Hi Bookfriends,
Hope you’re all well and staying that way. George and I are still isolating though I’m longing to get back to the store, now open with business picking up. Emily, Gianelle and Lori are doing a fabulous job. Like many indie bookstores we’ve been inundated with calls and online orders for books about Black lives and antiracism resulting in backorders for some popular titles, but we are taking orders and happy to help you find something to read while you wait. Personally, I’m on the store’s waitlist for HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by Ibram X. Kendi.
I just finished Brit Bennett’s new novel, THE VANISHING HALF, a different kind of story about racism. It focuses on identical twins, “their skin the color of sand barely wet,” whose lives could not go in more different directions – and the daughters they raise, one black, one white. It explores racism from within, and it gave me a real jolt. Never preachy – just a good story, well told, that moves like the wind, and leaves you thinking.
When your husband/partner/roommate starts reading a book he can’t/won’t put down you have to know more about it. Especially since this book is all he wants to talk about. That happened at our house this week. George says: LEARNING FROM THE GERMANS: RACE AND THE MEMORY OF EVIL by Susan Neiman is a prescient book for the current time. Though the title may at first seem incredible, the author, a Southern-raised American Jew who now runs a research center in Germany, convincingly shows us why and how that country has acknowledged its WWII racist history and done much to overcome it. And she goes on to share the steps that are being taken in places like Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama that give hope that we might be able to do the same.
Lately, I’ve been Zooming in to virtual events sponsored by the Miami Book Fair and Books & Books. Also, the SIBA sponsored series, Reader Meet Writer. It’s fast, fun, and you don’t have to get dressed or leave the house. We have copies of the books that are being discussed. Just give us a call or drop in. I’ll be introducing an event very soon. And this time I’ve got AirPods for better sound, and a new computer for a clear picture. Stay tuned for more info.
Be well. Stay safe.
Love,
