September 2017

Which is better - The Book or The Movie (or mini series)?

For me, there really is no decision the book is always better. There have been very few movies made from books where I felt the movie was just as good as the book, but I continue to watch the movies as you never know!  Most people know about GOT on HBO and it has brought a whole new readership to George RR Martin's Game of Thrones.  Fantasy fan or not this is a well done series and follows the book pretty well.  There are others, like My Sister's Keeper and True Blood, where the book and movie are two different ideas completely.  There have been several recent releases that we checked out and here are my thoughts on those:

THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood.  We had read The Handmaid's Tale for book club many years ago. We watched the HULU mini series as a staff over the course of the mini series.  It was really a lot of fun.  We'd meet at one of our houses with wine and food and watch 2 episodes at a time.  There was quite a bit of difference but nothing that took away form the original story. The mini series was done very well (as shown with the 10 Emmy awards!)and we can't wait for more.  

Another recent mini series based on a book was BIG LITTLE LIES by Liane Moriarty.  First let me say that Liane is one of my current favorite authors.  That being said, Big Little Lies wasn't one of my favorite's of Liane.  I liked it, just didn't LOVE it.  So I went back and forth as to whether I wanted to watch the mini series or not.  I ended up binge watching one weekend and loved it.  It really brought out a deeper feel for me than I had previous gotten when I read the book.  This also won a ton of Emmy's!

And then there was GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls.  We decided to go to the movies and see this as a staff.  Jill and I had read The Glass Castle years ago for book club and both loved the book.  Leslie and Courtney had not read the book.  We all agreed about the movie. 

None of us liked the movie and we were very disappointed.  Very important parts that were in the book were missing from the movie and the emotional ups and downs of the book that had you laughing and crying were totally lacking. So this I would say was a total thumbs down.

We are looking forward to checking out American Gods, Ready Player One, All the Bright Places and many more in the up coming months 

- Debbie Scheller, owner


AUGUST 2017

How Did You Get "HER" to come to Sykesville?       

I’ve been wanting to have a blog for several years but was always stumped on why would people would want to read something I wrote, especially as I am not a writer - I’m a reader.  Recently I was told, you write for yourself and let those who want to read it do so.  I thought that this was good advice so here I go. 

Today my thoughts are on the wonderful event we just had at the store.  Best-selling author, Sandra Brown, was here last night for her National Tour launch of “SEEING RED”.  It was a packed house, Sold out tickets and standing room. 

Sandra was a perfect “Texas Rose” and her personality just shined.  Charming, funny, classy are just a tip of how wonderful she was and she had us all thrilled with the new book. "SEEING RED" is highly addictive, fast-paced, in-your-face—suspense novel riddled with delicious tension and an underlying sexiness.  This is Sandra Brown at her best. 

I had tons of questions on how did little Sykesville, Carroll County, MD get Sandra Brown to come here.  The easy answer is that we were asked and said yes.  The more in depth answer is that when authors go on tour it is as huge undertaking by the author, publisher, and book sellers.  The tours are generally set up way in advance.  We, as booksellers, put in requests on a grid that the publishers send out about 9 months prior to publication.  We then must put in proposals on how we are going to have an event with the author, how many books we can sell, how many people we can accommodate, how are we going to market the event and much more.  Then the publishers go through the list and figure out where the author is going to tour and if you happen to fall in that area, they will look at your proposal.  That still doesn’t mean you get to host that author.  Luck has a lot to do with it as well.  We worked hard to get some high profile authors by helping out with debut or newer authors on tour.  We have had very successful events with this publisher in the past with lesser known authors and helped to get some great new books in hands of readers.  We all love to see and hear from our favorites, but next time you see a newer author, or one you may never have heard of before, come out and support them.  Hear what they have to say and try a new book.  You may be very surprised how much you enjoyed the new experience!  

Debbie Scheller, owner/

8/16/2017