Drunk Booksellers
DrunkBooksellers
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Epigraph
Welcome to Episode 18, our first ever LIVE show, recorded on September 28th at King's Books in Tacoma, WA. We rapid-fire interviewed three booksellers and two authors. Surprisingly, the audio is better than episodes recorded in the comfort of our homes.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, our website, or subscribe using your podcatcher of choice.
Support the show! All books in our show notes link to Indiebound, a website that connects you with your local independent bookstore. Purchases made through our affiliate links help fund Drunk Booksellers, so you can support your favorite indie bookstore and your favorite podcasting booksellers. #win
If you want to get our show notes delivered directly to your inbox—with all the books mentioned on the podcast and links to the books we discuss—sign up for our email newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by Soft Skull, Counterpoint, and Catapult. Special thanks to Joe and Stephanie Douglas, Big Hair Studios, Allen Watke, Phil Heaven and the Midnight Mystery Players, and George Kaas for the equipment loan that made this recording possible. And of course thanks to Sam Kaas (who longtime listeners may recognize from Episode 7) our production manager without whom this whole episode would not have been amplified, recorded, nor kept on track.
Chapter I: [2:51]
In Which We Order a Mistress, Discuss Female Rage, and Are Def Profesh at This Whole Live Show Thing
Kim's Drinking: Hop Valley Citrus Mistress
Emma's Drinking: Elysian Men's Room
Kim's Reading:
- The Book of Dust 1: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Emma's Reading & Excited About:
- Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney C Cooper
- Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister
Emma is really into female rage right now, nbd.
Kim's Excited About:
- Vanishing Twins: A Marriage by Leah Dieterich
- also mentioned, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meaghan O'Connell because (spoiler alert) we interview both authors later in the episode!
Chapter II: [7:25]
In Which We Talk About Big Books and Definitely Lie, Kim Gushes Over Leah Dieterich, and We Suggest People Stop Listening to Us and Buy Books Instead
sweet pea Flaherty, owner of King's Books in Tacoma, WA
For the record, A Room of One's Own is still a feminist bookstore
King's Books has fourteen book clubs, including one that only reads books about cults and one that only reads books about medical issues. They also have such unconventional events as virtual reality film showings and 80s workout nights (#Cher).
sweet pea's Reading:
- Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah
sweet pea's Excited About:
- Training School for Negro Girls by Camille Acker
- Nanny Helen Burroughs (she's a person, not a book—but sweet pea wishes there was a book about her)
sweet pea's Desert Island Pick:
- a book large enough to act as a sun hat
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
sweet pea's Bookseller Confession:
- "being a bookstore owner and event planner and bookkeeper and etc... that I don't have a lot of time to read"
Uh, can all the booksellers whose "confession" this is raise their hands?
sweet pea's Favorite Bookstore:
- a bookstore in the back of an antique store in Knoxville, TN (if you know what bookstore this is, tweet us!)
- Dixon Street Bookshop in Fayetteville, AR
Find sweet pea On the Internets:
Facebook doesn't let you have "queer" in your name and challenged sweet pea's legal name twice
Our first guest author, Leah Dieterich, is the author of Vanishing Twins (Soft Skull)
Leah's Reading:
- Amateur: A True Story about What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee
This is an artistic rendition of Kim's reaction to Leah's "what are you reading" answer:
The back covers of Soft Skull's galleys are on point:
Leah's Favorite Bookstore(s):
- Skylight Books in Los Angeles, CA
- Powell's in Portland, OR
Find Leah on the Internets:
Chapter III: [22:03]
In Which We Discuss Sex With Frog Men, Realize America Is Doing Bookstores Wrong, and We Make the Audience Curse In Unison
Ariana Paliobagis, owner of Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, MT
Ariana's Reading:
- Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
- "a woman falls in love with a frog man; [he] shows up at her door... and she takes him in, in all the ways"
Ariana's Excited About:
Ariana's Station Eleven Pick:
- What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J Sandel
We are impressed by Ariana's practicality and thus let her, and the audience, in on our secret post-apocalypse library.
