Book Club news, a new “Marvelous Monday Book Club”, and details regarding more fun events, for 2010, will be coming in the next email, later in January… stay tuned, and stay in touch!

Enjoy a free cup and discover a new book.

1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
   Alan Bradley, Delacorte, $23, 9780385342308
2. The Lace Reader
   Brunonia Barry, Harper, $14.99, 9780061624773
3. Rain Gods
   James Lee Burke, S&S, $25.99, 9781439128244
4. Fearless Fourteen
   Janet Evanovich, St. Martin’s, $7.99, 9780312349523
5. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen
   Janet Evanovich, St. Martin’s, $27.95, 9780312383282
6. Careless in Red
   Elizabeth George, Harper, $7.99, 9780061160905
7. The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
   Alexander McCall Smith, Anchor, $14, 9780307387073
8. A Sea of Troubles
   Donna Leon, Penguin, $14, 9780143116202
9. The Eleventh Victim
   Nancy Grace, Hyperion, $25.99, 9781401303457
10. Swan Peak
    James Lee Burke, Pocket, $9.99, 9781416548546
11. Sweeping Up Glass
    Carolyn Wall, Delta, $14, 9780385343039
12. One for the Money
    Janet Evanovich, St. Martin’s, $7.99, 9780312990459
13. Winter Study
    Nevada Barr, Berkley, $9.99, 9780425226957
14. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
    Alexander McCall Smith, Pantheon, $23.95, 9780375424496
15. Lush Life
    Richard Price, Picador, $15, 9780312428228
16. The Miracle at Speedy Motors
    Alexander McCall Smith, Anchor, $13.95, 9780307277466
17. Rough Weather
    Robert B. Parker, Berkley, $9.99, 9780425230176
18. Maisie Dobbs
    Jacqueline Winspear, Penguin, $15, 9780142004333
19. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
    Alexander McCall Smith, Anchor, $13.95, 9781400034772
20. The Girl of His Dreams
    Donna Leon, Penguin, $14, 9780143115618
21. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
    Joshilyn Jackson, Grand Central, $13.99, 9780446697828
22. The Devil’s Company
    David Liss, Random House, $25, 9781400064199
23. Killing Floor
    Lee Child, Penguin, $9.99, 9780515141429
24. Two for the Dough
    Janet Evanovich, St. Martin’s, $7.99, 9780312948962
25. Not in the Flesh
    Ruth Rendell, Vintage, $15, 9780307388780

Traveling this summer…near or far…you and yours will need a book to take with you! A large variety of books will be in our front white cart…all at 25% discount…and of the size that will be easy to carry with you. These titles will change weekly…stop by and “stock-up!”

Our front black table welcomes poets from current times to long ago during the month of April. Do you write poetry? Bring some copies and we will display them for you.

We think that our Easter books will suit everyone’s taste…and they will “taste” better and last longer than Easter candy!

As always, if you have a special title that we do not have in the store, we will be happy to place a special order…and it will be here in time for your Easter holiday!

SHENANIGANS is hosting an evening of “connecting and romance” on March 12, from 6:00PM to 10:00PM. Dinner for two for $25, with a choice of two entrees, salad bar and dessert.

970-515-5622

Till There Was You by Kristin Jensen

Available Now at An Open Book

Lets us know which one suits you best…all these books received an excellent review in The New York Times Book Review section.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by James M. McPherson ($12.95 hardcover)

It is the best concise introduction to Lincoln in print, a must-have volume for anyone interested in American history or in our greatest president.

Best-selling author James M. McPherson follows the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks from his early years in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, to his highly successful law career, his marriage to Mary Todd, and his one term in Congress. We witness his leadership of the Republican anti-slavery movement, his famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas (a long acquaintance
and former rival for the hand of Mary Todd), and his emergence as a candidate for president in 1860. Following Lincoln’s election to the presidency, McPherson describes his masterful role as Commander in Chief during the Civil War, the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. The book also discusses his lasting legacy and why he remains a quintessential American hero two hundred years after his birth, while an annotated bibliography permits easy access to
further scholarship.

With his ideal short account of Lincoln, McPherson provides a compelling biography of a man of humble origins who preserved our nation during its greatest catastrophe and ended the scourge of slavery.

