Feb 8, 2024
Sam has covid, but it's been a good four-year run of not getting
it, and it's an easy way to remember it's our fourth anniversary of
buying the Book Shop. We start off this week with a little look
back on things we didn't expect when we got into this mess (why are
publishers so mean? How do you stock all the books that people
want?), and then launch into a book discussion proper. First up is
Lois Lowry's classic, "The
Giver," which is an absolute banger that you need to read right
now if you haven't already. And probably even if you have. Second
is Hannah's effort to brand "Joan January," whereby she reads Joan
Didion at the beginning of each year, and this year it's "A
Book of Common Prayer," an odd little novel from the 1970s that
reminds Hannah of Gatsby and would be a good book club book. Then
Sam is back in middle school for "The
Glass Sentence." by S.E. Grove, which is a triumph and he was
happy to read again. Magic maps!
We're doing a whole new paragraph now, because next up is "A
Love Song for Ricki Wilde," by Tia Williams, for which we have
no transition, but Hannah is listening to and loves the dialog.
Great V-Day book. And it's got a little vodou, just like "Devil
Makes Three," which Sam didn't get and stopped reading. Oh
well. You might like it if you like Haitian history and the CIA.
Luckily, Hannah has just read most of "The
Orchard," by Adele Crockett Robertson, which she really likes,
and is based in Ipswich, and features a much more realistic badass
woman. Finally, we finish up with some Pullman, some Winter
Institute, and some self-promotion. Don't miss it! (Also, at the
end, there is a rare instance where Sam actually remembers
something correctly, and Hannah is wrong.)