In Other News...

WE HAVE GIANT, LIGHT-UP, SPARKLY BOUNCY BALLS! We also got in some crazy animal yo-yo's, Gumpy and Pokey figurines, and KAZOOS!!!

We also still have books, lots and lots of cool books. In fact, for a limited time, all of our used, artsy coffee table books are on sale for only $5!

Did I mention the giant bouncy balls?

-Wally

Why Read?
To rearrange what you thought you knew
To converse with unavailable people
To restock your conversational larder
To counteract creeping media mindlessness
It’s cheaper than shopping
To see how others do it
To taste the flavor of words
To get high-quality gossip
To discover new questions
For the joy of a graceful sentence
To go places you can’t get otherwise
And come back changed!
We need to teach people not only how, but also why to read. The struggle is not to make people read more, but to make them want to read more. (Andrew Solomon, THe Closing of the American Book (New York Times, July 10 2004)
Thank you Susannah Richards for sharing such great ideas at Edufest 2009 at Boise State University.
Laura

cool retro bookstore video

Zombies and Sea Monsters and Jesus! OH MY!

A lot of the members of our staff are big zombie fans. You may have seen our display of Zombie books, all of which are ridiculously awesome. One of my favorites is Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum. It's a skin-crawling account of the Zompocalypse told in scrawled haiku, Polaroids, doodles, and blood splatters.

A title I just found is Jesus Hates Zombies (Featuring Lincoln Hates Werewolves) by Stephen Lindsay and Steve Cobb. It's a graphic novel that comes in 4 thin volumes of epically funny violence. It's completely fabulous, but is more than a little irreverent.

Another great one is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. It is all the title promises and more! It even has quippy illustrations! If that sounds interesting to you, then you might also like the upcoming, highly-anticipated, follow-up, hard-core book we just heard about today. The following video of the book trailer had us all cackling this morning. Enjoy!

The League of Super-Awesome Booksellers!

Remember our Superhero Sale? Well we took some pictures, and I thought you all might want to see them :)

So much win!

-Wally

5,4, 3, 2, 1 Blast Off!

Forty years ago there was one small step for man and one giant step for mankind.

There are many wonderful books this summer to bring this incredible event to life for your kids that go way beyond the boring textbook information!

One Small Step by P.B. Kerr. Unknown to the rest of us there is a secret mission to land monkeys on the moon before humans. When the lead monkey is unable to complete the mission, NASA discovers Scott MacLeod, a talented 13 year old pilot, and asks him to be part of this top-secret plan. This is the Boys Only Book Club titles for July.



A book with the same title, but very different insides is One Small Step by Jerry Stone -an " 'ology" scrapbook of the the lunar landing. Nonfiction and lots of flaps to lift and pages to explore.
Last but not least, for the preschooler who's fascinated by astronauts and space, there is the Astronaut's Handbook by Meghan MacCarthy. This one explains all of the details of an astronauts life in clear drawings. My son's favorite is the astronaut toilet.

I guess I've always wanted to travel into outer space, and I'm looking forward to sharing this event with my kids. If these books don't seem to fit your kids, I have found many more ranging from a graphic novel about the race to the moon to Stephen and Lucy Hawkings' (of physicist fame) novel about George's Secret Key to the Universe

Happy Reading !
~Laura DeLaney

Not So "Out" There...

June and July are informally the months when gay pride rallys, parades, and parties celebrate diversity and, well, all things gay. In keeping with that theme, I thought I'd mention some gay-themed titles - from children's books to teen novels to adult literature; biographies/memoirs to religion/spiritual living - that I have enjoyed over the past year. To note, I'm really particular about the content of gay fiction and non-fiction: they cannot be sexually explicit - the following books are works I would feel comfortable handing a teenager or either of my parents; they have to be well-written - I'm a critic of writing styles regardless of the story being told; and they reflect what (I feel) most of us who grow up gay can relate too - sorry, you won't titles like Miami Manhunt or Every Frat Boy Wants It on this list.

Based on the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who built a nest and hatched an adopted chick together, this is quirky and fun with a relevant message on diverse families...not to mention the fact that it has been the United States' most banned book since its publication.

Daddy, Papa, and Me - this one's

pretty straight (no pun intended)

forward, not too mention cute: a board book for toddlers.

Rainbow Boys really showcases the "array of gay" that exists: the "flaming queen" with multi- colored hair, the lisp and swish, and feminine tendencies; the guy who's gay, but not too noticably and people silently question; the guy you'd never guess to be gay - popular jock, so normal he's almost boring, but good looking. How all this comes together (dramatically, I might add) in this highschool-set novel is great...I couldn't put it, the sequal, or the third, down!

About the author: this is his first novel, he's a successful attorney, gay, and lives in NYC. Now about the book: it captures teenage emotion about love, family, sexuality, highschool, friends, and more so well that I was up all night - two nights in a row - immeshed in the teens' coming-of-age lives. As with Rainbow Boys, older teens and adults are gonna like this, as well as younger guys ages 13+.

Ellen Hopkins is my favorite teen author of all time. Written in prose, Impulse chronicles the thoughts (and minimal conversations) of three teens, one of which is bisexual, as they are institutionalized for failed suicide attempts. I thought it would be a quick read, but between each chapter, I had to pause, digest what I'd read, reflect, and move onto something else...partly cuz it was intense; partly because I wanted the book to last...indefinitely.

Simple in its complexity of human thought, this reads as smoothly as a love letter. Set in Italy, a young teen male falls in love with his father's graduate assistant who is a foreign exchange student from the United States, and older than he. I fell for this book because of the ambiguity, European setting, and collegiate atmosphere...plus I'm secretly a sap (just don't tell anyone).

Avoidance is not to be missed! Published by Graywolf Press, an independent publisher dedicated quality writing, not to making money with blockbuster titles, has become my favorite small publishing house. This is a POD (print on demand), so we don't readily carry it on the shelves, but one can be printed for you, personally, and shipped to us if you want to special order a copy. I'm super glad that I did.

My favorite scene in this memoir is when Robert "comes out" to his family as being gay and his Texas-raised grandma says, "Honey, we've been working under that assumption since you were a toddler." Fresh, playful, and a happy ending.

Honestly, I picked this one up because of the cover - and its one that I will not ever sell back to the bookshop! In these years when civil unions/gay marriages are so over-controversial, this author has shared his and his partner's quirky love story that reflects the gay community that I see on a regular basis: the lovesick, googley-eyed sap falling for, and creating a life with, the guy who thinks soap is a good anniversary gift or pops the marriage question in a traffic jam (and you know who you are. Haha).

~ Ross

Reminder

Just a reminder to everyone reading today, tomorrow night the Classics You Forgot to Read Book Group will be meeting to chew-over Mark Twain's classic, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Show up for lively discussion!

-Whitney