IN LINCOLN’S HAND: His Original Manuscripts With Commentary by
Distinguished Americans, edited by Harold Holzer and Joshua Wolf Shenk ($35
hardcover)

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and in conjunction with the Library of Congress 2009 Bicentennial Exhibition, In Lincoln’s Hand offers an unprecedented look at perhaps our greatest president through vivid images of his handwritten letters, speeches, and even childhood notebooks—many never before made available to the public.

Edited by leading Lincoln scholars Joshua Wolf Shenk and Harold Holzer, this companion volume to the Library of Congress exhibition offers a fresh and intimate perspective on a man whose thoughts and words continue to affect history. To underscore the resonance of Lincoln’s writings on contemporary culture, each manuscript is accompanied by a reflection on Lincoln by a prominent American from the arts, politics, literature, or entertainment, including Toni Morrison, Sam Waterston, Robert Pinsky, Gore Vidal, and presidents Carter, George H.W., and George W. Bush.

While Lincoln’s words are quite well known, the original manuscripts boast a unique power and beauty and provide rare insight into the creative process. In this collection we can see the ebb and flow of Lincoln’s thoughts, emotions, hopes, and doubts. We can see where he paused to dip his pen in the ink or to capture an idea. We can see where he added a word or phrase, and where he crossed out others, searching for the most precise, and concise, expression. In these marks on the page, Lincoln’s character is
available to us with a profound immediacy. From such icons as the Gettysburg Address and the inaugural speeches to seldom-seen but superb rarities, here is the world as Lincoln saw and shaped it in words and images that resound to this very day.

A. LINCOLN: A BIOGRAPHY, by Ronald C. White Jr. ($35 hardcover)

Huntington Library fellow White (The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words, 2005, etc.) offers a lively, comprehensive life of the 16th president.Known variously throughout his career as “Honest Abe,” “Old Abe,” “the Rail-Splitter,” “the original gorilla,” “the dictator,” “the Great Emancipator” and “Father Abraham,” Lincoln referred to himself in famously self-deprecating terms and signed his name simply as “A. Lincoln.” That’s all that was simple, though, about this unusually “shut-mouthed” man, who from youth burned for public distinction. White’s highly readable, picturesque presentation follows Lincoln’s life from the pioneer birth and boyhood to the presidential assassination, with especially good passages on Lincoln’s ancestry, his Springfield law practice and his emergence from the political wilderness in 1858. White doesn’t shy away from Lincoln’s shortcomings—his ferocious ambition, his opportunism, his woeful performance as a husband—but this mostly admiring treatment highlights his virtues, not least his ability to draw on the talents of diverse personalities, use the best of their advice and deftly
manipulate them to advantage, whether as a militia captain, a state legislator, a party organizer a candidate or a president. White’s triumph, though, is his focus on the forging of Lincoln’s moral character—how the private man used contemplation, reading, experience, the press of events and the teachings of his political heroes to clarify his own political identity. Splendidly, and unsurprisingly given his past scholarship, White pays particular attention to language, referencing the innumerable scraps
of paper Lincoln wrote to himself, public and private letters and formal addresses. He graphically depicts Lincoln thinking, first tentatively, and then logically working through the thicket of a problem to a lawyerly understanding and, finally, with his singular combination of “homely and high language,” to an exquisite expression of meaning and purpose.Likely to be frequently cited during the bicentennial celebration of Lincoln’s birth.
Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus

LOOKING FOR LINCOLN: The Making of an American Icon, by Kunhardt, Donald and Goodwin ($50 hardcover)

Honoring the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, a comprehensive, illustrated portrait of America’s sixteenth president examines the myths and controversies surrounding Lincoln’s posthumous image, from 1865 to the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln memorial, drawing on firsthand accounts, family papers, and period archives to reveal the man and his legacy. 100,000 first printing.

