The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

I know I have said too many times before that I love historical fiction and this new novel is a great example of why I enjoy reading so much. This novel begins in Paris in 1878 during the Belle Epoque where art, literature, opera, and ballet are changing the culture. Buchanan uses the true stories of the young dancer who inspired Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen and his portrait of two criminals in a notorious criminal trial of that time. Also added to the story is the writing of Emile Zola and newspaper articles of the time.

The van Geothem sisters, Marie, Charlotte, and Antoinette, find themselves plunged into this world of ballet and theater while just trying to survive. Life is still very harsh and Dickens’ the Tale of Two Cities kept coming to mind as I read this. Although a different period of time, the harshness of the life had not changed. Marie and Charlotte find themselves in the Paris Opera Ballet corps trying to become a member of the cast and Antoinette finds herself on the stage in small parts. All of them are struggling, but Marie finds an additional way to make a little money by posing for Degas in his apartments. Antoinette finds herself involved with a young man of questionable background who is accused of the murder of an owner of an inn. All of these stories blend together into a wonderful insight into Paris in the late 19th century.

~~Bookstore Grammy

The Lost Art of Mixing by one of our bestselling authors, Erica Bauermeister, will be released in January 2013. Bauermeister returns us to Lillian and her restaurant that we loved in The School of Essential Ingredients, and, again, we learn just how Lillian touches and changes the lives of those around her, but also will find a change in her own life. Just like the first book, this book shows how lives are touched by the people with whom we are sometimes connected. Sometimes our families not our biological ones but are made up of those who touch us in some way.
The Last Runaway (January 8, 2013) by Tracy Chevalier, who is also one of the favorite authors at Aarons. Her books, The Girl with the Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures, have been favorite historical fiction. In her newest book, Chevalier moves her story to Ohio in the early 1850’s where a young Quaker girl, Honor Bright, travels from England to Ohio to accompany her sister, who is to be married. After her sister dies from yellow fever on the trip to Ohio, Honor is left in a strange country surrounded by strangers. As a Quaker, she finds herself taken into a small Quaker community, but is not sure she is really welcome in the group. The issue of slavery is heating up in America and she finds herself being pulled into making decisions about what she will do or will not do to assist runaway slaves.

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini, introduces us to Elizabeth “Lizzie Keckley”, a free Afro-American dressmaker, in Washington, DC. Through Lizzie’s eyes, we follow the life of Mary Todd Lincoln as she arrives in Washington as the First Lady and throughout the years of her husband’s Presidency. Lizzie’s relationship with Mrs. Lincoln pulls her into the intimate life of the Lincoln family. This is a beautifully written and historically researched novel about those Lincoln years in the White House. This will be a great companion to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, The Team of Rivals.

It’s that time of year when we look back. Here are our lists of our top-selling books of 2012.  As you can see, we love to handsell good reads and not necessarily the “it” books.  That being said the “50 Shades…” books were top sellers for us… but not THE top selling titles.  Books that are staff picks are highlighted with **.

Local Authors/Titles
1.Tugger: The Pretzel Pup
2.Tugger & Mini-Mew
3.Because I Can
4.Lititz (PA) (Images of America)
5.Warwick Township, Lancaster County (Images of America Series)

General Non-Fiction
1.Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) **
2.Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
3. Darth Vader and Son
4. The Brick Bible: The New Testament: A New Spin on the Story of Jesus **
5. What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World **
6. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks **
7. Fix-It and Forget-It Pink Cookbook
8. Unlikely Friendships

History/Bios/Memoirs
1. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle **
2. Zeitoun 
3. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption **
4. Paterno
5. Soldier Dogs **
5. In Garden of Beasts **
6. End Of Your Life Book Club **

YA
1. The Dust of 100 Dogs **
2. Rot & Ruin **
3. Boy in Striped Pajamas
4. Divergent
5. The Book Thief

Middle Grade/Chapter Books
1. Spilling Ink: A Young Writer’s Handbook **
2. Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth
3. The Teashop Girls **
4. The Candymakers **
5. The Phantom Tollbooth **

Middle Grade and YA Series
1. Stella Batts **
2. Hunger Games
3. Origami Yoda **
4. Bad Kitty **
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Picture Books
1. Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site **
2. Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet
3. Llama Llama Nighty Night
4. Christmas Quiet Book **

Adult Fiction
1. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen **  (Our top selling book overall!)
2. Hearse and Buggy **
3. The Great Gatsby
4. The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove **
5. The Book Lover **
6. The Tiger’s Wife **
7. The School of Essential Ingredients **
8. The House at Tyneford **
9. Joy For Beginners **
10. The Baker’s Daughter **

Honorable Mentions-  Mr. Churchill’s Secretary; The Magicians; The Kitchen Daughter; 22 Britannia Road; Taft 2012; The Meryl Streep Movie Club (all staff picks just shy of tieing for #11)

(Other Press, Paperback, 9781590515525, 320pp.)
Publication Date: July 10, 2012

Tristan Sadler, a veteran of the fighting in France during World War I, travels to Norwich, England to deliver a packet of letters to the sister of his dead comrade in arms, Will Bancroft. Thus starts this amazing novel by John Boyne.  As a reader and lover of historical novels, I think that I have this plot all figured out as Boyne alludes to the relationship between these two 18 year-old men. Ha, I am not even close to being correct; in fact, I am very far away from predicting the ending to this poignant story. 