Ariana's Impossible Handsell:
- English, August: An Indian Story by Upamanyu Chatterjee (also mentioned, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh)
Ariana's Favorite Bookstore:
- Librairie Actes Sud (it's in France, be jealous)
Find Ariana On the Internets:
Our second guest author is Meaghan O'Connell, author of And Now We Have Everything (Little, Brown and Company)
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Epigraph
Welcome to episode 17! We're interviewing the a.m.a.z.i.n.g Holland Saltsman, owner of The Novel Neighbor in Webster Groves, MO.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, our website, or subscribe using your podcatcher of choice.
Support the show! All books in our show notes link to Indiebound, a website that connects you with your local independent bookstore. Purchases made through our affiliate links help fund Drunk Booksellers, so you can support your favorite indie bookstore and your favorite podcasting booksellers. #win
If you want to get our show notes delivered directly to your inbox—with all the books mentioned on the podcast and links to the books we discuss—sign up for our email newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by Books & Whatnot, the newsletter dedicated to books, bookselling, and bookish folk; check out their newsletter archive here. Follow Books & Whatnot on Twitter at @booksandwhatnot.
Chapter I
In which We Discuss Bookstore Bathrooms, Discover that Staff Picks Work, and Talk About... Books...
Before we start drinking, check out Novel Neighbor's bathroom:
We’re Drinking
It's too hot for bourbon, so we're rocking dirty gin martinis out of mason jars, coffee mugs, and martini glasses (apparently Kim's the classy one this episode).
Holland's Reading
- Amazing Adventures of Aaron Broom by A E Hotchner (for Novel Neighbor's Subscription program)
- Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss (pubs 10/30/18)
- The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King (the audiobook is read by LeVar Burton!)
- Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen
- The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature by Viv Groskop (pubs 10/23/18)
Emma's Reading
- I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking by Leyna Krow
- They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
- Betwixt-And-Between: Essays on the Writing Life by Jenny Boully
- Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
Kim's Reading
- Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity by Arlene Stein
- When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
Forthcoming & Newly-New Titles We're Excited About
Hannah's Excited About
- The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
- What If This Were Enough? by Heather Havrilesky (pubs 2018 Oct 2)
- The Disasters by M K England (pubs 2018 Dec 12) - The Breakfast Club meets Guardians of the Galaxy!
- Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall (pubs 2018 Nov 20)
- Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness
Kim's Excited About
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (author of Half-Blood for folks who love Sing Unburied Sing and The Underground Railroad. author of Half-Blood Blues)
- Monstress Volume 3 by Marjorie Liu
- Vengeful by V E Schwab (follow up to Vicious)
- The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
- Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents by Pete Souza (author of Obama: An Intimate Portrait)
Emma's Excited About
- Severence by Ling Ma
- Rosewater by Tade Thompson
- Also mentioned: The Murders of Molly Southbourne
- Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan (author of the Flintstones comic reboot)
- Bonus Podcast Recommendation: Super Skull
- All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung (pubs 2 Oct 2018)
- Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (pubs 23 Oct 2018)
Y'all. Hot take here. Staff picks work! Emma had a staff pick on All the Lives I Want and Holland actually picked it up at Elliott Bay while visiting Seattle before our episode! (Shout out to our episode with Amy Stephenson from The Booksmith, who initially recommended it to us, and to our favorite audiobook provider, Libro.fm.)
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Chapter II [26:37]
In Which No One Tells Holland She's Crazy, People Love Their Greeting Cards, The Drunk Booksellers Marvel at Novel Neighbor's Ability to Handsell Events, and We Reiterate that Bookstores are a Business (whaaaa?)
The Novel Neighbor: More Than A Bookstore
The Novel Neighbor is not just a bookstore. In addition to author events, they host birthday parties, summer camps, bookstore yoga, and adult classes (like continuing ed, but sexier), among other things (sorry Amanda!).
