I just read a marvelous tale by Hardwick, VT author Daphne Kalmar. It’s a book for young and old alike called A Stitch in Time. Like the very best of children’s literature, it doesn’t treat the reader like a child, but rather like a real person in a complex world, reminiscent of my favorite author in this genre, Katherine Paterson. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I couldn’t put it down and am giving my copy to my 10-year old granddaughter for Christmas. Don’t miss it.

From time to time, I return to the very few books in my life that haunt the bookshelf in my psyche – the unforgettables. I’m re-reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez Love in the Time of Cholera. Cholera is not only a disease, it’s also a variant of the word “colere” – how one feels when they believe someone has behaved unfairly or cruelly toward them. I won’t tease you with its magical realism plot. I’ll just recommend you read any Marquez novel or novella as soon as you can. 

A Chinese padlock I bought for a few yuan while on our honeymoon in Beijing in 1996. It was in a display of junk a little old lady was selling on the sidewalk. The long metal piece beside it is the key.

The holidays (and the rest of the year) always brings the joy of an almost unlimited supply of Bien Fait Cakes from Greensboro, Vermont. The company was started by dear friends Bill and Trish Alley as a way of bringing more opportunity to the folks in the Greensboro area. They donate all their profits, “..as our hearts and consciences dictate,” specifically to local groups that assist folks with the basics – food, heat, electricity, and children’s and elder’s programs in the community. They are all made in house from ingredients that they prepare individually and they’re delicious. Try some and be delighted.

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Vermont’s Hero Bookstores