Besides the in influx of geology students the summer months also mean the return of the seasonal residents of Dillon. Many of these folks have been visiting this area for more years than I have owned the Bookstore. I anticipate their arrivals every summer with excitement and joy. It is fun to see them and to catch up on their lives and to know that they wintered well. A lot of them came here as children and teens and now have children of their own. They bring them in to introduce them to The Bookstore and me and show them their favorite books and they discover new favorites together. I have met some incredible people over the past 20 years and I love that The Bookstore is part of their memories and one of the first stops they make upon their return to Dillon. (of course some of them have aged but I seem to never change................)
July also brings family. My sister and her family are visiting from Nashville. They spent a night with us and the boys (ages 10 and 7) worked with me in the store. They learned quickly and soon could run the cash register without my prompts. The 7 year old sat in the back and hosted reading time with some young customers while their parents shopped. We had negotiated their pay before their arrival and it was agreed that they would be compensated in books. They are voracious readers (much to my delight) and they were well paid (much to their parents dismay as they wonder how in the world they will get all those books on the airplane)
I will travel to my parents home this weekend (I am taking a long weekend) where I will get to spend some quality time with my sisters, our parents and assorted nieces, nephews and friends. We have a lot of plans including some fiddle playing, open mic night at my sisters bar, dancing, peddlers in the park (art in the park), stacking some firewood and we are going to celebrate the holidays that we have spent apart.
Since the kids from Nashville are rarely here for the holidays we are planning to decorate Easter eggs and have an Easter egg hunt, we are going to bake and frost Christmas cookies, barbecue a turkey and maybe even shoot off some fireworks. I am planning to string some twinkly lights around the patio, we will sing Christmas carols and of course their will be presents.
This post sounds like I am on one long vacation. (well when you think about it my job is pretty awesome since I am surrounded by books all day and I encounter people that want to talk about books -- so yes I have it pretty good) Amidst all the working and time with family and friends I have managed to read a couple of books. "A Discovery Witches" by Deborah Harkness is the first of a trilogy and it was fabulous. Witches and Vampires at their best. It had action, history, romance (forbidden romance) literary references that made me drool with envy at the library of a 1500 year old vampire. This is not your typical vampire/witch novel this is one of the best I have read in this genre and I can't wait for the sequel.
"Last Call: The rise and fall of prohibition" by Daniel Okrent was a brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America's most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America's favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages. Okrent covers the gangland explosion that Prohibition triggered—and rightly deromanticizes it—but he has a wider agenda that addresses the entire effect enforced temperance had on our social, political, and legal conventions. Above all, Okrent explores the politics of Prohibition; how the 18th Amendment, banning the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating beverages, was pushed through after one of the most sustained pressure-group campaigns in our history; how the fight over booze served as a surrogate for many of the deeper social and ethnic antagonisms dividing the country, and how it all collapsed, almost overnight, essentially nullified by the people. 
"Summer Rental" by Mary Kay Andrews is a perfect "beach book" her books are well written, full of fun and a great way to escape during the dog days of summer. I also recommend her other titles, "Hissy Fit", "Itty Bitty Lies", "Savannah Blues", "Savannah Breeze", "Deep Dish" and "Blue Christmas."
Her writing is funny and entertaining and you won't be disappointed.
As always I have more books on my reading list than I will ever have time to read. I am looking forward to some well deserved days off and I can't wait to be with my crazy family. I hope you are all enjoying the summer, reading great books and spending time doing things that bring you joy.
Until next time
Debbie "From the Bookstore"
Add to your list "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs. A great story in its own right but particularly satisfying if you're in perpetual "Harry Potter" withdrawal.
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