[reposted from Bookriot.com]
written by Leah Rachel von Essen

by Giovanni, a Bookloft bookseller

I love the science fiction genre because of its versatility. You can do pretty much anything in the genre, from alien races to technology we’ll likely never see to whole galaxies and universes completely new to us. But it’s not all alien princesses, space battles and lasers. Some science fiction is more contemporary, showing us glimpses of what could be, just down the road, or are subtle warnings of what may come if we don’t act quickly enough. 

Meet Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history (she is 22). Since 2017, she has served the United States as the first ever National Youth Poet Laureate, but this morning, she was launched further into the public spotlight when she recited a poem during President Biden's inauguration ceremony.

Here are our top 10 bestsellers!

#1 A Promised Land by Barak Obama
#2 Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
#3 White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
#4 Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook by Elisa Spungen Bildner, Robert Bildner, Brian Alberg
#5 The Spendid and the Vile by Erik Larsen
#6 How To Be an AntiRacist by Ibram X. Kendi
#7 The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett
#8 Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
#9 Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
#10 Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Not a Bookseller

by Pam, The Bookloft's owner

I am not a bookseller. Or, at least, not exactly. I do own a bookstore, and I do sometimes work downstairs selling books, talking to customers about what they’re looking for, what they’ve read, whether they are interested in trying something new that I could recommend. All of these things are the actions and behaviors of a bookseller, but still, I am not really a bookseller. My staff at The Bookloft: they are all booksellers. A bookseller at an independent bookstore is not a sales clerk. They all have at least bachelor’s degrees; they are all extremely well read in various genres; they all can talk about books glibly and with enthusiasm and ease. My staff receives books, shelves books, pulls books, dusts books, rearranges books, and talks about books day in and day out, with each other, with customers, with other booksellers at other stores, on Goodreads, on Edelweiss, with vendors, with publisher reps. For the up to forty hours each week that they are at work, their world is books. That is what a bookseller is. I am but a dilettante who ...

Shopping early is important this year due to the high demand for books, the potential for supply chain disruptions and delayed inventory shipments, and the need to help bookstores and other small businesses make it through the end of the year.

Your support this holiday season ensures that we'll still be here for 2021! Your choices matter. Thank you for supporting us this holiday season and keeping your money in our community!

Who are these letters written to? There is letter to a child, a parent, a partner, to a close friend, for someone we've lost, a letter for healing, to the world, to the reader, the one they wished they had received, the letter to a former version of the author's self, or a version they have yet to become....

READ MORE HERE

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