Sunday Salon: The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians

This is a mix-up of books I want to read, books read and reviewed, and books currently being read. How many of you have books in these categories of your reading? 

To be read

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

Publication: Jan. 28, 2025; Ballantine, NetGalley

 I read her previous book, Black Cake, which I was curious about as it's about a family from Jamaica, W. I. whose tradition is to make the island's famous black cake for celebrations and special occasions. 

Good Dirt is about the daughter of an affluent Black family who makes the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom- the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor.

 

Reviews:  Booksellers, Book Collectors, and Librarians

The Book Seller and Other Stories by Peter Briscoe, (2022) a specialist in collecting and acquiring books, and who has built library collections at two universities. 

His five stories feature book sellers, librarians, students, book collectors, and early scientific explorers who amassed papers and special collections about their subjects. The Latin American Library Conference is one place where unusual historical books and original papers were available to book sellers, book researchers, and collectors. 

The stories include the rampant theft of valuable materials in some libraries, seen as a universal problem. The stories also show the value of libraries and booksellers in gathering and providing information to the public.

"Librarianship is a continuous selection process.... winnowing the wheat from the chaff."

I was enlightened and amazed by early book collectors and their passion for getting original and good material for libraries.  

 

The Bookseller by Valerie Keogh, March 3, 2025, Boldwood Books. Genre: mystery, psychological thriller, contemporary fiction 

Review: Helen has always wanted to own a bookshop and become a bookseller. She pursues her dream after spending two years in prison for the involuntary manslaughter in the murder of her abusive exhusband, Toby. It was easy to follow the first person narrative, when Helen reveals at the end the real reason for killing Toby.

In rehabilitating herself, the book shows her dedicated searches for books to fill the shelves of her little second hand bookshop - advertising for and finding donors, buying collections from people downsizing their living spaces, going to houses to pick up boxes of books herself. All while mysterious break-ins at her home and the book shop kept her on her toes wondering who "had it in for her."

I enjoyed reading about the business of establishing your own business, especially a place selling second hand books. The collection of books and the attracting of customers, keeping them coming back with rewards - all this was fascinating to me.
good read, both psychological thriller and a great woman's fiction novel. 

 

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson, April 8, 2025; Little, Brown and Company, NetGalley

Stories by real reference librarians, digital archivists, booksellers, collectors, archivists, and others involved with books and reading. I loved these brief essays by the varieties of people who deal with and in books and those that read. I so agree with this quote from one of the essays:

"Students need to be able to see themselves in books, but also to be exposed to and experience somebody else's life through books."

Independent bookstore owners are also valued in the book community, as they give personal attention to their customers, whose reading preferences they begin to know very well. There is a section of this collection with essays written by these bookstore owners.

This is a valuable book to have, with easy to read stories.

Currently reading

I chose this ARC for the colorful cover and the intriguing title, though it won't be published until June 26, 2025.

  

The Satisfaction Cafe by Kathy Wang, Abacus, NetGalley

In this book, Joan Liang travels from Taiwan to California to study at Stanford University, and meets and marries an older, wealthy man with children from his first marriage. Joan comes only second to her older brothers in her family in Taiwan, but is independently trying to make it on her own in California. 

I like her journey so far, especially in quickly divorcing an unsatisfactory man 
Toby, whose sexual preferences she quickly turns away from.  I also like the no-nonsense approach and the easy way she fits into and challenges whatever situation she finds herself in. 

What are you reading this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday