While there may not be as much snow on the ground as we'd like, it is clear that winter has arrived. The temps have taken a drop, the lake effect snow has been flying and the stomping of winter boots can be heard outside most doors. Our local ski hill, Mt. Ashwabay opened this past weekend (thanks to the help of their snowmaking machines!), and it was a perfect day for skiing. It was also a perfect day for small town holiday shopping. The stores were pretty busy and people were most definitely in the holiday spirit.

We have been fortunate over the past year and a half to build a dedicated and loyal customer base. It means so much to us to hear that you have made a real effort to support us whenever possible. It's no secret that small independent businesses throughout the country have been fighting a war against the big box stores and online retailers. We feel that we have been winning a few of those battles this season with all of your support. That is not the case with many small bookstores throughout the region and country. If you live in one of those communities who have lost their independent bookstore, please consider making us that store for you. Writer Julie Bosman recently wrote this piece for the New York Times illustrating that customers and publishers alike are coming together to meet this challenge so that we can all go on enjoying our local booksellers and print books.   

Coming into our shop physically is not the only way you can support us. You can shop with us anytime! Our Online Store offers a very diverse selection of books, movies, music and eBooks. Yes, we said eBooks. If you have the instinct to go online first to buy your books, just change the address you type into your browser. Before you go to the big guys, stop by our site and see if we have what you're seeking. If you are unable to find what you're looking for on our site, call us as there is a good chance we can get it for you through other avenues. Finally, if you aren't much of an online shopper, you can simply give us a call and we'll be more than happy to find what you're looking for and ship it to you.

This very topic has been buzz throughout the nation recently. Author Richard Russo contributed an editorial piece to the New York Times this past Monday regarding "Amazon's Jungle Logic." Take a moment to read this - it's nice to see that even bestselling authors (who clearly make a great deal of their money from Amazon's sales) are fighting this battle with us.

All of that said - we are still hoping to see as many of you as we can over the holiday season and into the even quieter months of the year. There is nothing better than placing that perfect book into a customer's hands and discussing it. We love to meet our customers and get to know them. So please, whenever you're in town, stop in!

If you're in town this week, please stop by this Thursday, December 15th from 4-7pm. We'll have refreshments, promotions, and we will also be donating a portion of our sales that evening to the Bayfield Area Food Pantry along with many other businesses in town!

Happy reading,  

Apostle Islands Booksellers 

Catherine the Great       

The Lemon Tree       

The subtitle of this fascinating book - An Arab, a Jew and the Heart of the Middle East - really captures the spirit of Tolan's account of a deep and complex friendship between a Palestinian Muslim Arab man and a Bulgarian Sephardic Jewish woman in the cauldron of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Bashir's family was driven from their home in Ramla in 1948. Dalia's family immigrated to the newly formed State of Israel shortly thereafter. Their initial encounter - just after the 1967 war - occurred at that very house into which Dalia's family had moved upon their arrival in Israel. Tolan's keen and uncompromising historical narrative unfolds through forty-odd years of the relationship between Bashir and Dalia. The story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a minefield for historians from the beginning. Tolan has been able to avoid many of its pitfalls by weaving the personal story of two of its protagonists into the narrative. A sobering, but exhilarating, read!