The Bookshop Podcast

Send us a textIn this episode, I'm chatting with Rachel Person, events manager at Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs, New York.Northshire Bookstore has two locations, Manchester, Vermont, and Saratoga Springs, New York. They were founded in 1976 by Edward and Barbara Morrow, who recently sold to Clark and Lu French, also of Manchester.Rachel Person is the events manager for Northshire Bookstore. She spent six years curating and producing literary programming at Symphony Space in New York City, and served as Associate Director of the series Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story, heard nationwide on public radio. In Saratoga Springs, Rachel served in the Community Relations Office at Skidmore College, where she acted as Art Partner Liaison for SaratogaArtsFest. She is on the Executive Board of Saratoga Reads and the Board of Directors of the Adirondack Center for Writing. A graduate of Albany High School and Princeton University, Rachel lives in Saratoga Springs with her husband, writer Steve Sheinkin, and their two children. Northshire BookstoreThe Book of Delights, Ross Gay The Bright Ages, Matthew Gabriele, David M. Perry Next Year in Havana, Chanel CleetonTwelve Ceasars, Mary Breard  Sellout: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo and Hardore, Dan Ozzi  The Melancholia of Class, by Cynthia Cruz If This Bird Had Pockets, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Emma J. Virjan Book Lovers, Emily Henry Atlas Six, Olivie BlakeDon’t Check Out This Book, Kate KliseLapvona, Ottessa Moshfegh When I’m Gone Look for Me in the East, Quan BarryA Shape in the Dark: Living and Dying with Brown Bears, Bjorn DihleManhunt, Gretchen Felker-MartinOrfeo, Richard PowersMercy Street, Jennifer HaighThe Spider, Leo CarewWeapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O'NeilThe Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich On the Laps of Gods, Robert WhitakerWhSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textLitFest Pasadena begins Saturday, April 30, through Saturday, May 14, and marks the festival’s10th Anniversary. To celebrate, the organizers are embracing a dynamic new format, expanding locations, and returning to known favorites. LitFest Pasadena brings acclaimed authors and new voices together to engage in a variety of powerful and inspiring literary and social conversations. This year's in-person event is, as always, free to the public, and no registration is required. Photographer and author Kat Ward is the event manager and special projects manager for Light Bringer Project, the organization behind LitFest Pasadena.LitFestPasadenaSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textJoin me in conversation with Hamish Alcorn and Dawn Albinger, owners of Archives Fine Books in Brisbane, Australia. We chat about the climate crisis, books, things to do in Brisbane, and where to get a great cup of coffee!Archives Fine Books is the largest second-hand bookstore in Queensland and is located in a heritage-listed building in the heart of Brisbane. Due to their size, they carry a vast array of titles, and as one customer states, “Everything you want a bookstore to be really; crowded, quiet, and scented with that wonderful smell that says great ideas have been captured in pages that are stored here.”Archives Fine BooksLismore Library Donations Ronald Baatz, Poet Dominion, Tom Holland Rupert Sheldrake Boy Swallows Universe, Love Stories, Trent Dalton The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams The Last Kingdom, Bernard CornwellSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textIn this episode, I chat with author Joe R. Lansdale about his new novel Born For Trouble: The Further Adventures of Hap and Leonard, Texas life, his creative family, political correctness, and martial arts. Join us; it's a fun episode!Joe R. Lansdale is the internationally bestselling author of more than fifty novels, including the popular, long-running Hap and Leonard series. Many of his cult classics have been adapted for television and film, most famously the films Bubba Ho-Tep and Cold in July and the Hap and Leonard series on Sundance TV and Netflix. Lansdale has written numerous screenplays and teleplays and has won the Edgar Award and ten Stoker Awards.  He has also been designated a World Horror Grandmaster. Lansdale, like many of his characters, lives in East Texas, with his wife, Karen, and their pit bull, Nicky.Joe R. LansdaleBlood And Lemonade, Joe R. LansdaleThe Great Gatsby, F. Scott FitzgeraldFahrenheit 451, Ray BradburyBooks by Flannery O’ConnorSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textThe Margate Bookshop is an independent bookshop situated in the Old Town section of the seaside village of Margate in Kent. Their stock is largely curated to reflect their customers' tastes while retaining the essence of a "general interest" bookshop. Working with smaller publishers, owner Francesca Wilkins promotes underrepresented authors and translated fiction while focusing on diversity.While the amplitude of the online world can seem intimidating, Francesca feels it's essential that classics be ever-present, children's books be affordable, small publications be easier to stumble upon, and personal recommendations should be close-at-hand and always come with a smile.The Margate