We are so excited to announce the launch of our new website.  It took a little bit and we are grateful for your patience. This means we will no longer be posting to Tumblr so if you follow us here please join us on our new site at www.WellingtonSquareBooks.com.

We decided to create a new site so that we could consolidate everything in one place and make is much easier for you all to navigate.  Now we have everything in one place:

• Who we are and what we are about
• What is happening each month in the bookshop
• Sam’s Avid Reader interviews for each month and a link to listen to past interviews
• Our AWESOME blog!
• The ability to buy new books from us online (although we much prefer to see you in the shop so we can visit)
• Coming soon…the ability to buy from our collection of eclectic and rare books

We hope you like it!

Today at 4:00pm on WCHE listen to Sam’s  interview with Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia and the newly released Vampires in the Lemon Grove

The Bigtree alligator wrestling dynasty is in decline—think Buddenbrooks set in the Florida Everglades—and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, is swiftly being encroached upon by a sophisticated competitor known as the World of Darkness. 

Ava, a resourceful but terrified twelve year old, must manage seventy gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. Her mother, Swamplandia!’s legendary headliner, has just died; her sister is having an affair with a ghost called the Dredgeman; her brother has secretly defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their sinking family afloat; and her father, Chief Bigtree, is AWOL. To save her family, Ava must journey on her own to a perilous part of the swamp called the Underworld, a harrowing odyssey from which she emerges a true heroine.

Karen Russell graduated from Columbia University’s MFA program in 2006. Her stories have been featured in The Best American Short Stories, Conjunctions, Granta, The New Yorker, Oxford American, and Zoetrope. Her first book of short stories, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, was published in September 2006. In November 2009, she was named a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree. In June 2010, she was named a New Yorker "20 Under 40" honoree. Her first novel,Swamplandia!, was published in February 2011.

Local author Cheryl Butler-Stahl will be joining us for a book signing this Sunday from 11:00am - 1:00pm

Cheryl Butler-Stahle, author of Slices of Life – The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing, will be joining us for a book signing on Sunday, April 7^th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Attendees can meet Cheryl and participate in numerous writing activities designed to spark the memoir writer within.

Cheryl, a writing teacher and contributing author of a book of memoir vignettes entitled And the Wind Was No Longer Cold, created Slices of Life to help others who wish to write their own memoirs. The book is comprised of writing activities, prompts, and directions to help an aspiring writer get his or her story written and preserved for years to come.

Cheryl gains tremendous satisfaction from her work. She has assisted an elderly World War II veteran, who was previously unable to speak of his experiences in battle, with putting his stories in writing. She has also worked with an elderly man, who was instrumental in the development of the Manhattan Project, to help him document his experiences. In addition to helping seniors, Cheryl works with adoptive families, single parents and adults at every stage of their lives.   

About Cheryl Butler-Stahle:

Cheryl Butler-Stahle’s writing has been published in Adoptions Today, Single Parenting and The Times Herald of Montgomery County (PA). She also writes the “Happening Heroes” column for Bucks Happening, an online publication, as well as the Philadelphia writing column for Examiner.com. Cheryl has authored two books - a memoir of vignettes titled And the Wind Was No Longer Cold, and her most recent memoir guidebook, Slices of Life: The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing (available at Wellington Square Bookshop and www.yourbestwritinggroup.com).

Cheryl earned her BS from Virginia Tech, her MS from George Washington University, plus her M.Ed from Arcadia University. She has taught writing classes and workshops at charter schools, public schools and colleges. Cheryl lives with her son Joshua in suburban Philadelphia. For more information about Cheryl visit http://www.yourbestwritinggroup.com/. 

Join us in welcoming Cheryl to the Wellington Square Bookshop.

My daughter cycles through books.  Every day she carries around one selected book with her everywhere she goes.  The other day she picked up  a book that we haven’t read for a while, Mo Willems' Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late.  I love this book (all of Mo’s books, actually).

In Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late Pigeon is trying to avoid going to bed.  He tries everything!  He’s not tired he argues, he pleads to count stars, he even tries to convince you that his bunny likes to stay up late.  If you have kids, babysat for kids or been exposed to kids at bedtime this book will make you smile every time you read it because you have heard all of these excuses before.

In the Pigeon series the illustrations are simple line drawings so they appeal to young kids.  They are also able to appeal to older kids (and parents too) because Mo has a way of expressing the emotion of the situation through his art.  

