R.J. Julia Booksellers


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Fri, 5/16 4 PM		Jerry Spinelli - Kids Smiles to Go

Wed, 5/21 7 PM		Carl Hiaasen - Golf The Downhill Lie

Tue, 5/27 7 PM		Robert H. Patton Patriot Pirates

STORE INFORMATION

RJ Julia Booksellers
768 Boston Post Road
Madison, CT 06443
203.245.3959
800.74.READS
books@rjjulia.com

Mon-Sat: 9am – 9pm
Sun 10am – 6pm

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RJ CAFÉ

Serving Lunch, Dinner, Homemade Pastries, Coffee and Tea
Mon-Sat: 9am - 9pm
Sun: 10am - 6pm

Managed by La Rosticceria, Carry Out Caterers

The RJ Café is proud to display unique art exhibits from the ALVA Gallery in New London, CT

NEWS FROM RJ JULIA

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Faith Middleton Show

Our History

R.J. JULIA AWARDS


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THE FAITH MIDDLETON SHOW ON WNPR

Show Date: July 22, 2005

ROXANNE'S PICKS:

The Innocent
by Harlan Coben

The quintessential summer read. Coben’s stories relate to people who are familiar to us – this time to a suburban teenager who, in breaking up a fight, accidentally kills one of the participants. Nine years later, out of jail and getting his life together, he suddenly becomes a suspect as people around him start turning up dead. Be warned – if you think that you have figured out the ending, you probably haven’t!

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx
by Adrian LeBlanc

The author spent ten years following 2 teenagers from the Bronx, girls who by the age of 23 had 2-3 children each, trying to figure out what motivates young girls with no money and no skills to have children of their own. Non-judgemental and lovingly told, this tells what it is like to grow up in that environment – a real epiphany for me.

And a related must-see movie: Mad Hot Ballroom – a feel-good film about a ballroom dancing competition in New York City, the kids that competed in it, and the people who taught them.

2000 Year Old Man Goes to School
by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner

A kid's picture book (and CD), but also good for fans of the '2000 Year Old Man', this is a stupid, slapstick, silly brand-new book that can’t help but make you smile.

Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letters and One Man's Search to Find Them
by Andrew Carroll

A collection of letters written by soldiers from U.S. wars, presented with no political bias but with a good eye for combinations that reflect the variety of attitudes that war inspires – from those that relish the chance for combat as well as those that are ambivalent, cowardly, or heroic. This gives a memorable sense of what the war experience is really like.

Roxanne’s summer reading choices:

War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy

Don Quoxite
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The Island: Three Tales
by Gustaw Herling

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ROSE'S PICKS:

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
by Erik Larsen

The non-fiction tale of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, this is actually two stories in one. The first is the story of Daniel Burnham and construction of the Fair, which was designed to compete with the Eiffel Tower and which introduced the Ferris Wheel (among other things) to the public. The second story is the saga of Dr. Henry Holmes, pharmacist and charismatic serial killer, who built a hotel of sorts across from the fairgrounds and preyed on young unattached working girls.

Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The story of Florentino Ariza who, at 17, falls passionately in love with Fermina Daza. For three years he courts her with letters, until she dumps him in favor of a physician. After 51 years of a seemingly happy marriage, she becomes a widow, and Florentino declares his continuing and undying love. This is a magical novel about the nature of love, and Edith Grossman’s translation captures all of the ‘zing’ of the original.

Pearl
by Mary Gordon

This opens with a (misleading) series of events as Maria leaves New York to 'rescue' her daughter who is staging a protest hunger strike, tied to a flagpole, in Ireland. Slow-paced, but with characters that you come to really care about, and conversations on politics, religion, and family, this novel raises questions about what is worth living/dying for and where our responsibilities lie.

The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change
by Dr. Christaine Northrup

You either love Dr. Northrup or not, but if you do you’ll really appreciate her amalgam of Western medicine with a wholistic approach, advocating the wisdom of listening to your body and recognizing that the choices we make (diet, relationships, etc.) affect how our bodies operate.

Rose's summer reading choices:

The Seven Types of Ambiguity
by Elliot Perlman

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SALLY'S PICKS:

Recipes from a Very Small Island
by Linda and Martha Greenlaw

From the author of The Hungry Ocean and The Lobster Chronicles, this is a wonderful book of Linda’s charming essays combined with her mother’s gourmet recipes illustrated with beautiful photographs. 75 deliciious recipes in all, which use fresh produce in fabulous ways

How to be a Bad Birdwatcher
by Simon Barnes

Another book to feed my new passion for birds, this is perfect for people who like watching birds but feel guilty about not being a ‘birder’. A wonderful book written by a sports writer for The London Times, who is himself a serious birder, this is a refreshingly irreverent approach which says that it is OK to just enjoy birds with out becoming an ‘expert’.

The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
by George Howe Colt

A family memoir told through summers spent on the Cape in a summer house that is an architectural ‘gem’. Told as the house is put up for sale after forty years, this is an honest portrayal of a family – births, deaths, marriages, crises – and a lifestyle. Perhaps a bit dark for a ‘summer read’ but engrossing nonetheless.

Provincetown: Stories from Land’s End
by Kathy Shorr; illustrated by Anne Rosen

In keeping with the Cape theme, this is a collection of stories about the real history of Provincetown, from the beginning settlers, to the ‘wreckers’ who ‘salvaged’ shipwrecks, to the story of how the town transitioned from a visitors’ place to a thriving center for the arts. These are wonderful, true stories that are lots of fun to read.

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FAITH'S PICKS:

Two must-see summer movies:

March of the Penguins: a visually stunning documentary on the life of penguins at the North Pole, and You, Me, and Everyone We Know: a wildly quirky movie about the ways we find to be in intimate contact with one another.

Stealing With Style
by Emyl Jenkins

This is Jenkins first mystery, and a great summer read. Each chapter opens with a real antique-related query and answer, and then launches into the story, which treads through the antiques world of Virginia and New York. It is fantastic – very well done.

Whatever Makes You Happy
by Lisa Grunwald

I just adored this novel by the author of New Year’s Eve and Summer. This is the story of a woman who is writing a book about happiness. Happily married, with children, she becomes intrigued with a famous painter, and what she does in the name of becoming ‘happier’ becomes a smart and provocative exploration of what that really means and what we do to attain it.

The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place
by Willa Cather

Written by the owner of a successful construction firm that specializes in building houses on Martha’s Vineyard, this is the story of how he created – and maintained – a small, ethical business, committed to craft, to his employees, and to the community that the work within.

Them:A Memoir of Parents
by Francine Du PlessixGray

An elegant and powerful memoir of her parents.

Montauk Is
by W.D. Akin

A new book of short poetry and hiaku by the Long Island poet.

Foghorn California Beaches: The Best Best Places to Swim, Play, Eat, and Stay on the Coast
by Alan Bisbort and Parke Puterbaugh

A new guide in the series, this one on California beaches and their environs.

What Matters to Me
Sponsored by the Southington CT Arts Council

A collection of sweet and tender essays, short stories, and poems by 80 middle school students, This is available from the Southington Board of Education or at shops around town, costs $5, and the proceeds go to a scholarship fund.

Rose's summer reading choices:

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen

SHOW ARCHIVES