That Bookstore in Blytheville

Welcome!

When Mary Gay Shipley opened her bookshop in Blytheville, Arkansas, in 1976, she had no idea that it would develop a reputation that has made it a unique Mid-America landmark.

The store's 2400 square feet with more than 25,000 titles in stock invites visitors to browse while sipping a cup of the store's own blend of coffee, Special Edition. You can relax in a rocking chair next to a wood stove, engage in conversation about the book you've just read or enjoy a spontaneous reading of the new favorite children's book of the day.

Now TBIB is online in partnership with Book Sense. We offer the same wonderful customer service you've come to expect. Secure internet shopping 24 hours a day. Read the newsletter. Browse some titles. Welcome ...

Store Events

Bret Lott visits TBIB July 15 at 6:30. Ancient Highway From the bestselling author of "Jewel" and "The Difference Between Women and Men" comes a haunting novel of home, family, and the pursuit of lost dreams. "Ancient Highway" brilliantly weaves together the hopes and regrets of three characters from three generations as they reconcile who they are and who they might have been.

Ancient Highway
by Lott, Bret
From the bestselling author of "Jewel" and "The Difference Between Women and Men" comes a haunting novel of home, family, and the pursuit of lost dreams. "Ancient Highway" brilliantly weaves together the hopes and regrets of three characters from three generations as they reconcile who they are and who they might have been.
In 1925, a fourteen-year-old boy leaves his family's farm and hops a boxcar in a dusty Texas field, heading for Hollywood and a life in the "flickers."
In 1947, a ten-year-old girl aches for a real home with a real family in a wide-open space, far from the crowded Los Angeles streets where her handsome cowboy father chases stardom and her mother holds a secret.
In 1980, a young man just out of the Navy visits his elderly yet colorful grandparents in Los Angeles, eager to uncover his family's silent history.
For the Holmeses, a longing for something else-another place, a second chance-seems to run in the family DNA. From Earl's journey west toward Hollywood glory, to his daughter Joan's wish for a normal existence away from the bright lights, to his grandson Brad's yearning for truth, this deep-rooted desire sustains them, no matter how much the goal eludes them. But ultimately, in each generation, a family crisis forces a turning away from the horizon and the acceptance of a reality that is by turns harsh and healing.
Inspired by stories of his own family, Bret Lott beautifully renders the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary faith in a mesmerizing and finely wrought tale of love and letting go.
Praise for "Ancient Highway"
"A chance to visit a country of grace where the twisted roads of American literature seldom lead us . . . We canonly admire the way Lott . . . creates and differentiates so many characters and sets them into action so naturally."
-"Los Angeles Times Book Review"
"Bret Lott's writings tell us about the value of family, even when those relationships burst at their psychic seams. Mostly, though, Lott's fiction takes us into a world marked by traditional values of lasting love, honor and respect. . . . Lott's majestic prose, with its biblical cadences, further distinguishes this capacious parable of enduring grace and love."
-"The Charlotte Observer
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Autographed Books and Limited Editions

We have autographed books and/or limited editions by Terry Kay, John Grisham,Lisa Tucker, T.A. Barron, Ace Atkins, Ann Patchett, Bill Strickland, Tony Early, Graeme Base, Michael Lee West, Cassandra King, Ken Wells, Susab Gilmore, Avi, and others.
To purchase Signed First Editions CALL or EMAIL the store, orders placed online are filled from the warehouse and will not be autographed.

The Future of Love
by Abbott, Shirley
Set in New York in 2001, Abbott's debut novel invites us into the lives of good people grappling with the hard choices and the sacrifices they must make to find love. In the manner of a contemporary Edith Wharton, Shirley Abbott exposes the inner lives and the tangled relationships of eight characters--before and after New York's tragedy--and forces both them and the reader to see the world in a new way.
Having assembled a smart, compelling ensemble, reminiscent of HBO's "Six Feet Under," Abbott allows us to see the possibility of happiness even as the city itself is tested. With humor and profound empathy, she has crafted a novel that runs deep into the heart of our need for commitment from friends, lovers, and family.

Martin Clark and

The Legal Limit Martin Clark is a circuit court judge and lives in Stuart, Virginia with his wife Deana. The Legal Limit is the gripping, complex story of a murder cover-up that wreaks widespread havoc even as it redifines the concept of justice-a relentlessly entertaining saga that delves deeply into matters at once ambiguous and essential. Join us as we welcome Martin Clark to TBIB

The Legal Limit
by Clark, Martin
Martin Clark's most remarkable novel yet is the gripping, complex story of a murder cover-up that wreaks widespread havoc even as it redefines the concept of justice--a relentlessly entertaining saga that delves deeply into matters at once ambiguous and essential.
While Gates Hunt chose to fight his abusive father head-on, his younger brother, Mason, eventually escaped their bitter, impoverished circumstances by earning a free ride to college and law school. And while Gates became an intransigent, compulsive felon, Mason met and married the love of his life, had a spitfire daughter, and returned to his rural hometown as the commonwealth's attorney. But Mason's idyll is abruptly pierced by a wicked tragedy, and soon afterward his life further unravels when Gates, convinced that his brother's legal influence should spring him from prison, attempts to force his cooperation by means of a secret they'd both sworn to take with them to the grave. And with his closest friend and staunch ally suddenly threatened by secrets of his own, Mason ultimately finds himself facing complete ruin and desperately defending everything and everyone he holds dear.
Intricately plotted and shot through with authenticity, "The Legal Limit" is a roller coaster of moral relevance. What should govern our actions when family loyalty challenges personal integrity, when the letter of the law defies its spirit, and when fate plays dice with our best endeavors?