ROYAL = Readers of Young Adult Literature, our monthly gathering of adults reading YA books. No need to register or rsvp. Everyone over 18 welcome. Free. Book club selections always 20% off at Spellbound.

Sunday, December 4th  at 4:00pm
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience.

Sixteen-year-old Jacob, traumatized by his grandfather’s sudden, violent death, travels with his father to a remote island off the coast of Wales to find the orphanage where his grandfather was sent to live to escape Nazi persecution in Poland. When he arrives, he finds much more than he bargained for: the children from his grandfather’s stories are still at the orphanage, living in a time loop in 1940.

ROYAL = Readers of Young Adult Literature, our monthly gathering of adults reading YA books. No need to register or rsvp. Everyone over 18 welcome. Free. Book club selections always 20% off at Spellbound.

Sunday, August 7th  at 4:00pm
Impossible by Nancy Werlin

A beautifully wrought modern fairy tale from master storyteller and award-winning author Nancy Werlin.  Inspired by the classic folk ballad “Scarborough Fair,” this is a wonderfully riveting and haunting novel of suspense, romance, and fantasy.

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that she is the latest recipient of a generations-old family curse that requires her to complete three seemingly impossible tasks or risk falling into madness and passing the curse on to the next generation. Unlike her ancestors, though, Lucy has family, friends, and other modern resources to help her out. But will it be enough to conquer this age-old evil?

Suggested for ages 14 and up
Retail price: $9.99
Spellbound price: $7.99 (through August 7)

ROYAL = Readers of Young Adult Literature, our monthly gathering of adults reading YA books. No need to register or rsvp. Everyone over 18 welcome. Free. Book club selections always 20% off at Spellbound.

Sunday, July 10th at 4:00pm

The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones

Who is the uninvited? This twisty page-turner from a master of suspense plumbs the unsettling goings-on at a picture-perfect woodland cottage.

Mimi Shapiro had a disturbing freshman year at NYU, thanks to a foolish affair with a professor who still haunts her caller ID. So when her artist father, Marc, offers the use of his remote Canadian cottage, she’s glad to hop in her Mini Cooper and drive up north. The house is fairy-tale quaint, and the key is hidden right where her dad said it would be, so she’s shocked to find someone already living there — Jay, a young musician, who is equally startled to meet Mimi and immediately accuses her of leaving strange and threatening tokens inside: a dead bird, a snakeskin, a cricket sound track embedded in his latest composition. But Mimi has just arrived, so who is responsible? And more alarmingly, what does the intruder want? Part gripping thriller, part family drama, this fast-paced novel plays out in alternating viewpoints, in a pastoral setting that is evocative and eerie — a mysterious character in its own right.

Suggested for ages 14 and up.
Retail price: $8.99
Spellbound price: $7.19 (through July 10)

April droplets bring rhyming couplets…

April is National Poetry Month, and at Spellbound all poetry books will be 25% off for the entire month!

We’re kicking off our poetry celebration on Saturday, April 2nd with a lulu of a reading by local poet Jethro Clayton Waters (there may be handstands involved), in addition to free activities and give-aways (plus snacks).

1 to 3pm – all ages – free

South of Ordinary is a young reader’s book of poetry, prose, and pen and ink illustrations by Asheville author Jethro Clayton Waters.

ROYAL is our book club for adult Readers of Young Adult Literature.  No need to join ahead of time or RSVP; anyone who is interested is welcome to come.  Generally we meet the first Sunday of the month at 4pm, with exceptions for holiday weekends.  Book club selections are always 20% off until the day of the meeting.

About April’s selection:

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them legions of faithful fans.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Retail price: $17.99
Only $14.39 at Spellbound through Sunday, April 3rd!

ROYAL is our book club for adult Readers of Young Adult Literature.  No need to join ahead of time or RSVP; anyone who is interested is welcome to come.  Generally we meet the first Sunday of the month at 4pm, with exceptions for holiday weekends.  Book club selections are always 20% off until the day of the meeting.

About March’s selection:

Set in the world of the Half-Continent-a land of tri-corner hats and flintlock pistols-the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy is a world of predatory monsters, chemical potions and surgically altered people. Foundling begins the journey of Rossamund, a boy with a girl’s name, who is just about to begin a dangerous life in the service of the Emperor. What starts as a simple journey is threatened by encounters with monsters-and people, who may be worse. Learning who to trust and who to fear is neither easy nor without its perils, and Rossamund must choose his path carefully.

Complete with appendices, maps, illustrations, and a glossary, Monster Blood Tattoo grabs readers from the first sentence and immerses them in an entirely original fantasy world with its own language and lore.

Monster Blood Tattoo Book One: Foundling, by D.M. Cornish
Retail price: $9.99
Only $7.99 at Spellbound through Sunday, March 6th!

ROYAL is our book club for adult Readers of Young Adult Literature. No need to join ahead of time or RSVP; anyone who is interested is welcome to come. Book club selections are always 20% off until the day of the meeting. Generally we meet the first Sunday of the month at 4pm, with exceptions for holiday weekends.

Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne—a girl from the other side of the globe—is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.

Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne’s sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives—all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down. . . .

Internationally revered storyteller Terry Pratchett presents a breathtaking adventure of survival and discovery, and of the courage required to forge new beliefs.

Nation, by Terry Pratchett
Retail price: $8.99
Only $7.19 at Spellbound through December 5!

SEVENTEEN by Annalee Kwochka paperback $7.99

Book release party for Annalee Kwochka’s new chapbook of poetry, Seventeen, hailed by NC Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers as “a beautifully compelling and deeply moving book”.

This free event will feature readings by Kwochka, live music, and light refreshments. Suggested for teens and adults.

“Annalee Kwochka’s poems show wisdom, honesty, and compassion beyond her seventeen years. This chapbook has hammered its way out of Annalee’s skull onto the written page. Her  “Laws of Motion: School Reform” makes me shout, “Amen!” as she affirms:

Assessments and assimilation won’t hold us to our true potential
This education won’t make us influential
Still, we hustle
Down the conveyor belt towards disaster
Celebrating
Because hey, we’re graduating.

Seventeen is a bubbling fountain to which we can return again and again.”
-Libby Campbell
North Carolina Poetry Society

ROYAL is our book club for adult Readers of Young Adult Literature. No need to join ahead of time or RSVP; anyone over 18 who has read the book is welcome to come and discuss it! Book club selections are always 20% off until the day of the meeting. Generally we meet the first Sunday of the month at 4pm, with exceptions for holiday weekends.
Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He’s pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That’s when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That’s when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission?
A 2005 Michael L. Printz Honor Book and recipient of five starred reviews, I Am the Messenger is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love.

I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak
Retail price: $10.99
Only $8.79 at Spellbound through November 7!

ROYAL is our book club for adult Readers of Young Adult Literature. No need to join ahead of time or RSVP; anyone over 18 who has read the book is welcome to come and discuss it! Book club selections are always 20% off until the day of the meeting. Generally we meet the first Sunday of the month at 4pm, with exceptions for holiday weekends.

Please note that we’re meeting on the 2nd Sunday in September, due to Labor Day weekend!

By a unanimous vote, we decided to read the next two books in the Hunger Games trilogy for our September and October meetings. Catching Fire is not yet in paperback, but as a ROYAL Book Club selection it is 20% off.

The third and final book of the trilogy, Mockingjay, will be released on August 24th and will also be 20% off (to everyone, not just book club members). Feel free to call (828-2228) or email if you’d like to reserve a copy.