wrinkle" in time. When strange beings start showing up at and near their house (enter Mrs.Whatsit, Mrs. Who , and Mrs. Which) things start to get weird, the kids get curious and worried, and the adventures begin.
We sell a hardcover copy of this 203 page classic for $ 19.99 a copy.
The recommended starting age group for this book reading on their own is 10-13 , worth 7 AR points !
Day 101: Hello Summer by Mary Kay Andrews
Chatting Books Online Day 101 . And now for something a bit different. I have a new way to relax and unwind in the afternoons when I leave the shop. My new habit has me arriving home in the afternoons and rather than just collapsing on the couch I pour myself a glass of wine (or sometimes tea or water) and then put in a pair of earphones and head out onto the porch to listen to an audiobook while watering my hanging baskets. With the summer heat my porch plants both baskets and potted plants have been taking a beating and I have not been able to convince myself to put in a drip watering system (too much water on a wooden porch seems like a bad idea to me), so instead I water them by hand on a regular basis. What I have discovered is that by turning on my libro.fm app , selecting a book and popping n my earphones the time flies by as I become immersed in another world.
This week I listened to "Hello Summer " by Mary Kay Andrews. I have to say it is not a book I would have normally picked up unless I was headed to the beach but I absolutely enjoyed traveling to the Florida coast for this lovely book. It is a sibling story, there is a mysterious death, the pulls of a family business or breaking out on your own, and political intrigue. My 24 hanging baskets and 12 potted porch
plants are very healthy this week because I kept wanting to put back in the headphones and head back out - one hand holding the garden hose and the other the wine glass my head in a virtual book - life is good.
So this week's book is one that we don't actually currently have in physical stock in the shop , though of course we are always happy to order a copy for you. If you have not used libro.fm yet it is really simple. You can either subscribe for $14.99 a month which entitles you to one free book credit a month (a typical download of a book still in hardcover is about $30 so this is a great bargain), then if you want more than one book in the month you get a 30% discount on additional books. If you don't use your free book credit in a month you can roll it forward to the next month and use it then (great for road trips too). Of course you don't have to subscribe to a monthly plan you can just use this site and app to order individual books , or you can even buy gift certificates on the site to send the gift of a book download to a friend. And the best part? When you buy audiobooks through libro.fm the purchase actually supports your local bookstore (you select your store when you first sign on ) that recommends books to you rather than supporting that other audiobook company that only suggests books based on marketing algorythyms.
To order this book as an audiobook use this website: https://www.libro.fm/audiobooks/9781250752314-hello-summer
Remember , if instead you want a paper copy of this or any other book either stop in the store Monday - Saturday between 10:30 and 4pm or message us. If we don't have what you are looking for we will order it for you and have it here in just a few days.
Day 100: The Gardeners Travel Companion to England
Chatting Books Online Day 100 . You read that correctly - 100 ! Can you believe it has been 100 days since we were told people should stay home and so I came up with this idea of how to continue telling you about the books I love ? Can you believe I haven’t missed a day yet ?!?! Can you believe you are still reading these run-on sentence filled posts I write daily ? Well believe it because we are here at Day 100 and today’s recommended book is one I planned to be putting to use this week if only the world had not broken . “The Gardener’s Travel Companion to England : what to see and where to stay “ is an absolutely immersive dive into garden touting throughout England . With sumptuous full color photos on every page it is a joy whether you actually make the trip or not (thank heavens what with the state of travel and quarantines in the world). It tells you what gardens to visit in each county , when to visit , what to see , where to stay and where to eat while visiting . It even lists different tours , events , courses and workshops available (pre-covid at least). So if I cannot be there this week at least I can dream . Pick up a copy and dream
a little dream of English country gardens along with me.
Day 99: The Week in Review June 15-21, 2020
Chatting Books Online Day 99. It has been another fine week for book recommending (if I may say so myself).
This week started in New Orleans with two young twins solving the Case of The Missing Poodle, then moved onto a very useful gardening title with 50 Beautiful Deer Resistant Plants. The Awakening by Kate Chopin celebrates the strength of women (and since this was written in the mid eighteen hundreds that is really saying something!). Then we celebrated fathers in time for today’s Father’s Day with Every Father’s Daughter. Of course a week is a week in my world without a little booklove so we read “The Man Who Loved Books Too Much” for both a true crime and a bookish fix. Finally we finished the week with the hysterically funny “Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Christ’s childhood pal”, and seriously if you need a TRULY laugh-out-loud book right about now in your life (and who doesn’t) this is the book for you.
Day 98: Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal.
Chatting Books Online Day 98 . Today’s recommended book is the hysterically funny
“Lamb : the Gospel according to Biff, Christ’s childhood pal”. My friend Meg first told me about this book right around the time we opened the bookstore . When she described it to me I thought this isn’t my type of book , it actually sounds a bit blasphemous. But Meg insisted it wasn’t (and knowing Meg I should have believed her immediately ) and I would enjoy it but still I didn’t read it right away , until it was chosen for our bookclub and being the good little rule follower that I am I had to read it . People use the term “Laugh Out Loud” all the time but other than a quick guffaw or chuckle it is not actually true - but I was sitting on my front porch reading this book and Rob actually had to come outside to see if someone was out there with me I was laughing so loudly and constantly . Fast forward several years and last week my husband Rob picked it up off the bookshelf at home and read it . I asked him to tell me how he would describe it and he answered “funny and thought provoking”. So there you have it folks high praise indeed .
We actually offer this book in two bindings the regular paperback which sells for $16.99 and a highly appropriate faux leather , faux gold embossed , faux bible looking edition that sells for $26.99 .
Day 97: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
Chatting Books Online Day 97. Today's recommended book isThe Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. I did not know what to expect from this book except that it would be about books - so I liked that, and the author and she was nice - she is Carly Whatley's Aunt ! So I read it and it is great! It is actually a true story about a book thief who terrorized the industry for years. Allison met the thief while working on a story for a newspaper and ended up interviewing him repeatedly over the course of several years (and a few jail stays) . An interesting glimpse into the mind and motivation of a book thief with just enough literary and bookstore references to thrill the bibliophiles among us.
Paperback, 274 pages. $ 16.00 a copy.
Day 96: Every Father's Daughter
Chatting Books Online Day 96 . In honor of Father’s Day this weekend today’s recommended book is Every Father’s Daughter . It is a collection of 24 essays by female authors about their fathers. The collection is edited by one of our favorites Margaret McMullan.
Not every essay , or every relationship , is a happy one and unfortunately some of us lose our fathers and that loss is hard . Those stories are in here too , but happy or sad every essay is heartfelt in this collection .
To read more about it visit our website where you can also order a copy : http://www.conundrumbooks.com/…/z9i3tsz48s5htp7lja0a7tohc0v…
Hardcover . $29.95 a copy