If you are not familiar with Mo Willems you should definitely check him out.  He is a New York Times bestselling author and is best know for his Caldecott Honor books  Knuffle Bunny:  A Cautionary Tale (another family favorite) and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  

And if you do need an excuse to get your kids to be you can use the same bit of wisdom I picked up along the way.  "But Mommy I’m not tired!“  "That is ok, I am so you need to go to bed now.”  How can she argue with that!

The sale of the month for April is 50% off specially selected children’s picture books located on the table across from the coffee bar. 

We have stocked the table with some great classics and some new favorites.  Hurry by while they last!

Here are a few that were still there yesterday:

Otis and the Tornado

Crocodile Tears

Out of the Way!  Out of the Way!

Owlet’s First Flight

Love Splat

Chloe

My Daddy & Me

Nature and the Environment

America’s history begins in wilderness.   Writer’s relationships even today continue to play a large role in our collective unconsciousness. From the grandeur of the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies to the impenetrable wilderness of Alaska, the rugged landscapes of New England to the murky swamps of the South, some writers spend their entire lives getting to know and to comprehend terrain- both exterior and interior.  Their work helps us rediscover values long forgotten, to revel in the beauty we pass over daily in our hectic lives, to recall feeling wonder at something simple, majestic, and ineffable as nature. 

In honor of the 50^th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, I chose a few seminal works in classic nature writing and in the modern environmental movement, both American and global.  These are powerful works for both adults and children that capture the struggle to understand and to preserve a viable environment.  These works are both old and new, that entertain and significantly challenge readers to think about the natural world and environment in different ways.

Silent Spring (1962) Rachel Carson

Along with Leopold’s A Sand Country Almanac, there may not be another environmental book written in 20^th century America that has had as much impact.  Silent Spring, a surprise best seller, documented the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds; led to a nationwide ban on DDT: and inspired the modern environmental movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. However, some of Carson’s other works remain more accessible to readers today.  The National Book Award-winning and New York Times Bestseller The Sea Around Us (1951), for example is poetic, intelligent, less technical. Readers interested in C arson’s life and career as a marine biologist and writer may also wish to return to On A Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder.

The Snow Leopard (1978) Peter Matthiessen

The Snow Leopard recounts Peter Matthiessen’s two-month study of the Himalayan Blue Sheep and his search for the rare, elusive snow leopard with biologist George Schaller in the remote Tibetan Plateau.  Matthiessen’s quest soon becomes a spiritual journey; a student of Zen Buddhism, Matthiessen describes the impenetrable mountains as he reflects on life and death and offers insight into Tibetan culture; ‘Figures dark beneath their loads pass down the far bank of the river, rendered immortal by the streak of sunset upon their shoulders”.  The Snow Leopard is a multilayered book of inherent beauty and spirituality, prose and extraordinary physical and metaphysical travel.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) Annie Dillard

Essayist, poet, critic and novelist Annie Dillard drew on her personal journals for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, that refers to a stream behind her former home near HollinsUniversity and Roanoke, Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.  Highly spiritual (Dillard converted to Roman Catholicism) and inspired by Thoreau’s  Walden, the book written as a series of internal monologues based on different seasons, chronicles Dillard’s thoughts on life and nature and her metaphysical journey over the course of a year.  As for her former home near Tinker Creek:  “It holds me at anchor to the rock bottom of the creek itself and keeps me steady in the current, as a Sea Anchor does, facing the stream of light pouring down.  It’s a good place to live; there’s a lot to think about.”

Now where can I find a cabin in the woods? Happy reading….

~ Ryann

Further Reading: Fiction and Non-Fiction

Nature (1836) Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walden (1854) Henry David Thoreau

Leaves of Grass (1855) Walt Whitman

The Outermost House:  A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod (1928) Henry Beston

The Grapes of Wrath (1939) John Steinback

Desert Solitaire: A Season in Wilderness (1968) Edward Abbey

Coming Into the Country (1977) John McPhee

The Wisdom of John Muir (100 plus Selections From the Letters, Journals, and Essays )

Zodiac (1988) Neal Stephenson

The Windup Girl (2009) Paolo Bacigalupi

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (2011) Created Charles C. Mann

Award Winners for Younger Readers:

My Side of the Mountain (1959) Jean Craighead George

Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960) Scott O’Dell

Whalesong (1981) Robert Siegel

The Sign of the Beaver (1983) Elizabeth George Speare

Hoot (2002) Carl Hiaasen

Mark your calendars with these great events for April:

April 8 - An evening with J.R. Moehringer.  J.R. will be calling into the bookshop at 7:00pm (please show up early) to discuss his book Sutton.

