Black Bear Blog

Insurgent!

The second book in Veronica Roth's Divergent is now on our shelves. It is called Insurgent and it has been selling very well, so I guess a lot of you have been waiting for it.

I hear great things about Divergent, so these are on my reading list. I'm amazed by the quality of the writing in "Young Adult" books right now, and I've been selling lots of them to adults who must feel the same way. There are several very good series that we are currently recommending. They are all on the "cake stand" as you come in our door. If you can't find something you like there, we have one of best staff's in the store's history right now, so I am sure they can match you up with something you'll love.

We were happy to see a lot of new faces in the store this week. I guess the "summer people" are arriving. We are looking forward to a fun summer and hope you'll consider us one of your regular Boone haunts!

Finally, it's Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you!

Holly Bellebuono at the Store Today

Holly Bellebuono will be at the store today from 11:30 until 12:30 to sign her book "The Essential Herbal for Natural Health." Holly is an award-winning herbalist of seventeen years. She's taught, mentored, lectured, and published articles for Appalachian Voices, Carolina Mountain Living, United Plant Savers Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, and Martha's Vineyard Magazine. She studied Therapeutic Herbalism with Welsh herbalist David Hoffmann and with natives of Appalachia, learning nearly forgotten folk healing methods. Holly's Martha's Vineyard business, Vineyard Herbs, provides women's herbal therapy for a global clientele.

The book is lovely and we are very lucky to have Holly in the area! Please stop by and welcome her, and pick up a signed copy of the book. If you already have one, it would make a very nice gift.

After The Hunger Games

As our Hunger Games readers know, some of the best writing out there right now can be found in the Young Adult section. We really like the Matched triology, so if you loved Hunger Games, you should check that out. There are quite a number of YA dystopian novels. (A couple of years ago we used to say, "The Vampire Section, formerly known as Young Adults. Now, it's the Dystopian Section.) Also the Veronica Roth series ("Divergent" and "Insurgent") is good, as is Michael Grant's Gone.

I haven't read it yet, but I'm very drawn to Michael Norththrop's Trapped. That's going to be next on my list. (Maybe because I need a break from dystopia.) Here's a synopsis from Northrop's website:

“Some snow days dump so much snow that only Stephen King could enjoy them. Trapped is narrated by a 15-year-old basketball player who’s trapped with six classmates — four other boys and two girls — in their rural New England high school while it snows for an entire week. The snow knocks out power, heat and, perhaps worst of all, cellphones. The compelling plot of this young-adult novel is more The Breakfast Club than Lord of the Flies. Author Michael Northrop deftly describes teens who are tested by the endless snow: ‘It wasn’t a storm; it was whatever comes after that.’ “

I've been a sucker for a good YA disaster novel since I first read The Wave by Pearl S. Buck.

That's just a small list. Come over to the store and check out our YA displays. And if you've read a good one that we haven't yet discovered, let us know!

Countdown to Hunger Games Night!

Four more days! We are already hearing from people who are planning their costumes and I'm putting together the grocery list for the District 12 refreshments. No, we will not be serving lamb stew. But we will be serving several recipes from the Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook. I think the "Blueberry and White Chocolate Chip Muffintops" sound pretty good. Not quite so sure about the "Dandelion Greens with Currants and Pine Nuts," but at least we'll find out whether or not we can eat our front yards, which would come in handy if grocery prices keep going up!

In other news: just like the daffodils, the spring books are starting to come out! We'll be ordering in the next couple of weeks and if there's anything you'd like us to put on the list, just tell someone at the counter.

In yarn news: we are about to place a large order with Cascade Yarn. We saw their representative about a month ago and we were very impressed by their selection. We'll let you know here when it comes in.

Great Sites for Book Lovers!

As you'll see on the side, I'm putting together a typelist of great sites for book lovers. Feel free to make suggestions!

There is no shortage of good ones, but my favorite so far is the "The Book Cover Archive." I love book covers and it's great to look through a lot of the classics. I think my all time favorite book cover was this version of the Great Gatsby. Tell me some of yours.

As for the sites, I think most people know about Good Reads, but do you know about The Millions? 

In addition to the links for book lovers, I will also be adding good links for writers, as well as book suggestions.

(In case you don't already know this, my name is Karen Hall and I'm a television writer/producer and the owner of Black Bear Books in Boone, North Carolina.)

In honor of the tadpoles currently living in a "pond" in my kitchen bay window...

May I recommend revisiting "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County?" (Did you know that this short story was the first piece of writing to bring Mark Twan national attention?)

So, spring came very early to the High Country this year. I always enjoy decorating the store for spring. In the first place, it's easy! The tops of our shelves are adorned with a collection of matt green vases left over from my Arts & Crafts era, and all I have to do is fill them with silk flowers in spring colors. However, I never know what books to feature for spring. What is spring reading? 

I usually do a display with beautiful garden books, with a few salad and vegan cookbooks thrown in. This year, I want to do a display of spring-ish fiction. But what would that be? What do people feel like reading in the spring?

Fall and winter are good seasons to curl up around the fire with a mystery or the latest best-seller. Summer is the time for a "big beach book." (Or lake, or pond, or back yard ... as your case may be.) But spring seems ill-defined in bookstore world, especially in a resort area in late March, when the "summer people" have not arrived and we can't yet afford to stock the store with the new spring list.

Personally, I'm in the mood to read science books. Maybe that's because spring is such a great season for getting up close and personal with how nature works, which makes me more interested in how everything works.

What about you guys? What do you read in the spring?

Mark Twain on "Spring Fever": “You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

Greetings!

Welcome to the Black Bear Blog. My husband and I are the new owners of Black Bear Books in Boone, North Carolina. You can read about us in this article from the Mountain Times.

When I talked my husband into the idea of buying the store, I made him a promise that I would keep my political opinions to myself. However, I made no such promise about all of my other opinions, and so a blog is born! 

Right now our lives are all about Black Friday. (I now have a new take on why it's called black.) In my non-existent spare time, I hope to keep you all informed about the happenings at Black Bear Books. We have always loved the store, but we have ideas that we hope will make even better. I'll be writing about those (and soliciting your opinions) as well as what is happening in the literary world, with occasional rants with titles like "Why Kindle is Creepy."

Please come to see us. We'd love to meet all the people who love Black Bear Books as much as we do.