Learned Owl Book Shop

September 1, 2014
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Kate's Corner

Kate with book and bunny

Happy September! This month we will be celebrating one of my favorite activities, book hugging. Hug a Book Week is Sept. 6-14, and we are hoping to collect pictures of all of you hugging your favorite books. We will display the pictures in store and on line. Anyone who submits a picture will be entered into a drawing to win a $50 Learned Owl gift card.

This month is so full of fantastic events we can hardly wait for it all to begin. We hope you will enjoy it.

Thank you for your support, and happy reading!

- Kate
Educator's Appreciation Week

Teachers, librarians, and support staff: Come in anytime from Sept. 22-26 for special discounts, giveaways, and a chance to win a Learned Owl gift card!
We're accepting preorders for George W. Bush's book about his father, available November 11.

A unique and intimate biography, this book covers the entire scope of the elder President Bush's life and career, shining new light on both the accomplished statesman and the warm, decent man known best by his family. In addition, George W. Bush discusses his father's influence on him throughout his own life.
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Only 122 days until 2015!

During September, all our 2015 calendars are 15% off as our famous Reverse Calendar Sale continues.


Meet the authors
 
Wednesday, Sept. 3
Meet author Julia Keller!
  • From 5:30-7 PM, Ms. Keller will be signing her newest book, Summer of the Dead, at The Learned Owl.
  • Join us from 7:30-9 PM at the Rosewood Grill for a ticketed dinner with Ms. Keller. Tickets will be $55, and will include dinner and a copy of her new book. Space is limited; call for reservations: 330-653-2252.

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 7 PM (at Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library)
Author and columnist Bob Dyer reads from his book Blimp Pilot Terrorizes Akron (And Other Hot Air)[Click to register]

Thursday, Sept. 11, 7 PM (at The Learned Owl)
Author Thrity Umrigar with The Story Hour.

Saturday, Sept. 13, 1-3 PM (at The Learned Owl)
Karen Starr and Joanna Wilson with A is for Akron: An A to Z List of Akron's Places & Things That Make Us Smile.

Saturday & Sunday, Sept. 13 & 14, 1-5 PM (Bedford Commons)
Meet nine local authors as part of Bedford's annual Weekend of the Pooka arts celebration. The Learned Owl will have books for purchase at this event.

Sunday, Sept. 14, 2-4 PM (at The Learned Owl)
Popular food blogger Jessica Merchant will visit to sign her debut cookbook, Seriously Delish.

Saturday, Sept. 20, 1 PM (at The Learned Owl)
Michael Garriga with The Book of Duels.

Monday, Sept. 22, 7 PM (at the Hudson Library)
Historian Fred Kaplan speaks about his book John Quincy Adams: American Visionary. Register for this free event online, or call 330-653-6658 ext.1010.


Book groups & storytimes (& knitting)
Join us for storytime every Saturday & Tuesday at
11 AM. All are welcome - no need to register!

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 7 PM (at The Learned Owl)
The Learned Owl Book Club will meet to discuss The Lowland.

Saturday, Sept. 20, 2-3:30 PM (at The Learned Owl)
Just in time for football season, The Learned Owl is offering an arm knitting workshop! Join us and make a scarf in your school colors. Please call 330-653-2252 to reserve a spot. There is no charge to attend, but you will need to bring your own yarn and arms!

Sunday, Sept. 21, 2 PM (at The Learned Owl)
The Learned Owl's History Book Club will be discussing First Ladies. Read any book on the subject and join us!

Thursday, Sept. 25, 7 PM (location TBA)
Book Club in a Bar with guest author R. G. Belsky (The Kennedy Connection).


Our Writers' Workshop series continues:
  
Sunday, Sept. 7, 5-7 PM (at The Learned Owl)
The second in our Writers' Workshop Summer Series will focus on The Practical Side of Creative Non-Fiction, led by Wayne Elliot. Call 330-653-2252 to register. Cost: $45.

