The ThriftBooks Blog

By Beth Clark • September 28, 2018

"Location, location, location" means more when you have good neighbors, as lifelong besties who started out that way can attest. If you're among the lucky ones, who can relate celebrate National Good Neighbor Day by being one and repay that night of babysitting or cup of sugar with a little extra to say thanks. If you have more of a Montague-Capulet thing going with your neighbor(s), try to let it go for the day, whatever "it" is. And if you don’t know your neighbors, what a perfect reason to invite them over!

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By Beth Clark • September 24, 2018

Okay, maybe we can’t eliminate censorship (yet...#goals), but we can celebrate Banned Books Week with gusto by reading all of the stories that someone (or someones) tried to silence, destroy, or restrict access to. Here are 50 of the most frequently banned and/or most recently challenged books, along with the "who, why, and how" of literary censorship in America.

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By Beth Clark • September 21, 2018

A hundred years ago, novelist H.G. Wells predicted that science would be "king of the world." Titanic's Jack Dawson may take issue with that claim, but he’d have a tough time disputing the compelling influence Wells had on politics, society, and the future that extended far beyond the literary realm. Considering Wells is one the founding fathers of sci-fi (along with Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs) and the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible man, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The War of the Worlds, that's saying something.

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By Beth Clark • September 18, 2018

If you're one of the 3.9 million full-time employees in the US who work remotely at least 50% of the time, you already know that the struggle is all too real some days, so here are some resources and practical hacks to help you overcome the inevitable challenges and succeed. (No judgement if you're reading this in your pajamas!)

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By Beth Clark • September 13, 2018

Moms/dads, aunties/uncles, abuelas/abuelos, and everyone else, hang up your aprons, 'cause it's #KidsTakeOverTheKitchenDay. Give the budding culinary artiste(s) in your world a chance to cultivate their cooking abilities under your supervisory guidance (for the younger set) or show off their kitchen skills (for the older kids) by letting them play chef for the day (or just make you a meal).

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By Matthew Richey • September 05, 2018

Looking for something that can pull your family together? Try finding a book that can engage the whole family's interest and read it aloud. Yeah, you might feel a bit like the Ingalls family in Little House on the Prairie, but just go with it. The payoff is worth it!

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By Beth Clark • September 03, 2018

Porsche (the car) is practically a religion for loyalists, but Porsche (the creator) had a brilliance that went well beyond the automobile world. In honor of his birthday, here are a few things about the fascinating Dr. Ferdinand Porsche that you may not know.

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By Beth Clark • August 31, 2018

The Great American Read is a PBS series that explores and celebrates the power of reading as the core of an ambitious digital, educational, and community outreach campaign designed to get the country reading and passionately talking about books. One hundred books, to be exact, so happy reading!

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By Linda Vandercook • August 30, 2018

Dogs do all kinds of cool jobs—what is your dog’s job? Do you have a service dog? A retired military dog? Or perhaps a 'that couch ain't going to get that hairy all by itself' dog?

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By Beth Clark • August 28, 2018

At the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd of 250,000. The Civil Rights Movement—and the world—were forever changed by the words of one man.

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