Recommended reading for staff retreats:
- StrengthsFinder 2.0 68 MIN
Epigraph
Y'all. It's been a minute (or, ya know, 8 months). But we're back with a brand new episode featuring Julia Turner and Christen Thompson Lain, the founders of Itinerant Literate, a mobile bookstore in Charleston, SC.
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, our website, or subscribe using your podcatcher of choice.
Support the show! All books in our show notes link to Indiebound, a website that connects you with your local independent bookstore. Purchases made through our affiliate links help fund Drunk Booksellers, so you can support your favorite indie bookstore and your favorite podcasting booksellers.
If you want to get our show notes delivered directly to your inbox—with all the books mentioned on the podcast and links to the books we discuss—sign up for our email newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by Books & Whatnot, the newsletter dedicated to books, bookselling, and bookish folk; check out their newsletter archive here. Follow Books & Whatnot on Twitter at @booksandwhatnot.
Chapter I
In which a local coffee shop assists in alcohol acquisition, we want more spaceships and dragons, and a book brings Emma to tears.
We’re Drinking
Christen and Julia were given some free beer from their local coffeeshop, Orange Spot Coffee: Stillwater Artisinal's Stateside Saisan and Sake-Style Saison. As our cocktail for the evening, we're drinking the Lime of the Ancient Mariner from Tim Federle's Tequila Mockingbird.
Christen's Reading
-
War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
-
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
- Shout out to Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Julia's Reading
-
Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka (audiobook via Libro.fm)
-
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
-
Monsoon Mansion by Cinelle Barnes
-
Daphne by Will Boast
Kim's Reading
- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (audiobook via Libro.fm)
- Amateur by Thomas Page McBee (pubs August 14, 2018)
- McBee's previous book, Man Alive, is also excellent
Emma's Reading
-
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Forthcoming & Newly-New Titles We're Excited About
Julia & Christen are Excited About
-
The White Darkness by David Grann (pubs Oct 30, 2018)
- My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (pubs Nov 20, 2018)
- Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura
Kim's Excited About
- So Lucky by Nicola Griffith (audiobook via Libro.fm)
- also check out her bestselling historical fantasy novel, Hild
- Any Man by Amber Tamblyn
Emma's Excited About
-
There There by Tommy Orange
- Fight No More by Lydia Millet
- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (pubs July 10, 2018)
- her previous book, Uprooted, is one of Emma's faves
- Half-Witch by John Schoffstall (pubs July 17, 2018)
Chapter II [23:30]
In which we discuss how bookstores work (and how you keep books on the shelves in a bookstore that moves), Julia and Christen give advice to future bookmobile owners, and the mobile bookstore finds a forever home!
Customer: So, is this a library?
Interested in breaking into publishing (then abandoning your fancy degree to become a bookseller)? Check out the University of Denver Publishing Institute. Julia and Christen met there, so that bodes well.
Shout out to Blue Bicycle (founder of YALLFest, Charleston's Young Adult Book Festival)
Fun fact: the aunt in Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is described as itinerant. Maybe not the best role model, but not the worst!
The bookmobile is so purrrrrrrrrty:
Books that Itinerant Literate must have in stock:
Epigraph
We are thrilled to welcome our new BFF to Drunk Booksellers: Javier Ramirez, manager of The Book Table in Oak Park, IL and co-host of industry get-together Publishing Cocktails.
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, our website, or subscribe using your podcatcher of choice.
If you want to get our show notes delivered directly to your inbox—with all the books mentioned on the podcast and links back to the bookstore we’re interviewing PLUS GIFs—sign up for our email newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by Books & Whatnot, the newsletter dedicated to books, bookselling, and bookish folk; check out their newsletter archive here. Follow Books & Whatnot on Twitter at @booksandwhatnot.
