Cozy, Bernard's Formal Wear, Vaguely Reminiscent, Hunky Dory, The Computer Cellar, Wavelengths and Ninth Street Flowers have all joined The Regulator in offering to reimburse folks who pay to park in the Ninth Street lot. Bring your parking receipt with you when you cross the street and look for the "We Reimburse For Parking" signs in storefront windows.  A minimum purchase may be required. (At the Regulator it is $10.00).

We've just finished adding 20 boxes of new "sale books" to our shelves downstairs, so this is a great time to come on down-the stairs! Sale Books (a.k.a. Remainders) are new books that publishers just printed too many copies of, and they sell their extra stock off at great discounts. Very often these are really good books that publishers went back to print on just one time too many. Check out our downstairs, where the bargains and the browsing are easy.

For the science/nature folks on your list here are a couple of excellent possibilities:

-- Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall. "The universe, Randall eloquently argues, is an organic thing, a symphonic thing, with all its myriad parts contributing their own notes." (Time Magazine)

-- Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins by Susan Casey. "A meticulously reported global odyssey during which [Susan Casey] sets out to answer the simple question: why do dolphins elicit such intense emotions and behaviors in humans?"--Outside Magazine.

A novel now in paperback that I am loving reading is

-- Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, a remarkable portrait of a young Irish immigrant making her way in 1950's Brooklyn. I understand the new movie based on this novel is excellent as well.

For anyone who might enjoy a good laugh, there's:

-- How About Never: Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons by Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker, now in paperback.

If you have a basketball fan on your list, the books to get this year, both brand-new and full of great stories, are:

-- 100 Things Duke fans Should Know and Do Before They Die by Johnny Moore

or...

--100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die by Art Chansky.