Can you find Crush from the incomparable @adacalhoun.bsky.social on the shelves @lovestruckbooks.bsky.social? Of course! In her debut novel, Calhoun delves into the perils and pleasures of a midlife affair in this whip-smart, funny and fabulously honest look at a rebellious romance.

When you keep finding old friends in your brand new store and it makes you smile! Like @minjinlee.bsky.social, who has a fabulous spot on our shelves! Yay, Pachinko!

My retail brethren! I come to you today with a question, maybe THE question of our times! When setting up your cash drawer, do you arrange it as pictured, with your one dollar bills and your pennies on the left, or — are you a monster?

@newtonvillebooks.bsky.social @portersqbooks.bsky.social

Really wish this was real, darn it.

This was for yesterday, the 2nd! Go read this book. There’s gin on, um, pg 147? Or 149. Gin is good. This book is better. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar. @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social

Last year, starting on December 1st, I posted a book a day for a month. I vowed not to do that again. I’m a bookseller, not an influencer, as Dr. McCoy could have told Kirk in an alternate universe. But! JT Geissinger gave me Ruthless Creatures, and now all bets are off. @panmacmillan.bsky.social

Yes, I’m religious, I believe in the Holy Trinity.

Sorry, I cropped part of his cover! I plead ignorance, your Honor! (so here it is with a tad more cover)

This is fortuitous! I just saw the two of you hanging out together @greenapplebooks.bsky.social in San Francisco!

I’m voting now and hoping for a better outcome in THIS election!

@sgj.bsky.social @erikatwurth.bsky.social

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

…at Green Apple Books in San Francisco!

@greenapplebooks.bsky.social @raeannethayne.bsky.social

Listening to Patti Smith. Trying to take comfort from a poet. Usually, that’s a recipe for disaster. I mean, poets! But Smith is always freaking brilliant.

“I awakened to the cry
that the people have the power
to redeem the work of fools…”

(and relax. i’m joking about poets. mostly.)

Had champagne — which reminded me of the drink I made for Good Night, Irene, from @urrealism.bsky.social. A simple drink, just a nod to the champagne dinners Irene left behind & the raspberry pastilles she took with her when she enlists w/the Red Cross in 1943. A gorgeous book, beautifully told.

My short shelf-talker for James by Percival Everett when it was released? “Read next year’s Pulitzer winner today.” I could have substituted National Book Award for Pulitzer, but you get it. I loved it so much I purchased a signed copy from another Indie — it’s so good!@doubledaybooks.bsky.social

Chee Royale (for How to Write an Autobiographical Novel):

.75 oz Blue Curaçao
2 dashes orange bitters (I added this after that great event — think it’s better with!)
Top with champagne
Express (pinch & twist) orange peel over drink then rub glass rim with peel
Garnish with orange peel & blueberry

Like I said, I create drinks for fab books w/ingredients I find in those books. This is a Chee Royale — mixed for @alexanderchee.bsky.social & his book How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. Ever in Boston? Let’s have a drink and we can discuss this spin on a Kir Royale. Or even better — the book!

I think a handy people barometer these days is to share Zora Neale Hurston’s words: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” I myself am in the former category re 2025.

(Sign found in @portersqbooks.bsky.social in the Seaport. If you haven’t visited, do!)

AND I make drinks for books I love w/ingredients I find IN those books, like this bubbly Mint Julep for Ilyon Woo & her Pulitzer winning Master Slave Husband Wife. Ellen & William Craft, on their flight to freedom, ate dinner at a restaurant that served champagne & juleps, so I combined them!

Lo these many years later, it’s still my favorite mug. Occasionally I dump out the pens when I need a strong cuppa!

I’ve been here for a good long while, only looking around, though! By way of introduction, I’m a bookseller & I try to champion words. All I can say is — full steam ahead. Or — I’m not letting the bastards get me down. Or — as Annie Dillard said, How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.