Introduction
In which we apologize profusely for the delay in our episode posting, bond over Kelly Link, and get excited about books that are... already out
We had the pleasure of chatting with Javier nearly every week for a month while trying to record this episode (#techfail), then ran into a few other delays (#lifefail), but WE HAVE PREVAILED. That said, we talk about books that are already out as if they're forthcoming and we're drinking a nice "summer" drink because it was, you know, still summer when we first started this wild ride of an episode. Just pretend you're a time traveler visiting the halcyon days of late August 2017.
We’re Drinking
Vodka & Tonics with NO FRUIT
Javier's Reading
-
a bunch of nonfiction for the Kirkus Nonfiction Prize
-
The Sun in Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro
-
Heartbreaker by Maryse Meijer
-
The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet
-
Ranger Games by Ben Blum
Kim's Reading
-
Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit
-
(and check out the Huffington Post article about being mansplained to while reading about Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me)
-
-
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie
-
The Store by James Patterson... 'cause Patterson is awesome, gives booksellers (including your grateful hosts) money for fancy things like student loan debt and ridiculous urban rent, trolls Amazon for funsies, and rocks a photoshopped Santa hat like a boss:
-
Kim's reading aloud: My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Emma's Reading
-
MIS(H)Adra by Iasmin Omar
-
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado... Emma's favorite story from the collection is “Inventory”
-
Lumberjanes: Unicorn Power! by Mariko Tamaki
-
Spinster by Kate Bolick
Forthcoming Titles We're Excited For
Kim's Epic List of Titles that Are Already Out
-
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
-
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
-
Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart
-
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
-
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
-
Afterglow by Eileen Myles
-
Never Stop by Simba Sana
-
The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison
Javier's Excited About
-
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
-
Release by Patrick Ness (if you haven't read Ness before, Javier recommends you start with The Chaos Walking series, which beginning with The Knife of Never Letting Go)
-
Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander (also mentioned The Ministry of Special Cases and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank)
-
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch (pubs 2/6/18)
-
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc
Emma's Excited About
-
The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M Valente
-
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
-
We Were Witches by Ariel Gore (How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead)
-
A Loving, Faithful Animal by Josephine Rowe
Chapter I [26:50]
In which Javier conquers the Chicago bookselling scene
Javier started at Tower Records (RIP)
He currently manages the Fiercely Independent Chicago-area bookstore, The Book Table.
Javier has worked at pretty much every bookstore in Chicago. Other than the OG Powell's. Unless you're talking time travel.
Javier's epic Tour de Bookselling (chronologically):
Tower Books --> Crown Books --> Barbara's Bookstore --> The Book Cellar --> Seminary Co-op Bookstores --> 57th Street Books --> Newberry Library Bookstore --> Book Stall --> City Lit Books --> The Book Table
Chapter II [33:45]
In which we talk Publishing Cocktails and how to network IRL in the internet age
Publishing Cocktails, created by Javier and Keir Graff (senior editor at BookList) brings Chicago-area book industry folk from around the country together. They have two primary meetup events: Book Swap & Cash Mob.
Follow Publishing Cocktails on Twitter at @PubNight.
Sign up for the Publishing Cocktails email list for future updates.
Chapter III [38:20]
In which Emma is, once again, deeply disappointed
Book Description Guaranteed to Get You Reading
Anything not blurbed by Lena Dunham (shout out to Gary Shteyngart’s epicly excessive blurbing). Anything blurbed by Kelly Link or George Saunders. Check the blurbs on Patrick Rothfuss’s Name of the Wind. Plus time travel! Kim and Javier bond over All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (shout out to the Booze and Lasers Book Club at Third Place Books Seward Park), with references to Michael Crichton’s Timeline and, you know, Harry Potter. Emma ruins the ending of one of the stories in A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel.
Desert Island Pick
The entire body of work of Agatha Christie
Station Eleven Pick
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which has Javier’s favorite first line: It was a pleasure to burn.
