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News from The Book Stall
July 16, 2025
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Monday - Thursday: 9:30 am - 6:30 pm
Friday: 9:30 am - 5 pm
Saturday 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm
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The Book Stall's Annual Summer Sale is this Saturday, July 19, from 10 am - 5 pm. Discount Club Members receive 20% off of books and cards, puzzles, stationery, journals, and other gift items.
See details below!
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The Book Stall is building a new website! We are currently in the middle of a much-needed update to www.thebookstall.com. We are hopeful our new site will offer you a better online shopping experience and will be easier to navigate Events pages. Please check back frequently throughout the next coming days to see our new corner of the world wide web!
In the meantime, please note that links in this e-news may not operate properly. Please contact the store at (847) 446-8880 for assistance in purchasing any featured titles or for help in registering for any featured event.
Thank you for your understanding, and—as always—HAPPY READING!
Michael Wysock
Manager
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Today, staffer Kathleen Crawford points out a novel she doesn't want Book Stall readers to miss:
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger ($30). This timely book may become "the" book of the year! It is both thought-provoking and riveting as it explores the morality and responsibility of artificial intelligence. An excellent book club choice as it will leave you with much to ponder and discuss. Don't miss this one!
| | We are always ready to make suggestions on great books to read and give as gifts--and are particularly handy when it comes to making suggestions to parents, grandparents, and many others for books for kids. Trust our staffers Betsy Balyeat, Linda Diekman, Kari Patch, and Amy Trogdon to find excellent recommendations for kids. | | |
Here are Linda's suggestions for today:
The Day the Crayons Made Friends by Drew Daywalt ($19.99)
The crayons are back! Always ready for adventure, the crayons are out and about, making friends along the way. Enjoy their newest escapades! Ages 4 - 8
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Otto: The Dog That Learns to Share by Catherine Rayner ($18.99)
Word gets out to Otto the puppy’s friends that he has a comfy, cozy basket. Now that they’ve taken over his spot, will they ever leave? Beautifully illustrated!
Ages 3 -6
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POP! Goes the Nursery Rhyme by Betsy Bird ($18.99)
These are not your everyday nursery rhymes! Fractured fun with guaranteed laughs!
Ages 3 - 5
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Smithy and Me by Darcy Day Zoells ($19.95)
Smithy, the dog, is the best playmate ever. Mom doesn’t even mind the bedtime messes. Or does she? Detailed drawings with a captivating canine!
Ages 4 - 9
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There’s Nothing Faster Than a Cheetah by Tom Nicoll and Ross Collins ($15.99)
What is faster than a cheetah? Could it be a penguin on a pogo stick? Maybe a bear in a beach buggy? Super fun speedy reading!
Ages 4-8
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Chronicles of Whetherwhy: The Age of Enchantment by Anna James (paperback, $9.99)
Welcome to Whetherway where everyone has magic powers originating from the changing seasons and a select, special few have four seasons of magic. Riveting worldbuilding in a fast paced fantasy.
Ages 8-12
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And these are Betsy's recommendations:
The Great Mouse Escape by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Jennifer L. Meyer ($17.99)
A tiny talking mouse sets off on a great adventure to rescue his friend Mikayla who has been mouse-napped. Ages 8 - 12
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MK's Detective Club : The Double Trouble Puzzle by James Patterson and Keir Graff ($17.99)
Discover Nancy Drew for a new generation. Minerva Keen is the best kid detective in Chicago. She is looking for a new mystery to solve with her friends. But she may have found more than she bargained for! Ages 8 - 12
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Forest King's Daughter by Elly Blake ($19.99)
A young forest princess became friends with a lonely boy from underground. He gifts her an amber ring, a worthless trinket---or so he thought! Age 13 and up
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Tonight!
Panel Discussion at the Store
Moderated by Editor
SAM LANDERS
and Featuring Artists
TERRY MADAY, GRAHAM CHAPMAN,
NENAD SPASOJEVIC, and FAYTH KOGA
Trope Chicago
Wednesday, July 16 at 6 pm
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We host a panel discussion featuring Trope Chicago: The Loop and Beyond, the eighth volume in the Trope City Editions series. It celebrates the architecture, public artwork, and everyday beauty of Chicago, showcasing both the architectural significance and everyday beauty of contemporary Chicago, the images reveal distinctive and dramatic visions of one of the world's greatest cities.
