Bobzbay Books' BobzBlog

Show your love for local & small business this holiday season!

Join us at the bookstore on Small Business Saturday (11/29/25) from 9am-5pm for...

- Free Bobzbay Books sticker with purchase!

- Curated 'Great for Gifting' book display!

- Boosted (1.5x) loyalty stars with every purchase!

- New Winter Romance edition of our beloved 'Blind Date with Book'!

- Fun bookish goodies that make excellent stocking stuffers!

- A big thank you from the Bobzbay Booksellers for supporting your local indie bookstore! <3

Plus, Bobzbay Books will be stamping passports for Downtown Bloomington's 'Shop, Stamp, Share' campaign, which kicks off on Small Business Saturday and runs through Friday, December 5th! For more information on how to participate (there are prizes involved!), head to this link.

Grab your book buddies and join us at the bookstore on Sunday, November 30th from 11am-1pm for a fun holiday photo opportunity with Bobert, the Bobzbay Books robot! We'll have the kids room decorated with a sparkly winter sci-fi theme for some ~out of this world~ holiday photos, plus we'll have a wide selection of books on display that are hand-picked by our booksellers as great gifting options for the holidays!

The Details:

- No reservation or payment required! This is a casual photo opportunity that is open to the public and completely free of charge.

- Bring your own camera! We will have a bookseller available to take the photos, but please provide your own camera (phone or otherwise). *Don’t have access to a camera? Let us know and we’ll have a bookseller take a few photos to be emailed or texted to you!

- Bring your friends, family, book club, and/or favorite book, but no pets please! Furry friends don’t always enjoy the presence of a giant robot, so please keep photo participants limited to humans and robots only.

- Fun for all winter holidays! The kid’s room will be decorated in a sparkly winter sci-fi theme (think: silvery stars & robots!) that is non-specific to any particular holiday or event.

- Build your book wishlist! We’ll have physical wishlist cards on hand for you to build a book wishlist, plus we’ll be giving out discount codes to Bookshop.org — the perfect place to build an online wishlist that can be shared with others (while supporting indie bookstores!)

**Please note: The kid's room at Bobzbay will be largely un-shoppable from 11am-1pm while photos are in progress.

Carey

Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 by Martha Wells

I love this book and all of its sequels! Murderbot is a bot-human hybrid who gets rented out as a security unit for dangerous missions. This job is just as glamorous as it is safe. Murderbot just wants to watch its favorite human media, but humans and alien fauna keep trying to destroy it. Ugh.

You'll love the snarky narrator and want to see it succeed, whether that's by surviving an ambush or simply finding a few moments to ignore the humans and watch its favorite media. This book is military sci-fi for people who don't like military sci-fi, and it's a great entry point for someone who wants to try sci-fi but doesn't know where to start.

McKenzie

Coming at you with a holiday-adjacent middle grade recommendation from one of my favorite authors! A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking🗡️ has baking magic, a murder, a kingdom in need of saving, giant gollum-like gingerbread men, and a sentient sourdough start named Bob that eats everything it touches.

If you’re a Kingfisher fan and haven’t tried any of her middle grade books, this one is soooo much fun! It’s a great pick for adults as well as kids 🩷

Sydney

In addition to books (the best gift of all) I love to give practical or experience-based gifts and A Couple Cooks: 100 Recipes to Cook Together is a perfect blend of both! This cookbook is filled with recipes designed to be prepared and cooked by a team of two people, making it a perfect present for the 'Yes, Chef!'-ers in your life that love to cook together (or want to love to cook together).

Holiday shopping deadlines & special event dates are here! We're setting a 10 day turnaround time if you want us to ship an in-stock item to a loved one, and about 14 days for special orders destined for pickup at the shop. In 99% of cases I'm sure books will arrive much earlier than we say, we just don't want to be the reason someone doesn't have a gift!

We have tons of great options in-store for gifts (including the super popular blind date with a book option, staff picks, art from artists around the country, gift cards, + more) and can special order nearly any book as long as it's still in print!

Ordering from the shop or checking stock is easy! Just text 309-434-9515, email [email protected], call 309-740-2012, or swing by the bookstore.

We're excited to help you pick out gifts this season, and are so glad that you choose to support locally owned businesses like ours!

Have bookish news or a local event you think will be of interest to our readers? Share it with us and we’ll try to include it in the newsletter!

Bloomington - World Aids Day 2025 (12/1/25) "Central Illinois Friends, along with our partners at the Bloomington-Normal Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Central Illinois chapter of The Links, Incorporated, Positive Health Solutions, and Prairie Pride Coalition invite you to join us for World AIDS Day in Bloomington-Normal.

Our candlelight vigil will feature guest speaker Representative Sharon Chung, as we honor those lost to HIV and celebrate the light and lives of our HIV+ friends and neighbors. Refreshments will be provided by the Bloomington-Normal Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Additionally, six sections of the national AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at the Bloomington Public Library from December 1-5. Don’t miss your chance to catch this unique and powerful exhibition while it is available."

Find more info here.

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Our local libraries also have an incredible line-up of events, and we encourage you to check out their event calendars! View Bloomington's, Normal's, & Towanda's!

The Normal Theater has a TON of great movies, and I encourage you to check out their monthly schedule & support a great community staple we have here in town... I know I do :)

The Bobzbay Books pet of the week this week is Earendil, who was recently adopted. Thanks for sharing your pet pic Jenn!

Tag us on social media or text us (309-434-9515) photos of your book loving pets and we'll try to share them in upcoming newsletters.