Year 2 , Day 2: The Paris Library

Chatting Books Online Year 2 , Day 2 AKA Day 367) Today's recommended book is The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.

Well , I've broken my own "no more books set in World War II" rule again. With so many historical fiction books set in this period in the last few years you would think it would be hard to bring something fresh and new to the genre - well this book does. Set partially in Paris between 1939 and 1944 and partially in Montana in the mid 1980's this book tells the story of Odile. Odile is a young girl in Paris before the war when she lands her dream job as a librarian at The American Library in Paris (where I MUST go soon) , Everything is going well, she has a twin brother whom she is very close to,, good friends, a handsome police officer beau and her dream job. Then slowly things start to turn as there are whispers of war and then it breaks out in full. Through memories and flash backs we learn Odile's story as she gets to know her young neighbor Lily in Montana. What starts as curiosity for Lily as to what brought this sophisticated French women to her little town in Montana becomes curiosity for the reader and you will want to know her trajectory as well. A lovely book , maybe I should not make "rules" after all.

This book is currently available in hardcover at $28.00 .

To purchase a copy come see us at the shop during business hours or you can call or message me to have a copy shipped to you

Year 2 Day 1 : Peter Rabbit

Chatting Books Online Year 2 Day 1 (AKA day 366) . Today's recommended book is The Tale of Peter Rabbit: A Story Board Book based on the tale by Beatrix Potter.

With Easter on the way and having recently read the new storybook about author Beatrix Potter Peter rabbit has been on my mind. This is the story of the mischievous bunny who cannot seem to keep himself out of Mr. McGregor's garden - much to Mr. McGregor's displeasure! delight along with Peter and children everywhere in this wonderful tale in a sturdy board book perfect for Easter basket stuffing.

This board book sells for $6.99 a copy .

To purchase a copy come see us at the shop during business hours or you can call or message me to have a copy shipped to you.

Day 365 : The Year in Review!

Chatting Books Online Day 365. The year in review!

365 days .... One full year..... When I started this feed it was with the idea that I would recommend a book each day over the "15 days to stop the spread" when I thought my bookshop would be closed. A lot has changed since then. 15 days became several months, then we were able to open on a limited basis but at that point we were into the swing of this book recommending thing so I kept going. Well here we are a year in, getting closer and closer to normal , many people vaccinated , and yet I still keep going.

I want to take a minute to thank each one of you for reading these posts . This has been an absolute life-line for the bookshop. On the lonliest of days boxing up books and puzzles in a bookshop closed to the public these posts gave me the chance to 'talk" to you , and your replies and orders made it a real conversation and a way to continue to tell you about new books without chatting in the person. .

Your orders for these books, for the puzzles we posted , and your special orders have kept us afloat through the lean days of the pandemic and continue to bring in orders and requests nearly every day. Thank you. Thank you for reading along, Thank you for ordering what I recommend, and Thank you for your likes and comments each morning.

Now , I won't say every recommendation has been a huge smash but very few have been complete duds either, if orders , comments, likes and purchases are how we measure things anyway. So it is with that in mind that even though I firmly believe we can start getting back to "normal" very soon I am not planning to stop these recommendations anytime soon. But I do have a question for you : I numbered them when I thought it would be 15 or 30 days . Now that we have completed a full year do we keep going numerically so tomorrow is "Day 366", or is tomorrow " Year 2 day 1"?

Well until tomorrow , whatever we decide to call it, just know that I appreciate each person reading along and I will be here bright and early tomorrow morning with another episode of Chatting Books Online and another new recommendation. See you soon!

Day 364: The Week in Review March 8 -14. 2021.

Chatting Books Online Day 364. The Week in Review March 8 -14. 2021.

Thanks for joining us again this week as we tried to bring a book to your attention each day that you may not have read before or maybe you read in the past but are past due for a re-read.

This week we started spent quite a bit of time in the garden with recommendations of : The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook , Floratopia, and the Snakes of Louisiana identification cards.

