It’s been a long time since we hosted a music gig in the bookshop (we participated in the excellent Sofar Sounds music series and have welcomed various jazz combos over the years) and we’re pleased to do it again, this time with talent a little closer to home. Come and enjoy some fantastic music and browse our books for an informal, after-hours event.

Hallam George hails from Columbia but is currently based in Brooklyn, NY, He and his band, the Hallelujah Chorus play an infectious blend of folk, funk, and psychedelia. Hallam writes, arranges and produces the tunes as well as singing, playing guitar, tenor and alto saxophones, and piano.

Having graduated in May from Berklee College of Music with a bachelors degree in Songwriting and a second degree in Contemporary Writing and Production, Hallam has already released three singles independently and has an album — Mishaps — on the way, releasing late July 2024.  He has been on two national tours as a guitarist and vocalist with rock and funk bands, and has worked as an engineer, producer, and writer with various upcoming singers, bands, and rappers.

For this month’s Nestlings’ Story Time we have something rather special.

We’re thrilled to be collaborating with our friends at The Language Tree, Columbia’s only multi-language immersion pre-school. On Saturday, Andrea, one of the school’s amazing teachers, will be leading story time and reading from (and translating!) books in French and Spanish.

Come along and enjoy a reading with a difference, and learn more about the Language Tree. There are still spots available for the forthcoming school year in their French classes, and enrollment in their summer camps is about to open to the general public, for kids aged 2 to 8.

Come and join us in the always-hospitable surroundings of Twain Bar and BBQ on the first floor of the Tiger Hotel for an informal book discussion (with alcohol!) about a notable book with links to the Show-Me State. In April we’ll be discussing the first novel in one of Skylark’s bestselling mystery series, The Good Byline by one of our favorite humans, Jill Orr.

Jill Orr is the author of the Riley Ellison mystery series, which has been called "delightfully comic" and "highly amusing" by Publishers Weekly. Books in the series have garnered praise from industry professionals and readers alike and have earned a Silver Falchion nomination, a starred review and "Best Book of the Week" from Library Journal, and a Midwest Connections pick.Originally from Chicago, Jill moved to Columbia, Missouri, to attend the University of Missouri, where she received her bachelor's degree in Journalism and her master's degree in Social Work. However, these days the only social work she does is at cocktail parties, and she sometimes wishes her degrees were in What's for Dinner and Decoding the Teenage Eye Roll.Jill lives in Missouri with her husband and two (usually delightful) teenage children.

The last Skylarking bookclub before the Unbound Book Festival will be devoted to a consideration of the most recent book of this year’s keynote speaker - Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel. All are welcome to join the discussion and attendance is free - all we ask is that you buy your book from us!

As usual, the discussion will start at 6:30 p.m. We’d love to see you there!

March’s New Romantics book club is a little special as we’ll be reading We Could Be So Good, the latest delicious offering from Cat Sebastian, who will be coming to Columbia in April as part of this year’s Unbound Book Festival and participating in a panel about - you guessed it - romance novels. So read it, come chat about it with us, and then come and hear Cat in person at the fest!

As usual, it’s the third Wednesday of the month at 6:30 in the shop! See you there!

Casey McQuiston meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in this mid-century grumpy/sunshine rom-dram about a scrappy reporter and a newspaper mogul’s son.

Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city’s biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can’t let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy.

Andy Fleming’s newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He’s barely able to run his life—he’s never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy agrees to work for a year in the newsroom, knowing he’ll make an ass of himself and hate every second of it.

Except, Nick Russo keeps rescuing Andy: showing him the ropes, tracking down his keys, freeing his tie when it gets stuck in the ancient filing cabinets. Their unlikely friendship soon sharpens into feelings they can’t deny. But what feels possible in secret—this fragile, tender thing between them—seems doomed in the light of day. Now Nick and Andy have to decide if, for the first time, they’re willing to fight.

We’re very pleased to welcome best-selling Missouri author Brett Dufur to Skylark to celebrate his new collection of poetry. Brett is well known for his guidebooks to Missouri's trails, rivers and history — In Endless River, he embarks on a more poetic journey into the captivating beauty of the four seasons in Missouri River country. 

Inside the stunning cover by Missouri's New Regionalism artist Bryan Haynes, Brett explores and celebrates the cycles of life and nature in this poignant love letter to the Missouri River, its community and the many gifts it offers to those willing to listen.

Spanning an extensive range of topics and emotions, readers will surely find themselves immersed in new celebrations of the world around them. Come and listen to an inspiring and uplifting evening of gorgeous new poetry!