In case you were wondering, Emma’s favorite first (and second) line(s) come from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Javier’s posting staff’s favorite lines from literature in his store and he drunkenly promised Emma that he’d post hers too. Pics or it didn’t happen, Javier.
Wild Pick
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Bookseller Confession
HAS ANY BOOKSELLER ACTUALLY READ HARRY POTTER? JESUS, YOU GUYS.
Go-To Handsell
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Here's Javier's blurb, blatantly stolen from The Book Table's website:
When confronted with the "What is your favorite book of all time?" query, most people will often pause, looking over the inquisitors head while thoughtfully scratching his or her chin. I, on the other hand, will not hesitate when I tell you this. Geek Love is my favorite book. Of all time. Period. This oddball masterpiece (a National Book Award Finalist in 1989) shaped me as a reader and more importantly as a bookseller 20+ years ago. It's one of those reading experiences that make you feel like you're in on some life-changing secret. A novel that will chill you, move you and make you laugh, often at the same time. Help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of Geek Love, quite possibly the best novel you've never read.
Master & the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov: There's a cat
Epigraph
For the third year in a row, the Drunk Booksellers drove all over Seattle (and the surrounding regions) for Indie Bookstore Day. We asked booksellers at each of the 21(!!!) stores we visited to tell us what they're recommending in the current political climate. We also collected recommendations from past guests and #SEABookstoreDay Champions! (For an epic TBT, check out our episodes from Seattle Bookstore Day Year One and Year Two.)
Chapter 1
In Which Your Fearless Hosts Wake Up Far Too Early, Take a Ferry, Drink an Obscene Amount of Caffeine, and Get Our First Round of Bookseller Recommendations
Emma, Eagle Harbor Book Co.
American War by Omar El Akkad
Madison Duckworth, Liberty Bay Books
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Ron Woods, Edmonds Bookshop
The Nix by Nathan Hill
Robert Sindelar, Third Place Books
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Annie Carl, The Neverending Bookshop
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Ruth Dickey, Seattle Arts & Lectures
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
Chris Jarmick, BookTree
Dark Money by Jane Mayer
Red Notice by Bill Browder
Laurie & Marni, Island Books
Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
What We Do Now: Standing Up for Your Values in Trump's America ed. Dennis Johnson
The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott
Larry Reid, Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
American Presidents by David Levine
Amber, Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Golden Age mysteries by authors like Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Daly
Chapter 2
In Which Kim and Emma Make it Back to Seattle-Proper and Still Have... a Lot of Bookstores to Visit
Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Book Company
Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa
Georgiana Blomberg, Magnolia's Bookstore
Bobcat & Other Stories by Rebecca Lee
Lara Hamilton, Book Larder
Soup for Syria by Barbara Abdeni Massaad
Madison, Secret Garden Books
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2nd mention!)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Tom Nissley, Phinney Books
Ghettoside by Jill Leovy
Billie Swift, Open Books: A Poem Emporium
Whereas by Layli Long Soldier
In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae
Trophic Cascade by Camille T. Dungy
The Boston Review's Poems for Political Disaster
If You Can Hear This: Poems in Protest of an American Inauguration by Bryan Borland
Resist Much / Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance
Water & Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing by Charif Shanahan
Sea and Fog by Etel Adnan
Pam Cady, University Bookstore
Make Trouble by John Waters
Christina, Third Place Books Ravenna
Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion ed Ryan Conrad
Garrett, Ada's Technical Books
No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald
Chapter 3
In Which Guests from Episodes Past Return to Give Their Recommendations
Pete Mulvihill, Green Apple Books (episode 8)
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Make Trouble by John Waters (2nd mention)
Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt
Leah Koch, The Ripped Bodice (episode 13)
Prime Minister by Ainsley Booth & Sadie Haller
A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet
Paul Constant, The Seattle Review of Books (episode 14)
Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman
Chapter 4
In Which the Seattle Bookstore Day Champions Tell Us What They're Reading
Katie
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Ch