Somewhere between the first and second week of August, we hit the pivot point between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. Temperatures are high and the days are long, but we start to feel a bit of the day's shortening. Some of the trees start to hint at a color change. We look forward to Labor Day, and then — Halloween? Thanksgiving? We're already closer to next Christmas than to last Christmas.

This time of the year reminds us of the story of the Grasshopper and the Ant. Right now, the sun is bright and the trees are lush and green. But before you know it, winter will be here. So don't take today for granted. Make it count: Do all the things, but also, read books that matter.

What's New in the Stacks

We've taken in a few hundred new books again. And again, we've got a few more carts on order. July was a delightfully quiet month in terms of inventory – for the first time ever, we turned a (small) profit in terms of sales versus acquisitions.

We're stocking a just-released title, The Four Wheels: Your Road Map to Getting Real by Lisa Hendrickson. This small book is all about finding personal and professional success and work-life balance through deep reflections about your beliefs, your passions, your skills, and your will. Lisa is an old friend of mine; it's a pleasure to make this great little book available to local readers.

We've beta-tested some online sales of a few of our more valuable used titles. We enjoyed one major purchase, so we're going to ramp that up over the coming month. Expect us to deploy an online store with a subset of our books and merch – and for this store to be connected to multichannel marketing tools to push those products to many different shopping ecosystems.

Oh, and we've added a new shelf: Free Books! We occasionally receive advance review copies or uncorrected proof copies. We can't legally sell them, even on the used side of the business, so instead of chucking them in The Bin, we're putting them on a special shelf.

Upcoming Events

Cade is done with chemo! Yay! That makes our Tuesdays a bit more normal. Our salon schedule is also set for the month. For the month, this is what's presently on deck:

  • Wed, 8/7: Salon! Game night, 6:30p to 8p
  • Fri, 8/9: WriteOn! writing group, 7p in the conference room. (Invitation only.)
  • Mon, 8/12: Open late for a medical appointment. We don't know when we'll be back, but it probably won't be later than noon.
  • Wed, 8/14: Salon! Book Club meets 6:30p to 8p — this month's selection is Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones.
  • Wed, 8/21: Salon! Big Think Discussion starts at 6:30p – this month's topic is How valid is the populist critique of liberalism?
  • Fri, 8/23: CLOSED. Beach day for the team! However, at 6 p.m. we're hosting a charity wine tasting for the Lakeshore Literary Foundation. All are welcome but RSVPs required; send us an email for more information.
  • Wed, 8/28: Salon! Craft Conversation at 6:30p — this month's theme is The Art of the Synopsis: Approaches to Novel Planning.

The bookstore is a host for the West Michigan Author Alliance, the successor organization to the Grand Rapids region of National Novel Writing Month. (WMAA split from NaNoWriMo because of gross mismanagement by NaNoWriMo.) So expect a lot of writing events to pop up from mid-October through mid-December.

All for now. See you soon!