We are thrilled to welcome to Skylark the poets of Hickman High School - the Kewpie Poet Society - who will be reading poems that that they have been working on under the leadership and guidance of Mrs. Lehman. The Society will be performing at this year’s Unbound Book Festival in April, and this is a chance to catch them as they practice and perfect their performances!

PS: If you’ve never heard high school students read their poetry before now, you should! These young poets are always inspiring in their talent, power, and bravery. We. Are. In. Awe.

Come and join us in the always-hospitable surroundings of Twain Bar and BBQ on the first floor of the Tiger Hotel for an informal book discussion (with alcohol!) about a notable book with links to the Show-Me State. In March we’ll be discussing Daniel Woodrell's modern classic, Winter’s Bone, an unforgettable tale of desperation and courage set deep in the Ozarks that inspired the award-winning film starring Jennifer Lawrence. 

Ree Dolly's father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. With two young brothers depending on her, 16-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. Living in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks, Ree learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But, as an unsettling revelation lurks, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.

February’s Skylarking Bookclub is a lighter selection - Benjamin Stevenson’s very clever and extremely funny mystery, Everyone on This Train is a Suspect. Lots of us in the shop have already read and hugely enjoyed this locked-room (well, train) murder puzzle. We can’t wait to discuss it - and yes, there will be spoilers galore, so be sure to get to the end before we meet!

February’s New Romantic book club title is Red String Theory, by Lauren Jung Jessen. This is a charming rom-com about two star-crossed lovers. A woman whose life is guided by her belief in the red-string of fate finds her perfect match—but his skepticism about true love puts a knot in their chances.

We’ll be meeting upstairs in the shop at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 21 for the usual entertaining discussion!

When it comes to love and art, Rooney Gao believes in signs. Most of all, she believes in the Chinese legend that everyone is tied to their one true love by the red string of fate. And that belief has inspired her career as an artist, as well as the large art installations she makes with (obviously) red string. That is until artist’s block strikes and Rooney begins to question everything. But then fate leads her to the perfect guy . . . 

Jack Liu is perfect. He’s absurdly smart, successful, handsome, and after one enchanting New York night—under icy February skies and fueled by fried dumplings—all signs point to destiny. Only Jack doesn’t believe. And after their magical date, it looks like they might be lost to each other forever . . . until they’re given one more chance to reconnect. But can Rooney convince a reluctant skeptic to take a leap of fate?

When we started Skylark we wanted our children’s inventory to be as representative and inclusive as possible, and so we asked Dr. Angie Zapata, an expert in diverse children’s books, for advice. Thanks to her expertise, a quick browse of our shelves will give you a sense of the rich and beautiful variety of kids’ picture books presently available. So now we are absolutely thrilled to welcome Angie to Skylark to celebrate the publication of her new book, Deepening Student Engagement with Diverse Picturebooks. This event will be of interest to all educators from Pre-K to 6th Grade.

Students deserve stories that better reflect their everyday realities. This book helps educators select and integrate diverse picturebooks that will allow students to respond to their own and others’ stories through a critical literature response framework. It explores the question of “how” we might share diverse picturebooks with young children both for literacy development and for growing a broader sense of citizenship.

Featuring diverse picturebooks, Angie Zapata offers practical approaches and guiding principles to explore literature through an anti-oppressive lens in the early childhood and elementary classroom. This book is informed by the ethics of integrating diverse children’s picturebooks in the classroom, a desire to cultivate a literature landscape that resists stereotypical representations of racial, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural diversity, and a commitment to recentering critical engagement of diverse picturebooks.

Drawing on NCTE’s position statement Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children’s and Young Adult Literature, this book will help you turn the teaching of reading of print and illustration into a transformative literacy encounter that nurtures readers and writers who understand the power of stories, especially their own, and who celebrate the diverse histories that shaped them. 

Dr. Angie Zapata, associate professor of Language and Literacies Education at the University of Missouri, is a longtime teacher, teacher educator and researcher. Through collaborative inquiry partnerships with practicing and inservice PK-12 teachers, her research publications highlight classroom experiences featuring picturebooks with diverse representation, and how/what translingual and transmodal literacies are produced in these moments. Dr. Zapata’s research is guided by her experiences growing up bilingual in Texas as a daughter of immigrant parents from Perú, and deep commitments to center anti-oppressive and justice-oriented language and literacies experiences in the classroom that nurture more inclusive schooling experiences for racialized bi/multilingual/multidialectal children and youth. 

On Thursday, February 8, we’re very pleased to welcome Columbia-based author Dr. Victoria Mondelli to Skylark to talk about her recently-published book, The Educator’s Guide to Designing Games and Creative Active-Learning Exercises: The Allure of Play. Designed for teachers from all disciplines and levels, the book provides a practical, hands-on approach to harness the power of play for student learning. All educators will find much of interest here!

Dr. Mondelli’s passion for game-based learning was ignited while at the City University of New York and led her to facilitate workshops for secondary school and college teachers, often with her co-author, Dr. Joe Bisz.

Locally, since 2018, she serves as the Founding Director of the University of Missouri’s Teaching for Learning Center. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the College of Arts and Science and Adroit Studios Gaming Lab. With a Ph.D. in early modern European history, her academic training led her to prize writing across the curriculum and writing in the disciplines pedagogies. From there, she became an expert in coaching faculty and other educators to incorporate the full gamut of evidence-based and creative practices to maximize student engagement and deepen learning. She believes that imaginative play and serious games for all levels of learners is the most powerful type of active learning we can offer today’s learners.

When not playing games, Tori can be found leading strategic teaching initiatives to enhance support for faculty members and graduate instructors. She aims to increase the prevalence of learning environments that intentionally build a sense of belonging for ALL learners, while structuring active learning and transparent assessment.

A lifelong New Yorker, Tori left behind the hustle and bustle of the Lower East Side in exchange for the gentler pace of Missouri life. You can often find her cycling on the trails, paddling the Missouri River, or meditating with Show Me Dharma in Columbia. Connect with he\r on LinkedIn or through her website: Victoriamondelli.com.

Come and join us in the always-hospitable surroundings of Twain Bar and BBQ on the first floor of the Tiger Hotel for an informal book discussion (with alcohol!) about a notable book with links to the Show-Me State. In February we’ll be discussing Gillian Flynn’s classic thriller, Gone Girl.

Arguably the OG of the new breed of psychological thriller, Gone Girl was a sensation when it was published in 2012 and it continues to grip readers afresh.

And yes, you guys, it’s set in Missouri.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 

We’re very pleased to welcome poet Elijah Burrell to Skylark to celebrate the launch of his third collection of poetry, Skies of Blur, which navigates the depths of human connection and disconnection, love and loss, and the spaces between.

Burrell breathes life into every line, crafting a world both familiar and entirely new. While guiding us quietly between the realms of the natural and supernatural, these poems remind us of the chaos and uncertainty of modern life. 

Elijah will be joined by the publisher of the always amazing literrary magazine, The New Territory, Tina Casagrand Foss. Come and join us for a night of wonderful poetry!

Elijah Burrell is the author of three collections of poetry: Skies of Blur, Troubler, and The Skin of the River. His writing has appeared in publications such as AGNI, The Hopkins Review, North American Review, Southwest Review, The Rumpus, and many others. Burrell received the 2010 Jane Kenyon Scholarship at Bennington College, where he earned his MFA in Writing and Literature at Bennington’s Writing Seminars. In 2012 Burrell joined the faculty of Lincoln University, where he serves as Professor of English Creative Writing. 

We are very proud to present MU alum Gretchen E. Henderson in the shop on Monday, February 5, to discuss her exquisite and important book, Life in the Tar Seeps.

At Great Salt Lake, near Robert Smithson’s iconic earthwork Spiral Jetty, a motley crew of scientists walks the mudflats to study fossils in the making. This reputedly dead sea is home to tar seeps, pools of raw oil (nicknamed ‘death traps’) that act as a preservative, encasing organisms as they were in life.

In this spare landscape, an intricate web of life unfurls. Halophiles―salt-hungry microorganisms―tint the brackish water pink and orange; crystals of gypsum stud the ground, glistening underfoot; and pelicans and other migratory birds stop for a crucial rest. Barn owls and seagulls flirt with their prey around the seeping constellations, sometimes falling prey to the oil themselves.

