Where did the year go?
We only have 14 days left of 2025 and I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all for your continuous support of my little bookstore. I can’t adequately express how blessed I am to be able to have had the opportunity to create a welcoming and inclusive space in my community that really feels like a dream come true for me. It makes me so happy to be able to share my love of books with you all, and to be able to love and support members of my community that are traditionally marginalized and struggle to find spaces where they feel safe and welcomed (especially in small town Iowa). Because of your support, I get to be the the grown up that I needed as a kid, and I will forever be grateful for that.
Okay…I’m done being sappy now. *blows nose and wipes eyes*
The real reason for this post is to share our new events schedule for 2026 and to tell you all about our THREE NEW BOOK CLUBS that we are starting! Can you tell I am excited?
First, let’s talk about the three book clubs we had this year: Sugar & Spice (Romantasy), Rainbow Readers (All Ages LGBTQ+), and Salem Book Club (Spooky Stories). We started these book clubs in June when we opened and Sugar & Spice and Rainbow Readers each met monthly so they each had 6 books this year, and the Salem Book Club met every other month and had 3 books. We will be continuing that through next year, so S&S and RR will each have 12 books and SBC will have 6. In addition to those we are adding Banned Book Club which will meet at the same time as Salem BC on the opposite months, and Non-Fiction Baddies and Neurodivergent Tales which will meet on the same day/time on alternating months.
That sounds complicated, but realistically it’s not too bad. Each month we will have 4 book club meetings.
Sugar & Spice
This romantasy book club will meet on the 2nd Friday of each month from 5-7pm.
Rainbow Readers
Our all ages book club meets on the 3rd Sunday of each month from 2-4pm.
Banned Book Club and Salem Book Club
The BBC meets on the 4th Friday of ODD months and Salem BC meets on the 4th Friday of EVEN months.
Neurodivergent Tales and Non-Fiction Baddies Book Clubs
These book clubs meet on the 1st Sunday of the month 10am-Noon. NDT meets on EVEN months and NFB meets on ODD months.
For the *super ambitious* book club members (like me) who plans on reading 49 of the books next year, I created an all inclusive list with dates because I have a really bad habit of reading my book club books in the wrong order and then having to aggressively speed read to finish on time.
I plan on setting up StoryGraph groups for each of the book clubs, and I’d love for you to add me on there if you haven’t already (@bookstoremama50220) so we can share our thoughts on these and other books next year! I switched everything over from Goodreads earlier this year and I am so glad that I took the time to do it (it was a huge pain in the butt, but totally worth it).
I initially planned on sharing all of the new things for next year in this post, but it has been a busy day and it is almost time for me to go home, so I want to post this now and I will post another update about the rest of the fun new developments tomorrow!
Until the next chapter,
