Meet Me in the Bank Safe, I Just Want to Talk
Meet me in the bank safe, I just want to talk.
As a professional and mature small business owner, anytime you find yourself repeatedly making a joke that is a little creepy, it might warrant taking pause and doing some personal inventory about your attachment issues. OR you could just be like me, and keep saying you want to lock your colleagues in a walk in bank safe and never let them leave.
Here's the thing about retail: its often a bridge. Retail is a great job to have in grad school. It's a good transitional job to have when experimenting with a career change. At a store of our size, we don't have many “forever home” type of jobs. We have a small core fulltime team, then lots of part-time and temporary positions that cycle in and out throughout the year. There's room for some growth, yes, but our real strength, our real way of being of service to people who work with us, is by being the place they need to work when they need it.
All this is to say we often get to work with really amazing people who sell books for a year or so, then they grow in to new chapters of their lives. It's beautiful! It's also really challenging to meet these wonderful people and then have them abandon us like a small malnourished kitten on the side of a highway, tires skidding out as they take off to chase their dreams, leaving us alone in a cloud of dust while the sun beats down on on our sad, sad little kitten heads, and we cry and cry until we get dehydrated.
Where was I … ah yes, never letting them really leave. As an alternative to getting abandoned we try to keep our little kitten claws in every bookseller that passes through. We bait people to come back and lead bookclubs, work a random weekend shift, or lend a hand at a big event. We never really let you leave.
In honor of our latest Old Town Books graduates, Angie and Hannah, here are some reading updates from our booksellers of yore.
Lily, Holiday Season Bookseller, Class of 2021
I can't not mention Wheel of Time, which I FINISHED a couple months ago, and it was simply phenomenal and 1000% worth it. It’s going to be hard for an epic fantasy series to top it. I'm currently reading a copy of Treasure Island by Thomas Louis Stevenson that I stole from my dad because I decided I was in the mood for pirates, and it's been a bit of a push so far but I'm starting to get to the action so hoping it picks up soon. I also recently read The Rose Code which I really enjoyed, such an interesting setting and really great complex, real female characters.
But my most favorite recent read was the Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden (first book in the series is The Bear and the Nightingale). The writing is so so beautiful, and the juxtaposition of a magical fairytale coming of age story in the setting of a medieval Moscow filled with religious zealots, war, and sexism was just *chefs kiss*.
That was more than a single sentence but I guess I just miss talking about books every day :)
Amanda, Former Events Guru and current Murder by the Bookclub Co-Host, Class of 2019
The Resting Place by Camilla Sten - from the author of The Lost Village, when a young woman comes face to face with her grandmother's murderer, she baffles authorities by her inability to identify him. She suffers from prosopagnosia, which means that she cannot recognize familiar people's faces. When she inherits a house with a chilling past, off she goes to uncover the truth of her family's past. Only, they are disturbing the resting place for something far more sinister. Described as a spine-chilling propulsive psychological thriller, this is one I am (figuratively) dying to finish!
In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet: this book touches on the idea of witches from fairy tales to witch trials, with the narrative that the "witches of 'ore" are today's modern women. It's been a very engaging and fast paced read about how women own their voices and battle daily stereotypes in the face of misogyny. Plus! It has a wonderful forward from Carmen Maria Machado!
Darling Girl - by Liz Michalski - I'm always a sucker for a good Peter Pan retelling, and this one has been great so far! When Wendy's granddaughter has a child with Peter Pan, the girl grows at an alarming rate while in a coma due to a childhood accident. When she goes missing, Wendy's granddaughter returns to the english countryside to find her daughter before Peter Pan does. It's a very dark spin on the magic of never growing up and I'm hopeful for a delightfully creepy ending.
Shannon, Pandemic Bookseller + Cardboard Manager, Class of 2021.
Romance: Lease on Love by Falon Ballard
This book is a literal millennial fantasy: Find a gorgeous house/apartment for a super low price in a cute neighborhood? Check. Live within brunching distance of all of your besties? Check. Turn a passion into a business that is actually financially sustainable without acquiring burnout? Check. Accomplish all of this while falling for your sweet and nerdy roommate who happens to be a millionaire? Yep. I devoured it in basically one night and, no, I will not be taking any questions on the degree of realism at this time.
YA: The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin:
This was such a refreshing take on "teenage magic users go to school" and I really enjoyed it. What an interesting idea: that magic could be in charge of/used to help prevent the effects of climate change. Additional bonus points for a bi/queer female lead and a leading man of color!
Biography: In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
To no surprise of anyone who knows me, I read another Mt. Everest memoir. This one is so much more than that. Yes, Silvia was the first woman from Peru to climb Everest, as well as many others of the Seven Summits. Her storytelling, however, goes beyond mountaineering to explore childhood, trauma, family dynamics, a belated coming of age, and more. I highly recommend this, even if you aren't an armchair adrenaline junkie like me. (CW for SA, alcoholism, and general themes of peril)
Literary/historical fiction: The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer
This audiobook was a doozy (19 hours), but oh so worth it. It felt like the perfect piece of historical fiction for me: the importance of art meets troubled queer love story, within the broader context of people struggling to still live and love in the shadow of an advancing regime and its war. I also learned after the fact that the protagonist was a real person, so that's fun! I would definitely recommend it if you enjoyed the book and/or movie of The Monuments Men.
