Quail Ridge is the major independent bookstore in Raleigh, NC–hometown of David and Amy Sedaris. It was voted the Best Bookstore of the Year by Publishers Weekly about a decade ago, and rightly so–you can’t enter it without feeling dazzled and buying at least a handful of books. Seriously. Just try. Nancy Olson, owner ofContinue reading
The Triangle area of North Carolina—Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill—is famous for a lot of things: stellar restaurants (three of which made Gourmet‘s most recent Top 50 Restaurants list), musicians (Ben Folds, Ryan Adams, Mitch Easter, James Taylor, The Connells, Squirrel Nut Zippers), authors (David Sedaris, Amy Sedaris, Lee Smith, Charles Frazier, Allan Gurganus, Kaye Gibbons,Continue reading
As you readers out there may know (or will soon learn), we here at Algonquin love birthdays. It’s a chance to break out the cake, dust off our vocal pipes, and most importantly, celebrate ourselves. . Today is the birthday of our fabulous assistant marketing manager, Katie Ford. In her honor, we thought we’d listContinue reading
What does Hillary Jordan’s debut novel, Mudbound, have in common with the likes of Nickel & Dimed, Freakonomics, The Glass Castle, and Three Cups of Tea? The answer: it’s the 2010 selection for Appalachian State University’s Summer Reading Program. Like the aforementioned titles, Mudbound was assigned as summer reading for Appalachian’s 3,500 incoming freshman. TheContinue reading
DETROIT DIARY Morning BBQ, Bookstores in Airports, & Red Cowboy Boots: Life on the road at GLIBA’s trade show . Monday, October 7th, 10:48am: On Friday, Algonquin has me all set to board a plane for Dearborn, Michigan, en route to visit GLIBA—the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association–which will be my first trade show. Dearborn!Continue reading
Hey, whadda ya know, it’s the second installment of “Booksellers Rock!,” our series of profiles of independent booksellers. Today we hear from Lanora Hurley, owner of Next Chapter Bookshop in beautiful Milwaukee, WI. (Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!) Want to know just how awesome Lanora is? Months before publication, she created an incredible diorama for EmmaContinue reading