Philip B. Kunhardt III is a writer-producer with Kunhardt Productions. Peter W. Kunhardt is executive producer of Kunhardt Productions. Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. is assistant director of development at the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation. Along with their father, the late Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip and Peter are coauthors of Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography. Looking for Lincoln will be the companion volume to a four-hour PBS special of the same name to be aired in the winter of 2009. The Kunhardts are based in Chappaqua, New York.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A Life, by Michael Burlingame ($125 two-volume, hardcover slipcase)

Between this fall and the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth in February 2009, publishers will overwhelm bookstores and readers alike with a flood of more than 60 titles on the ever-popular president. One can hardly keep track of them all: one certainly cannot read them all. Of the dozens of these books competing for attention, a few stand out, foremost among them this title.

The trend in Lincoln scholarship has been away from the magisterial narrative comprehensiveness of Carl Sandburg in favor of a narrow, deep dive resulting in the so-called “slice” book: thus entire volumes about one magnificent speech; a key incident; the deepest crisis; the most pivotal year; and so on. A number of these works have merit, but have failed to capture a wide, popular audience.

Abraham Lincoln: A Life is the antithesis of a thin slice from the Lincoln pie. In the sweeping style of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, Burlingame has produced the finest Lincoln biography in more than 60 years and one of the two or three best Lincoln books on any subject in a generation.

A distinguished scholar who probably knows more about Abraham Lincoln and his world than anyone else alive, Burlingame has devoted the last quarter century to editing 11 books on the Lincoln primary sources, including the writings of the president’s secretaries John Hay, John Nicolay and William Stoddard. Now Burlingame has produced the most meticulously researched Lincoln biography ever written. He resurrected Lincoln’s lost early journalism, when the young prairie politician—little more than an immature, unscrupulous hack—wrote more than 200 anonymous op-eds; Burlingame scoured thousands of 19th-century newspapers and discovered hitherto unknown stories; he read hundreds of oral histories, unpublished letters, and journals from Lincoln’s contemporaries; and he re-examined the vast manuscript collections at the Library of Congress and National Archives.
Burlingame’s astonishing chapters covering Lincoln’s hard early years and his difficult marriage, and his fresh insights on the profound crisis that made Lincoln great, are worth the price of the book.

Do not let the intimidating length or the formidable price deter you. The book need not be read in one sitting. Each part stands alone. Burlingame’s Lincoln comes alive as the author unfolds vast amounts of new research while breathing new life into familiar stories. This is a critical, skeptical, loving but never fawning tribute to the man Burlingame praises for “achiev[ing] a level of psychological maturity unmatched in the history of American public life.”

This book supplants Sandburg and supersedes all other biographies. Future Lincoln books cannot be written without it, and from no other book can a general reader learn so much about Abraham Lincoln. It is the essential title for the bicentennial. (Nov.)

James L. Swanson is the author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. His next book is Chasing Lincoln’s Killer.

THE LINCOLN ANTHOLOGY: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy From 1860to Now, edited by Harold Holzer ($40 hardcover)

The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now would make an astute gift for any Lincoln buff, but it’s a definite keeper for any home library as well. Editor Harold Holzer (whose Lincoln President-Elect was released last fall) gathers more than 100 works composed by writers, historians and politicians, from Lincoln’s time to the present day. The pieces represent all genres—essays, novels, plays, biographies, speeches, magazine articles, poetry and memoirs—and the topical coverage is essentially universal. That includes discussions on Lincoln’s fascination with language, the lost love of his life (Ann Rutledge), his historic debates with Stephen Douglas, his outlook on race and religion, his daily work regimen, and his politics and policies. Men and women of verse are here in force (Robert Lowell, Mark Van Doren, Stephen Vincent Benét, Marianne Moore, Carl Sandburg, etc.), and the general range of contributors throughout is all-encompassing (Emerson, Marx, Hawthorne, Stowe, Ibsen, Melville, Twain, Tolstoy, Wicker, Vidal, Safire, Doctorow et al.). Walt Whitman, perhaps Lincoln’s most ardent literary fan, weighs in with no fewer than nine separate contributions. Arrangement of the entries is chronological, but Lincoln diehards can pick this one up and start reading just about anywhere.
Copyright 2009 BookPage Reviews.

Stop by and say hello to Mel Frisbie…our Saturday employee and young adult title “extraordinaire!” as she returns to Greeley following five months at Disneyworld in Florida. She will be working again starting Jan. 24.