The Learned Owl Book Shop, Mid-September 2016

 Kate's Corner


Fall is officially upon us, and the weather has been beautiful! With that said, I have now jinxed us and it will rain for the next two weeks.

Either way, we have begun the slippery autumn holiday slope. Halloween is just around the corner, calendars are in and flying off the shelves, and the big books of fall are starting to arrive. Believe me, there are any number of books coming out that you don't want to miss.

I understand some of you are reluctant to venture downtown, so I figured this would be a good time for a much needed construction update. The plans have in some ways veered way off the track since our last update. At this point, the waterline replacement is basically done. Now we are moving on to the beautification part of the program. Since this aspect is much more labor intensive, our fearless contractors and city liaisons have come up with a new plan. Our part of North Main Street will be returned to its previous state with functional sidewalks, lines for parking, benches, large planters, etc. We will be left alone for the duration of the working year, and our facelift will occur spring / summer next year. In the meantime, all efforts will be focused on completely finishing the area between 303 and Clinton. Despite the fact that we were assured all the work would happen overnight, daytime work will apparently start as early as Monday. There will continue to be two lane traffic; however, trucks will be diverted from Main Street, there will be no left turn to go south on Main Street, and there will be no parking between Park and Clinton. This phase of the construction is due to be completely finished around Nov. 15th, so we can all gaze upon its beauty through the holiday season and beyond. This may seem like a drastic change in the plans, but don't worry - we feel that way too.

Needless to say, they are making progress and we are all hanging in there. Please let me remind you again that we are happy to deliver or ship books to your home. You can still feed your reading cravings without having to experience orange barrel hell.

Give us a call with any questions you may have, or order directly from our website: www.learnedowl.com.

Thank you for your support, and happy reading!
- Kate
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Coming up at
The Learned Owl

Sat., Sept. 17, 1-3 PM
(at The Learned Owl)
John Keyse-Walker will sign and discuss his mystery Sun, Sand, Murder. This is John's first novel and the winner of the 2015 Minotaur Books/ Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award.

Sat., Sept. 17, 1-3 PM
(at The Learned Owl)

David Horton with his supernatural murder mystery The Swamp Witch.

Sat., Sept. 17, 1-3 PM
(at the Hudson Library)
Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the Elm Creek Quilts series, returns to the library to discuss her new historical novel, Fates and Traitors. Register for this event online, or call 330-653-6658.

Sun., Sept. 18, 2 PM
(at The Learned Owl)

Our History Book Club discusses Postal History. Read any book related to the topic and join us!

Thurs., Sept. 22, 1-3 PM
(at the Stow Library)

Sat., Sept. 24, 1-3 PM
(at The Learned Owl)

Shelley Costa with her new mystery

Mon. Sept. 26, 7 PM
(at the Hudson Library)
Anne Trubek will discuss her book The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting. Register for this free program online, or call (330) 653-6658 x1010.

Thurs., Sept. 29, 6:30 PM (location TBA)
Join us as our Book Club in a Bar discusses Killing Trail by Margaret Mizushima.
Quick Links
Born to Run by Springsteen
Also available to preorder:
A Field Guide to Lies
Buy the book
Current Events
A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age by Daniel J. Levitin
[Dutton Books, $28.00]
We are bombarded with more information each day than our brains can process, especially in election season. It's raining bad data, half-truths, and even outright lies. New York Times bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin shows how to recognize misleading announcements, statistics, graphs, and written reports, revealing the ways lying weasels can use them.
Also available as a Kobo ebook, and as a deluxe ebook featuring six videos with more examples, anecdotes, and added visual guides.

Killing the Rising Sun
Buy the book
Buy the eBook
History
[Henry Holt, $30.00]
Told in the same page-turning style as Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus, Killing Patton, and Killing Reagan, this epic saga details the final moments of World War II like never before. [read more]

The Pigeon Tunnel
Buy the book
Buy the eBook
Autobiography
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John Le Carre
[Viking, $28.00]
From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia, to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion, to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carre has always written from the heart of modern times. In this first memoir, le Carre is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Le Carre endows each happening with vividness and humor, now making us laugh out loud, now inviting us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood.
Best of all, he gives us a glimpse of a writer's journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.

What the F
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Buy the eBook
Science
by Benjamin K. Bergen
[Basic Books, $27.99]
Nearly everyone swears, whether it's over a few too many drinks, in reaction to a stubbed toe, or in flagrante delicto. And yet, we sit idly by as words are banned from television and censored in books. We insist that people excise profanity from their vocabularies, and we punish children for yelling the very same dirty words that we'll mutter in relief seconds after they fall asleep. Swearing, it seems, is an intimate part of us that we have decided to selectively deny.
That's a damn shame. Swearing is useful. It can be funny, cathartic, or emotionally arousing. As linguist and cognitive scientist Bergen shows us, it also opens a new window onto how our brains process language and why languages vary around the world and over time. Smart as hell and funny as ****, What the F is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to know how and why we swear.

Best. State. Ever.
Buy the book
Buy the eBook
Humor
by Dave Barry
[G.P. Putnam's Sons, $27.00]
We never know what will happen next in Florida. We know only that, any minute now, something will.
Every few months, Dave Barry gets a call from some media person wanting to know, What the hell is wrong with Florida? Somehow, the state's acquired an image as a subtropical festival of stupid, and as a loyal Floridian, Dave begs to differ. Sure, there was the 2000 election. And people seem to take their pants off for no good reason. And it has flying insects the size of LeBron James. But it is a great state, and Dave is going to tell you why. Join him as he celebrates Florida from Key West at the bottom to whatever it is that's at the top, from the Sunshine State's earliest history to the fun-fair of weirdness that it is today.

Atlas Obscura
Preorder book
Preorder eBook
Travel
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton
[Workman Publishing, $35.00; Sept. 20]
Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust, Atlas Obscura celebrates over 700 of the strangest and most curious places in the world: natural wonders, architectural marvels, and mind-boggling events. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia; Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell; a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh; eccentric bone museums in Italy; or a weather-forecasting invention powered by leeches that's still on display in Devon, England.
Atlas Obscura revels in the weird, the unexpected, the overlooked, the hidden and the mysterious. And with its compelling descriptions, hundreds of photographs, surprising charts, and maps for every region of the world, it is a book to enter anywhere, and will be as appealing to the armchair traveler as the die-hard adventurer.
New in paperback

We now sell digital audiobooks! Visit libro.fm/learnedowl now (or click the links below) and receive 20% off all audiobooks
through the end of September! Use code HUDSON20 at checkout.
Ivory Vikings
The Only Woman in the Room
101 Stumbles in the March of History
Can_t We Talk about Something More Pleasant
The Light of the World
digital audio
Sit Stay Heal
Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

A Common Struggle
digital audio
"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame." - Oscar Wilde