The Green Toad Bookstore on Main Street has flourished handsomely, bucking the national trend of disappearing independent booksellers. It’s hardly surprising, given the savvy and energetic, and cheerful, leadership of Michelle Pondolfino and Claire Willis, ably assisted by an equally remarkable staff. The book-publishing industry has taken note and Oneonta is now a new stop on the national book-signing circuit, a jaunty feather in the city’s cap.

Then there is the release by Scribner’s, just this month, of “Lost,”
an exceptionally fine novel by Alice Lichtenstein, a powerhouse of a writer and professor at Hartwick College. Read it ASAP and feel the pleasure of “being in the know” when it comes up for a Pulitzer Prize, as it surely should.

From mid-April to mid-May our community will be treated to this year’s Big Read’s sharp focus on two of Thornton Wilder’s enduring masterpieces: “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” as fine a novel as can be imagined, written in the crystalline clarity of the American equivalent of classical Greek and Latin; and a richly conceived production of “Our Town,” directed by Lissa Sidoli and featuring, among others, the inimitable Reggie Brunson in the role of Stage Manager.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, and this is the third year running that Oneonta, via Foothills, has hosted it. If the NEA thinks us worthy of such prestige, come and find out for yourself in this enjoyable and stimulating excursion into the printed word.