Dear Gentle Reader,

No matter what happens today (or in the coming weeks), this is your dose of good news…

This Saturday November 9th at 11am, we welcome Chad Holley for Shield the Joyous, his novel about Michael Haley, a whip-smart seventh-grader growing up in rural Mississippi in the early 1980s. Michael has a precociously metaphysical turn of mind, a brand-new girlfriend who won’t come out of her bedroom, and plenty of neighborhood pals to distract him from both. But unsettling questions won’t leave Michael alone—like whether God will accept his gift of a dug-up, three-days-dead possum, whether he and his friends are in fact real, and why Ol’ Cletus, a mysterious, middle-aged recluse, appears to be stalking him. This last question, above all, will test Michael’s courage to seek answers. With a voice all his own, swinging from sassy to lyrical in its candor, wonder, and spiritual yearning, Michael Haley stands squarely in the tradition of beloved young American narrators that stretches from Huck Finn through Scout Finch to Holden Caulfield. Chad will be in discussion with Michael Parker, who is also celebrating the re-release of his first novel, Hello, Down There.

Writer’s Office Hours this month is moving from this week to next. So, if you are seeking Margot Lester’s most excellent advice on your project, she will hold forth onNovember 13th, from 2:30 to 4:30pm.

The Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama is the featured speaker for a public conversation and poetry reading on Tuesday, November 19, at 6:00 p.m., in Duke University Chapel. The host of the popular podcast Poetry Unbound, Ó Tuama will discuss “Poetry, Prayer, and Public Healing” for Duke Chapel’s 2024 William Preston Few Lecture. To attend the event, which is open to the public, register for a free ticket through the Duke Box Office.

Our Chatham Reads Book Drive started yesterday. You can purchase books to donate here at the store or visit their page on our McIntyre’s Books website. Let us know you’re donating or use coupon code DONATE on our website for 20% off books for donation. For this book drive Chatham Reads is partnering with CORA (Chatham County’s food pantry) to fill the bookshelves in the recently expanded food pantry family space.

This coming Thursday, November 7th, our vintage store friends in downtown Pittsboro are hosting a Holiday Social from 5-8pm. So if you are feeling the urge to get out and sip, shop, and stroll, head downtown for some spirited fun, while also getting a jump on your holiday shopping. Start your trek at Shimmer (18A East Salisbury Street) and wend you way around blossoming P-town.

And tickets for both of Donald Davis‘s storytelling events in the Barn are now available. Donald will be here Saturday, December 21st at 11am and Sunday, December 22nd at 2pm. Tickets are $10, and all that money goes to CORA, the Chatham County food pantry.

The Usual Suspects,

Pete,  Johanna, Sarah, Beth, Tyler, Amy and Keebe