I also recommended The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss and Dance! a super fun interactive board book .

And then because everybody needs to read it at some point in their life (seriously, - everybody) The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkein.

If you missed any of these reviews and want to read what I had to say about them you can see all of our Chatting Books Online picks by visiting our website at: http://www.conundrumbooks.com/chatting-books-online .

We still (and always will going forward) offer shipping if you cannot make it to the store. Or just stop by the shop during or normal hours . See you soon !

Day 363 : Snakes of Louisiana

Chatting Books Online Day 363. With the weather getting warmer today's recommendation is : Snakes of Louisiana , A guide to common and notable species.

This plastic coated fold out shows pictures, descriptions, and identifying features of the most common Louisiana snakes. People tell me this is important to know as you start gardening in this warm weather so that you know which snakes are "good snakes" and which are not "good snakes". You will notice I put "good snakes" in parenthesis , That is because though I understand the theory of beneficial snakes (eating mice etc) you should also understand that I am not getting close enough to ANY snake to make that determination. That said this card can come in very handy when looking at a dead snake to see what it WAS. (go ahead fuss at me).

This handy dandy plastic coated illustrated card sells for $ 7.95 a copy.

o purchase a copy come see us at the shop during business hours or you can call or message me to have a copy shipped to you.

Day 362: The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook

Chattin Books Online Day 362 . Today's recommended book is Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook.

I have been intending to start a vegetable garden. I am not yet sure if this is my year but I am at least reading books and getting ready to perhaps get ready to plant one (not commitment shy at all , am I ? )

Anyway, step one in this book is to determine the "Average Date of Last Frost" in your area and then write that on a particular page (page 88), then you work backwards and forwards from that page by week to see where you are today and what you should be doing in your garden. Coincidentally, our Average Date of Last Frost (actually that for the nearest Farmer's Almanac Climate Center in New Roads) is March 10. Which happens to have been this week - yippee date of average last frost is over !!!!

So this year I will start somewhere around page 88 (though first I actually need to build a garden) and then work my way through this book week and by week and let's see how I do - I may even share my harvest - if I actually manage to grow anything!

This spiral bound cardboard cover working book , is 199 pages and sells for $18.95 a copy.

To purchase a copy come see us at the shop during business hours or you can call or message me to have a copy shipped to you. Now Let's get growing!

Day 361: The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr Seuss

Chatting Books online Day 361. Today's recommended book is The Sneetches and other stories by Dr. Seuss.

With so much controversy lately over certain Dr Seuss books I thought I would recommend one that teaches a lesson we should all agree upon. The Sneetches tells the story of creatures who at first are very divided . You see some Sneetches had stars and their bellies and thought they were just the coolest, much cooler than those who had no stars on “thars”. Along comes a man we can all agree was really a conman who added stars to the plain bellied sneetches (at a cost of course) , then removed stars, then added stars until he had all of everyone's money and no Sneetch knew who was who - but what they did now know was that it doesn't matter. Sneetches are Sneetches no matter what they look like.

This hardcover book also contains 3 other short Seuss stories ( The Zax, Too Many Daves, and What was I Scared of ? ) and sells for $16.99 a copy.

To purchase a copy come see us at the shop during business hours or you can call or message me to have a copy shipped to you.

Day 360: The Hobbit

Chatting Books Online Day 360. Today's recommended book is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien in this 75th anniversary pocket edition.

So it is a Hobbit sized edition of The Hobbit measuring in at 6" x 4.5" in a well-bound hardcover.

It does not matter if you have long been a fan of Bilbo Baggins or if you saw some of The Lord of the Rings movies but never read the books. Whether you read it before or not you will be enchanted reading this copy. Even though the book is small it is the complete, unabridged story of Bilbo and the quest he never chose for himself. This book is filled with adventure, suspense and humor and needs to be in every well-curated collection.

Hardcover, pocket edition . Selling currently for $16.99 a copy.

To purchase a copy come see us at the shop during business hours or you can call or message me to have a copy shipped to you.