Aaron's Tour of His Bookstore

Aaron takes you on his own special tour of his store! Enjoy :)

Our March Staff Picks

Great reads for that month that starts with a roar and ends all nice and fuzzy warm!

Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber, $24.99Draws on previously unavailable material to trace the parallel lives of the Barbie Doll and its creator, Ruth Handler, discussing the latter's origins as the tenth child of Polish-Jewish immigrants and a competitive business pioneer who drew on the lessons of her fight with breast cancer to become a respected humanitarian and entrepreneur.

Robin Gerber has a way with words that bring to life her fiction characters, and bring you into the mind of the subject of this biography- one hard-working determined woman, who's creation speaks to women across generations.

Lamentation by Ken Schoels, $24.95While a young survivor struggles with the devastating destruction of the city of Windwir, Rudolfo, Lord of the Nine Forest Houses, realizes that war is approaching the Named Lands and witnesses the chaotic dissolution of alliances throughout the Kingdoms.

This is a fast-paced, fun story, providing the perspective of numerous fascinating characters in a world that seems familiar but has joys and surprises for every fantasy fan.

Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke, $24.00
When bakery owner Hannah Swensen stumbles upon a dead body floating in the new health club's jacuzzi with a plate of her very own cream puffs - purchased by her boyfriend, Detective Mike Kingston--decorating the crime scene, she suddenly has a lot on her plate.

When her part-time beau is the one suspected of "hot" Ronnie's death, Hannah learns a little more about him than she wants to ... which leads to some great in-depth moments not seen before in this series.

Oolong Dead by Laura Childs, $24.95
Theodosia Browning discovers the body of her archenemy only to be reunited with an ex-boyfriend, the victim's brother, in the tenth in this best-selling series.

A real treat to read on a cold rainy spring afternoon, sipping your tea of course! Jory returns and spins Thea's life out of control for a few brief days, while investigating Jory's sister's murder. The characters and the tea shop are like coming home after a long hard day...and the recipes at the end are to die for!

Serendipity by Louise Shaffer, $14At thirty-seven, Carrie Manning feels her life is going nowhere, and when she suspects that her issues might have to do with her fraught relationship with her recently deceased mother Rose, she begins to dig deep into three generations of family history to uncover the dark secret buried for more than thirty years.

Coming from "Broadway Royalty" Carrie struggles to find herself and her place in the world after the death of her mother. Her angst stems from the fact that while she lived with her mother most of her life, she never really "knew" her, what motivated her. After her death, Carrie decides it's time to figure out what led her mother to be the woman she was and what caused her mother Rose and Grandmother Lu to stop speaking to one another. Moving between the present tense and the early years of Lu's life (and her relationship with her own mother), Carrie begins to understand the women in her family and what made them into who they became. This was an amazing story of mothers and daughters and how each generations relationships can affect the next. A story of a woman finally finding her place in the world, and finding the happiness she so richly deserves. This is a book that you don't want to miss ~ but make sure you keep the tissues close by. You're going to need them. A++++++(Review provided by our friend Lori G. from Lori's Reading Corner)

Want to review books for us? Come check out our Advance Readers Copy table. Take a book, let us know what you think, and maybe be featured in an upcoming newsletter, blog post, or on the website!

Store Upgrade, Feb. 09

After visiting some fellow Indies (see blog post below), Todd and I decided to upgrade our in-store image.... more Indie bookstore, less "hey they might sell books"... We took our clearance section shelves and moved them up front, since they were the only cases in the joint that were actually designed for a bookstore. On those cases we doubled our new book featured inventory (more were added after the picture taken), and have most faced front.... the key is that the book cases can be seen as folks are walking up the street from the front side window (there should be little doubt now that we are a bookstore!).

