1151 CHURCH STREET
NORTHBROOK, IL 60062
(847) 498 - 4999
HOURS: MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY 10AM - 4PM
"OPEN" 24 HOURS A DAY AT BookBinNorthbrook.com
June 2022 E-Newsletter
Welcome Readers,

It's June today! We celebrate the passage of time and the arrival of the summer months. A new display of "Summer Reads" will greet you through our window display, as well as a few titles celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. We hope our suggestions land us in your good graces!

This month is for Dads and Grads too, and hopefully the Dads and Grads you know like books! Whether its a golf book or humor, a cookbook or a thriller, we have just the right thing... and we'll gift wrap it too! We appreciate you thinking of our store when you need a good gift.

As always, click on the book covers to buy from us online.

Kindly,
Alli & Amy
& Everyone at the Book Bin
Lately all my friends are worried they’re turning into their fathers. I’m worried I’m not.

- Dan Zevin
Last Month's Bestsellers
MAY 2022
BESTSELLERS

Woman on Fire
by Lisa Barr


Book Lovers
by Emily Henry


Frog and Toad
Are Doing Their Best:
A Parody
by Jennie Egerdie


Lightning Flowers
by Katherine E. Standefer


The London House
by Katherine Reay


The Boy, The Mole, The Fox
and the Horse
by Charlie Mackesy


The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
by Allison Pataki


French Braid
by Anne Tyler


The Plot
by Jean Hanff Korelitz


The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Book Bin's Upcoming Events

Please join us as we discuss Deacon King Kong by James McBride with Sheila Whalen as our discussion group leader. 

The date of the in-person discussion is Thursday, June 2 at 7:00 pm.

The Book Bin's Adult Book Discussion has a long history behind it of great questions, deep diving into the novels we select, and a general feeling of community. We'd love to have you here. If you know you'll be attending, we'd love to know; please reply to this email or give us a ring at the store.

“A mystery story, a crime novel, an urban farce, a sociological portrait of late-1960s Brooklyn: McBride’s novel contains multitudes… He conducts his antic symphony with deep feeling, never losing sight of the suffering and inequity within the merriment.” —The New York Times, Top 10 Books of 2020
Mystery Book Club

Our next mystery book club discussion is of November Road by Lou Berney, and we hope you can join us.

The date for our next in-person Mystery Book Club will be Monday, July 18 at 7:00 pm.

Our discussion will be lead by Alli Gilley & Ron Oberman. Detective Ron and Detective Alli are excited to get to the heart of this mystery with you as our partners! Please call us or click the link below to RSVP.

“This superior novel from Edgar winner Lou Berney melds crime fiction with a tale about people reinventing themselves, played out during a cross-country automobile trip.… An emotional story about the power of love and redemption through sacrifice with the backdrop of a crucial historical moment.” — Associated Press
Next Month's Book Discussion Night

Please join us as we discuss Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell with Sheila Whalen as our discussion group leader. 

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life ... here is a novel ... so gorgeously written that it transports you." —The Boston Globe
England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on. A young Latin tutor—penniless and bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.

The date of the in-person discussion is Thursday, July 7 at 7:00 pm. Your RSVP helps us set up for the evening, so please call us or click below.

Wednesday, June 22
7:00pm - 8:00pm

The James Beard Award-winning chef will discuss his exciting career.


Thursday, June 30
7:00pm - 8:00pm

Join us for an evening with musician and author Michelle Zauner as she discusses her music career and her beloved bestselling memoir, Crying in H Mart. Jessica Hopper joins her in conversation.

New Fiction Reviews
The Latecomer
Written by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Published by Celadon Books
Available in Hardcover Now

Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally Oppenheimer are triplets who are a result of in-vitro fertilization. They have little in common with the exception of their parents and the same last name, and they are not very fond of each other. When they are about to leave home for college, their mother is frightened at the thought of being an empty-nester. She decides, with little support from her husband, to take the leftover embryo that has been frozen for seventeen years, find a surrogate mother, and have a fourth child. This is a perfect summer read. It is a great family saga with relatable characters and a plot that urges one to keep on reading.

Reviewed by Nancy Randall
Bloomsbury Girls
Written by Natalie Jenner
Published by St. Martin's Press
Available in Hardcover Now

We always seem to gravitate towards a book that takes place in a bookstore. Bloomsbury Girls takes place in 1950s London in a male-run bookstore that has themes that are still relevant today. Bloomsbury Books is old-fashioned and has been run by men determined to keep it unchanged. But the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and the women who work there are determined to keep up with the times. We meet Vivien whose fiance was killed in World War II; Grace is married with two sons and is the main breadwinner since her husband's breakdown after the war; Evie graduated in the first class at Cambridge that allowed women to obtain a degree. All three are smart, ambitious and hopeful that their bookstore can be so much better. The book starts out quietly, but when some of the most influential people enter the store and story-- Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Samuel Beckett, and Peggy Guggenheim to name a few-- Bloomsbury Girls grabs you as these three women work for a future that is everything they hope it could be.

