She Can Also Levitate From A Seated Position

I think it’s pretty safe to assume the rules don’t apply to Jhumpa Lahiri. For starters, she won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction as a first-time author (Interpreter of Maladies). Now she just published a new collection of short stories (Unaccustomed Earth) that hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the [...]

Whistle While You Walk

Now that spring has sprung many of us want to be out walking — downtown, through the Arb, in a city park, or around our neighborhoods. If you’re like me you enjoy listening to something during some of these strolls — a catchy tune, something that lifts the spirits. And I don’t mean a good [...]

A ‘Handsome’ Looking Book

Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River is the answer to one my favorite local bookish trivia questions: Which was the first title selected for Northfield Reads! communitywide book club?
That book was and continues to sell extremely well at the old neighborhood bookstore. “Peace” also put Enger on the map as a national bestselling novelist. So [...]

New College Clothing!

I have been remiss to mention that the old neighborhood bookstore has added to its inventory, and I am not talking about the latest-greatest books (of course they have those).
RCB now has a new selection of college clothing. T-shirts, sweatshirts, fleeces. Yellow, blue, pink. Carleton, St. Olaf, of course.
If you haven’t already done so, I [...]

Calling All Cubs Fans

Ah … finally feels like spring. And, if I do say so myself, just in time for baseball season. Good thing, too, because Steve Johnson, author of Chicago Cubs Yesterday & Today, will appear at River City Books at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 22, for a discussion and book signing.
“Chicago Cubs” is an exploration of [...]

The Sale’s Final Hours

Today, Monday, is the final day to celebrate River City Books’ sixth birthday by saving on nearly every item in the store. All day take 30 percent off all bargain books (some of them are pictured); 25 percent off all clothing; 20 percent off every book in the store;15 percent off all CDs and DVDs.
Plus, [...]

Smelled A Good Book Lately?

I saw this funny item while surfing online:
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Researchers at Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde are studying the smell of old books to ‘sniff’ out the chemical signs of aging. Books are placed for 24 to 48 hours in a sealed chamber, where ‘material and compounds responsible for the odour [...]

Add Six Candles to the Cake

You should be the first to know, dear readers, that I have learned some important news: River City Books is about to have a really big sale.
My sources are saying the sale will run from Friday through Monday (April 18 to 21) and include these savings:
• 30 percent off all bargain books
• 25 percent off [...]

Virtual Book Club Starts Today

Those of us who are Robert Alexander fans — and, judging by sales totals at RCB, there are a lot of us — can, starting today, join him in a Live Book Club to discuss The Romanov Bride.

Use It In A Sentence

I read a lot of reviews. Have to. Part of the job. Plus I am a bit of a book fan. And here’s a slice from a Publishers Weekly review of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco: “It’s an absorbing exploration of how that most fundamental master-narrative, our memory, is pieced together [...]