Someday Everything Will Make Sense

What a quinky dink: Northfield High School is about to start a new school year and here, during the first week of class, River City Books will host an event with an author who graduated from that very institution.
OK, so maybe that isn’t the example of stunning irony I had hoped it would be when [...]

A Very Hopeful Price Indeed

In The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter attempts to explore FDR’s famous first “hundred days” in office, when the president laid the foundation for national recovery from the Great Depression. He apparently achieved his goal. Said the New York Times Book Review: “Alter’s account has [...]

Catching Up With An Amazing Collection

I may be advanced for a bird, but I have not read every book on the shelf. No, it’s true. Sometimes even great reads slip through my wings and I am stuck in the corner at dinner parties trying to explain why I haven’t read certain titles that everyone else west of the sun seems [...]

Decision: 2008

No, in that headline I’m not talking about the presidential race. Are you kidding? Rather, the big choice in your future is something altogether more pressing: which spiffy calendar to pick out!
That’s right. River City Books, as I astutely noticed the other day, has already gotten in a large number of nifty 2008 calendars. I [...]

Next Northfield Reads! Book Selected

I have learned that the next Northfield Reads! selection has been made. Kevin Kling will be in town to discuss The Dog Says How at 7 p.m., Nov. 7. The site is yet to be determined, so I’ll let you know and update the calendar as soon as we know. Just thought you’d like to [...]

One In Four Don’t Read; Amazing, But True

Ouch. This hurts. Not like the time I sat on a bicycle without a seat, but it hurts.

One-Fourth Off Great Books

It still sort of surprises me that more folks don’t take advantage of River City Books’ monthly staff picks section. I expect that by this point in the month the endcap containing all those amazing deals will be empty. Politics. Mystery. Fiction. Young adult. Picture books. Humor. The bundle of hand-picked staff selections contains a [...]

Rowling Returning to the Well?

I saw an intriguing article in the Times of London and thought it might interest one or two of you who are Harry Potter fans. It reads, in part: “J.K. Rowling, who launched her career with stories scribbled in an Edinburgh cafe, has been spotted back in her old haunts with a notebook in hand [...]

Winners Are On Display

Previously, I reported on the recently announced Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award winners. Well, I was in the old neighborhood bookstore the other day and I noticed two things (no, not at once — that’s asking too much from me). First, the store has created an attractive display of some of the winning titles. I snapped [...]

I’ll Buy That For a Dollar

Was this book misplaced? I heard that question asked more than once on Thursday evening. Folks were walking into the store, just having picked through River City Books’ dollar cart (pictured; click to enlarge) and finding some terrific books for a price they couldn’t believe.
River City has long placed a cart or two of bargain [...]