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Readers' Books, 130 E Napa Street, Sonoma, CA (2026)

03/01/2026

Seven come eleven.

Anyone who follows the news has perhaps realized the inevitability of this moment. Donald Trump used to run gambling casinos in Atlantic City, so maybe it is no great surprise that he has now rolled the dice and singlehandedly plunged us into a weekend war with Iran. What rankles is that he did so without even consulting Congress or musing about the serious reservations of the Joint Chiefs.

We may take comfort in the fact that he did chat in advance with Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu so that both men could coordinate their plans.

There are a number of ironies connected to this whole debacle, however. Never mind that Congress is supposed to declare war. That’s such a quaint idea, after all, letting our elected representatives take responsibility. So…Constitutional. And never mind the fact that it was just a year ago that we ostensibly bombed their nuclear facilities back to the stone age–”obliterated” them, according to our President–and once again, without the benefit of congressional wisdom.

Unlike the last adventure when our special forces helicoptered into Venezuela and abducted that nation’s head of state, the attack on Iran is destined to be much more difficult. You don’t need to be a four-star general to know that this was never going to be a walk in the park. Iran has some ninety million inhabitants; it also has a well-trained and well-equipped military. And even if many Iranians are against the brutal rule of the ayatollahs, they are very patriotic. They’ve endured a gruesome six-year war with Iraq and they know in no uncertain terms what it means to sacrifice blood and treasure.

I wonder if this was ever mentioned in the Oval Office. Probably not. Since Trump is not even contemplating making a major announcement about the war, I’m guessing he thinks (hopes? prays?) that somehow this will amount to yet another short blood-letting, that the regime will simply throw up their hands and fold their tents and vanish in the night. And does he also believe in fairy tales? That everyone will live happily ever after?

There are, of course, real, legitimate reasons to want to topple the folks in Tehran. They have supported terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East, they suppress, imprison and torture their own people, and their narrow theocratic myopia flies in the face of our natural pluralist instincts. But by that metric, many misbehaving countries deserve our wrath. Are we on a war footing with Russia? China? North Korea? I see little evidence. The question then becomes, can we afford to be the world’s policeman? Are our ethical standards so pure?

Chances are, this hot mess we are waltzing into stems not from actual cause, but rather, from our President’s perceived need. Truth be told, he’s wagging the dog; Iran is just a distraction, a bright, shiny object Donald Trump wants us to focus on instead of the economy, the roaming bands of ICE thugs, the coming elections, and, most importantly, the Epstein affair. He knows he is tainted, a lame duck. He knows his own base is increasingly abandoning him. And maybe somewhere in the back of his mind he fears the coming rule of law and that his days of freedom are numbered.

Let me say that I hope this goes well and ends quickly. I pray that it does. But I don’t pretend to be a prophet. I honestly have no idea what success looks like, and I doubt that Trump does, either.

–Andy Weinberger

02/27/2026

To each his own.

Lilla told me a story once from her college days. She had enrolled in a sociology class and there was going to be an essay test the next day on a certain chapter. Maybe it wasn’t sociology, I can’t remember that part, but it doesn’t matter. Anyway, she walked in and sat down and suddenly realized that she had read the wrong chapter. But rather than lie and put down a bunch of obvious baloney, she elected to say, Guess what? I screwed up. I somehow didn’t read the section you assigned and so instead I’m going to write about the section I did study. Hope that’s okay.

The teacher was impressed by her candor and her ability to speak on the other topic, and she ended up with an A on the test.

I bring this up as a segue into what took place last night at the State of the Union speech in Washington, D.C. To wit, the president spent nearly two hours of our valuable time talking about things only he was interested in. These were not, in my view, topics that touched directly on the pain we are feeling at the moment. Quite the contrary, in fact. He talked about our terrific men’s hockey team, he talked about the surging stock market and how everyone’s 401K plans were growing fatter by the minute, he talked about how our southern border was now safe and secure and how fentanyl usage was way down. And since he hasn’t an ounce of humility, he naturally took credit for every bit of it.

Leaving aside whether the numbers and “facts” he was quoting were true, there is a much larger concern: namely that he ignored the front page issues the rest of us are fixated on. He did not, for example, mention the tragic killings in Minneapolis and the traumatic impact that ICE’s marauding gangs are having on everyone. I don’t think the word ICE even came up in the speech. As a political matter, he also was vague about what he might do differently in advance of the midterm elections to ease the rising anxiety among his fellow Republicans. They sat there and applauded him like trained seals; he thought that was his due, apparently. He doesn’t realize that their fate and his are deeply intertwined. And of course, there was the (you should pardon the expression) elephant in the room: Jeffrey Epstein was a no-show.

