The Eclectic Reader

Hi there,

I've been enjoying working at the bookshop a lot this last week. It's been fun matching up books for children for Christmas presents. One of my season's favorite's is Skippy Jon Jones and the Big Bones. It's a tremendous amount of fun to read aloud, just as much fun as Dr. Seuss. Just yesterday, I put Hattie Big Sky in a parent's hand for a girl who loves reading. Hattie is an orphan who is deeded her uncle's claim in Montana. The story of how she deals with the racial profiling of the Germans in the early part of the 20th century and how she does the work on her claim is fascinating and satisfying. This is a great book to read with your children because so many of the themes are recurring today.

My favorite book for this week has been Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry. There's a least 2 giggles and a laugh out loud in every chapter. It's a memoir about a man fixing up his International Harvestor pick-up truck and falling in love with a real girl. One of my favorite stories is his description of seed catalogs in January: "Seed catalogs are responsible for more unfulfilled fantasies than Enron and Playboy combined." This will be the book for our newest book club at the store: The Eclectic Reader. More details to come.