Ivan Doig

Details forthcoming...

THE ELEVENTH MANWith equal measures of pride and delight we welcome back Ivan Doig, an American master based in Seattle, whose novels have long and reliably graced our shelves as friends whom we take joy in recommending to neighbors and visitors alike.Returning to the Big Sky country of Montana he made ... (more)immortal in English Creek and Dancing at the Rascal Fair, Doig's new novel chronicles the fates of members of a football "Supreme Team" from a Montana state college, all of whom enlist at the outbreak of World War II. Brilliantly seen through the eyes of the journalist team member assigned to make them heroes, their stories range from the vivid landscape of the American West to the invasion of Guam, the jungles of New Guinea, and the Battle of the Bulge.

Looking for an insightful book discussion? Our store-sponsored book group meets in the bookstore on the first Tuesday of each month at 7pm to
discuss the best in fiction and nonfiction. Newcomers and drop-ins are welcome and we always have room for more!
October 7th:
WHISTLING SEASON
by ... (more)Ivan Doig
"Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper" that draws the attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. And so also begins the unforgettable season that deposits the noncooking, nonbiting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris Morgan, in Marias Coulee, Montana. When the schoolmarm runs off with an itinerant preacher, Morris is pressed into service, setting the stage for the "several kinds of education"-none of them of the textbook variety-Morris and Rose will bring to Oliver, his three sons, and the rambunctious students in the region's one-room schoolhouse.

A paean to a vanished way of life and the eccentric individuals and idiosyncratic institutions that made it fertile, The Whistling Season is Ivan Doig at his evocative best.

Bill Clark has lived in Columbia for almost 50 years. A columnist with the Columbia Daily Tribune and an amateur historian, Bill has written about one-room schoolhouses as part of his many columns about Columbia’s history. In one such column Clark says, “schools in Central Missouri were the launching ... (more)pads for the journey to the moon and into the age of the Internet.” Join Bill to discuss “The Whistling Season" and hear his storyteller’s take.

Held in the Friends Room.

Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman and his wife Axie will lead their lively annual One Read book discussion in the historic Newcomer School at Shelter Gardens on Ash St. behind Shelter Insurance. The schoolhouse is a replica of a 19th century one-room school near Brunswick. Bring a lawn chair if you don't ... (more)want to sit in the school desks!