We also took some short A-Frames from the garage, added casters (thanks, Papa!), and are using them to display our Cooking, Art, and a portion of the History section; cases that often got overlooked, and do much better with beautiful covers fronted out. Those A-Frames are movable so that we can host more events inthe Main room of the store (and hopefully get more people to come!). There are also some more table displays in the Main Room, so I can have fun with displaying book themes still :)

We also moved the card rack to the front counter area, for last minute gifty sales.

And we cleared out clearance. We'll have just 2 carts now of clearance and not a long wall... now that we're more "high end" .

Drinking the Indie Bookstore Kool-Aid

Indie Bookstore people rock. Pure & Simple. And I'm not talking about Todd and myself (well we do rock, but this isn't about us).


Todd and I had been on the outskirts of the indie bookstore movement for about 3 years, because our primary focus was used books. We joined ABA, then we let our membership lapse. We'd go to the trade show, just to walk to floor, grab some ARCs and see what was coming out in the next few months. Then, last summer, we got a box from the ABA . In it was a bright red T-shirt and some funking looking promotional materials. Okay, they started a new program, cool... then we read it all... and got the giant Eat, Sleep, Read poster... and our world changed. We rejoined ABA and we pledged to ourselves that we were no longer going to be that used book store in Lancaster County... we were going to be THE bookstore in Lancaster County. We dove head-first into IndieBound. We stayed for all 3 days of the regional conference and met wonderful people... and this is where the rockin' begins.


We've spent the past few months meeting other booksellers virtually and physically. Through Twitter and Facebook we've connected with some of the most awesome people we've never met - full of ideas, insight, and a general love of books and bookpeople. So to Vroman's Bookstore, Word in Brooklyn, Maria's Bookshop, Malaprops Bookstore , Ann Kingman & Clinton Bookshop, and so many others, I say "thank you for making us better"! But our little journey of the rockin' indies isn't over with just the virtual kool-aide.... we decided to road trip this winter.


First in Harleysville, PA, Shelley of Harleysville Books spent lots of time with Todd, including helping him digest all that is a school bookfair. Now we feel we're ready to tackle those 2-10 year olds next month! This past week I traveled to Clinton Bookshop in NJ. We had heard the owner Harvey as part of a panel on self-evaluations at the Fall NAIBA conference, and really liked what he had to say about looking at your own operations to better serve your customers. Then I met Rob of Clinton Bookshop on Facebook. If there was ever an indie bookstore kool-aid drinker, it's Rob! We just KNEW that Clinton Bookshop was one we had to visit this winter. Rob spent a good 2 hours with me walking me through their store, talking over changes they had recently made; showing me all their membership programs and incentives; talking about events and author appearance; and of course, he had many words of wisdom. To both Shelley & Rob we will be forever indebted.


What makes this such fun kool-aid to be drinking is that the indie bookstore people are a community. If one of us is struggling, we all are. If one of us has a great month, we all share in the joy of that. If one of us has a great marketing idea or a great way to bring in new readers, we share it. To paraphase that line from tradtional wedding services... what Indies have brought together let no chain tear assunder!


Keep rockin my indie friends. Your tweets, blogs, and Facebook pages make us feel like we're at a mini NAIBA or WI each and every day, fully rejuvenated to tackle bookstore owning with a beaming smile on our faces ... now it's back to shelving books for me in a re-designed store, thanks to you all! :)

Brisk Winds Bring Cool Books

Strong gusts of winds are blowing through town today, inspiring me to post our Feb. and March Picks; seeing as how no one wants to go outside for the next few weeks, one should have a few good reads on the nightstand!

The School of Essential Ingredients
by Erica Bauermeister
Gathering at Lillian's Restaurant for a weekly cooking class, a young mother struggles with the growing demands of her family, an Italian kitchen designer works to adapt to life in America, and a widower mourns the loss of his wife to breast cancer.

Addition by Toni Jordan Carefully controlling her world through obsessive counting practices, OCD sufferer and former teacher Grace finds herself increasingly unable to relate to others and estranged from her family, a life that is disrupted by potential romance when a kind stranger invites her to share a cafe table.

