The holidays have once again started their rapid approach. And, what with our unstable economy and funds being tight, gift-giving this year has become a daunting silhouette on the horizon.

Giving gifts, though, should be about thought and meaning, value and endurence. Which is why now, more than ever, a book can be the best gift you give.

And we carry more than books! Calendars, puzzles, games, activities, stationary, journals, stuffed animals, posters, coffee mugs, gift bags, craft kits, and bookmarks are just some of the items you can find in our stores.

Always something to remember, especially as we're all in this together, shopping locally puts 68% of your spending back into your community to pay taxes, keep jobs, and make your town unique. Unlike big box stores who pride themselves on giving 2% back, or the Internet which gives nothing to your community, shopping locally ensures that you and your friends, neighbors and family keep your corner of the world special.

In closing, this is a scary time in our economy; it's hard to know from one day to the next if we'll be up, down or sideways. And noone knows what lies ahead, but as Independent Booksellers, and as part of this Outer Banks Independent Community, we urge you to shop locally this holiday season to make this an OBXmas. And remember that books endure.

Title of Event: The Kitchen Witch Comes to Island Bookstore
When: Saturday, November 29, 2008 3:00 PM
Location: Island Bookstore - Historic Corolla, 1130 Corolla Village Road, Corolla, NC 27927
Description: The Kitchen Witch Catering Company was founded by Mary M. Thrasher, a long time resident of the Outer Banks. Through the years she has worked at many of the finer restaurants on the Outer Banks, as well as in Norfolk, Virginia. She is well-traveled and attended the New York Restaurant School. After all these years, Mary has compiled and released a cookbook, The Kitchen Witch Catering Cookbook ($24.95), featuring some of her most requested and beloved recipes, including bread puddings & casseroles, Hot Crab Dip and Atlantic Seafood Stew. Interspersed throughout are personal writings and photographs that truly make this more than a cookbook, but a keepsake as well. In order to celebrate, Mary will be joining us at our Island Bookstore located in the Historic Corolla Village, Saturday November 29 of Thanksgiving weekend from 3 to close. Not only will she be on-hand to sign copies and discuss her recipes, she's bringing food! Who can resist that? See you there!
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The Stone Gods by Winterson, Jeanette "This new world weighs a yatto-gram. But everything is trial-size; tread-on-me-tiny or blurred-out-offocus huge. There are leaves that have grown as big as cities, and there are birds that nest in cockleshells. On the white sand there are long-toed claw prints deep as nightmares, and there are rock pools in hand-hollows finned by invisible fish . . . "Mankind has rendered its planet unlivable and is beginning to colonize a new blue planet. Our heroine Billie Crusoe's flight to the future is also a return to the distant past--"Everything is imprinted forever with what once was." What begins as a witty, satirical futurist adventure deepens into a dazzling exploration of our relationship to environment, to power and technology, and to what defines us as humans. For over twenty years Jeanette Winterson has consistently been one of our most brilliant writers. Lyrical, visionary, by turns funny and devastating, "The Stone Gods "is fiction at its most provocative.