Contributed by Barbara L. Hecker
Fireside Books is the nearly fifteen year old child of Palmer’s husband and wife team, Melissa Behnke and David Cheezem. It’s a pleasant and welcoming place with an inviting aroma wafting from the shelves. Only those with a deep-seated love of the printed word understand that smell. Neither musty nor moldy, one whiff catches complex multi-layers imbued with the treasure from which it emanates. It hints at undiscovered mysteries and adventures, heretofore unknown experiences and characters, and insights yet to be gleaned.
Every person entering is extended a smile and a welcome. New or old hand, we share the same passion, the same boundless respect for books. We swim in a sea of infinite wisdom, filled with every conceivable emotion, lofty venture, and probing peek into the past. Or present, Or future. It’s the gamut of life.
Bookstores are always run by people who love books. Owner to part-time clerks, Fireside workers are enamored with the written word. Well-fed literary predilections become genre-specialties which become keen advice on what is found on the shelves.
America is experiencing a resurgence of independent bookstores. Readers are rediscovering that eclectic spirt imbued with friendliness, service and dedication to life-long learning.
Fireside Books is community. Its outreach includes providing books for teachers, school book fairs, and homeschoolers, as well as the casual browser or reader-on-a-mission. It serves as a gathering place for creative and social events. It showcases new and established authors. It maintains a virtual presence with technology fully integrated into the store. But its devotion is to providing service with the warmness that bonds us to our customers.
Spring 2016 has flowered at Fireside Books. Our cherry blossom bedecked windows represent the range of presentations, book-signings, and special events. March brought children’s authors, Carol Estby Dagg, Sweet Home Alaska, a new novel grown from our New Deal Matanuska Colony history, and Jen Funk Weber who teaches us how to read our outdoor environment in her new Been There Done That: Reading Animal Tracks. Pudge Kleinkauf came in March and again in April to share her new book, Rookie No More: The Flyfishing Novice Gets Guidance from a Pro.
In mid-April, Kim Heacox (Jimmy Bluefeather, National Geographic the National Parks: An Illustrated History) and biographer Kaylene Johnson (Our Perfect Wild: Ray & Barbara Bane's Journeys and the Fate of the Far North ) expand on their new Alaskan naturalist works. Adult coloring claims a venue with COLOR-INN gatherings where relaxation, creativity, and focus are key. Another pathway towards calm and creativeness thrives in Zentangle® 101 classes. Panel discussions have explored the underworlds from Alaska’s Good Time Girls and Murderers’ Row (authors of crime –fiction and non - in the Alaskan setting) to How-To’s (Get Writing, the Art of Audio Books, Home Gardening, etc.)
www.goodbooksbadcoffee.com Fireside Books’ website awaits where you can verify exact dates, times, and places of our events, but also where you are welcome to order any of our books. Sign up for our regular newsletters to be consistently informed our events, programs, specials, and news.