In light of recent events, we felt compelled to put together an antiracist reading list for our community of readers. Many of you have been asking about books for kids and teenagers, so we made sure to include books for all ages. This is just the beginning of what will be a very large list. We have over 250 titles on a master list and will continue to add to it every day.

Right now, we are featuring books by Black authors only. While there are many aspects to antiracism that we feel are important for folks to read about, we do not want to distract the conversation away from Black lives and stories right now. So, you'll see included in these lists stories about Black joy and family, Black magic and pain, Black dreams and desire, Black love and friendship. 

You can browse see them in their individual categories or scroll through the main list to see more titles. Please be aware many titles are backordered right now but will be arriving soon. We have tried to include as many books as possible that are currently in stock but if you want to be sure before placing an order, just give us a call at
​828-386-1219 to check on inventory status. ​

If you're looking for something to read now, look no further! We have selected a few fun quizzes and articles to keep you entertained while you are stuck at home.

Stay safe, stay healthy, read on!

Hello, Foggy Pine Readers! I hope you're  all safe & healthy, staying at home as much as possible, and (of course) reading, reading, reading! As many of your are already aware, the governor issued an executive Stay At Home order this Friday, which went into effect yesterday at 5pm. Under that order, our store is considered essential as a bookstore that sells educational materials. We are deeply grateful that we are allowed to remain open and are taking extra precautions to keep our staff and our customers safe, while also providing for your needs. We will remain closed to the public and will continue taking orders through our online store, via email, and over the phone. Phone orders and pickup will be taken Monday - Saturday from 9am to 5:30pm. However, we have made some changes to the way we're offering curbside pickup and local delivery. We will still be offering free media mail shipping. Keep reading to find out what's changed!

​We are still offering curbside pickup, however, we are altering the way we do it to eliminate person-to-person interaction. There will now be a pickup station for you to pick your book up from outside the store. If it is sunny, we will put a bench out on the parking lot side of the store so that you can drive up and grab your order easily. Please call us a couple minutes before you arrive or when you're headed our way and we will put your order out on the bench. Your order will have your name on it but there's not usually more than person picking up at the same time. If it's raining, the bench will be in front of the door. 

Some folks have asked us what the best ways are to support us right now. So, we thought that we would give you some ideas.

First, if you are supporting us by placing an order, we prefer taking orders over the phone or via email. This ensures that we receive the most money from your purchase, in a more timely fashion. If you want to see what we might be able to order, the online store we currently have is a great place to start. Unfortunately, we don't have our current inventory online so if you want to know what we have on hand, please reach out to us. If you prefer to shop online, please don't feel guilty. We are happy to serve you in that capacity. We are working diligently to get books on our shelves into a digital home. Stay tuned!

That's it for our updates! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to assist you with anything you need. The April newsletter and blog posts will be coming out soon, as well as some new blog posts from our amazing intern, Elly. We're putting together some fun stuff for you to read because, if you're like us, there's only so much bad/sad/frustrating news that one can read in any given day. And remember, if you want news and updates first PLUS coupons every month, sign up for our newsletter! 

Happy new year, y'all! 2018 was a year of big change for Foggy Pine Books and we couldn't have done it without your support--from painting walls and helping move to the new location to shopping with us all year long and sharing our store with friends, family, even strangers. We are deeply grateful, as well, to the other businesses & non-profits who supported and worked with us this past year: Hatchet Coffee, Out of Your Mind, SAGA, and more. This community of giving, creative, thoughtful book lovers is precisely what we'd hoped to foster in Boone. Thank you for everything. Now, keep reading to find out what 2019 will bring and how you can be involved!

Are self improvement books not your style but you resolved to read more in 2019? Check out the "Best of 2018" list that our booksellers made for you! We had Mary & Saide list their favorite books that were released in 2018 & then compiled them on out website for you to browse. You can also check out the "Staff Picks" section in the bookstore which is on the bestseller shelf.

​If you like to pick out your own books but would like to challenge yourself to read outside the box, consider doing the Foggy Pine Reading Challenge! Our booksellers created this challenge to help our community read things they might not read otherwise. If you decide to do this challenge and complete it, bring us your filled out challenge list to get a FREE book! Check out the webpage for details. 

Moving on to store announcements--we do have a few updates about our event schedule. First, the Young Adult Book Club is currently on hiatus. It didn't get a lot of interest or engagement last year so we're taking a break this winter to develop an excellent reading list and a marketing strategy that will bring this group to the members of our community who need it most.

In addition to this hiatus, the Foggy Pine Storytime is also on hold indefinitely. We spent a lot of time picking stories and creating activities for kids but the event rarely brought anyone in. We tried moving the days & times but there was no change. We still do the Playhouse Storytime on the first Wednesday of every month at 11am, however, and will be considering a renewal of the Foggy Pine Storytime later this year.

