The park looks really pretty today. We can see it across what will soon be a Libro parking lot, and there’s a dog off leash. You might immediately get your back up about that (people really should leash their dogs), but this dog looks SO HAPPY. He has a stick! It’s the bestest stick and he’s the bestest boy. Boy, oh boy!
We relate, because the books we are uncovering during these cold months are the bestest sticks and we are the bestest boys. There’s a cycle in bookselling. The summer is busy with customers and events and festivals. The winter is when you get down into the nooks and crannies and handle that stuff you’ve been putting off for a cold, slow day. There’s an environmental warning, so to say today is cold is an understatement. It’s the perfect time to open a tickle trunk. We’ve found amazing stuff and it’s just down there, at your finger tips, on the following list. Winter is a good time for spring-cleaning and finding magic in the back of the cupboard.
While shaking off the dust, we have something hopeful to share with you. It looks like we might actually get on the other side of this thing. Your membership, with its perks, might get you into an event IN PERSON at some point within the next twelve months, and while our eccentric brainy customers might insist on wearing masks for the rest of their lives (we understand), there is a possibility that you won’t actually have to do so in the face of immediate existential threat at some point in the not to distant future.
In the meantime, we’ll keep reading. Vanessa is reading Station Eleven, and Jason is reading Dopesick. Wow. Those are dire titles. It’s not as bad as it seems! We’re also reading noir detective fiction and … A Field Guide to White Supremacy (edited by Kathleen Belew and Ramon a Gutierrez, University of California Press). Okay, the world is still an utter shit show. But it’s less of a shit show with you in it, and beautiful books, and tickle trunks covered in dust and full of magical bookish traysures.
Much love,
Jason and Vanessa
