Christmas in Middleburg - Second Chapter is Opening!

Saturday, December 4, is Christmas in Middeburg - always an exciting time! Last year it snowed on us - a very heavy, wet and miserable snow - and drove everyone out of town by 2 p.m. This year the forecast is for sun, temps in the 40s, and it is sure to feel very much like Christmas.

Come to Middleburg and enjoy a day that is a truly old-fashioned small town celebration. It starts with breakfast with Santa at Middleburg Elementary, followed by a parade led by one of the local hunts, complete with mounted riders and dozens - perhaps even hundreds - of fox hounds. Something funny always happens when you get that many excited hounds together and ask them to march down Main Street!

On what we call the "Back Street," a new shop is opening its doors for the first time. Second Chapter Books, at 8 Federal Street, will have lots of wonderful books just in time for Christmas. The store will open at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and it's going to be quite a day. I hope many of you will come by and say hello - and pick up a book or two. I'll be stopping by to start my Christmas shopping and maybe I'll see you there.

This is a big deal for Middleburg. It does my heart good to see a bookstore in town. I hardly had time to grieve the loss of Books & Crannies before these two wonderful ladies, Kathy jo Shea and Jilann Brunett, decided to take the plunge. They will do an excellent job of serving Middleburg and environs, and they deserve all the support we can give them.

Happy Holidays to everyone, and I'll see you at Christmas in Middleburg!

A New Bookstore for Middleburg

Last night I was overjoyed to receive an email announcing the opening of a new bookstore in Middleburg. This means our lovely little town will be without a bookstore for only a month - and that is great news! This new store, Second Chapter Books, will be a full-service bookstore in every sense of the word - new books, e-books, online ordering and all of the same services that Books & Crannies provided. What's really wonderful is that the store is being opened by two of the most remarkable people I have ever met in my life, Kathy jo Shea and Jilann Brunett. And some of the best news of all is that the store will be managed by Laura Vermillion. Laura was always the heart of Books & Crannies and I am thrilled that she will continue her stellar career in the book business at Second Chapter. Kathy jo and Jilann are well established and important residents of Middleburg. Through Solstice Healing Center they provide acupuncture and massage therapy services to a lot of us. They are women of the highest integrity and that is important to know because of the way in which Second Chapter is being structured. Here is how they put it in the news release sent out last night:

A TOWN WITHOUT A BOOKSTORE? NOT MIDDLEBURG! OPENING IN DECEMBER…SECOND
CHAPTER BOOKS, LLC.

Located at 8 East Federal, the bookstore will be managed by Laura Vermillion (formerly of Books and Crannies). The small, two-story house features a garden and is conveniently accessed from the Liberty Street parking lot. We want this to be a community bookstore so we are offering the Discount Club, volunteer opportunities, and are accepting suggestions about how the bookstore could better serve the community. Some of our ideas include author events, walk-in book discussions, online ordering, storytelling, used-book exchanges, gift certificates, featured books, comfortable chairs and garden seats during the warmer months.

We are very excited about this venture and want you to all be a part of it. So, we are offering Founding Memberships in the Discount Club. Your membership will give you discounts on your book purchases. From now until Dec. 31, 2010, a membership fee of:

$100 to $500 will give you a 10% discount on your book purchases for 1 year
$501 to $1000 will give you a 10% discount on your book purchases for 2 years
$1001 to $1500 will give you a 10% discount on your book purchases for 3 years
>$1500 will give you a lifelong 10% discount on your book purchases

After January 1, 2011 the membership in the Discount Club will cost $50 and will give the member a 5% discount for one year. We will also offer Discount Club memberships to our volunteers. Moreabout that will be available later. If you would like to join, please make checks payable to Second Chapter Books, LLC and mail them to:

Second Chapter Books
PO Box 1807
Middleburg, VA 20118

You can contact us for more information and with your suggestions at
secondchapterbks@aol.com. Our temporary phone number is 703-597-2749 (this is Kathy jo’s cell phone).

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I wanted to share the entire email with you so that you can fully understand how this new store is going to be structured. By doing it this way, I believe Kathy jo and Jilann are doing something that will make the store truly Middleburg's own bookstore. And, because I know Kathy jo and Jilann very well, I can safely say that if you become a founding member of Second Chapter Books, you will be doing the right thing.

I wholeheartedly support this effort. I am honored to be able to share it with you, and I'm looking forward to doing my Christmas shopping at Second Chapter Books.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or thoughts and I'll try to assist in any way I can.

Wishin' and Hopin'

On - and Off - The Road, Again

Hello everyone,

I've been on the road now for many days. It's been - literally - planes, trains and automobiles. I've been from Boston to Atlanta to Charlottesville to Ft. Lauderdale, home for a few days, then back to Boston. What a life!

The best way to cope with these bouts of excessive transportation is with a good book. I found one in my travels. It's Wishin' and Hopin' by the great Wally Lamb (author of She's Come Undone and The Hour I First Believed), and it's something of a departure for him. He's known for writing hefty books that grapple with serious issues and questions. This book is shorter and might at first glance be considered "Wally lite," but it's far from that. In fact, it's a charming, hilarious and deeply compassionate story about six-year-old Felix Funicello (cousin of Mickey Mouse Club's Annette), and his struggles growing up in Connecticut. Felix is innocently and riotously funny and while this is a book about children, it is not children's book, at least not for any child under about age 13. There are some dirty jokes that parents might not appreciate their kids repeating, although I suspect our children know many more risque jokes and stories than any of us care to imagine. The ones in this book fit the story, and one joke, in particular plays a significant role in the fate of a certain television show. If it were any more tame it just wouldn't ring true. This is childhood as it really is, but written with love and understanding.

I don't think any of you will be offended by anything in Wishin' and Hopin', and a lot of you will be touched. Parts of it will make you laugh out loud and the ending itself is something to behold. If you need an antidote to the harsh reality of today, then this book will take you away from it all for a few hours. It's being billed as "a Christmas story," but it oh-so-much more than that.

I'm just wishin' and hopin' Wally Lamb writes some more just like this.