​Finally, we are also putting a hold on the Swap Shop that we partner with Noble Kava to bring to the community. The Swap Shop generated a lot of interest but we're taking a break during the winter to catalog all the items, make donations to local charities, and get ready to come back this spring--just in time for spring cleaning!

Not everything is leaving our even calendar though. We still have the Foggy Pine and Hatchet Coffee Book Clubs, the Foggy Minds Open Mic that we partner with Out of Your Mind to bring to you, the Watauga Witches community group, and all the awesome literary events we host throughout the year, like--TRIO, the Queer Arts Series, Indie Bookstore Day, Banned Books Week, and more! We're also excited to offer new programs this year. We are currently developing a book subscription service and a book club discount program. The most current news about these developments will come through our newsletter, which offers, in addition to exclusive news, the first announcements of sales and a coupon for our readers. You can sign up for it here, but we'll also make announcements on our social media pages: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as this blog.

Lastly, we just have some reminders for you. Don't forget while you're Kon Mari-ing your house and getting rid of all your books that Foggy Pine Books will be happy to take them off your hands! Read up about our used book program here, then call us to make an appointment for your book collection. You'll get credit for other used books in the store so you can keep reading without investing a lot of money or space in your newly organized home!

​Or maybe you didn't use the Kon Mari method but you're still supposed to host your book club meeting this month? Don't worry, we have you covered there too! Rent out our conference room to get a clean, cozy space for up to 12 people to meet. We have store parking, a comfy couch to sit on, a table to work at, and coffee available to all. If your meeting is during business hours, you can make your appointment online here. If you would like to meet outside of business hours, give us a call and we'll make the arrangements together. If you have any questions about the rental space or would like to check view it, please reach out to speak with Saide or Mary.

That's it for all our biggest updates at the beginning of 2019. We'll be posting on this blog several times throughout the year but the best way to get news about Foggy Pine Books is to sign up for the newsletter. If you sign up before the end of January, we will email you a special coupon to use on your next purchase!

Thank you again, Boone! We look forward to seeing you at our events this year and can't wait to see what great tings 2019 brings for us.

Hello, everyone! I can't believe I almost let this month get away without giving you an update. We have so much to talk about!

I'll start with events first. We have two more February events left and both take place this week. Tomorrow, Thursday, February 23 we'll meet at Hatchet Coffee at 7:30pm for our first Hatchet Coffee Book Club. We'll be discussing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and they will have Butterbeer Lattes available for $3, all day. I'm so excited for this meeting and to kick off this new book club in partnership with Hatchet Coffee. We still have copies of the screenplay available for purchase at the store. 

Saturday, February 25 we'll meet at the store for the February meeting of the Foggy Pine Book Club. We'll be discussing the beautiful novel, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. We'll also be finalizing our book choices for the next 6 months of reading! And, as always, we'll have wine and snacks to share. 

​There are also some March events that I'd like to go ahead and tell you about. We'll be jumping back into Spring with our First Friday event. It begins at 7pm on March 3rd and will last until 9pm. We'll have free wine. a giveaway, 10% off the entire store, and a Thirty-One vendor available for questions and orders. 

We'll also be returning to our children's story time. This event will take place on Saturday, March 11 at 3pm. We'll read a story together and have some kind of activity related to the story. This event usually lasts about 30 minutes and we'll have free coffee available for the parents. 

Finally, on Saturday, March 18 at 6:30pm, we have an author reading and signing with Lynn C. Willis for her book, Tell Me No Lies. This event will take place at the bookstore and books will be available for purchase beforehand at 10% off their list price. ​

We will also be sending out a new email newsletter in partnership with the literary website: Shelf Awareness. Currently, if you have signed up for the store e-newsletter, you are signed up for the Shelf Awareness e-newsletter. If you would like to be removed from the Shelf Awareness mailing list in advance, you can email Mary to have that done. If you check it out but decide that you don't want it, there's an unsubscribe button in the e-newsletter that you can click to have yourself removed. That said, we're really excited to send this newsletter out to our customers. Not only does it keep you up-to-date with the most current releases in hardback/paperback/children's books, you'll also find author interviews, book reviews, and links to other interesting articles on literary sites around the web. Plus, if something sounds so great that you can't live without it, you can click right on the "add to cart" button to buy it from us online. If you would like to register for this newsletter, please use the newsletter sign up. It has been adjusted to let you make a choice of which newsletter you'd like to have delivered to your inbox. 