     Boyne’s beautiful writing style will keep you reading and reading.  Your reactions to the descriptions of life in the trenches will be heart wrenching, but you will not be able to put this book down.  Let me share a short portion with you.  Boyne is describing a disgusting scene in which Tristan is struggling to lift buckets of mud and fecal matter out of the British trenches in a heavy rainstorm:

“Keep at it man!” shouts a voice to my left and whoever it is – Hobbs?- pumps more water away as I drive my bucket deep  and deeper again, lifting the water out, sending it on its way, reaching down for more. And then a heavy body, running too fast and slipping in the mud, curses, rights himself and pushed past me and I fall, knocked head over feet, my face in the sludge and the water and the s**t, and I spit out the noxious earth as I place a hand down to lever myself up, but my hand seems to sink deeper and deeper into the mud and I think, How can this be, how can my life have descended into such filth and squalor? I used to go swimming on warm afternoons at the public baths with my friends.”

        For me, good authors write books that quickly pull me into a story where I feel I am sharing the experience,  that encourage me to want to know more about the time period or events happening in the book, and  that touch my heart and soul and make me think as I read them. John Boyle does all three of these things.

Readers in Lancaster County are in for a treat in April when John Boyne comes to the spring fund raiser by the Friends of the Library.  I cannot wait to meet him and listen to him talk about his books.  He’ll be speaking as at a lunch fundraiser for the libraries of Lancaster County on April 22 at Cavalry Church.  Tickets will be $40 and will include a copy of his newest book (to be published in the US on April 10)- The House of Special Purpose.

This novel will also be our historical book group selection for January 2013. Read this book and join our group for the discussion. We will meet at Aaron’s Books on Sunday, January 6^th at 3:00 PM.

A Dangerous Inheritance
A Novel of Tudor Rivals and the Secret of the Tower
By Alison Weir
(Ballantine Books, Hardcover, 9780345511898, 544pp.)

Here is another great novel for lovers of English historical fiction; it is a story of two women who are bound to each other through birth and circumstances. Katherine Grey is the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey and the niece of Henry VIII. Her fortune rides on the success of her sister’s claim to the English throne after the death of Henry VIII’s son, Edward. As so many of the women written about at this time, neither Katherine nor her sister, Jane, has any control over their lives and are used as a pawns by their parents, and the English Court. Katherine finds herself betrothed and married to Henry Lord Herbert as their parents plot to have her sister, Lady Jane Grey, become the next Queen of England. Katherine and young Herbert fall in love, but find that his father has a second plan in case the plot to put Jane on the throne is not successful. When Jane’s short reign is ended, Katherine then begins a fearful life at court, never sure who are her enemies and who are her friends. Katherine’s first marriage is annulled, and she lives at court first in the hands of Queen Mary and then later in the hands of Queen Elizabeth I. 

The second story of Katherine Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of Richard III, surrounds a mystery for Katherine Grey to unravel. What happened to those two York Princes who were locked in the Tower? There is some unknown tie between the two women, and Katherine Grey feels the connection from the first time she sees a portrait of Katherine Plantagenet. As the story unwinds, both women find themselves in the shadow of the terrible Tower of London and try to learn the truth about one of the greatest secrets of the Tower.

 Alison Weir moves skillfully between the two stories of these young women who are so much a part of two pivotal times in English history. This is her first novel where two lives of women are the focus and both are surrounded by the mystery and the intrigue of the English Court. Weir spins a story about life in the Tower and gives her version of what happens to those two young Princes of York.

Why a new site you ask?  First, after 2 years on a waiting list we finally own the rights to AaronsBooks.com (much easier to remember and type!)

Second, we are launching a new E-Reading program with a new partner- Kobo, so the timing to do it now was just right.

But, the largest factor to us was cost.  Our previous site was maintianded and hosted by our natioanl bookselling organization, and it was costing us a large monthly fee.  It was also designed by them, with much larger stores in mind. With the new site we can have better control over the layout, the content, and it integrates our blogging, book ordering, and our general awesomeness all in 1 spot.  Take a look around…  but note that it’s still a work in progress!

Staff Picks

How to Shop Online

Our New Kobo E-Readers and E-Books

Upcoming Events

A quick note about how we’re linking books. On the old site you could just click on a book and order it on the spot.  It was great and convenient, however lots of the books listed were not actually available to us, and it grew costly for us to get them into the shop.  Here, most links go to IndieBound.org to give you more information about the book.  If it’s a book linked here on our site, and most likely it’s one we already have in stock, or could get in in a matter of a few days.  You CAN still order books to pick up at the store, and you CAN still order books to ship anywhere in the US… they are just 2 different processes now… one that we hope will make our end more cost effective, thus keeping us around here longer!

ENJOY THE NEW DIGITAL AARON’S!