Gretchen Henderson came to the tar seeps, a kind of natural asphalt, after recovering from being hit by a car as she walked in a crosswalk―a manmade asphalt. Like the spiraling artwork that made Great Salt Lake’s north shore famous, Henderson’s associations of life and death, degeneration and regeneration, and injury and healing coalesced. As she reexamined pressing issues that this delicate area revealed about the climate crisis, her sense of ecology spiraled into other ways of perceiving the lake’s entangled lives. How do we move beyond narrow concepts of wounded and healed, the beautiful and the ugly, to care for ecosystems that evolve over time? How do we confront our vulnerability to recognize kindred dynamics in our living planet? Through shifting lake levels, bird migrations, microbial studies, environmental arts, and cultural histories shaped by indigenous knowledges and colonial legacies, Life in the Tar Seeps contemplates the ways that others have understood this body of water, enlivening more than this region alone. As Henderson witnesses scientists, arts curators, land managers, and students working collaboratively to steward a challenging place, she grows to see the lake not as dead but as a watershed for shifting perceptions of any overlooked place, offering a meditation on environmental healing across the planet.

Gretchen E. Henderson received her Ph.D. in English & Creative Writing from the University of Missouri after receiving her M.F.A. from Columbia University in New York. Her fifth book, Life in the Tar Seeps: A Spiraling Ecology from a Dying Sea (Trinity University Press 2023), is melting across intermedia tributaries, exhibitions, performances, and field practices. Recent publications include Ecotone (Notable in Best American Essays), Orion, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Notre Dame Review, LA+, and many other journals. Her fourth book was translated across five languages, and her additional works include novels, poetry chapbooks, opera libretti, and arts media. Gretchen is the 2023 Aldo & Estella Leopold Writer in Residence in New Mexico and a Lucas Artist Program Fellow in Literary Arts at Montalvo Arts in California; among other awards, she was recently a 2020-2022 Faculty Fellow at UT-Austin’s Humanities Institute, 2022 Fellow at the Women’s International Studies Center in Santa Fe, 2018-2019 Annie Clark Tanner Fellow in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah, and 2019 Writer-in-Residence at the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature in Switzerland. Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology. Currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, she has taught widely including at Georgetown University, University of Utah, and M.I.T., and also teaches seasonal workshops at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. Born and raised in San Francisco, Gretchen lives seasonally in the biodiverse Sonoran Desert and invites participation in Dear Body of Water: a poetic water-harvesting project to cultivate care for watersheds across the globe.

Our first Skylarking selection for 2024 is the winner of the 2023 Booker Prize, Paul Lynch’s devastating novel, Prophet Song. This is a gorgeous, terrible story. Lynch writes like an angel, which makes the dystopian world he paints within the novel’s pages all the more horrifically believable. The book works miracles in so many different registers - it truly is (unfortunately) a book for our times. We can’t wait to discuss it with you in the shop on Thursday, January 25.

As always, attendance is free - we just ask that you purchase your copy of the book from us. And of course all bookclub titles are available at a 15% discount.

Our first crafting get-together of the new year! Come and join us for some good yarns (see what we did there?)

Come and join us for another fun and energized discussion about this month’s selection, Technically Yours, by Denise Williams. The conversation starts at 6:30 p.m. and all are welcome!

UPDATE: Note that we have been sent some FREE SWAG from the publisher including signed bookplates from the author that we will be giving away to all attendees (first come, first served, while stocks last, etc., etc.!)

Eight years ago, he fell in love with a stranger he couldn’t have—today, she’s back in his life and the sparks between them threaten to set her career on fire.

Pearl Harris has learned the hard way to be careful in work and in love. She has the chance to make lasting change at OurCode—a nonprofit aimed at inspiring high schoolers to code—but a recent scandal puts its reputation at risk. Further complicating things, Pearl didn't expect the one man she never stopped thinking about to join as the newest member of her board of directors.
 
Cord Matthews fell for Pearl when they met in an elevator eight years ago. She’s just his type: smart, capable, and makes him laugh, but when she broke his heart, he decided love wasn't for him. When they reconnect after years with no contact, Cord is tempted to consider breaking his ban on serious relationships. But going public with a romance between them might derail Pearl’s career and the progress she’s made at OurCode.
 
While Pearl and Cord are both hesitant to trust their feelings and take a risk, it soon becomes impossible to keep ignoring the electricity between them. Cord is a skilled programmer, but a workplace romance might spell disaster for both of them--and love isn’t easily debugged.

Come and join us for an evening of beautiful poetry with one of our favorite local writers, Sharon SingingMoon, as she reads from her new collection of poems, The Weight of One Hummingbird Feather.