One of the things we believe bookstores exist to do is to function as a community space. Right now, we don't have the space to do a lot of the things that we'd like to do but that doesn't mean that we can't start to offer more community events. So, in the spirit of community interest, we want to know which events you would be the most interested in participating in at the bookstore. We've created a quick, two question survey for you and would really appreciate you taking the time to answer it. We will definitely be reading and acting on responses so the more we have, the better we can serve the Boone community. Since it's such a short survey, we thought we'd just post it here:

The program we're most excited about offering is the Foggy Pine Ambassador Program. We love our customers and we love that our customers love us back. So, we've created an ambassador program for those that want to spread the good news about Boone's new bookstore. Here's how it works: starting in March, you will have the opportunity to become an Ambassador. We will include a signup link in the March newsletter, across social media, and on our website.

To be an Ambassador, you must agree to:
-be vocal about supporting FPB--word of mouth is the best form of advertisement
-write reviews for the store online or write book reviews for the Our Community Reads project
-give interested parties the FPB business card
-volunteer in at least one event every 6 weeks

In exchange, we will:
-give you a 10% discount on all purchases
-let you choose 1 ARC/month (doesn't have to be one we already have! Mary will ask publishers for you!)
-create a private Ambassador page on Facebook to connect Boone's most dedicated bibliophiles
-make sure you're the first to know about upcoming events, store changes, and community updates

So, stay tuned for the signup link coming soon!

​We're also extremely excited to tell that we are now able to offer digital audiobooks to our customers! Just go to the Libro.fm website to shop for audiobooks. They start as low as $5 per book and include new releases and children's books! Once you've made your purchase, you simply download the FREE Libro.fm app to your iOS or Android device and sign in. You'll be listening in no time. If you prefer to download your book and listen from your laptop or desktop computer, it's a very simple process. Every purchase you make supports Foggy Pine Books. So, shop away and please let us know if there's anything we can do to help you with this new program. 
​

Last, but not least, we want to talk about Black History Month. We've had an excellent time sharing our favorite authors of color with people celebrating BHM. Though we are dedicated to promoting the voices of marginalized people through literature every day, this month has been a special time to reflect on the contributions that black people have made to literature and to the world. We have thoroughly enjoyed the warm, friendly conversations that we've been able to have with our customers about Black History Month. So, we wanted to take this moment to let you know that we are always okay to have those conversations. We want you to feel comfortable, regardless of race/gender/ethnicity/sexuality/religion/citizen status expressing yourself at Foggy Pine Books. We want to help you find your favorite book or a new author you heard about. We want to help you find the stories and the information that you long to see. We're here to support you. So, please, don't hesitate to make our store your space. Bookstore's belong to community. Let's make sure Foggy Pine Books belongs to Boone. 

Thanks for being a part of our community. ​

The leaves are changing color rapidly and the peepers are in town in full force to witness the beauty that is the Blue Ridge Mountains in the fall. If you haven't had a chance to go outside and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather we've been having, I highly suggest you take a breather from whatever you're doing and feast your eyes upon the glory that surrounds you. If you don't live here, well, you should probably come for a visit before all these colors fall to the ground and are blown away by winter winds. 

We have a lot going on this month and shared some of that in our newsletter. If you haven't signed up for our newsletter already, you can do so here. 

Finally, all our fall related and horror books are 15% off for the rest of the month! We look forward to seeing you around the store and hope you'll join us for #patconroyweek and all our other various events. 

​Read on!

P.S.--If you wanted to nominate Mary, the store's main bookseller, for one of the James Patterson Bookseller Grants, that would be totally cool. You can do that here. 

Hey there, Foggy Friends! We have a few fun updates for you but we won't take long, promise. 

To start, our FIRST newsletter went out yesterday. We're very excited to offer this once-a-month service to those of you that just can't get enough of Foggy Pine Books. The newsletters will go out during the first week of every month and you will able to easily unsubscribe if you decide it's not for you. Each newsletter will include upcoming events, changes in the store, and special updates that newsletter recipients get FIRST. Special editions will include coupons! If you are interested in signing up, you can find the form to do so in the drop down menu of the "About" section. You can also just clickHERE.

​Second, we are starting a book club for general adult fiction! Our first meeting will be in September. You can find more information in the new Book Club blog that's found under the "Events" section or you can click HERE. You can also join our book club discussions on Goodreads. We will use this forum to share videos, articles, and interviews pertinent to the current book club selection. Use the widget below to gain access! Don't forget to follow or friend the owner, Mary, on Goodreads too!

Finally, we would like to remind you about our Baby's Storytime this Saturday, August 13th at 6:30pm. We'll be reading a board book version of Jabberwocky by Jennifer Adams/Lewis Carroll. There will be singing, dancing, and just general silliness. Parents, this is a great way to make new parent friends, get out of the house, and find that perfect play date partner. Parking will be free downtown and we'll have coffee for the adults. We can't wait to share our time with you!