Ideally, the State of the Union message is supposed to be a moment of reset. The president usually takes a victory lap for whatever good he has achieved thus far. But he also leaves ample space for charting a fresh direction. Here, Trump failed spectacularly. By his myopic reckoning, he had done nothing wrong, nothing his predecessors had come close to, certainly nothing to apologize for. Instead, we were treated to a bizarre variety show, a queen for a day parade whereby heroes–from the recent Texas flood to our invasion of Venezuela, even back to World War II days–were trotted out and publicly awarded medals. Trump also went on several rampages about murderous incidents in this country, all of which, curiously enough, seemed to involve illegal immigrants. He devoted an extraordinary amount of time on this subject, asking the victims in the gallery to rise and be recognized for their suffering while he went on and on in graphic detail. It was a display of violent p**n that he seemed to relish, even as most of us were revulsed by it.

If the president really cared about us and wanted to address our concerns, he would have taken a different tack. If he were honest, the State of the Union could have been a cathartic experience. He is underwater in virtually every public poll in the country, on every issue from immigration to the economy to trusting government officials. But honesty and Trump are words that probably will never be used in the same sentence. In the end, he is a carnival barker; if it’s not larger than life, he has no interest.

Lilla was honest back then. She admitted she was wrong before she launched into her essay, and not only did she get an A on the test, I’m sure she slept soundly that night.

–Andy Weinberger

02/04/2026

TO THE BARRICADES, with song.

In the spirit of resilience and resistance, Readers’ Books has decided to embark on a new (and hopefully, temporary) side-venture: we’re now offering the public anti-ICE whistles.

BYOL (Bring Your Own Lanyard). The sound these little metal guys emit will not just alert all patriotic Americans within earshot, but also panic the masked, pistol-packing goons roaming the street. This is as it should be, in my humble opinion (Nota bene: the last time I checked our Constitution I still had the right to an opinion, although with the current gang at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you can never be certain).

We aren’t putting an exact price tag on these whistles; instead we ask for a CASH donation of whatever amount you choose. ALL proceeds will be given to Sonoma Immigrant Services, a 501. 3c organization right here on Highway 12. They do important education and advocacy work for our local immigrant populations and deserve our help.

-Andy Weinberger

02/01/2026

Better days ahead.

If you were not one of the maybe three people in this country who wasn’t completely disgusted by what has gone on in Minnesota these past few weeks–in other words, if you are a thoughtful, compassionate human being–I have encouraging news. The tide is definitely turning in our direction.

Some data points to back this up: Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post have come out against Trump’s immigration tactics. The National Review has called for Kristi Noem, our most inept head of Homeland Security, to be fired, “preferably in a rocket.” The NRA (yes, okay, in defense of the 2nd Amendment) has gone after the Administration for using the fact that Alex Pretti was armed at the time of his murder as a cheap excuse to open fire. Numerous elected Republicans–from Ted Cruz to Rand Paul–have chastised the White House for their over-the-top tactics. Some of their outrage is moral, but of course, they are also noting the steep political price they will have to pay in November. And now it looks as though we will be heading into another government shutdown because Democrats and some Republicans can’t bring themselves to vote for the continued violence they see on their TV screens every night.

Speaking of screens, I have to give a special shout-out here to the advent of the iPhone as well: the fact that any move ICE makes is now caught forever on video from multiple angles is nothing short of revolutionary. What a difference that would have made back in the day when we were demonstrating about civil rights and Vietnam. Oh well.

Still, it’s only January, and many months remain until the elections in November. A lot can go wrong; hell, a lot probably will go wrong before this nightmare is over. And whatever nonsense looms on the horizon–whether we invade Greenland or Canada, whether we “liberate” Iran or knock down another wing of the White House or dismantle the Federal Reserve (the possibilities are endless, after all, and who among us can read Trump’s mind?)--we have to soldier on.

There is no alternative, really. You just have to stay sane and do whatever you can to move the ball forward. That’s the world we live in.

–Andy Weinberger

12/24/2025

We’re open until 5pm.

Come see all of our merry faces!

11/29/2025

Happy birthday to us 🥳📚

Andy and Rosie are the two happiest bookstore owners in the world today!

11/15/2025

It's that time of the year again!

While we are not taking any used book appointments until early 2026, there are still plenty of used books on our shelves for you to buy!

11/10/2025

The Future.

In a few weeks it’ll be Thanksgiving again, which, among other joyous things, signals the annual birthday party for Readers’ Books. This year, believe it or not, we will be thirty-four years old. Now, thirty-four is not particularly old in the grand scheme of things. I still recall when I was thirty-four. It doesn’t seem so long ago. And in my mind I was young and vibrant back then. I was resilient; I could do twenty push-ups and bike forty miles a day and still have plenty of energy left over.

But there is a big difference between the way a human ages and that of retail. I read somewhere that fifty percent of new businesses die in the first two years. When Lilla and I started this thing in 1991, we had no clue how long it would last. Really, it was just an idea that came to her suddenly, an elaborate fantasy that seemed somehow to resonate. We were never sure whether or not the pieces would all come together. We just worked at it, day after day. And through hard work, and with the help of many, many people, and yes, sometimes through sheer luck, it continued and eventually started to thrive.

I should note here that bookselling has little in common with other careers. Almost nothing, in fact. People become plumbers because they’re good with their hands, but also because they know there is money in plumbing. And when they go off to college, young lawyers may care about defending the Constitution, but they are also keenly aware that the law can be a street paved with gold.

