Everything on Display

As you can see from the picture, we are almost ready for next week's book signing with Adriana Trigiani.  It took about an hour to unpack, inventory, and arrange the books, but it was worth it.  Many of the books have already been sold, so we are glad we got to take a picture to see it in its original form.  It took someone else on-and-on four days to do the window, but it ended up looking about the same as it normally does.  We have also finally put the Kiss Carlo book review on the other blog.  It is a re-edited version of what was in the newspapers. [Author's note:  I did not write the original review.  I only did the preliminary editing, and not all of my suggestions were taken.  I corrected some of them for the condensed version seen elsewhere.]  We hope it carries the same flair as the original.  Also, Adriana will be doing some radio interviews that will air this week.  Listen in to WFIX in the morning of Tuesday, July25 to try and catch her.  We think it will be streaming online as well.  We have also been told that there will be some extra special freebies to be given out as well, but we don't know what all of them will  be. That will be all for today, but check the post next week for last minute details.

Tickled Very, Very Pink

Today's post is in pink lettering on a cream background in homage to Kiss Carlo by Adriana Trigiani, who will be signing her book at Booknotes on Sunday, July 30, from 3 to 6 pm.  At least, it should look that way, as this version of blogger sometimes does not interact well with the website programming.  In fact, there have been a few problems.  Most notably, the link function doesn't seem to be working.  Well, we never seem to get it to work.  The text just disappears when we try to form the link.  If the function was working, then we would have included a link to one of the various newspapers that ran the review of Kiss Carlo last week.  That review was supposed to have been posted to the site by now, but the person who wrote it has been too busy and has yet to finish the task. [Author Note:  I was not the one who read the book or wrote the review.  I only did some of the preliminary editing.  Not all of my suggestions were taken, so if there are mistakes, they were not my fault.] The review should be online soon, at least in a condensed form.  By the way, you may have noticed that the site has turned pink.  This is also an homage to the cover of Kiss Carlo.  To be honest, the scene from the cover might not actually be representative of the story, but nothing can be quite sure.  More next week.  See you then.

A Tale of Two Conflicting Blogs

When we first started the website, we added the app to include a blog service.  We also unintentionally added a connection to Blogger as well.  Because there were no instructions, we did not know how to work out how to use Blogger at the time, so it just hung out on the site, usually hidden, waiting to be used.  We ultimately found out how to install the Blogger app correctly and moved the regular blog to here.  The original store blog was going to be used by another person at the store for reviews, mostly.  Unfortunately, that app had a few problems at times and the blog disappeared for awhile.  We gave recaps of what was said on those blogs here as bonus posts.  Well, the original blog app got fixed and we were supposed to start using it again.  As of yet, there has only been one review posted.  A review of Adriana Trigiani's new novel Kiss Carlo should be posted in the next week or so.  If it isn't, you may be able to find it in one of a number of local newspapers, which ones are still being determined based on how the new acquisitions work out.  In the meantime, you will be able to find short capsule reviews on our Facebook page.  While there have been a few errors that have crept in, we hope you have been enjoying them even if the books themselves are not quite your style.   Keep looking for more reviews both here and there in the near future.  See you next week for more on the book signing.

Doing the Best, Being the Best

Recently, the Appalachian News Express published the results of its annual "Best of the Best in the Valley" poll.  Although we had won as 'Best Place to Buy Books' many years running, we did not win it this year.  However, we would still like to thank all of our friends and customers who did vote for us.  You support has always been appreciated.  We have tried to help all of our potential customers out as much as possible.  We provide information on this website and our social media pages.  We give suggestions to all browsers when they come in.  We try our hardest to find the books people are looking for, and tell them where to get them if we cannot get them ourselves.  While we do have the occasional missteps, we try to rectify them as quickly as we can.  To honor all of our supporters, we are running  a customer appreciation sale right now.  Almost everything in the store is at least 10% off, with many items 40 or even 50% off.  We hope that everyone takes advantage of this event.  We recently reached a milestone on Facebook and thanked everyone who helped us reach it.  Now, we want to thank everyone with this sale as well.  For the next few weeks, we will be discussing our Adriana Trigiani book signing.  We hope you won't get to bored.  See you next week.

There Will Be A Book Signing

Maybe you might not have heard, but we are having a major book signing on Sunday, July 30, with best-selling author Adriana Trigiani.  We may have mentioned it a few times already.  As of right now, we have posted the Event on Facebook and are adding information on a regular basis.  We have asked public libraries across eastern and central Kentucky to post our flyers and to add the event to their social media sites.  We have started putting flyers up across the Pikeville area as well.  We have been asking local organizations to hand them out at meetings.  We have started to ask local colleges and universities to announce the event.  The official press release should be going out within the next week, so look for it in your newspapers. A review of the new novel, Kiss Carlo, should be on the Review blog, as well as links from Facebook and in a local paper, a week or so after that.  There might be a few other surprises in store as well.  Once again, we would like to thank Adriana for mentioning us both on her website and in recent interviews.  We are very happy for this great opportunity.  That is all for this week, see you soon.

Have a Beautiful Bloomsday

Yesterday, Friday, June 16, was the minor literary holiday of Bloomsday.  It is in honor of the day when most of the action in James Joyce's literary classic Ulysses takes place.  It is named in honor of one of the main characters, Leopold Bloom, who we follow along on both his and returning character from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Daedalus.  While we have never celebrated this day at the store before, we still love the idea.  However, we are not sure how one would celebrate beyond talking about the book and its complex themes and imagery, or perhaps, having a party in the style of early twentieth-century Dublin.   One thing is for sure, we would not be doing anything the characters do from the book.  While most actions are rather harmless, (e.g. taking a walk on the beach looking at pebbles, placing a newspaper advertisement), many are somewhat strange (teaching a class at a Jesuit school, suffering intestinal discomfort after eating at a pub).  Some are just unusual (attending an friend's funeral, becoming a father figure to a young man).  Others are just downright weird (going out drinking with college buddies and talking about midwivery, having a formal question-and-answer session with a friend about third party events as if you weren't a part of them).  Many actions are immoral (making crude puns to your housekeeper, contemplating the love of your husband while having an affair with an actor).  Some are illegal, then and now (performing a lewd act while ogling a young nanny with her charges on a beach, going to a brothel and hallucinating about your dead mother).  We strongly suggest not doing any of these things.  Maybe we can come up with some better ideas for next year.  (Author's note:  I actually had to read Ulysses in college.  We were originally only going to read excerpts, but the professor changed his mind.  Fortunately, the library had enough copies for the seven of us.  I still had to skip a few pages near the end to finish it in time.  Have yet to re-read it.)

Color Commentary

As many of you may  have noticed, a lot of roses have started to appear around the website.  This is a show of support for our upcoming book signing with Adriana Trigiani and her new book Kiss Carlo.  It is just one of the design elements we have tweaked on our website since it was published.  For many holidays, we have added special illustrations to celebrate them.  Most recently, we had various designs up for Easter.  In the next few days, we will be adding not only more roses and flowers (a major element on Kiss Carlo's cover), but also themed elements in support of Independence Day.  We will also be changing some of the overall color schemes to the site, again in support of the book signing.  This will be about the third time we have undergone a major theme redesign since going online.  To be honest, at least one of those times wasn't intentional, but we couldn't seem to find the original color scheme back in place.  Still, the current look is alright for now.  That is, until we will change it.  We hope you like the pinks and purple that will soon dominate the palette.  Until next week.