It's been a whirlwind summer here at the store. The Glorious Fourth, summer has been sighted for a few minutes, and now it's August and the back to school ads have begun already.
Teresa, Lauren, Sarah, Trish and I have been honing our alphabetizing skills, pulling more and more shots of espresso and generally getting a handle on this bookstore/coffeeshop and coffeeshop/bookstore thing.
Since the new and improved visitor center signage went up just before the Fourth of July weekend we have also been dispensing free visitor information to the masses. it is so true about getting what you pay for. There are lots of good questions and even more good answers, we just need to connect them. Fortunately Katy Shaner and her crew are helping us connect the correct answers to the questions. It is fun to see the wide range of people visiting Whidbey, our fair isle. We have welcomed visitors from China, Brazil, France, British Columbia, California, Wisconsin and friends of Dorothy's from Kansas. We welcomed a couple from Wichita Falls Texas who drove here just to escape the heat. We were the rendezvous point for an extended family who gathered from Cincinnati, Washington DC, and San Jose before going on to Langley to surprise their daughter and sister for a milestone birthday.
Just last week we were fortunate to host a remarkable reunion. Fifty years ago Billye and Bobby graduated from Richland High in Richland, Washington. Life took them here and there and then here. Without knowing it they were both living on South Whidbey. Checking in to Richland Fiftieth Reunion activities online, they realized that they were practically neighbors. Billye had been here a couple times with friends and invited Bobby to meet her here. The rest is now part of our history. New friends or old, this is the place.
One reason I have been so delinquent in getting this blog current is the vigorous pre-reading program we have instituted. We have gotten almost 3,800 books in trade since we opened April 30th. Some of these have not been read very much and some of them have not been read by our staff. I have been doing my part. I can recommend the Guido Brunetti Mysteries by Donna Leon. They are set in Venice and explore the modern culture and family life through the eye of Commissario Brunetti. I think she may be trying to warn us. Ian Rankin's primary character is Detective Sergeant, John Rebus, world worn and street wise. John leads us through the streets of Edinburgh. When you are finished you feel you know the city. I looked up one afternoon to a friendly request for a double tall Americano and I had to ask for a minute to return to Clinton. I had been miles and years away in the dust and rubble of Berlin in the days of the Potsdam Conference at the close of World War II. Joseph Karon's novel The Good German, had immersed me in the mist and miasma of the vortex that was Berlin in those days, friend, foe, ally, victor and vanquished all in flux. In between these was the story of the loss in Scorpion Down, the American submarine victim of the cold war and the bigger story of competing undersea military forces in Blind Man's Bluff. These are both on the shelf in the growing history area. I need help, you can come buy some books and reduce my workload!
It's not too late to pick up some great light reading for the beach. We just got a fabulous French/English Scientific Dictionary. I recommend it for giving your scientific observations a definite continental air. We have a new wish list form posted backstage, if you have an author or a title you would like us to watch for, let us know and we will keep a sharp eye out.
Last week we had a media blitz going out. Toni Groves' article in the Whidbey Examiner was in the Thursday Edition; http://www.whidbeyexaminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=6&SubSectionID=6&ArticleID=6366.
On Saturday Patricia Duff's Article, "New gathering spot is becoming the place where everybody knows your name" made Sarah famous! http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/business/126523783.html
Trish continues to amaze and delight with her baking skills, gluten free peanut butter cookies, raspberry walnut bars, cinnamon pull-aparts and more and more cookies! Don't be late.