Sunday, Sept. 28, 5-7 PM (at The Learned Owl)
The third in our Writers' Workshop Summer Series will focus on Ekphrastic Poems with Natasha Rodriguez-Carroll. Ekphrasis is writing that responds to and comments upon another art form such as a painting, a photograph, a novel or even a film. Call 330-653-2252 to register. Cost: $45.
New for adults

We have signed copies!
by Jan Karon
[Putnam Adult, $27.95; available Sept. 2]
After five hectic years of retirement from Lord's Chapel, Father Tim Kavanagh returns with his wife, Cynthia, from a so-called pleasure trip to the land of his Irish ancestors. While glad to be at home in Mitford, something is definitely missing: a pulpit. But when he's offered one, he decides he doesn't want it. Maybe he's lost his passion. His adopted son, Dooley, wrestles with his own passion - for the beautiful and gifted Lace Turner, and his vision to become a successful country vet. Dooley's brother, Sammy, still enraged by his mother's abandonment, destroys one of Father Tim's prized possessions. And Hope Murphy, owner of Happy Endings bookstore, strruggles with the potential loss of her unborn child and her hard-won business. All this as Wanda's Feel Good Caf� opens, a romance catches fire through an Internet word game, their former mayor hatches a reelection campaign to throw the bums out, and the weekly Muse poses a probing inquiry: Does Mitford still take care of its own?
Millions of fans will applaud the chance to spend time, once more, in the often comic and utterly human presence of Jan Karon's characters, who have never been more sympathetic, bighearted, and engaging.
Buy the bookBuy the eBook

The Bone Clocks The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
[Random House, $30.00; available Sept. 2]
Following a terrible fight with her mother over her boyfriend, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her family and her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life. 
"Mitchell... writes with a furious intensity and slapped-awake vitality, with a delight in language and all the rabbit holes of experience... In his sixth novel, he's brought together the time-capsule density of his eyes-wide-open adventure in traditional realism with the death-defying ambitions of Cloud Atlas until all borders between pubby England and the machinations of the undead begin to blur." - New York Times Book Review
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The Secret Place The Secret Place by Tana French
[Viking Books, $27.95; available Sept. 2]
Linda recommends: Tana French is one of the best and her newest is the most intense, electrifying and exhilarating book yet. She has a brilliant way with characters, and the way she weaves a tale is like none other. This title is a stunning story of young women in a posh girls' school and their friendship in the midst of tragedy and upheaval. You will be unable to put it down, and wishing you could read it again for the first time when you have finished. [read more]
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Study break!
New books for 8- to 12-year-olds

The Scavengers The Scavengers by Michael Perry
[HarperCollins, $16.99; available Sept. 2]
Kate recommends: A fun romp into new territory for Perry. With his signature wit he creates a setting and characters you can't help but enjoy. Hoping to see more of this from him. [read more]
Buy the bookBuy the eBook

El DeafoEl Deafo by Cece Bell
[Amulet Books, $10.95; available Sept. 2]
Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school and making new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your chest? That requires superpowers! In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful - and very awkward - hearing aid.
The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear (sometimes things she shouldn't), but it also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become "El Deafo, Listener for All." And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and find the friend she's longed for.
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The Graham Cracker Plot The Graham Cracker Plot by Shelley Tougas
[Roaring Brook Press, $16.99; available Sept. 2]
Meet Daisy Bauer and her sometimes best friend, Graham, who are determined to break Daisy's dad out of prison in this hilarious middle-grade debut.
No one believes her, but Daisy Bauer knows her dad has been wrongfully imprisoned and that it's up to her to break him out of jail (aka Club Fed). She has a plan that she's calling the Graham Cracker Plot because it was all Graham's idea. She just needs a miniature horse, a getaway truck, and a penny from 1919 - the idea coin.
This funny, nail-biter of a novel is about friendship and admitting you're wrong. Debut novelist Shelley Tougas balances humor and warmth against themes of family, broken trust, and unconditional love against all odds.
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Thanks for supporting The Learned Owl Book Shop. Happy reading!