hope that everyone out there has a happy day, whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving or not.

Just added to the Upcoming Peanuts book list is new US editions of Happiness is a Warm Puppy, Happiness is a Sad Song, Home is on Top of a Doghouse, and Security is a Thumb and a Blanket. For those who don’t know these books, this is a series that started in the 1960s, featuring little sayings with new Schulz illustrations. These books will be 72 pages each (which means that we’re obviously getting ones based on the original edition, and not the longer-but-lesser re-illustrated editions that came later), hardcover, 5.5″ square, with a May 2006 release date and a cover price that varying sources list as $5.95 or $6.95 (so you may want to order them now, since Amazon is listing the lower price).

The publisher for these is Cider Mill Press. This is a new publishing line founded by the former publisher of the Running Press line, who have been putting out the little miniature adaptations of the classic Peanuts specials and other gift-oriented Peanuts books.

These are nice little books, and because they aren’t strip reprints, you can’t expect to see this stuff in the Complete Peanuts books. I’d say they’re worth the price, certainly!

I’ve just completed a couple of upgrades that should make the shopping end of AAUGH.com better. The one that should be visible to everyone is a rework of the video page. It was somewhat weakly set up to begin with, and then when Peanuts stuff started coming out on DVD, that was awkwardly shoehorned in. Now, it’s a list of all the available specials, and for each one a link to buy it on VHS and on DVD, if available. Alphabetical order is a wonderful invention.

The other part is only going to be visible to about half of you at this point. We’re part of an experiment. If you visit the shop and you see titles listed with dotted underlines, you can point to the title, wait a second, and a picture of the cover and the current price should pop up. Go ahead and try!

And with the holiday shopping season getting going, let me remind you of the advantages of shopping at AAUGH.com. Since the orders go through Amazon, you end up with their strong discounts, their handy free shipping deal for most US orders over $25, and in most states they won’t charge you sales tax. What this means is that you can get your gift delivered to your recepient for less than the cost of purchasing it locally. They’ll even gift-wrap it for you, for an extra charge. Life is easy. Plus by starting at AAUGH.com, Amazon will kick some money my way – money which helps justify the time that I spend on the site and the blog, and which doesn’t add a cent to what Amazon charges you.

Well, that’s the money talk for now. Go enjoy your friends, your family, and pass the cranberry sauce this way!

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