Book Recommendations: Confessions of a Frustrated Non-Bookseller

As you read my posts about books and about books I recommend, I wonder: do I sound like a bookseller?

I am delighted to report that I love books and love being surrounded by books. I’ve been working on one or two of my own, also!

What brought this topic to mind was walking by a stack of books I was planning on sending Mom. At one point, we even discussed each of them as books I had enjoyed, and I had told her that I would plan on sending them to her.

Before I sent the books off to Mom, I received word that Mom had become very ill very suddenly. We talked a couple of times but she was losing coherence. Within a week she died. It was so sudden. This was just over a year ago.

So, on a bookcase I have a stack of books which I haven’t put away; these are the ones I didn’t send to Mom. I haven’t had the inclination or interest in putting them away.

A friend of mine is working on a novel with a Korean setting and Korean characters. I recommended The Book of Dead Birds by Gayle Brandeis (2003) to her because its main character is a young woman of mixed Korean and American heritage.

The Book of Dead Birds is a fine, award-winning novel. It won “Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize, an award in support of a literature of social responsibility.” [Source: book jacket]. It is complex, poignant, and beautiful. Highly recommended. 

I couldn’t find it right away. Turns out, it was in the stack of books I had planned on sending Mom. When we spoke about it a while before she died, Mom hadn’t been enthusiastic about the title. It’s a difficult title, but it has an important bearing on the novel. She told me she would try it because I liked it so much.

I’ve applied and made inquiries at a couple of bookstores here in town. One bookstore had an opening and had received 56 résumés for that position. The person I spoke with told me they didn’t want any more résumés! For three openings with another bookstore, I was interviewed and placed 5th!

So, I continue recommending books while remaining a frustrated non-bookseller.