BookshopThe Guardian, March 2019, written by Harriet Sherwood literacy trust Free Books for Margate Schools  Local Margate Authors Recommended Reading: Island & Brave New World, Aldous HuxleySupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textThe Los Angeles Festival of Books, scheduled for April 23 and 24 on the University of Southern California campus, is the nation’s largest literary event. With over 550 participants, including an exciting lineup of authors, poets, artists, chefs, celebrities, musicians, and a diverse group of exhibitors, this event promises to be a literary smorgasbord.Ann Binney has worked in publishing in various capacities for many years. She started in New York working for Putnam and then moved through various positions at Price Stern Sloan, Penguin and Knopf before working as a freelance publicist and media escort in Los Angeles. She joined the L. A. Times as a contractor working on the Festival of Books and Book Prizes in 2006. As Associate Director, Events for the Times, she is the lead for the Festival of Books and Book Prizes and works with the L.A. Times editorial team on various other events, including the monthly Book Club and Ideas Exchange series.Los Angeles Times Festival of BooksScheduleParticipants ExhibitorsThe Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles  Support the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textAlibi Bookshop in Downtown Vallejo, California, is a general interest and proudly independent bookstore. After spending nearly twenty years in the publishing industry, Karen Finlay, and her husband Jon Burchard, bought the store from Shannon Hartlep and reopened it under the new name of Alibi Bookshop. The store sells both new and used books and an assortment of fun gifts. Alibi BookshopJane Eyre, Charlotte BronteThe House In The Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi Grapes of Wrath, John SteinbeckSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textOn February 12 of this year, I read an article by Jonathan Franklin, a digital reporter on the News desk at National Public Radio here in the United States. The article, titled: Artwork from the Black Lives Matter memorial has a new home: the Library of Congress, lit a fire in me, and I immediately contacted Stephanie Stillo, Curator, Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress, to see if she could arrange a conversation with the people involved with saving the artwork from the Black Lives Matter memorial. Being the gracious lady she is and a regular guest on The Bookshop Podcast, Stephanie put me in touch with Aliza Leventhal, head of technical services in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress; the same Aliza referenced in the NPR article. Aliza suggested I also speak with the two guardians of the fence, Nadine Seiler and Karen Irwin.Nadine Seiler, is a Black Activist Curator and archivist, working to preserve the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence Collection. She sidelines as a home organizer, in her spare time.Karen is originally from Indiana but moved to NYC when she turned 40. She has been an actor, singer, entertainer, bartender. She became the stage manager for the resistance when she met Nadine and she has a Patreon account called The Karen Resistance.Library of CongressArtwork From The Black Lives Matter Memorial Has A New Home: The Library Of Congress, Jonathan FranklinBlack Lives MatterEnoch Pratt LibrarySupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textToday I'm exploring a bookshop of a different kind, set within a National Historic Landmark and specializing in books on architecture and landscape. The Gamble House is an iconic American Craftsman home in Pasadena, California, designed by Greene and Greene's architectural firm. Heather J. Marquez is the Director of Retail Operations at The Gamble House Conservancy.The Gamble HouseThe Arts and Crafts Movement in AmericaThe Gamble House: Building Paradise in California, Edward R Bosley; Anne E. Mallek; Ann Scheid; Robert Winter, photographs by   Alexander VertikoffArts & Crafts: From William Morris to Frank Lloyd Wright, Arnold ShwartzmanArt and Crafts Architecture 'Beauty's Awakening,' Julian HolderSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textDr. Mary Hill-Wagner is the author of Girlz ‘N the Hood: A Memoir of Mama in South Central Los Angeles, which was released by the Pact Press in September 2021.She grew up in South Central Los Angeles, near Manchester & Broadway for the most part. Although most of her teenage years were spent in Compton. She was valedictorian of Compton High School in 1982.  Dr. Hill-Wagner earned a B.A. from the University of Southern California, an M.A. from Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.As a newspaper journalist for 15 years, she covered poverty issues, police, and the military for various newspapers throughout the country. She has taught college journalism courses in Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and California. She is married to Dr. Marcus Wagner. They have two spoiled dogs together.Mary Hill-WagnerGirlz ‘n the Hood: A Memoir of Mama in South Central Los Angeles, Mary Hill-WagnerI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya AngelouDune, Frank HerbertAndrea Somberg, Literary AgentSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links