The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap
Wendy Welch and her Scottish husband, Jack Beck, impulsively bought a huge Victorian home in the town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, with the intent of transforming it into a used bookstore.
Unfortunately, they had much working against them. Big Stone Gap is not exactly welcoming to strangers and its economically depressed state does not make it an ideal business location. Additionally it didn’t help that they lacked a business plan or even any books to start with.
The couple remained undaunted and The Little Bookstore recounts their struggles and experiences as they build their beloved used bookstore and a readers’ community around the store.
I’ve dreamed of it — My Very Own Bookstore, and appropriately, this book has lived on my shelf for years. I grabbed it to re-read, as I’m currently traveling in the area, and their Big Stone Gap, Virginia bookstore — called Lonesome Pine Used Books — is on my itinerary. (Have convinced Husband it will be a nice drive, we can stop for a nice lunch, and it’s really not at all out of the way. Husband nodded and remained silent — after 40 years, he’s on to me.)
But back to the book, The Little Bookstore is a pleasant, breezy memoir of opening a bookstore in a small town and working really hard, learning on the fly, and caring enough about books and people to go from newcomers (or ‘Come-from-Aways’) to an integral part of a community.
The author writes about the economically depressed area, the isolation of the community and especially how becoming part of such a community is sometimes hard work and sometimes serendipity.
Yet upon re-reading, I noticed that while Ms. Welch obviously has great heart — she loves her store, her books, and the many cats and dogs she rescues — yet, she sometimes treads into meanness with passive-aggressive observations about Big Stone Gap’s sometimes small-minded inhabitants. Perhaps this is due to the endless struggle the couple face as they try to make the bookstore a success both financially and socially.
That little niggle aside, this charming book is chocked full of little treasures of humor, social insight, literary observations, and an over-arching love of books and book people. Certainly a must-read memoir for anyone who ever dreamed of running a bookstore or just loves them.
My plans to visit Lonesome Pine Books, are in shatters. Sadly, Wendy and Jack closed it down in July. Sighh ~~here’s photo of the now-closed shop:
You can read more about Wendy, Jack and the bookstore on their blog HERE.
Another tidbit, Big Stone Gap is the hometown of the author, Adriana Trigiani, whose first novel novel of the same name was made into a film back in 2015. The bookstore makes a cameo appearance– Trailer HERE.
Library score…
I woke up to a beautiful morning, made even better by the notice that my latest hold was ready at my local library branch – Score! I was out the door, walking over as their doors opened.
Longtime Book Barmy followers may have noticed this is the first year I haven’t been able to preview Louise Penny’s latest installment.
Sadly, I am no longer one of Ms. Penny’s advanced readers. I was denied an early copy of this, her newest book, A Better Man.
I’m trying to be a grown up about this and must come to grips with the obvious — Ms. Penny’s books are immediate best-sellers without the support of my little Barmy book blog.
Husband gamely tried to cheer me up by pointing out that I did come up quickly on the long waiting list for the library book – but I’m still pouting ~~
You all understand — don’t you??
I’m sure to cheer up when I start reading A Better Man tonight…
p.s. It probably wouldn’t have killed me to actually purchase a copy
Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood
If you’ve not read Ann Hood, you’re missing out on an author with insight and humor. Kitchen Yarns – Notes on Life, Love, and Food is a great place to start.
I knew I was in simpatico when Ms. Hood makes references to her friend Laurie Colwin one of my favorite foodie writers and novelist — as well as, the Silver Palate Cookbook — still one of my favorites – from the 80’s.
Did I mention that these essays are often fun? In Carbonara Quest, she experiments with variations of this seemingly simple, but deviously difficult dish in an effort to fill her lonely nights as a flight attendant.
When she writes about her daughter who died suddenly at age 5, it wasn’t maudlin, but so truthful and full of love that I had to make the recipe for Grace’s Cheesy Potatoes that very night.
There is one tiny drawback. Many of these essays had appeared in other publications, such as Gourmet magazine, and this makes for an sometimes stilted structure/flow. Mentions of family members, recipes, and parts of Ms. Hood’s past were introduced and re-introduced throughout. We read about her several times and the description of Ann’s brothers passing is repeated almost verbatim in a later essay.
