HIGH SUMMERs

High Summer 2016 is there which is a very good thing and Roseledge Books is hopping — okay, on Thursdays. Scott called yesterday to say that four people — almost a crowd — were there at once taking full advantage of the first-time ever summer sale, to wit:

The Roseledge Books Big Markdown.

Mass market fiction — $1.00 each.
Trade fiction — $2.00 each.
Non-fiction — most are $5.00 each,  

 except art or art-ish books — still full price.

Just think about the deals with the series RB was building. With Cara Black in hand, you’ll be one with the neighborhoods of Paris — and safe while reading — for only 2.00 each. And Diana Gabaldon’s Claire and Jamie Frasier saga is yours for just 1.00 or 2.00 per book, each of which is a behemoth at nearly 1,000 pages each. Cheaper than a STARZ subscription for sure. Catch up on Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Claire and Russ, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Peter Temple’s Jack Irish, C.J, Box’s Joe Pickett family (“They could be Mainers,” one Mainer extolled.”) and the list could go on, were my memory better and I knew what Scott had sold.

No book has no there – there.  Think about it.  Read books, vote, and save the world. 

Had the books sold at full-price, last Thursday might have been almost the biggest day ever, except for the days when the North Carolina Regulars come and keep Roseledge Books alive for another year, and they will be there soon. I will sit here by the fan and be one with the remains of the glorious Roseledge-evoking flowers they sent me to celebrate first steps and the promise of next year — among other things — and I don’t know how to comment on facebook to thank them. So this is a major thank you through a flower-mind meld, if all goes well.  Charlie is coming next week to show me how to comment and how to play Pokemon Go, among other duties HE might find more pressing.  One doesn’t want to be totally out of it, and I already have trouble with NYTimes crossword clues related to Harry Potter and #1 album of any year.

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Know that I’m working on being there next year and the signs are aligning.

I walked 11 ft. 6 in. with harness and hemi-walker and much awkwardness. Oh to have a permanent, invisible harness holding me up. Standing, pivoting and transferring is very necessary and going to require much exercise of the apparently nearly dormant abs and glutes, but I have hope, will and a miracle named Becky, which sum to a real possibility that I will be in Tenants Harbor next summer!

And I haven’t forgotten my bookseller duty to find the aptest books for the legions of readers who will keep the world free of, ot at least safe from, Trumpty -Dumpty. Just when I most needed an apt book, Marilyn Stasio (NYTBR) reviewed John Farrow’s The Storm Murders which takes place on an island off the Atlantic Coast. I was homesick enough for TH to order it with a click of my dreaded Kindle, and glory be, I found a must-have for Roseledge Books! It is set on Grand Manan, technically part of New Brunswick but “closer” to Lubec, ME, and described as looking like a Wyeth painting (At 25%, as Kindle has no pages. Drat.) The story has detailed island trails and local knowledge, summer people trying to learn and natives who might or might not help. Could be Tenants Harbor with great trails (Go to Town Office for maps.) Wyeths all around, literally, and lots of nifty natives and summer people.

Signs are aligning.  Books are worth mining.  All will be good — if you VOTE.

Mostly, I am a summer stranger in Minnesota, trying to survive 90-90 days (my aunt Darleen’s term for days with 90 degrees heat and 90 percent humidity), and wishing I were there on the porch as the 4 o’clock breeze comes up from the harbor.

Don’t forget the book sale.  Christmas, summer school graduation, beach days, birthdays, and, most recently, rehab reads for my friends whose bodies keep breaking — every event has a reading purpose and a reason to visit Roseledge Books.