Bookstore Explorer

This week we visit with Linda Kass, novelist and owner of Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio. Located in suburban Columbus, Gramercy is known for its series of fantastic author events and much more.  Books We Talk About: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Stoner by John Williams, The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, The Waiting by Michael Connelly, The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis and more!

Last week, we welcomed to the pod Evan Friss, author of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore. This week, we visit with his wife, Amanda Friss, owner of Parentheses Books in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Books We Talk About: The works of Kevin Brockmeier, West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman and Once More Upon a Time by Roshani Chokshi

This week, we talk with Evan Friss, author of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, out now from Penguin Random House. Starting with Benjamin Franklin and moving up to the present day, it is a love letter to bookstores that The New York Times calls "A spirited defense of this important, odd and odds-defying American retail category." Books We Talk About: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and the works of Donna Tartt, Haruki Murakami, Kurt Vonnegut and George Saunders.

Today, we’re visiting Happy Magpie Book & Quill in Ogden, Utah. I’m joined by owner Patrick Ramsay, who operates the shop on a unique pay-what-you-want model. Books We Talk About: Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles, and Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan.

John Evans opened Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1975 and joins me to discuss his five decades in bookselling. Books We Talk About: From Moby Dick to Eudora Welty, we cover a lot in this one! Our theme music is Whiskey River II by Erin Eades. Check her out wherever you stream music or visit ErinEadesMusic.com.