Again a small criticism, as I found this a warm and easy book to sink into. Kitchen Yarns is filled with beautiful language and comforting descriptions of food.
Yes, I do plan to try some of her recipes in my kitchen: including, but not limited to – Peach Pie, Green Herb Sauce, the above mentioned Cheesy Potatoes and Laurie Colwin’s Tomato pie.
An advanced readers copy was kindly provided by W. W. Norton & Co.
If you’re not a foodie, you could also try Ms. Hood’s lovely memoir on reading and books Morningstar: Growing Up with Books.
I also recommend her amazing first novel Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine
Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl
I’m a fan of Ruth Reichl – from her restaurant reviews, to her time as editor of Gourmet magazine, to her memoirs and cookbooks – I’ve read most everything she’s done. So I was highly excited to read her latest memoir mostly because it gives more insight into the great, late lamented magazine — Gourmet (I subscribed for many, many years and miss to this day).
Save Me the Plums opens as an 8-year-old Ruth finds an old Gourmet Magazine in a used bookstore while accompanying her father on errands. She is transported by its descriptions of foreign lands, exotic foods and ingredients. She begins to collect the magazines and starts cooking. Her cooking skills expand as her mother brings home strange new foods and her father takes her through different ethnic neighborhoods to search for ingredients.
Forty years later and Ms. Reichl, now the restaurant critic for the NY Times, gets an unexpected offer from Condé Nast to run Gourmet Magazine. There are many adjustments in this new career, one of which is her delight to once again cook and eat at home rather than reviewing restaurants most every night. She is excited but also intimidated and overwhelmed during her first few weeks as editor of Gourmet Magazine.
She’s suddenly thrust into the role of highly paid executive, flying and traveling first class, having a limousine and driver, and most astonishingly, having a clothing allowance. Ms. Reichl is surprised how quickly she adapts to the monied, glitzy world of Condé Nast –her portrayals of the lavish Gourmet parties are some of her best food writing. She also gleefully sprinkles in snide and sometimes snarky gossips about the staff .
There’s a chapter on a business trip to Paris that made me clench my teeth with unseemly envy. Ms. Reichl travels in Condé Nast style, with lunch at at the famed Pierre Gagnaire , a suite at Le Meurice hotel and a shopping trip to the original kitchenware emporium E.Dehillerin where the staff loads up on copper pans. This wild trip results in one the best selling Gourmet issues on Paris (an issue I saved and still have).
In one of my favorite parts — she opens the door to reveal the famous Gourmet test kitchen(s) – and from her description they are (whoops were) everything I imagined. She writes of 9/11 and how in those same test kitchens the staff at Gourmet cooked for the first responders and firefighters.
Save Me the Plums presents a different Ruth Reichl, once a Berkeley hippie who palled around with Alice Waters seeing the beginnings of the slow food movement — this Ruth Reichl is now a sophisticated publishing executive who, for ten years thrived on everything Gourmet both gave her and demanded of her.
In Save Me the Plums Ms. Reichl gives us a rich portion — a glimpse into the luxurious world of magazine publishing, and shares her decade at the helm of Gourmet with warmth, candor, and humor.
And for dessert, she even includes a few of her favorite recipes.
An Advanced Readers Copy was kindly provided by Random House
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Also recommended: My Kitchen Year and any of Ms. Reichl’s memoirs.
Escape From Winter
Look out your window…is this your view?
What if, instead, I could give you this view? Or this?
Here are three books certain to whisk you away to warmer climes ~~ perhaps not physically, but in your imagination.
So make yourself some cool lemonade and come with me, let’s escape winter for a bit.
The Olive Farm
A Memoir of Life, Love and Olive Oil in the South of France
by Carol Drinkwater
Carol Drinkwater is the actress best known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small.
