CBevents's blog

Love it or hate it, it’s hard to deny that summer is slowly but surely becoming autumn. In the bookstore, the changes are marked in a variety of ways. For one, our well-loved floors are littered with increasingly more debris from dead leaves. It won’t be long now until we have to shut the door to keep piles of fallen leaves and gusts of cold air from swirling in the door and around the card racks.

Then there are the students rushing in to buy their assigned summer reading books now that there is only a week left until school starts. The teachers and librarians are calling in orders for the upcoming year, and parents are requesting educational books to help prep their kids for school during the last days of summer vacation.

Despite some of the quintessential downers of the end of summer, fall is actually an exciting time in the book world. It is the season of big releases! Publishing tends to slow down in the summer, like most of us. There are moments of excitement here and there, but largely it’s a languid time. The best summer reads were released in the spring, when the heady works of winter contemplation get set aside for breezy reads. But now the gears are turning again and we are looking forward to some fantastic new releases.

Authors like Jonathan Safran Foer, Zadie Smith, Michael Chabon, and Ann Patchett have new fiction on the docket. Mystery fans can look forward to new thrills from Louise Penny, Harlan Coben, and Carl Hiaasen. Foodies will relish new cookbooks from heavy hitters like Anthony Bourdain, Alton Brown, Ina Garten, and Marcus Samuelsson. We have our eyes on memoirs and biographies covering Bruce Springsteen, Al Capone, and the family life of John and Rose Kennedy. Plus, writer-extraordinaire Ursula K. Le Guin has two notable works coming out, a volume of her collected novellas and a compilation of essays and talks on life and books. Business and economic releases will be heavy on technology and inequality, and history releases will cover a wide swath of issues that are still relevant today, like race and religion.

Whatever your preferred genre, you can bet there are some enticing titles coming out in the next few months. Though the sun may still be shining bright and hot, it’s time to start working on your reading lists for the cold months that we book worms spend curled up under blankets, tea steaming, and fire crackling. Heck, start making your Christmas lists! So if you’re like me and love the fleeting, flower-bursting, garden-nurturing, sleep-under-the-stars, mad-dash of summer in the Rocky Mountains, take comfort in knowing that with the fading of warmth and long days comes the promise of some great reading.        

-- Katie Plumb

“Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Superman!”

I would venture a guess that just about everyone knows that line, but only a few have ever actually read The Adventures of Superman. Graphic novels and comic books are severely overlooked art forms, and are seen as absurd or juvenile. I’d argue that the absurdity and child-like nature of comic books is what makes it so special. There’s a certain charm to the unimaginable becoming commonplace. In comics, you can find a mutated teenager fighting crime, a resurrected soldier from World War II busting up a drug ring, a blind man fighting ninjas, and a man made of orange bricks wrestling dinosaurs all in the same day. For everyone else, it’s just another day in New York City. Graphic novels take the normal world and dare it to be fantastic.

The first comic book I ever owned was Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragones. I walked into the local comic book store and I was absolutely floored. I had looked over a few of my brother’s Spider-Man comics before and I liked the show on Fox Kids but I realized as soon as I had stepped into that store that I really didn’t understand anything about comic culture. The walls were covered in posters of monsters and heroes and plastic figurines everywhere. I hadn’t realized that there were so many options. Now you must understand, I was a very socially awkward kid and when faced with these kinds of conundrums I usually would have just left rather than asking for help but something special was in the air besides the smell of old print and mylar plastic. I walked up to the guy behind the counter, whose name I later learned was Roger, and asked him “What should I read?” He asked me what I was into. I shrugged and said, “Something funny, I guess.” So he showed me Groo, a comic that parodies Conan the Barbarian that is about a witless warrior and his faithful, sarcastic dog. After the first issue, I spent every weekend and every weekend’s allowance going back to that store and getting every issue I could find. Roger and I even became good friends. Roger hadn’t just provided me with a life-long passion but also a sense of community, something to be a part of.

The graphic novel is an art form unlike any other; the marriage of literature and art. It’s written like a book but scripted like a film. There are things that a graphic novel can describe that a book never could and vice versa. It’s one thing to describe a beautiful sun setting over Kent Farms in Superman for All Seasons but quite another to see the breathtaking watercolors of Tim Sale splash across the page in a dazzling display of yellows, oranges, and pinks as Clark and his father look on. The kind of dramatic pacing found in Watchmen is unsurpassed but especially because often the tension and the feeling of dread of the future is achieved without saying a single word.

People look to comic books for a number of reasons: to inspire us, to warn us, to entertain us. In many ways, the mythologies of ancient times have evolved into the modern pantheon of comic book characters. I say that we look to graphic novels because the human imagination is too limitless not to. Comics can be bigger than life like an immortal sun god from Kansas or simplicity itself like the chronicles of a young boy and his tiger.

If you have never read a graphic novel, I strongly urge you to go to your local bookstore or library or comic book shop and ask someone to help you down the long and rewarding road of graphic novels. If you think there can’t possibly be a graphic novel out there to fit your reading style, you’re probably wrong. Graphic novels have heroes, monsters, real people, history, culture, tragedy, comedy, and so much more.