Reviewed by Marla Alexander
Trust
Written by Hernan Diaz
Published by Riverhead Books
Available in Hardcover Now

There are four chapters in Trust, each with a different point of view about what occurs in New York before, during, and after the crash of 1929. The first section is a novel by Harold Vanner. The second section are notes for Andrew Bevel's memoir. Bevel is an aloof, almost anti-social millionaire. The third is his secretary's descriptions of her relationship with Bevel and her father. And finally, the diary Bevel's wife, Mildred, kept while she was dying. For readers who feel it is important to become involved with a novel right away, this may not be a read for you. However, it is cleverly constructed which can be entertaining for some readers.

Reviewed by Nancy Randall
Nightwork
Written by Nora Roberts
Published by Celadon Books
Available in Hardcover Now

Harry Booth started stealing at the early age of 9 when his single-parent mother developed cancer. It was a way to keep a roof over their heads and pay the mounting hospital bills. Harry could slip undetected into luxurious homes and steal items that he could easily sell for cash. When Harry's mother died, he left Chicago but kept up with his "nightwork" to pay for school, housing, and essentials. He drives from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to Savannah to New Orleans, always changing identities and being careful not to attract attention or get attached... until he meets Miranda Emerson. However, the bond between them can't last because Harry's side job is dangerous and he does have a code of honor. Harry reluctantly takes a job that leads him into the grips of a man who is a predator. And when Carter LaPorte strong-arms Harry into robbing a Baltimore museum, Harry knows he must do the job then disappear and leave all he loves behind. To truly free himself, he must face his enemy and hope he can someday have the life he has always dreamed of.

Reviewed by Marla Alexander
The Murder Rule
Written by Dervla McTiernan
Published by William Morrow & Company
Available in Hardcover Now

One of Book Bin's favorite mystery writers, Dervla McTiernan, has just released another thrilling novel of suspense, secrets, and intrigue. Hannah has just three rules you should know before you begin-- First Rule: Make Them Like You; Second Rule: Make Them Need You; Third Rule: Make Them Pay. In The Murder Rule, ambitious young law student Hannah Rokeby quickly shifts the course of her studies and by extension, the course of her very life. From her studies at the University of Maine, she transfers to the University of Virginia to work with The Innocence Project, fighting for those who claim to have been wrongfully convicted. She could never imagine the life altering consequence of this decision. Soon to be a major TV Series, nothing is the way you think it is and no one is innocent in this mother-daughter story.

Reviewed by Amy Morrison
Red Warning
Written by Matthew Quirk
Published by William Morrow & Company
Available in Hardcover on June 7

This is a fast-paced and gripping spy novel that will keep you guessing the identity of “the mole” until the very end. Sam Hudson is a CIA operative working to uncover the work and plans of a Russian terrorist, Konstantin. The roots of the terror reach back to the Soviet Union and the network seems to be woven through the CIA - can anyone be trusted? Sam decides to trust only one other person and together they race against the clock hoping to save Washington, D.C. from the deadliest and most destructive attack ever. This story captured Amy’s and my imagination on a recent college graduation road trip. We hardly wanted to stop and get gas or go to bed after long days. After all, if we stopped reading wouldn’t Sam run out of time?

Reviewed by Jamie Morrison
Horse: A Novel
Written by Geraldine Brooks
Published by Viking Books
Available in Hardcover on June 14

Geraldine Brooks' newest work of historical fiction centers on a racehorse named Lexington and several famous paintings of him. Horse is divided into three eras: Kentucky and New Orleans in the 1850's occupy the largest portion of the book, describing Lexington, his trainer Garret, Thomas Scott the artist who painted him, and the races and hardships he endured. The second era, the shortest of the three, takes place in 1954 and revolves around an art dealer and a painting. The final era is present day and involves an art student who finds a painting on a neighbor's curb, ready to be thrown away. Once again, Geraldine Brooks has written historical fiction where, like People of the Book, a non-human "thing" is one of the main characters.

