I’m thinking of a calendar – “The Women Of Battenkill Books.” It was inspiring to look up and see Maria, Connie and Marilyn Brooks organizing this massive signing and ship-out of orders for “Going Home.” Connie and her family have been working long and late hours to  sort and file book orders, get packaging, work with the Post Office and get the books signed and shipped. They are also spending a lot of time on the phone taking orders and talking to people. They work well together, are organized and efficient.They stay cool and remember to have fun. I hope the orders keep coming in. If independent bookstores are to survive, we have to do more than just complain about their struggles.

I love the women of Battenkill Books. They all nixed the calendar idea but got a good laugh out of it.

Whatever Connie’s struggles have been, she hasn’t spoken of them. She is not one for sympathy-seeking or struggle stories. I am often struck – in my writing life and my personal life – by the powerful and much needed values many women bring to work. They work in concert, understand the emotional context of the people around them, believe in teamwork and can make work creative and fun. I realize this is generalizing, that all women are not like this, but many are, and I often get the feeling when I look out at the world beyond the farm, that the world would be a better, more humane, peaceful and prosperous place if women were running it.

That is surely true of my life. For signed and personalized copies of “Going Home” and the “Going Home Video” you can call the women of Battenkill Books at 518 677-2515. I’m hoping for 500 books sold there. About 75 away.