Train Dreams is a 2011 novella by Denis Johnson about the life of Robert Grainier, a day laborer in the American West at the turn of the 20th century. The book is an "epic in miniature" that follows Grainier's life, marked by personal loss and the radical changes transforming America. It is a work of historical fiction that captures the disappearance of a specific American way of life through spare, powerful prose.

Order on Bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/p/books/train-dreams-a-novella-denis-johnson/ca6ed8e1cc252c88?ean=9781250007650&next=t

In addition to her book signing, Stacy is offering a drop-in “Kindness to the Community” station with a poster board on an easel where kids and adults can add sticky notes sharing how you can help or show kindness in the community.

Stacey Montgomery is a writer and educator who creates guided journals that help kids build confidence, self-awareness, and social-emotional skills. She is the founder of Believe and Be Brave, where she teaches self-esteem workshops and designs tools that help students feel strong, seen, and capable. Stacey is the author of several guided journals for kids, including How Can I Make A Difference? and What’s Your Super Power?Her work is inspired by her son, Isaiah, who reminds her every day of the power of believing in yourself. She lives in Aurora, Illinois, with her husband, Harold, and their son.

About How Can I Make A Difference?
How Can I Make A Difference? is a guided journal that helps kids see their worth and discover how they can make a difference. It supports self-esteem and encourages kids to explore volunteerism through writing, reading, and coloring activities that prompt reflection on their strengths, values, and experiences helping others. Whether kids are new to volunteering or already involved, the journal inspires goal setting, confidence, and meaningful action that makes a positive impact on the people around them.

A wrenching love story" (Chris Bohjalian, The Washington Post) based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York, from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.

Drawing on years of investigation and Anne Lister's five-million-word secret journal,Learned by Heartis the long-buried love story of Eliza Raine, an orphan heiress banished from India to England at age six, and Anne Lister, a brilliant, troublesome tomboy, who meet at the Manor School for young ladies in York in 1805 when they are both fourteen.

Emotionally intense, psychologically compelling, and deeply researched, Learned by Heartis an extraordinary work of fiction by one of the world's greatest storytellers. Full of passion and heartbreak, the tangled lives of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine form a love story for the ages.

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.

Buy from bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/p/books/foster-claire-keegan/2f74f4b6707429b7?ean=9780802160140&next=t

Join us for another First Friday with local art! Our theme for this month will be "The Winter Solstice”.

The Summer War is a fantasy novella by Naomi Novik, published on September 16, 2025. It is a fairy tale about a young sorceress named Celia who accidentally curses her brother, Argent, and must then work with her other brother to save their land from the summerlings. The story explores themes of storytelling, power, and the influence of narrative.

Order on Bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-summer-war-naomi-novik/def1d54bc98efa1e?ean=9780593984703&next=t

In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends' intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess's introduction, "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."

Buy on Bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-clockwork-orange-anthony-burgess/91f779301de978ad?ean=9780393341768&next=t

Here he is, husband and father, scruffy romantic, a shambolic scholar--a man adrift in the wake of his wife's sudden, accidental death. And there are his two sons who like him struggle in their London apartment to face the unbearable sadness that has engulfed them. The father imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness, while the boys wander, savage and unsupervised.

Part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's extraordinary debut combines compassion and bravura style to dazzling effect. Full of angular wit and profound truths, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is a startlingly original and haunting debut by a significant new talent.

Buy on bookshop.org - Grief Is the Thing with Feathers: A Novel​

Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick to have been the greatest science fiction writer on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount and his reputation has been enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now presented annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works.

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A hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is "a love letter to alphabetarians and logomaniacs everywhere" (Myla Goldberg, bestselling author of Bee Season).

https://bookshop.org/p/books/ella-minnow-pea-a-novel-in-letters-mark-dunn/04b334d69323b2ae?ean=9780385722438&next=t

One of the most celebrated and enduringly popular works in Southern literature, this collection assembles Carson McCullers's best stories, including her beloved novella "The Ballad of the Sad Café." A haunting tale of love and violence in a small Southern town, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable woman whose home serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes McCullers's first published story, "Wunderkind," about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.

Buy on Bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-ballad-of-the-sad-caf-and-other-stories-carson-mccullers/f77a60880ce9b826?ean=9780547416601&next=t