Thai Die
by Monica Ferris
The owner of the Crewel World needlework shop, Betsy Devonshire must put her sleuthing talents to work when one of her regular customers unwittingly becomes embroiled in a deadly delivery of exotic antiquities.

Shadowbridge
by Gregory Frost
Fleeing a violent past, Leodora, a young shadow-puppeteer, and her companions roam the Shadowbridge, an enigmatic and magical world, collecting the tales and myths of each place she passes.

Lamentation
by Ken Scholes
While a young survivor struggles with the devastating destruction of the city of Windwir, Rudolfo, Lord of the Nine Forest Houses, realizes that war is approaching the Named Lands and witnesses the chaotic dissolution of alliances throughout the Kingdoms.


Teashop Girls
by Laura Schaefer
Although their friendship has waned as they have grown, eighth-grader Anne knows she can always count on Zoe and Genna to be there in her time of need, thus when a coffee chain threatens her grandmother's little teashop, Anne turns to her best friends for help in getting business booming once again.

Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S.King
In the late 17th century, famed pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping pirate life with her one true love and nfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with the dust of 100 dogs, dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body-with her memories intact.
Now she's a contemporary American teenager, and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.Movie coming soon from the director of "Nightmare Before Christmas." Neil Gaiman just won the Newbery Award for the previously recommended Graveyard Book.

Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson An unstinting personal account by the humorist and advice columnist for "Ask Amy" describes her inspirational, haphazard experiences with divorce, traveling throughout the country, and resettling in her hometown, where her extended family helped her to raise her daughter.

What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis Draws on the examples of the thriving Internet company to counsel business leaders on how to address the unique challenges of today's professional world, in a guide that covers such strategies as building on strengths, networking effectively, and learning from mistakes.

Bookmarked for Death by Lorna Barrett When a bestselling author is found murdered in her bookstore, and the police and media demand answers, Tricia Miles must read between the lines to solve this mystery before it's too late.* This is the second in a series set in a town of indie bookstores...what could be better???

February is for Lovers....

I (Sam ) have been a romance reader for 20+ years. I love the genre and the hope and promise a happy ending brings with each book. Here are some of my "best of" in time for Valentine's day:

Historical
Love is Blind by Lynsay Sands Heroine with glasses (and doesn't wear them) and a hero with a scar. They aren't your typical beauty and the stud, and they are uproariously funny.

Contemporary
Hopeless Romantic by Harriet Evans... the title says it all. It's the way many of us are... we dream our prince will come along... and in this case he does, only she doesn't believe it!


The "Big-Boned" Heroine.... cause let's face it very few of us are a size 2!
Bet Me by Jennifer Cruisie
He Loves Lucy by Susan Donovan
No Regrets by Michele Ann Young


Fights of Fancy
Love, Lust & Pixie Dust by LuAnn MacLean What can go wrong when you've got a real life fairy watching over your love life?

More Mystery, Less Romance
It's quite common in mystery series for the romantic aspect of the character's life to be drawn out, in this series it isn't. You get a real feeling for the heroine, and her relationship that grows throughout the series

Joanna Carl- Chocoholic Series


Not so much a romance fan?
Try the Quilters series by Jennifer Chiaverini. The characters have such a bond of friendship and love, you want to join right in their quilting circle (even if you are torture with a needle and thread, or can't cut straight like me!) I recommend Cross Country Quilters and Round Robin for their stories of love and friendship among the ladies

More of a Foodie than a romantic? I can't recommend School of Essential Ingredients enough! It's a great quick read but well worth the time to pause and reflect. The central characters all have a heartwarming story and it it written in such a way that you feel you know each and everyone of them. But the real treat of the book is the cooking and the descriptions of said cooking... but try not to salivate too much while reading... better yet, read while munching on a box of chocolates! What could be more romantic?

Happy Valentine's Day!