The panel is moderated by Sam Landers, Partner and Editor at Trope Publishing and features artists Terry Maday, Graham Chapman, Nenad Spasojevic, and Fayth Koga.
This event is free with registration. Please note the 6 pm start time.
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Annual Summer Sale
For Discount Club Members
Saturday, July 19, 10 am - 5 pm
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On Saturday, all Book Stall Discount Club members receive an additional discount instead of their usual 10% off—thus 20% off! This special discount applies to books as well as cards, puzzles, stationery, journals, and other gift items.
The fine print: Your membership must be up to date for the discount to apply.
The finer print: You can renew your membership on July 19 and still receive that 20% discount for the day!
If you will be out of town? No worries, you can order online at www.thebookstall.com. Make sure you add a note: “discount club member” in the “order comments” section as you make your purchase. We’ll add the extra discount as we process your order.
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Join our fellow shoppers here for the
Winnetka Sidewalk Sale on
Friday and Saturday, July 18 and 19.
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Go Green Reads--A Virtual Discussion
ED YONG
An Immense World
Monday, July 21, 7 - 8 pm
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We partner with Go Green Reads on a Virtual Discussion! This month's book selection is An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and many other awards.
The book, which Kirkus Reviews calls the best nonfiction book of the century, is a tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill readers with wonder and forever alter your perspective
This free event will be held via Zoom. Registration is required. You will receive a Zoom link and log-in information.
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MARC MALNATI
Deep Dish
Tuesday, July 22, 6 pm
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We welcome Marc Malnati as he discusses and signs copies of his new book, Deep Dish: Inside the First 50 Years of Lou Malnati’s Pizza, published in paperback in March. He will be in-conversation with his wife, Jeanne.
Malnati was just 15 years old when his father Lou opened the first Lou Malnati’s Pizza, and only 22 when Lou tragically passed away and Marc had to step in and lead the company. After a tumultuous beginning, the Malnati family turned a small business headed for bankruptcy into the pizzerias that became Chicagoland's most iconic brand.
This program is free, but registration is required. Please email your name and number of people in your party to events@thebookstall.com. Please note the 6 pm starting time.
We respectfully ask that you purchase your copy of Deep Dish from The Book Stall if you intend on entering the book-signing queue.
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CHRISTINE BRENNAN
On Her Game
Thursday, July 24, 6 pm
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Award-winning USA Today columnist and television commentator Christine Brennan comes to The Book Stall to celebrate her new book, On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports. It's a news-making and electrifying portrait of sports phenomenon Caitlin Clark, whose dramatic ascendance in college basketball and now in the WNBA has captured the attention of media and fans unlike any other female team-sport athlete in history.
This program is free, but registration is required. Please note the 6 pm starting time.
We respectfully ask that you purchase your copy of On Her Game from The Book Stall if you intend on entering the book-signing queue.
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Until Alison by Kate Russo ($30)
"Instantly earning a place in the canon of dead girl college campus novels, (this) is a chillingly readable tale about adolescent cruelty, popularity, and class. When the body of her former classmate, Alison, is discovered at a local swimming hole, Rachel Nardelli embarks on a reluctant exhumation of their friendship, capturing in forensic detail the horrors of 8th-grade rivalry, and how far teenagers will go in the name of self-preservation. Exposing the tension between the crimes we commit in our youth and the people we become as adults, (this) is a masterclass in middle-school angst." —Ellie Eaton, author of The Divines
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The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ($29)
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.” That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.
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The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks ($28.99)
Here is an irresistibly funny and incisive novel about a wealthy family that is confident in its good intentions—until the discovery that their patriarch has secretly given all their money to charity ruins their lives.
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Cheesecake by Mark Kurlansky ($26.99)
We follow one Manhattan block as an ancient cheesecake recipe--and a conniving landlord--change the Upper West Side forever. No cream cheese, no graham cracker crust, somehow savory and sweet, the recipe is enigmatic--and suddenly, it's all anyone on West 86th Street can talk about.
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If You Love It, Let It Kill You by Hannah Pittard ($28.99)
A novelist learns that an unflattering version of herself will appear prominently—and soon—in her ex-husband’s debut novel. For a week, her life continues largely unaffected by the news—she cooks, runs, teaches, entertains—but the morning after baking mac ’n’ cheese from scratch for her nephew’s 6th birthday, she wakes up changed. The contentment she’s long enjoyed is gone. In its place: nothing. A remarkably ridiculous midlife crisis ensues, featuring a talking cat and a game called Dead Body.
