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Dear Readers,Happy New Year! A new year means new books to look forward to, and I already have a list of over 50 titles I want to read in the first half of 2023. I've put together lists (below) of 16 exciting titles to share with you. Click on the links to read more about each book, and don't forget you can preorder the ones you're most excited about.
Dear Readers,Another year of reading coming to a close means another painstaking attempt to narrow down all my favorites to my top 10. And here they are! These are the top 10 books that have stayed with me long after finishing the last page.
Dear Readers,Twenty years ago this month, my husband and I went out on our first date. As you can see from this photo, one of the first things I did when I fell in love was gift him a Bookshop Santa Cruz t-shirt.
Dear Readers,After 55 years in business, we've seen a lot of cycles in the life of the bookstore. I think this year's reality is one of my favorites. We are seeing a huge influx of younger customers who are hitting the book aisles with the explosion of buzzy romance books, LGBTQ+ focused stories, more diverse representation in books being published and a wide exposure for books on #booktok.
Dear Readers,
Dear Readers,This summer my family traveled to Spain for a COVID-delayed vacation. The big surprise for me was how much I fell in love with Madrid, a place that previously only registered as the city where my friend's bag was stolen while backpacking around Europe in my early twenties. Why did it resonate so much more this time around? I found Madrid to be a city centered in literature—full of bookstores on every street, golden literary quotes etched into the roads, people reading on park benches, and even burial sites of authors (like Cervantes) in churches.
Dear Readers,The start of summer means taking stock of the first half of the year in books and for Bookshop staff, that means putting together our lists of the "Favorite Books of 2022, so Far." Always an impossible task, I narrowed down my list to six books that made a major impression on me during 2022.
Dear Readers,In a world that seems to be crumbling around us, people often turn to books for different reasons. Some turn to poetry to try to put their feelings into words. Others seek out books on history or politics to make sense about what is happening. Still others turn to science-fiction to live in worlds where anything is possible. Surprisingly, this year, I’ve turned to short stories.
Dear Readers,Earlier this month, my family and I traveled to Israel for spring break—a long planned (and delayed) visit to the country to connect my kids even more fully to their Bar and Bat Mitzvah journeys. In one of the most meaningful moments, we visited Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, on a Bar Mitzvah tour where they shared the powerful story of a boy with the same birthday as my son who did not make it to their Bar Mitzvah. My son was called upon to carry this remembrance with him during his learning and celebration so that his memory would not be forgotten.
Dear Readers,One of Bookshop's most deeply-held beliefs is that connecting the right books to readers has the possibility to change lives. However, for the last ten years, a central way Bookshop does this work has actually only ever been seen by our youngest customers. In partnership with local schools and through the leadership of local librarians, Bookshop brings dozens of authors each year to our schools to connect with kids on books, illustration, writing, and, most importantly, imagination. I remember watching one such assembly where I could see in the faces of some young students that their dream of becoming an author could indeed become real. These events are much more than just an introduction to the book— they give a glimpse to kids about how they could live a creative life.