Not so with booksellers. We are, as a group, chronic dreamers, luft-mensch, as my grandmother would say–folks who live in the clouds. We like words, and there is nothing more satisfying to us than to disappear for hours inside a good book. What I’m getting at is that no one in his right mind goes into bookselling to get rich; the best you can hope for is–if you play your cards right–it makes a living.

That said, I recognize how important Readers’ Books is to the Sonoma community and beyond. If you’re reading this in our newsletter, I’m sure you’ll agree with me. And of course I want the service we deliver, this legacy, this love of books, to continue far beyond my stewardship.

Recently, I got together with one of my employees, Rosie Lee-Parks, and we formed a partnership. Rosie has worked here for eleven years. She has no illusions about the nuts and bolts of the book biz and all the things one must do to keep a store intact. How it isn’t always glamorous. How there’s often a lot of schlepping involved. She is in her thirties, she is smart, she’s young and vibrant, about the same age I was when I got into this business, and she will eventually take full control. Actually, she started hanging out in the bookstore at age six, so in that sense, she’s been here at least as long as I have.

Right now, I still manage the bills and Rosie (with the help of Jude and Thea and others) pretty much does everything else. I want to continue to be a presence as long as I am useful. We’re taking it a day at a time. It’s a work in progress. The good news is, you probably won’t notice any change. It will be essentially seamless, which is just how we want it.

And I’ll still be around for the foreseeable future. I’m nowhere near the exit, in fact. So this is not a farewell. No, more like an update. But because you’re part of this, I wanted you to know.

–Andy Weinberger

11/02/2025

How many stars make up our sky?

from Rosie

A beautiful picture book, All the Stars in the Sky, was published last month. It was written by Art Coulson with lovely illustrations from Winona Nelson and is about a young boy learning about the importance of community. At his school, the teacher picks a "star of the week", who is given the highest honors of an elementary school classroom: getting to pick the story and be first in line and, all in all, being the most important person. However, his grandmother points out that no one person can be the most important. She teaches him about the Cherokee concept of gadugi: that working together and helping one another means that everyone is important to each other in different ways. Clay takes that lesson to his classroom, making the whole class the star of the week and growing a constellation rather than siloed individuals.

I don't know the exact history of our Book Stars program—we're not great archivists here—but I don't think that the name was an accident. If you're not familiar, every year we do a book drive for Sonoma Valley kids in need. People can come in, pick out a book—or more—and then give them back to us. We sort them by age and interest and then get them to Sonoma Valley organizations that work with kids, including the Mentoring Alliance, La Luz, Kid Scoop, the Ed Foundation, and the Boys and Girls Clubs. For every book donated, we put a star up on our back wall. At the end of year, there's a galaxy on that wall, so many that maybe we should start thinking of making some constellations.

Those stars on our wall shed off a lot more light than you'd think. Sure, it's just multi-colored construction paper, but those symbols shine brighter each year. There have always been kids in Sonoma that have never had a brand new book of their own and, no matter how much progress we make, there always will be. There is no such thing as a perfect society, which is why we have to create good communities that support each other. And now, when all progress seems to be becoming unraveled, that's when we have to support each other even more. There are people, more than ever, who are making hard choices this winter and there are more kids than ever that will need some joy this year.

In All the Stars in the Sky, young Clay is a little taken aback by his grandmother's blunt lesson when she tells him that he will never be the most important person in the school. It's tough to recognize the inherent impotence of the individual: one person, no matter how powerful, can not do everything, can not be everything. But even in the US, where we are well known for our solipsism, we know that already. After all, there are no kings in America.

I find it difficult, this year, to promote Book Stars. I keep thinking about how many people are going cold and hungry this winter: directing people's charitable urges towards basic needs seems more important. Triage, after all. But then—isn't that just what makes the world darkest? When you can only care about the very basic needs, how can you learn to dream about more? If there's a kid out there who needs food and warmth, they also need stories to keep their minds and souls alive. So I'll ask again this year—can you help us build that constellation? Maybe you can't be the most important person, but you can add to all the other stars. All of us will shine brighter together.

10/02/2025

was absolutely wonderful last night!

A huge thank you to everyone who donated to the Lilla Fund — we were able to raise enough to cover a scholarship and a half for a Sonoma Valley High School student to spend on their college journey.

If you missed the reading, we have an ample amount of signed copies of Startlement in store and the archived livestream is now available to watch on our YouTube (link in bio)!

Swipe for a clip of Ada reading “Homesick”

09/02/2025

A huge thank you to the wonderful and talented for stopping by today to sign copies of her poetry collections ahead of the Startlement book launch later this month!

As a special treat to all of you, we have some signed copies of Startlement available for purchase in store!

Readers' Books

03/01/2026

02/27/2026

02/04/2026

02/01/2026

12/24/2025

11/29/2025

11/15/2025

11/10/2025

11/02/2025

10/02/2025

09/02/2025

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