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The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner ($35)
A gripping and revelatory history of the CIA in the 21st century, reaching from 9/11 through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to today’s battles with Russia and China—and with the President of the United States. "This masterful new history should be required reading. . . . Astonishing. . . . A singular triumph." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America by Scott Ellsworth ($32)
This is a new kind of book about the Civil War. In it you will read about the Confederate attempt to burn down New York City, how Lincoln almost lost the presidency, about the Rebel general who nearly captured Washington, and how thousands of enslaved African Americans freed themselves—and helped secure their nation’s survival. In an age of deep political division such as our own, Ellsworth’s book is an eloquent and gripping testament to the courage, grit, and greatness of the American people.
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The Day the Books Disappeared by Joanna Ho and Caroline Kusin, illustrated by Dan Santat ($18.99)
Arnold didn't mean for the books to disappear—not exactly. It all started because he liked his book about airplanes best. Why would anyone want to read about tomatoes or ostriches or submarines when they could read about planes, instead? When Arnold realizes he can make the other books vanish, he goes a little too far. Before he knows it, all the books are gone…including his. Can Arnold figure out how to bring them back before it’s too late? Ages 3 - 7
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We Match! By Chris Barton, illustrated by Sharon Glick ($18.99)
NYT-bestselling author Barton introduces social emotional learning and math concepts in a fun comics-style picture book format. Humor and high-energy abound as a lovable bunch of dogs discover what they have in common during an action-packed day at the dog park. Ages 4 - 8
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Super Goat Girl by Tracey Baptiste, illustrated by Dapo Adeola ($18.99)
A graphic picture book about a shy new kid in superhero school, who's not like any of the others, and has to figure out how not to feel so super-strange. Ages 4 - 8
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Beinoni by Mari Lowe ($18.99)
In a Beinoni time there should be no war, no terrible illness, no crime. Even if that also means there won’t be any great discoveries, any cures, anything extraordinary. Ezra believes that’s worth fighting for. In fact, he’s been training most of his life to fight a battle to determine whether Beinoni time continues, or gives way to a more violent, less certain future. Ages 8 - 12
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Spark by Chris Baron ($19.99)
"This stunning novel in verse shows the impact of climate change and wildfires, and the struggle of living on the border between the forest and urban areas. ... Baron balances the emotional weight of trauma by showing characters healing in a variety of ways. Returning wildlife serves as a promise of regrowth and possibility for a different kind of future. Beginning before the fires, continuing through evacuation, and including the season of rebuilding, Spark highlights the impact of wildfires alongside the importance of healing, all while nourishing the brightest spark of all, hope." — Booklist, starred review Ages 10 - 14
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The Book Stall's Bestsellers
for the week ending July 12
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The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater
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On Her Game by Christine Brennan
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Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
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My Friends by Fredrik Backman
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Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
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Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall
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Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins
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Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein
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Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
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Indie Bestsellers Across the Country
Every week, independent booksellers across America report their bestsellers, providing the most current snapshot of what's selling in indie bookstores nationwide. Click here to reach the American Booksellers Association (ABA) website, where the latest lists are posted every Wednesday afternoon.
New York Times Bestsellers, July 20
Click here for an advance look at the hardcover fiction and here for the hardcover nonfiction bestsellers that will appear in the New York Times book section on July 20. You can see these NYT fiction bestsellers and nonfiction bestsellers on our website, where you can order them directly from The Book Stall.
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Our Literary Community Bulletin Board
The Book Stall is pleased to host this Literary Community Bulletin Board. Any news of interest to readers and writers? Send your information to events@thebookstall.com with "Literary Community Bulletin Board" in the subject line. Note: The Book Stall reserves editorial privilege.
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Winnetka-Northfield Public Library Virtual Event
Thursday, July 24, 7 pm
A virtual conversation with audiobook narrator KIMBERLY FARR
Learn how Farr creates listening experiences on what goes on behind the scenes
in audiobook narration.
For more information and to register click here.
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Wilmette Public Library
1242 Wilmette Avenue
Thursday, July 24, 7 pm
Summer Reading Club Book Discussion
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
For more information and to register click here.
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Be sure to check our website for the latest Book Stall information.
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