June 30, 2023 – We wanted to feature this popular new design today because it represents a beautiful new chapter in the life of its author, Contributing Cardie Carrie Wolfgang.

As owner of Novel Destination Used Book Emporium in Jamestown, NY, Carrie has been a Cardthartic Retail Partner since opening the store nearly a dozen years ago, after retiring from a career in nursing. Today is a bittersweet one for Carrie, because tomorrow is the shop’s closing day. Let me flip back a few pages and explain how this story unfolded …

The card message began as a line in a lovely note Carrie had sent me after reading the Cardie Newsletter about friends supporting each other through illness back in March. We loved her words and, while working on the summer release, emailed her asking permission to publish them with the charming image we’d found. Carrie responded, “Oh my. Oh my. Oh-oh-oh-my … I am stunned. I am honored. And the serendipity of this arriving as I am trying to sort both personal and business changes into some magical life brew that will nourish my family, those I feel responsible for, and myself, is not lost on me!”

She later explained, “As my 62nd birthday and the second anniversary of my life partner Brian’s death from Covid draw near, I find myself considering what makes sense for my future. I have been packing my lunch and taking time off to fit everyone else’s agenda for over 40 years now, so I am looking forward to freedom to do more of my own thing. I also believe I can be more useful in my community as a willing volunteer, so I’ve announced a sell-off in June.”

Carrie has purchased 52 wooded acres in Pennsylvania that the previous owners called The Ranch. Her dear dog “Walt and I go for walks, my sons are clearing trails so we’ll be able to see the wildflowers, snakes and frogs or salamander egg masses. We throw seed for the birds, turkey, and deer. I am watching for turtles. The Ranch is the reason the card image is so very meaningful to me!!!”

Looking back to 2011 when she’d just retired from nursing, Carrie said, “I thought the community needed a book shop. I love books so I was happy to be surrounded by them.” At Novel Destination, she stocked around 30,000 hand-picked, used books.

“When people came in, I wanted them to feel welcome and leave with positive, uplifting thoughts,” she said. “Now I want to be able to do that somewhere in the community … there are lots of places in need if people are well enough to help.

“I loved being able to put the right book in the right hands,” she said. “I loved hearing, ‘That’s my favorite book, I’ve been looking for it for years,’ Or, ‘I have books two, three and five in this series, and you have one and four, so now I can read the whole series in order.’

“I love learning, and reading books allows me to learn about people and places that I never would’ve had a chance to know about,” she said. “It’s my hobby and my comfort, and you can take them wherever you go. Books are also forgiving — you can put them away and take them out again years later and the story is just as good, if not better.”

All Carrie’s quotes above were off-the-cuff, so you can be sure we’ll be all over this beautiful writer once she’s well into her new chapter. ❤️ Congratulations, Carrie!

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative

Leave a congratulations message for Carrie.  And feel free to recommend one of your favorite reads!

June 30, 2023 – We wanted to feature this popular new design today because it represents a beautiful new chapter in the life of its author, Contributing Cardie Carrie Wolfgang.

As owner of Novel Destination Used Book Emporium in Jamestown, NY, Carrie has been a Cardthartic Retail Partner since opening the store nearly a dozen years ago, after retiring from a career in nursing. Today is a bittersweet one for Carrie, because tomorrow is the shop’s closing day. Let me flip back a few pages and explain how this story unfolded …

The card message began as a line in a lovely note Carrie had sent me after reading the Cardie Newsletter about friends supporting each other through illness back in March. We loved her words and, while working on the summer release, emailed her asking permission to publish them with the charming image we’d found. Carrie responded, “Oh my. Oh my. Oh-oh-oh-my … I am stunned. I am honored. And the serendipity of this arriving as I am trying to sort both personal and business changes into some magical life brew that will nourish my family, those I feel responsible for, and myself, is not lost on me!”

She later explained, “As my 62nd birthday and the second anniversary of my life partner Brian’s death from Covid draw near, I find myself considering what makes sense for my future. I have been packing my lunch and taking time off to fit everyone else’s agenda for over 40 years now, so I am looking forward to freedom to do more of my own thing. I also believe I can be more useful in my community as a willing volunteer, so I’ve announced a sell-off in June.”

Carrie has purchased 52 wooded acres in Pennsylvania that the previous owners called The Ranch. Her dear dog “Walt and I go for walks, my sons are clearing trails so we’ll be able to see the wildflowers, snakes and frogs or salamander egg masses. We throw seed for the birds, turkey, and deer. I am watching for turtles. The Ranch is the reason the card image is so very meaningful to me!!!”

Looking back to 2011 when she’d just retired from nursing, Carrie said, “I thought the community needed a book shop. I love books so I was happy to be surrounded by them.” At Novel Destination, she stocked around 30,000 hand-picked, used books.

“When people came in, I wanted them to feel welcome and leave with positive, uplifting thoughts,” she said. “Now I want to be able to do that somewhere in the community … there are lots of places in need if people are well enough to help.

“I loved being able to put the right book in the right hands,” she said. “I loved hearing, ‘That’s my favorite book, I’ve been looking for it for years,’ Or, ‘I have books two, three and five in this series, and you have one and four, so now I can read the whole series in order.’

“I love learning, and reading books allows me to learn about people and places that I never would’ve had a chance to know about,” she said. “It’s my hobby and my comfort, and you can take them wherever you go. Books are also forgiving — you can put them away and take them out again years later and the story is just as good, if not better.”

All Carrie’s quotes above were off-the-cuff, so you can be sure we’ll be all over this beautiful writer once she’s well into her new chapter. ❤️ Congratulations, Carrie!

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative

Leave a congratulations message for Carrie.  And feel free to recommend one of your favorite reads!