Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day in Western North Carolina!

Independent Bookstore Day is this Saturday, April 27, 2019. If you live in or near Western North Carolina, please get out to support one of our fantastic booksellers! Links go to more information for the day.

Adventure Bound Books 
134 N. Sterling St., Morganton, NC

Giveaways, while supplies last, to every customer who spends $50 or more (excluding gift certificates) in a single purchase this Saturday (April 27th). Supplies are limited, and once they’re gone, they’re gone - don’t miss out! In addition, every $10 purchase increment earns you an entry into drawings for more free stuff - t-shirts, tote bag, books. And everyone who has an account with LibroFM by or on Saturday, gets free audiobooks! 

City Lights Bookstore
3 East Jackson St., Sylva, NC 28779

Celebrating with storytime, a storewide sale, giveaways, and exclusive merchandise sure to delight readers.  Also offering exclusive day-of merchandise created especially for Independent Bookstore Day by major publishers and authors. 

Beware: Shares a day with Greening Up the Mountains, a spring festival in Sylva

Firestorm Bookstore & Co-op
610 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC

Highland Books
36 West Main Street, Brevard, NC

Main Street Books
126 S. Main St., Davidson, NC

• 9:30 a.m. — Free Donut with purchase (while supplies last)
• 10 - 10:30 a.m — Special story time hosted by Davidson Mayor Rusty Knox
  • This special story time will be part of Currents Kids series, for which MSB partners with Lake Norman Currents
• 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. — Craft activity stations with Queen Girls authors Claire Tomkinson and Sol Gonzalez-Fe
• 1 - 2:30 p.m. — Puzzle swap
  • Main Street Books will be accepting puzzle donations starting April 15th.
  • Receive a ticket for each puzzle you drop off. Spend a ticket on a new puzzle at the Swap.
  • There will be a $5 fee to shop the swap for folks who have not brought puzzles to swap (maximum of one puzzle per $5 shopper); entry fee will be donated to a local nonprofit.
• 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. — Teas and bees with Jodi Helmer
  • Jodi Helmer is the author of Protecting Pollinators, an exploration of the survival outlook of bees and the critical role they play in ecosystems, and Growing Your Own Tea Garden, which offers practical instructions for producing your own teas. Join her at Main Street Books for a tea tasting, insect hotel construction activity, and book signing! This event is free but guests must RSVP by end-of-day Monday, April 22nd.

RSVP

• 5 - 7 p.m. — Literary cocktails and live entertainment
  • Join the Main Street Books staff in celebrating another Independent Bookstore Day with free literary cocktails, plus performances from Davidson College’s slam poetry group FreeWord and the ever-lovely musical stylings of Jamie Hofmeister-Cline.

Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe
55 Haywood St. Asheville, NC

Special items for sale just for IBD, no reservations taken.

Park Road Books

4139 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209

Sassafras on Sutton

108 Sutton Avenue, Black Mountain, North Carolina 28711

Reading Envy 007: Top Secret Dance-Off

Seth:


Ms. Marvel #1 by G. Willow Wilson
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal


Scott:

One Human Minute by Stanisław Lem
"The Hedge Knight" from Legends by George R. R. Martin

Jenny:

Diaries by George Orwell
Serena by Ron Rash


Other items of note:
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Jane McGonigal TED Talks
SC Book Festival

And Poland was never part of the USSR.  Jenny would like to express sincere apologies for her complete lack of historical knowledge.  *grin*


Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy, Episode 7

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Five from NetGalley

I've been working through my list of approved titles in NetGalley by expiration date (reading the next to expire first).   If you are a book blogger or librarian and haven't signed up for an account, you should give it a try.  I only ask for books that I'm interested in, and if I'm not into what I try, I don't feel bad about setting it aside and letting the publisher know why.  I don't always get approved for everything I ask for, and that's okay too.  I only sign up for what I actually think I want to read, so I hope that helps.

Books from NetGalley are usually either review copies and so far unpublished, a pre-published draft, or a recently published title that they are trying to get extra press for.  Sometimes I'll read a book I really like months before it comes out.  This happened with The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.  I read and reviewed it in February, but it won't come out until June 4th in the USA.

In the past month, I have tried five books, but only finished four.  I thought I'd run through the titles in case someone who reads this blog sees something they might want to try too. 

The Yonahlosee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
Publication Date: June 4, 2013 (USA)
Brief Description: A lush, sexy, evocative debut novel of family secrets and girls’-school rituals, set in the 1930s South.
My rating: 3/5 stars
What I liked: The setting (1930s Appalachia, girls camp), honest discussion of teenage sexuality, how the author keeps important details from the reader for most of the book.
Who I'd recommend it to: People who liked St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell (although it has less magic and more reality).

The First Rule of Swimming by Courtney Angela Brkic
Publication Date: May 28, 2013 (USA)
Brief Description: A woman must leave her island home to search for her missing sister-and confront the haunted history of her family.
My rating: 4/5 stars
What I liked: I'm interested in stories set in the Balkans, especially those that deal with the rebuilding or immigration of families. The story revolves around a mystery that travels between a tiny island in Croatia and New York City.
Who I'd recommend it to: People who have read The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht, or anyone wanting to read more books set in the Balkans!

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Publication Date: March 12, 2013 (USA)
Brief Description: In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox.
My rating: 3/5 stars
What I liked: Another cold weather island, the recent connection to the tsunami, the intertwining stories.
Who I'd recommend it to: Someone who likes the slightly bizarre attempts of a lot of Japanese authors to infiltrate reality with touches of magic (or in this case, quantum reality).

Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Brief Description: The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken.
My rating: N/A, I stopped halfway through
Who I'd recommend it to: Anyone obsessed with the kraken, and I know you're out there.  People who enjoy fantasy novels and are looking for a different take or setting, especially those who don't mind quests and magic and spells.

Glass House 51 by John Hampell
Publication Date: March 23, 2013
Brief Description: Information on an individual can be so comprehensive, so insidiously granular and minute, that folks can become information “specimens” kept by perverse “collectors” . . . like butterflies in a virtual bottle.
My rating: 3/5 stars
What I liked: Short chapters make for a quick read, and the beginning with the introduction of the world (programmers, virtual spaces, etc) had me hooked that I read the first 300 pages keeping me up until 3 am.  Ultimately I'm not sure it paid off, but it had a strong start.
Who I'd recommend it to: People who have enjoyed Cory Doctorow's almost-fiction like Little Brother or Pirate Cinema (but I'm not going to make the comparison of 1984 that the author is hoping for).