The Book Oasis

The Book Oasis Blog

Monday, March 28th

Another Voice in the Literary Chorus is Gone

Close the Book on Andre Norton...

Her death was announced by her friend, Jean Rabe, who said Norton died Thursday of congestive heart failure at her home in Murfreesboro, a Nashville suburb, on March 18, 2005. She was 93.

Norton requested before her death that she not have a funeral service, but instead asked to be cremated along with a copy of her first and last novels.

Born Alice Mary Norton on February 17, 1912, in Cleveland, she wrote more than 130 books in many genres during her career of nearly 70 years. Amongst her works were the Witch World books, which eventually numbered 30 in the series. She used a pen name -- which she made her legal name in 1934 -- because she expected to be writing mostly for young boys and thought a male name would help sales. In this she joined the ranks of other female novelists, such as James Tiptree and George Eliot.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America recently created the Andre Norton Award for young adult novels, and the first award will be presented in 2006.

My first exposure to Andre Norton came in 1977, via a Scholastic Order of her book "Daybreak: 2250 A.D. (originally published as Starman's Son)". The story is about a mutant young man who sets out across a nuclear war-wasted America in search of a lost city. Filled with danger, the book enchanted me, and I went on to read many other of Norton's books. In later years, I knew her books could be relied upon when the reading shelf got thin. I will miss her.

Larry Burdick on 03.28.05 @ 04:08 PM PST [link]

Friday, March 18th

A Sale is a Sale is a Sale

Someone once said, "The only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won." To that I will add, "The only thing worse than a sale well-attended is a sale poorly-attended." Between the rain, the construction on First Street which reroutes traffic (Grrr!), and who knows what else, our Spring Cleaning Sale drew almost no one!

As such, we will be having our Heritage Sale on April 30 & May 1st. As Livermore's oldest Family-Owned bookstore we will be celebrating our 12th year in business! Also, this is the same day as the Livermore Wine Country Festival! They will have 200 booths and 25 wineries participating. Here's the list of our discounted items:

All Rare Books: 20% off!

All Paperbacks: 30% off!

All Hardbacks: 50% off!

So, you can on Saturday, April 30th, & Sunday, May 1st, you can multi-task: go to the festival for wine, refreshments, and handicrafts, and then stop in at Book Oasis, for a bargain on your favorite books.

Also, in the coming year, there will be some sweeping changes here at Book Oasis. I won't spoil the surprise except to say that we're expanding our operations to make things more attractive (seen our new shingle out front?), and more exciting. We think you'll be pleased.

If you have any ideas on how we can better serve you, drop us a line at owner@bookoasis.biz">owner@bookoasis.biz

Larry Burdick on 03.18.05 @ 05:27 PM PST [link]