When Ms. Drinkwater and her fiancé (later husband) Michel, are given the opportunity to purchase ten acres of an abandoned olive farm in the South of France, they find the region’s splendor impossible to resist. Using their entire savings as a down payment, the couple embark on an adventure that brings them in contact with the beautiful countryside of Provence, its neighbors personalities, petty bureaucracies, bug infestations and unexpected wildlife. This warm and funny memoir takes the reader from the glamour of Cannes to the sunny charm of their small plot of land, which they back breakingly transform from overgrown weeds into a thriving olive farm producing some of the finest olive oil in Provence. While at times pedantic when it comes to the history of the olive and olive oil production — The Olive Farm will make wipe your brow in sympathy as they work their land and guaranteed you want to upgrade whatever mediocre olive oil lurks in your cupboard.
My Twenty-Five Years in Provence
Reflections on Then and Now
by Peter Mayle
You may remember my earlier post about Peter Mayle who died a year ago. Here is his final volume of essays – containing all new pieces which offer his warm and vivid recollections from twenty-five years in the South of France–lessons learned, culinary delights enjoyed, and changes observed.
Twenty-five years ago, Peter Mayle and his wife, Jennie, were rained out of a planned two weeks on the Côte d’Azur. In search of sunlight, they set off for Aix-en-Provence; enchanted by the world and life they found there, they soon decided to uproot their lives in England and settle in Provence. They never looked back and when Mr. Mayle’s books became bestsellers, the inspired a whole lot of Brits to follow in their footsteps.
In this volume, his 25 years in Provence have made him wiser and a bit cynical, but no less in love with the area. A cup of café might may now cost three euros–but that price still buys you a front-row seat to the charming and indelible parade of village life. After the coffee, you might drive to see a lavender field that has bloomed every year for centuries, or stroll through the ancient history that coexists alongside Marseille’s metropolitan bustle. Modern life may have seeped into sleepy Provence, but this volume reminds us that its magic remains.
Summer’s Lease
by John Mortimer
And now a novel. But not just any novel, a Book Barmy favorite I have re-read Summer’s Lease several times — usually in the midst of cold and damp weather.
Just to refresh your memory John Mortimer is the author of the famous Rumpole series which was adapted into a very fine BBC series ages ago.
With Summer’s Lease, Mr. Mortimer veers away from the dusty London chambers into far different surroundings – namely a hot summer in the Tuscany region of Italy.
So there you go some reading escape to take your mind off those endless layers of clothes, wet boots, and snow shoveling.
Holiday Reading
Despite a busy, happy, jam-packed holiday season, I was able to get in a few books. Nothing high brow, nothing earth shattering. A few lightweight holiday reads. Just the right ending for what turned out to be a super couple of weeks.
Immoveable Feast
A Paris Christmas
by John Baxter
In this novel, John Baxter writes of preparing his first Christmas feast in France. Australian by birth, living in Los Angeles. He falls in love with a French woman:
“Struck down by that helpless love which the French call un coup de foudre – a thunderclap — I’d abandoned a comfortable life in Los Angeles and, on the spur of the moment moved to Paris to be with this woman I loved. I knew no more French than one can pick up from movie subtitles.”
It is now several years later and he has married Marie. This year he has the dubious honor to host the annual Christmas meal for friends and family. Each chapter takes the reader through his search for the perfect ingredients for his menu. There’s a whole chapter on sourcing fine French cheeses, and I swear you can smell and taste each cheese.
From traveling to India for spices, to discovering the perfect wine at a bargain price in a small village grocery — the pressure is on for our poor author. Mr. Baxter is funnily self deprecating, in awe of French style, and intimidated by their insistence on food perfection. As a frequent dinner host, I loved watching his meal plan come together and the last chapter, culminating in the meal itself, is guaranteed to make your mouth water.
I even cheered along with his guests as they erupted in very un-French-like applause over his flaming fruit dessert.
A Rumpole Christmas
by John Mortimer
One of my great pleasures of the holiday season is to bring out and cozy-up with my favorite Christmas books. This collection of Rumpole stories is one such delight.
Back in the 1980’s Husband and I were fans of the BBC/PBS series Rumpole of the Bailey starring the inimitable Leo McKern. The series was based on the books and stories written by John Mortimer. (You can currently see many of the television episodes on YouTube.)