Reviewed by Nancy Randall
New Nonfiction Reviews
Happy-Go-Lucky
Written by David Sedaris
Published by Little, Brown and Company
Available in Hardcover now

I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I have never read a full Sedaris book in my life! Sure, I've read the man in the New Yorker Magazine and heard his brand of irreverent humor countless times on NPR, the Moth, and various other outlets, but never have I completed an entire collection from start to finish. And readers, it is worth it. It's true that he can be too gross or too sexual or too shocking at times, but he is typically "right on" (in my humble opinion) in his assessments of the awkward situations and quirky predicaments in which he finds himself. This collection spans the "interesting" time we have all shared through the pandemic and encompasses his personal experience of losing his father after years in a nursing home. I truly enjoyed the arc of these stories, in both meanings of the word; they curve and bend to Sedaris' humor as well as being electric and luminous in nature. If you are interested in listening to the book read by the author himself, please consider signing up for a monthly subscription to our audiobook partner, Libro.fm. Find the book on audio by clicking here.

Reviewed by Alli Gilley
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
Written by Andrea Elliot
Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks
Newly Available in Paperback

Elliott's reporting covers eight years in the life of Dasani, the oldest of eight children living with her mother, Chanel, her step-father, Supreme, and her seven siblings. We first meet the family when Dasani is eleven. They are all living in a run-down homeless shelter in Brooklyn. Chanel and Supreme are plagued with addiction, poverty, and homelessness. However, Dasani is bright, athletic, charismatic, and has several opportunities to better herself and her living conditions. Yet in order to do this she must sever the strong ties she has with her family. Invisible Child is a remarkable piece of nonfiction, winning the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2022. Andrea Elliott has presented her readers with an extraordinary but ordinary family who cannot break the cycle of poverty, partly because of their own flaws, and partly because of a flawed system.

Reviewed by Nancy Randall
So Help Me Golf: Why We Love the Game
Written by Rick Reilly
Published by Hachette Books
Available in Hardcover Now

I could not imagine a better Father’s Day gift for the man who likes golf. I couldn’t imagine a better gift for anyone familiar with the game. This book is an amazing collection of stories and insights and personalities all connected through golf. The many chapters cover a multitude of topics, personalities, courses or even simple human interest stories. It is one part comedy, one part drama, and in every way is filled with warm tales deeply (and sometimes loosely) connected to the game of golf. This book will take you to the historic links of St. Andrew’s to the life-saving makeshift golf course created in a POW camp which gave meaning and hope to the American prisoners. Every wonderful chapter took the reader in new directions giving new perspective, warmth and laughter. I strongly recommend this book and I will personally be giving it out to my golfing family and golf buddies.

Review by Jamie Morrison
Our "Clubs"!

We pride ourselves on our friendliness and our service to our customers and community. As we pondered everything we offer, we came up with this list of "clubs" available to you at the Book Bin. Invite your friends!

Frequent Reader Club
Our punch cards get punched leading to $10 off your next purchase.

Our Book Club
We meet on the first Thursday night of the month. RSVPs requested.

Book Bin Detective Club
Our mystery book club meets on a Monday night mid-month, with Monday July 18 set as our next meeting this year.

The Booklovers Club
Let us send a book each month to a recipient of your choosing, such as a new baby, a voracious middle-grade or teen reader, or an adult for a birthday gift that "keeps giving".
Quick Question: Do you have a reading goal for this summer?
I'd love to finish a book every month for a total of 3 books.
My goal is to complete a few per month for a total of 9 books.
I'm going to try for over 10 books.
Last Month's "Quick Question" Results:
What is your favorite genre of books to read?

"Fiction" was the winner,
receiving 67% of the votes;
"Mystery" received 26% of the votes;
"Nonfiction" and "Science Fiction" both received 3.5% of the votes.

We received 57 responses.
Thanks for participating (:
Hello to all the Dog Lovers out there, or anyone who likes reading with their best friend! We’re here to assist you— in the store, over the phone, in an email, or online.
Thank you for reading and for shopping locally. We appreciate your support!

Kindly,
The Book Bin Staff

Thank you very much!
Our staff is vaccinated.
  • Our hours are Monday to Saturday from 10am-4pm, and you can always request a Curbside Pick-up during those hours.
  • Everyone can choose for themselves whether to wear a mask in our store.
  • Hand sanitizer is available throughout the store if desired.
  • We ask that you keep a respectful distance between yourself and the staff and other customers.

GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE

We can text or email you a photo of the certificate for digital sharing. Gift Certificates can be used over the phone or the website by including the certificate number in the order comments.

Why Shopping Local Matters

Buying local boosts the local economy.
When you buy local, more of the money you spend stays in the community. Local businesses like us, are more likely to use other local businesses and services to support our operations.

Book Bin Services
1. Free gift wrapping, cards, and gold stickers on your purchases
2. Easy shipping available on any purchases via the USPS
3. Contactless Curbside Pick-ups from our bench
4.  Fast order fulfillment of any book in print
5. Friendly people to recommend your next great read

Not a Superstore... just a Super Store!