Roger is part of the reason I became a bookseller at Country Bookshelf. I wanted to help people not just find a story to keep them entertained over summer vacation or to distract them momentarily, but to find a book that would shape their lives. I hope that I can be like Roger and recommend something that can expand your mind and change the way you read forever.

'Nuff said.

-- Harry Jahnke

What do you do at the bookstore?

My job at the bookstore entails an endless list of tasks. Most imporantly, I am learning how to be a bookseller. Not only am I learning about books and authors, but also learning how to best serve bookstore customers.

What do you do outside of the bookstore?

When not at the bookstore, I find myself outside as much as possible. I enjoy hiking, gardening, and cycling. Experimenting with watercolor painting is a recent hobby.

What are a few of your favorite books?

This is an ever-shifting list. Today, I would include Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Our Only World by Wendell Berry, and The Abundance by Annie Dillard.

A book about your life would be called...

Fluctuating Between Opportunity and Wisdom. The book would include timelines, photographs, and sketches. I imagine something like The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.

What is your biggest accomplishment?

Good fortune often placed me in the company of talented individuals. Their ability to step forward when their expertise was needed then return to the status of worker without seeking the limelight was integral to the success of the team. Whether is was touring Japan for a month with a group of middle school students, working on a grant connecting museums and elementary schools with Indian Education For All, creating learning environments where discourse and creativity are valued, building a family cabin, or being married. All of these accomplishments have brought joy to my life.

What is a fun fact about youself?

Once, when on a moonlight hike in Yellowstone (near the Beaver Ponds), a herd of elk ran right by us. The herd "parted" only a few feet in front of us. My heart was beating almost as fast as the pounding of their hooves.

Read Kathy's Staff Picks

Louise Erdrich is a master of magical realism and an intuitive genius who knows what is going on inside the minds and hearts of modern American Indians. Told from multiple perspectives, including the voice of a small child who inherits the spirit and name of the title character, La Rose is a tale that weaves intergenerational grief with the healing power of indigenous justice. This story emerges from Turtle Mountain, North Dakota, a place that holds a unique history of colonization by the often genteel French. Erdrich disrupts dichotomous thinking about history, justice, love, and violence by bringing indigenous wisdom to a seemingly tragic series of events. There are worse fates than death, more powerful grief than for the loss of a child. Like the severed head that rolls through the  book, LaRose will not let you rest until you have grappled with the raw intimacy of true community. 

--Kimberly Mckeehan

What do you do at the bookstore?

I am amongst the ranks of booksellers, and still learning how to be a good one. Helping people find books and recommending new great reads is a big part of my job, but I also do a lot to keep the store in good order. I am helping to host author events now, too, which can be fun.

What do you do outside of the bookstore?

I write articles for Rocky Mountain Gardening Magazine and a Blog called “The Last Best Plates”. The articles are about farming and gardening and local food and craft beer. I play outside, hiking, camping and skiing. Just mountain things mostly. I also like to play in my garden. I like to cook and will cook anything and everything. I’m trying to learn how to make as many different dishes as I can, and I’d say that my best dish is tamales.

What are a few of your favorite books?

I love The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM by Robert O’Brien is also a favorite. I prefer to read literary fiction and cooking literature, as well as science and nature writing, and cooking literature. I like to read children’s' books for a change of perspective when life feels too serious, and I'm trying to get more familiar with other genres.

A book about your life would be called...

Broccoflower and Other Stories. It would be a collection of essays about, well...my life. The people, places, and experiences that have gotten me to here. I'd like to think it would be funny, poignant, and profoundly human—you know, like any good read. The voice would probably be something like Barbara Kingslover meets Bill Bryson.

What is your biggest accomplishment?

I get pretty excited about little things, like when I bake a really great loaf of bread.

What is a fun fact about youself?

Despite traveling around the world in college, I didn't seen a firefly until I was 26, and it was magical.

Read Katie's Staff Picks

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Janet Fox writes award-winning fiction and non-fiction for children of all ages. Her published works include the non-fiction middle grade book Get Organized Without Losing It, and three YA historical romances: Faithful, Forgiven, and Sirens. Janet’s debut middle grade novel The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle is an historical fantasy set in Scotland, and will be released on March 15, 2016.

What were some of the main inspirations for The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle?

When I was a kid I read a lot of Greek and Roman myths and legends, as wells as fairytales. I think that formed the basis for my love of the mystery inherent in myths and fairytales. Once I got older I started reading more advanced things like Agatha Christie. The mystery themes in Charmed Children are very much a part of that formative stuff that I love…I love incorporating things that don’t normally fit together like history and fantasy, so that’s another thing I’ve done here that I will probably do more of in the future.

What inspired you to move from young adult novels to a middle grade novel?

It was completely determined by the voice of the story. When I start writing something new, I start by writing a couple of scenes involving a character, and this one came out in the voice of a middle grader. I knew right away that I couldn’t age it up. It definitely had that kind of feeling about it. I also, when I started writing, harked back to my roots as a child reader—back to the Narnia tales, because those are very middle grade books. That was the feeling I was trying to invoke with the starting of a new story, and it just cemented itself as middle grade rather than young adult. However, I am still writing young adult novels as well.

