Beauty and the Book, the Jefferson, Tex., bookstore and beauty salon that is the home of the Pulpwood Queens, the huge "meeting and discussing" book club, moved into larger quarters three weeks ago. The new location is a restored, renovated former Gulf service center that has about 1,200 square feet of space and six beauty stations instead of the old location's two. "We've got every nook and cranny filled with books and beauty products," owner Kathy L. Patrick told Shelf Awareness, and the décor is "Moulin Rouge meets a gypsy caravan." (Jefferson, by the way, is in east Texas. "It's a Southern town," Patrick said. "We're on a bayou, and we have alligators!")

In keeping with its larger-than-life Pulpwood Queens approach, the bookstore/beauty salon will hold an outsized grand opening celebration and open house on Saturday, September 8. The keynote speaker will be Debbie Rodriguez, author of The Kabul Beauty School. Marsha Moyer, author of Heartbreak Hotel, and Chuck Gray, author, as Leonarto DaVino, of The DaVino Code: Mysterious Paintings Reveal the Timeline of Wine, will also appear. Musical guests include Richard Bowden and his band, the Moon & the Starz. The open house includes a wine tasting; Dr. Pepper, the Pulpwood Queens' "soft drink of choice," will be available during the day.

An open house co-sponsor is the Jefferson Rotary Club, which will cook hamburgers "and fixings" to sell; proceeds will go to the Club's new literacy initiatives, which consist of the first One Book, One City program for Jefferson, giving all third graders in Marion County schools a dictionary and providing books for the Camel Bookmobile in Kenya. (Patrick is literary chair of the club and incoming president for 2008-2009.)

Beauty and the Book stocks 1,000 titles, with a focus on women's, regional, self-help, inspirational and gift books. The store emphasizes first editions and signed copies, particularly of authors who are appearing at the store. When the shop opened seven years ago, it stocked "everything a general independent would carry," Patrick said. Since then, she has winnowed down the inventory to reflect the market, a process that caused her to comment: "Change is good. Change is the only way to survive. Keep changing and keep refining. Don't try to reinvent the wheel, but keep refining."

Early next year the store's inventory will increase by at least one when Patrick's first book, The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life (Grand Central, $13.99, 9780446695428/0446695424), is published. "A kind of memoir that is six years in the making," she said, the book will be launched during the Pulpwood Queens' Girlfriend Weekend, which will likely make that extravagant event even more extravagant than usual.

Beauty and the Book is located at 608 North Polk, Jefferson, Tex. 75657; 903-665-7520; beautyandthebook.com.--John Mutter