These stories feature cantankerous lawyer Horace Rumpole, his hapless colleagues at the Old Bailey and his formidable wife, Hilda (aka She Who Must Be Obeyed). These pieces variously appeared between 1997 and 2006 in various British publications, and I’ve since learned, are the only ones with a Christmas setting.
In Rumpole and Father Christmas, our barrister meets an old friend (of sorts) playing Father Christmas at the office holiday party. Meets him, that is, as he’s returning things he stole during the party.
One of the best of these stories is Rumpole’s Slimmed-Down Christmas. Rumpole’s wife, Hilda has booked them at a health farm during the holidays. Enduring yak-milk and a no alcohol policy, Rumpole finds distraction by defending the owner of the health farm against a charge of murder.
In the one story that always has me chuckling out loud, Hilda and Rumpole spend Christmas at Cherry Picker’s Hall. To Rumpole’s horror, Justice Graves (Rumpole calls him the old Gravestone) is also in attendance.
“His usually lugubrious features wore the sort of smile only previously stimulated by a long succession of guilty verdicts”
The Old Gravestone appears to find Hilda all too charming. Rumpole must endure not only dancing with Hilda, but the Old Gravestone’s attempts at flirting.
But, above all we have Rumpole himself, smoking his cheroots, swilling his cheap red wine, and always standing up for the defense. He quotes Worsdworth and Shakespeare — he is our favorite Curmudgeon Extraordinaire.
Mr Mortimer*, who died in 2009, made his career with the Rumpole series which are based on actual courtroom trials in England. He writes with great wit and, most admirably, injects subtle sarcasm into his writings. (Book Barmy note: I think many authors have difficulty writing sarcasm without seeming cruel. Mr. Mortimer is a writer who deftly crafts this fine balance.)
Rumpole’s Christmas stories never fail to delight.
* John Mortimer was a playwright, novelist, and former practicing barrister who wrote film scripts as well as stage, radio, and the Rumpole television series for which he received the British Academy Writer of the Year Award, along with his adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. He is the author of twelve collections of Rumpole stories and three acclaimed volumes of autobiography. John Mortimer also wrote one of my favorite novels Summer’s Lease
One Day in December
by Josie Silver
I was in the throes of a busy, yet fun, holiday and needed a lightweight read that didn’t require major brain cells.
One Day in December was a pure romantic Christmas delight. I don’t often read what is coined as “Chick-Lit” or “Rom-Com” but I was taken in by the publisher’s letter in my advanced reading copy. The letter claimed this new novel was a cross between Love Actually and When Harry Met Sally – and that it left a smile on her face for days after she finished. Okay, perfect, I decided.
It’s December and Laurel is packed on the upper deck of a London city bus and musing on her fellow passengers coughing and sneezing~~
“It’s a wonder everyone who uses public transport in winter doesn’t keel over and die of germ overload.”
Then Laurel catches the eye of a man waiting at a bus stop and their eyes lock in tandem and the world seems to disappear around them. Yes, corny, but seems it’s love at first sight. Neither can move fast enough to either get off the bus (Laurel) or the guy to run to get on the bus…so life goes on.
Eventually, their paths cross, but he (Jack) is dating her room mate and best friend, Sarah…awkward. Although Jack vividly remembers their bus sighting, and instantly feels the same connection — he decides not to acknowledge this to Laurel. And so the years go by.
Ms. Silver has constructed her novel into chapters which delve into each character’s point of view and then into yearly sections –each year ending with a wrenching December holiday plot twist. I can see a film adaptation in Ms. Silver’s future.
Far more complex and thankfully, not a typical romantic comedy, One Day in December was very nicely written and compelling. The British characters are lovably flawed — the author has them stumble through friendships, breakups, dreams, jobs and finally love. They drink too much, love too much, mess up their relationships — and I found it all quite endearing.
Great literature? No.
A cheerful and heartwarming romantic comedy? Yes.
Me. Hopeless romantic? Definitely.
Now I’ve got to go. It’s New Years Day evening. Husband has had enough football and has relinquished the television. I’m off to watch Love Actually one last time. Back to real life tomorrow Okay?
Happy New Year. 
A digital advance readers copy of One Day in December was kindly provided by Broadway Books via NetGalley.
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