Dana's Picks
Dana is the shop owner, and has been a bookseller for over twenty years.
Plotline pet peeves?
1. _________ had the perfect life, then _______ happens & everything goes to hell.
2. Dad/mom/grandparent dies & the main character returns home, where long buried secrets... blah blah blah...
Both are just plain lazy and formulaic.
Dogear or bookmark?
Bookmark--I have a stash and match them to the mood/subject of the book.
Any classics you refuse to read?
This isn't going to make me popular, but Austen & Dickens. Tried 'em. We didn't get along.
First book that made a big impression on you?
The Talisman by Stephen King when I was 11--it was the fattest book I had ever read; what a sense of accomplishment.
Then, at 15, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut taught me how truly original and unconventional literature could be. It changed everything.
What's your most terrifying book experience?
I discovered I hated my book 30 minutes into a 4hr flight and didn't have a back-up.
Your mission as a bookseller?
To connect people to books that surprise them & open new words/avenues of reading.
Anything else of note??
1. There needs to be an 8th day of the week where nothing is expected of anyone except reading. The world would be a better place. Libroday?
2. I will always have a soft spot for the people who 1st introduce me to books I fall in love with.
I am so sick of WWII books. So sick of them. And then Urrea comes along with this novel and, damnit, here I am reading another one and loving it. Truth be told, it's the best of the bunch, partly because it's about an obscure branch of the Red Cross - the Donut Dollies - and partly because Urrea is such a phenomenal writer. He's as good with the intimate inner thoughts of the characters as he is with the battle scenes. He's at his best when he balances both at he same time. I think this has the appeal and staying power of All the Light We Cannot See. Don't skip this one.
If Fredrik Backman and Sy Montgomery ever had a literary love child, this is it. A novel of outcasts and octopuses (octopi?), it delves into loss and creating community in an utterly charming manner. I usually run from a book described as "charming", so I was really surprised how much I loved this one. ~ Dana