How does the fact that you’ve lived in a real haunted house influence the ghosts in your story?

I am preoccupied with the notion of death and life after death. I’m searching for answers to those big fundamental questions, and ghosts are one way of accessing that information. Maybe there is life after death, just not in a way that we understand it now—possibly some other dimension that we are shifting in and out of. I play with that a lot. Having had experiences that I would call spiritual, and having had family members who have had the same kind of experiences, I would say that it does color what I write all the time, but in different ways. It can be ghosts in one story but then a search for meaning in another story, or some kind of mix between the two.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the use of jewelry in the book, specifically the Chatelaine and its charms?

That has a very interesting backstory. I had just finished Sirens and had sent it off to my editor. I was sort of mucking around thinking, “What am I going to do next?” I went on Facebook and a friend of mine had posted a picture of a chatelaine. It was a 17^th or 18^th century German chatelaine, and I thought, “Oh, wow!” There were some ordinary charms attached to it, but there were also some really weird things too. The more I looked at it the weirder it got. I’m looking at this thing thinking, “Who would wear that and why?”

 Ironically, my agent at the time, that same day, send me an email saying there was an editor who wanted to work with me and asked if I had any projects involving jewelry. When things like that happen, you just have to go with it. I started writing and within a short amount of time I had a huge chunk of this story written. I knew exactly where it was going and I had the atmosphere and the characters.

Do you usually begin with the research or the writing?

I start writing first, because, to me, it’s the story I want. If there’s anything I need to know more of, I’ll do the research then and keep writing. I knew that kids had left during the Blitz, so I went online because I wanted to know more about the Pied Piper Movement, which was to get kids out of London. I’d find out more about that, like what terminals they would use or what train stations they would leave from and use that. But that research just comes on the fly as it’s needed, and as I’ve gotten into the heart of the story.

What are you reading right now?

I try to read in my genre. Not long ago I finished The Nest **, which I loved. And Echo **, which I also loved. I just finished Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert’s book on creativity, which I am trying to say to everyone I know who is engaged in creative thinking that they must read. I really look forward to a book that is being released the same day as Charmed Children called The Girl in the Well is Me. In the YA realm, I am a huge fan of Suzanne Collins, as I know everyone is. I love Lauren Oliver’s work. Anything that Laurie Halse Anderson writes in my favorite. I just adore her stuff. I just have a towering “to read” pile.

Can we look forward to Charmed Children becoming a series?

I am working on a possible sequel. There has been lots of noise about the possibility of a second novel. I have started working on one, and I am about 20,000 words into it. So maybe. We’ll see.

Meet Janet Fox at the store on Tuesday, March 15 at 7pm.

What do you do at the bookstore?

I'm a bookseller. That means I do a little of everything, from keeping the store tidy to shelving books and putting up displays. The best part about being a bookseller is talking to people about books. That is literally my job. I sell books to people—books that I love and think they will love.

What do you do outside of the bookstore?

By day, I am a bookseller, by night I am an illustrator. Painting has always been a favorite hobby of mine, but it was only recently that I started doing so for profit. Besides that, I feel like my most notable endeavor outside the bookstore is being a good husband.

What are a few of your favorite books?

I do not really have favorite books, more like favorite series. My #1 will always be "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket, without which I would not be the person I am today. I also really enjoy "The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan. I also consider H.P. Lovecraft to be one of the greatest authors of all time. Really I will read anything, as long as it is good.

A book about your life would be called...

Southern Drawl: The Life and Mind of a Creativity Enthusiast. It would probably have a lot of doodles in the margins and more than one recipe for good, southern food.

What is your biggest accomplishment?

A few people have told me that I look like Cillian Murphy. That is pretty cool.

What is a fun fact about youself?

I grew up in Southern Alabama, but have not been there in many years. My accent is usually hidden pretty well, but it still slips out from time to time.

Read Kyle's Staff Picks

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For nearly sixty years, we at Country Bookshelf have prided ourselves on being more than just somewhere to purchase a book. Of course, we do sell books (we have about 35,000 of them on our shelves and over a million online). However, we are also a community space that hosts around 100 events per year—including book clubs, author events, and workshops. We are a place for like-minded people to come together to discuss ideas or just catch up with old friends. And we think that’s the best part about being a local, independent bookstore—the human connections that exist amongst the shelves. There are a lot of places where you can buy a book, but not very many places where the joy of literature and community flourishes. We think that’s pretty awesome.

This meeting of minds, however, is not confined to the physical location of our store. It has the potential to go beyond that, and we hope this blog will be one more way that we can send that passion out the door and into the world to connect us with those who feel as we do. Although we are very proud to be a local business, we are delighted to be able to connect with you wherever in the world you happen to be. Check back here to find original content including our reviews of books, exclusive content from visiting authors, store news, and lots of behind-the-scenes looks at how we do what we do.

We’re thankful to everyone who has been along for the ride these past decades, and we look forward to all that is still to come.

Sincerely,

The Staff at Country Bookshelf