Sharon SingingMoon is a poet and award-winning visual artist living in mid-Missouri. She draws inspiration from the natural world and our human struggle to balance mind/body/spirit in the face of our own hubris. In between long hikes she dabbles in screen writing and is working on a historical fiction YA novel.  Sharon has a Master’s in Public Administration and worked as a lobbyist for Food & Nutrition Policy and Health Care Access, spearheading several progressive advances in Missouri before retiring to garden, write and travel. Sharon’s work has been published in Interpretations, several volumes of Well Versed anthology, Anti-Heroin Chic, Masticadores USA, Spillwords and Silver Birch Press.  Sharon’s poetry books, The Weight of One Hummingbird Feather (Spartan Press) and Random Seed (Compass Flower Press) can be found at independent bookshops across the Midwest.

If yoga is part of your new year resolutions - or if it isn’t! - you could do worse than starting off the new year with some Sunday morning canine adorableness at the bookshop! This month’s pups are being lent to us by the Central Missouri Humane Society. The fun starts at 9:30 a.m.

Tickets from Sara’s Yoga Studio are available here.

After a brief holiday-related break, we’re starting off the new year by reintroducing Nestlings’ Storytime at 11:00 a.m. on the first Saturday of every month. Our first storytime of 2024 will be on January 6! Attendance is free!

Get ready!

Our second title for the Skylark NEW ROMANTICS BOOKCLUB is Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner.

This sapphic rivals to lovers rom com is both funny and steamy, and a must for fans of Ted Lasso and A League of Their Own, where two soccer teammates are at odds before falling in love as their team gears up for the World Cup.

Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, even though she’s only 26. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. 22-year-old Phoebe is everything Grace isn’t—a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival.

Phoebe Matthews is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol. But when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other.

As the World Cup approaches and Grace works her way back from injury, a miscommunication leaves the women with hilariously different perspectives on their relationship. But they’re on the same page on the field, realizing they can play together instead of vying for the same position. With every tackle the tension between them grows, and both players soon have to decide what's more important—being together or making the roster.

Come and join us for another fun and informal book discussion in the shop on Wednesday, December 20. We start at 6:30! See you there?

Come and join us THIS SATURDAY at noon (note the slightly different time) for a special Hanukkah edition of Nestlings Storytime! Cara will be reading these excellent books - anyone who knows her will know how much fun this is going to be! The event is (as always) completely free to attend. See you there?

We’re very excited to welcome back to Skylark acclaimed author (and local school favorite) Mindy McGinnis, who will be speaking about her rich and varied literary career. Mindy is the author of multiple novels that span many genres. From historical to fantasy, contemporary to gothic thriller, you can always count on Mindy’s books to deliver grit, truth, and an unflinching look at humanity and the world around us. This is going to be a fascinating evening with a vastly accomplished and engaging speaker!

A ninth-generation farmer, Mindy attributes much of her character to growing up on an Ohio farm, learning the value of physical labor, and the harshness of the natural world early in life. Much of her writing reflects small-town living and aspects of rural poverty. A former school librarian, Mindy still lives and works in her hometown, and is dedicated to making herself available to financially disadvantaged school districts and communities.

Mindy has done multiple interviews and guest posts over the years, and has been featured on such outlets as NPR and PBS. She’s also been a guest on a myriad of podcasts, blogs, and websites.

We’ve been having an excellent time with our Twain Book Club. We focus on Missouri-based books and discussions are held in the always-convivial atmosphere of Twain: Missouri Barbecue and Taproom, on the ground floor of the Tiger Hotel on 8th Street. Come along and join us for an informal but engaged conversation!

December’s choice is the late, great Maya Angelou’s stunning memoir, the classic and much-revered I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. We can’t wait to discuss it with you! The fun starts at 6:30 p.m.

Skylarking friends! What a wonderful thing the Skylarking Book Club has turned into. We have truly enjoyed talking about books of all types with you over the past two years. The insights, laughter, and shared feelings mean a great deal to us and the shop. Instead of taking the holiday months off, we have decided to celebrate this thing that you have all helped to create. Instead of selecting a title, our November 30 (@6:30) meeting will be a shared experience. We ask that you join us in a celebration of cookbooks, food, and friendship.

Please look through your shelves, select a recipe from a cookbook that holds meaning. Maybe the cookbook has been passed through the generations and has more edits and notes than the original recipe. Perhaps it is something you have always opened to and never had the guts to try. Whatever the cookbook, whatever the meaning, we want to celebrate. Make enough to share a small taste with everyone, bring the cookbook along, and your story. We will provide beverages and space. We can't wait to talk about food and cookbooks with you and plan the course of our 2024 titles! If you have participated in Skylarking, we can't wait to hang out again. If you are hoping to join us in 2024, this is a great opportunity to talk with us and learn more about the discussion group!