April 12 - Open Mic Night.  One night a month come out and support the musical genius in your community.

April 20 - Local author book signing with PsyD Janet Sasson Edgette.  Meet the author of the book, The Last Boys Picked:  Helping Boys Who Don’t Play Sports Survive Bullies and Boyhood, that Parents magazine calls a “MUST READ” and “a wowing and enlightening guide for any parent.  

I have always been intimidated by French cooking.  Having visited France and understanding the notorious reputation of French cuisine I was apprehensive to venture into the hallowed ground of French food.

I was hungry to try something new so I apprehensively picked up Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.  Right away I was drawn in by the beautiful photography and her story of falling in love with French food.  When she talks about French food it is from the home table, not the fancy restaurant table. In fact, she has modified some of the fancy recipes so that they may easily be prepared at home.  

French home cooking is no more intimidating that American home cooking.  It is based on easily available, in season fresh food.  In the French home they may have an extra course or two (soup or cheese) but even that is easy and quick to prepare.  

Some of my favorite recipes from Dorie’s book are:

Gougeres - This is French for beautiful, puffed up balls of cheese dough.  (Think light as air rather than cheese stuffed pizza crust.)  Not only do these make quick and easy starters but they can be opened up and stuffed with little salads or whipped cream and strawberries.  If you only need a few you can freeze the rest of the dough and just pop them into the oven for a few extra minutes when you need them.

Chestnut-Pear Soup - I have never had a chestnut so I was excited to try this soup.  It did not disappoint, it was creamy, nutty and slightly sweet.  With a little rosemary added it was the perfect soup for a chilly winter afternoon.  Sadly I won’t be making this very often as the chestnuts are quite expensive but I will look forward to making it for a special treat.

Roast chicken - As most of you know I am a huge fan of roasting the entire chicken.  I love that one little bird goes such a long way - dinner one night, lunch the next and the remaining bits for stock.  For about $12 I can get 3 meals (I buy organic whole chickens).  Dorie has a number of fabulous roast chicken recipes in here and they are all super easy (I tried them all).  My favorite tip was to place a couple of pieces of baguette or hearty bread in the bottom of the roasting pot and then place the chicken on top.  I believe this has become my new favorite food!  All of the chicken juices are soaked into the bread, it becomes super crusty on the bottom and is almost like holiday stuffing.  This is something you should keep secret so that you don’t have to share it with your family!

A couple of other main dish favorites are:

Hachis Parmentier - An amazing version of shepherd’s pie.  Instead of using ground meat you cook the meat and the chop it up.  Textures an flavors are fantastic!

Cola and jam spareribs - enough said!  We didn’t have any leftovers that night.

Almond founder meuniere - simple, tasty, quick fish dish.

The perfect ending to any meal is the Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse.  This has become an instant family favorite!  In fact, it is almost healthy if you can believe it.  This creamy, chocolaty dessert is just made with eggs and dark chocolate and a tiny bit of sugar (which you could probably leave out).  My hubby is lactose intolerant so he was really excited about this one.  I cannot recommend this enough - in fact I think everyone I know has heard about it.  You can tweet the recipe too by adding different flavors - chocolate-vanilla, chocolate-coconut, chocolate-peanut butter.  The possibilities are endless.

If you have been apprehensive, like I have been, about trying French cuisine in your own kitchen I recommend checking out Dorie Greenspan.  She has a beautiful blog with a ton of recipes online as well.

Bon Appetit!

As much as I have tried to deny it I think I might be a Francophile.  I have been cooking from a French cookbook (stay tuned until tomorrow) and I am in love with our new Paris inspired notecards from Galison.

Of course anything with glitter catches my eye so I immediately fell in love with the Merci Beaucoup (thank you for all you non-Francophiles) cards.
  A beautiful sketch of the Eiffel Tower embellished with glitter.

I also love the Pairs shaped note cards.  There are two different note cards in the box waiting to be shared with friends and loved ones.  Half of the cards are shaped like a hot air balloon and say Merci Boucoup as well. The other is shaped like the Eiffel Tower and has a dove with a beret.

Au revoir!