Did you hear us? Amy and I did our first on-air book review today on Jeremy and Holly Spencer’s new show, “The Local Gourmet,” which airs on WDKN 1260. Jeremy and Holly are the owners of House Blend, the coffee shop right next door to us. If you heard the show and want the recipe Jeremy and Holly discussed, you can find it on their blog.

The books we highlighted in our segment were all cookbooks that feature ingredients that are common to the everyday garden:

The All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook
by Mel Bartholomew

The perfect companion to Bartholomew’s The All New Square Foot Gardening, our bestselling gardening book, and its “chocolate box” approach to your garden. As Amy mentioned, the Zucchini Parmesan Pancakes on page 144 look simply amazing.

Tomatoes Garlic Basil
by Doug Oster

Recipes and tips for growing three of the most versatile vegetables. With a section for each plant, Oster covers planting basics, common ailments and pests, and ingredient-specific recipes.

Cooking from the Garden: Best Recipes from Kitchen Gardener
edited by Ruth Lively

A beautiful book packed with mouth-watering, straight-from-the-garden meals. Also has tips and tricks, such as the proper way to peel a tomato (page 179).

Be sure to tune into “The Local Gourmet” every 1st and 3rd Saturday at 1pm on Dickson’s own WDKN to hear great recipes and food-related book reviews.

First there was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, then Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Later this month, Quirk Classics will release a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies called Dawn of the Dreadfuls, which will give the backstory of the zombie plague and how Elizabeth Bennett became a “savage slayer of the undead.” In June, Quirk will depart from Jane Austen with the publication of Android Karenina.

Now other publishers are venturing into the arena of mash-up lit. Del Rey will release Little Women and Werewolves in May. We are expecting Grand Central Publishing’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author Seth Grahame-Smith, to arrive tomorrow. Below is a graphic book trailer featuring honest Abe, a vampire, and an axe. (Don’t watch it if you’re squeamish!)

Book Club

Last night our book club met to discuss Eudora Welty’s The Ponder Heart. We had a fun time talking about not just the book, but also Southern culture. Through our voting, we inadvertantly chose several books by Southern writers or about Southern themes, including our March book Cold Sassy Tree. Here’s our full list of books for the year:

If you’re interested in joining our book club, we’d love to have you! Meetings, as listed above, are the last Tuesday of the month (except during the busy holiday season) at 6:30pm in our gallery room. The book club book is 15% off during its month.

Intuit Small Business Grants

If you have a free minute, please nominate us for this small business grant. We have high hopes for our store. We daydream about shelves overflowing with books and bringing in new lines, like high-quality toys, stationery, and new styles of journals. A small business grant would help us realize some of these dreams. Thank you to all those that have already nominated us. Your words mean so very much!

As you can imagine, my house is overrun with books. I love all my books, even the ones I haven’t read yet, but I have a special shelf for books that I know I’ll be thinking about for years to come. That shelf is full of all the books that have given me that twinge in my heart or my gut–that twinge that strikes me whenever I read a truly perfect, wonderfully-written passage or feel myself reacting to a character’s troubles as if they were my own. Here’s a list of books, in no particular order, that have earned their spot on that shelf in the past year.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
In all honesty, my love of this book stems from my soft spot for geeks. The writing is stellar, but won’t appeal to everyone. Diaz uses Dominican slang, English slang, and everyday profanity to illustrate not only the life and family of his nerdy Dominican protagonist, but also the colorful lives and personalities of his narrators. I would recommend it to anyone who likes graphic novels like Hellboy or The Watchmen and to literature lovers–this geek-heavy read won the Pulitzer Prize.

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
I first decided to read this because Nick Hornby mentioned in one of his columns in the Believer some years back (which are all genius and available in the compilations The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping Vs. the Dirt, and Shakespeare Wrote for Money) how easy it would be to read all the works of Salinger in a month. You can’t say that about Dickens, now can you? I started reading it with no preconceptions and was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. Why this one is less popular than The Catcher in the Rye escapes me.

In the Wake by Per Petterson
I’m convinced that Per Petterson is the greatest living writer I’ve read so far. That said, Anne Born, who translated all three of the Petterson books currently available in English, must be something of a poet herself. The writing in this book is AMAZING. The story is secondary to the words, but I was enthralled by both. Arvid Jansen, a former bookseller and writer, coming out of the fog of grief, is as believable a character as I’ve ever encountered in real life.

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Lorrie Moore is my favorite writer. This was not her best book, but even a subpar Lorrie Moore novel is better than most of the other books I read. The subject matter will turn off a lot of readers, since all the actions take place before the backdrop of the 9/11 attacks. What makes me love reading a Lorrie Moore book or story is rarely ever the plot or characters, but rather her ability to make me see a place and time so clearly. It’s almost like looking through a stack of photographs. This one, released in September of ‘09, was a collection of images I won’t soon forget.

The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
I was more than a little surprised that this classic was chosen by our book club, which usually goes for more contemporary fare. I loved the descriptions of Paris night life, the sordid details of the private lives of socialites, and the so-flawed-they’re-perfect characters. It was like hearing the best bit of gossip, without having to feel the least bit of guilt.

Friday, Dec. 4th, is officially the beginning of the Christmas season in Downtown Dickson! Tomorrow evening, downtown merchants will be staying open late, there will be live music, the city will light the tree in Holland Park, and some retailers will be offering special discounts.

Special Discounts at Reading Rock Books:

FRIDAY NIGHT ONLY! All books (new and used) 10% OFF! Selected hardcovers 75% OFF! Bearfoots figurines 25% OFF!

This Weekend Only!

Come see our expanded selection of Tennessee Ridge Pottery. Made by a local retired elementary school teacher, this pottery is beautiful and functional. This expanded selection, available today, Friday, and Saturday only, consists of bowls, vases, apple bakers, and ikebanas.

American Girl Doll Drawing

A Reading Rock Books tradition! This year, we’re giving away a Molly doll. Come in and register any time. The winner will be announced on December 18. See store signs for official rules.

Shopping Made Easy

Reading Rock Books now offers gift registry! Come in and fill out a Wish List for yourself or your child and take the guess work out of your friends’ and relatives’ shopping.

Reading Rock gift cards are always a safe bet!

Yes, Halloween is over, but the Quirk Classics display contest results won’t be announced until Friday. In the meantime, check out the photos on their website of displays from independent bookstores around the country here. We’re thrilled to have been included! We have more pictures of our display here and a here’s a video:

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The displays are all inspired by the books Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Also, we’re having a Fall Clearance Sale! Selected hardcovers are now 35% off! Come by soon and help us make room for new stock (and save some money, too)!