Please RSVP here so we know how many chairs to get out of the closet!

Our monthly Knitters’ Nest will take place upstairs in the shop on Thursday, November 30 at 5:00 p.m. As always, it’s free to attend, is very informal, and all ages, crafts, and levels of skill are welcome! All crafts and all levels of skill welcome. No pre-registration is needed. Come and join us!

We’re very proud to be launching Sean Frazier’s new book, the awesome fantasy novel, Mage Breaker, on Wednesday, November 29 at 6:30 p.m.! Come along and help us celebrate!

Magic isn't a gift, it's a prison.

The planet Seralune runs entirely on magic, a powerful force regulated by an Alien race known as the Kithrak. An ancient prophecy predicts their downfall at the hands of the most powerful mage ever to live.

Ellyne is a gunslinger who reluctantly agrees to assist a woman named Nicole, who is the answer to the prophecy, when the Kithrak discover that Nicole is the Mage Breaker.

Their quest to bring down this powerful threat leads them to the discovery of magic's dark secret. How will they cope when their mission must shift from one focused on their survival to one that must ensure the endurance of the entire human race?

Randall Kenneth Jones fires up the holiday season with Ruby, Magic Comes from the Heart, on Thursday, Nov. 16 @ 6:30 p.m.

Discovered and published by Mark Victor Hansen of CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL fame, the holiday-themed Ruby, Magic Comes from the Heart has a passionate fan base that includes Erin Brockovich, Janet Evanovich, Susan Bennett (The Original Voice of SIRI) and The Emily Post Institute’s Peggy Post.

Cynthia Grant arrives in posh Savannah, Georgia, searching for purpose and a new life. When she accidentally encounters her new neighbor, Ruby, the winds of change go into overdrive. A woman of untold mystery, Ruby’s almost effortless impact on the magic of Christmas is a spectacle to behold. She opens hearts as quickly as she opens wallets in her affluent Georgia community. Ruby’s influence on wondering, wandering Cynthia leads to a whirlwind of activity that transforms not only Cynthia but everyone she touches.

From newspaper publisher Derek and devoted-sister Janice, whose secrets define and refine them, to attention-starved Paula, merry-widow Etta, and insightful “Streep,” a singularly focused film buff in search of the ultimate “Meryl Christmas,” Ruby and Cynthia deliver astonishing results.

With spirits, angels, messengers, and boundless imagination alongside mystery, whimsy, speculation, and a search for truth, Ruby tempts even the most hard-hearted naysayer to believe in believing again.

Though Randall Kenneth Jones wears many hats—bestselling author, speaker, podcaster, marketer, publicist, actor, and director—his expertise in the art of storytelling has garnered the most notice. With his ever-expanding media platform focused on looking for the BEST in people, Jones spends his days making a list and checking it twice, determined to find out who’s naughty and nice.

Inspired the huge success of Romance Bookstore Day, we’re going all in and starting a brand new book club especially for folks who love their romance!

The New Romantics Book Club will take place on the third Wednesday of every month at 6:30pm. Each month we will discuss a newly released title within the romance genre. We’ll gather in the shop to discuss whichever steamy, fun, and love-filled book is chosen that month! 

It costs nothing to attend - all we ask is that you purchase your copy of the book from us-either online, via email, in person, or over the phone at (573) 777 6990.

Our first title is Wildfire, by Hannah Grace.

If you love a good summer romance, this is it.

The latest in the TikTok sensation and deliciously “swoonworthy” Maple Hills series follows two summer camp counselors who reconnect after a sizzling one-night stand.

Maple Hills students Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts cross paths at a party celebrating the end of the academic year, where a drinking game results in them having a passionate one-night stand. Never one to overstay her welcome (or expect much from a man), Aurora slips away before Russ even has the chance to ask for her full name.

Imagine their surprise when they bump into each other on the first day of the summer camp where they are both counselors, hoping to escape their complicated home lives by spending the summer working. Russ hopes if he gets far enough away from Maple Hills, he can avoid dealing with the repercussions of his father’s gambling addiction, while Aurora is tired of craving attention from everyone around her, and wants to go back to the last place she truly felt at home.

Russ knows breaking the camp’s strict “no staff fraternizing” rule will have him heading back to Maple Hills before the summer is over, but unfortunately for him, Aurora has never been very good at caring about the rules. Will the two learn to peacefully coexist? Or did their one night together start a fire they can’t put out?