Perhaps this time next summer in the swelter of August, you’ll be able to slip into the cool of a brand new Barnes & Noble, sipping some iced tea and fingering the B&N’s recommended list of summer reads. The City of Eau Claire Plan Commission recently approved plans for expanding the Oakwood Mall to include a Barnes & Noble bookstore. Building on the 29,000 square foot store will begin breaking ground on Sept. 15 and could be done as soon as May 15, 2009, and ready for the likes of Rowling, Ann Patchett, or Shel Silverstein to grace their shelves, depending on your reading preference. Other expansion plans include adding an Ulta Salon where the Garfield’s restaurant used to be and possibly another sit-down restaurant for hungry shoppers. Any votes for Greek food?