A Tallahassee native, Annie began living her Kathleen Kelly-dream in 2013, when she took over operations of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia. Annie and her husband Jordan now happily call downtown Thomasville home, and Annie spends her days among fellow readers and the books she loves. She adores leading story time for local little ones and acting as the shop's very own Nancy Drew, determined to find just the right book for just the right person. Annie currently co-hosts From the Front Porch, The Bookshelf's weekly podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. (In 2016, Annie was featured as one of Southern Living magazine's 50 innovators changing the South, and The Bookshelf was recently named Small Business of the Year by the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce.) 

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Name: Annie B. Jones

Store and location: 
The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia

Number of years as a bookseller: Six years

Best part about being a bookseller?:
The moments when I connect with a customer on a book we both read and loved. Those conversations are like mini-book club meetings, and they're my favorite thing. 

What book(s) are you reading?:
I'm always drowning in ARCs, so right now I'm reading The Queen of Hearts, a debut novel releasing mid-February. (Jury's still out, but I like what I've read thus far.) I try to read one fiction and one non-fiction at a time, so I'm also reading David Leibovitz's L'Appart, which is perfect to pick up and put down during this hectic season. 

Favorite handsell of 2017:
Do I have to pick just one? Probably Young Jane Young, but I also loved selling Rabbit Cake and Little Fires Everywhere this year. 

Best thing you did this year at your store:
We're in an off-the-beaten-path location, and it can be tough to get authors to come to our small town, so for Small Business Saturday, we invited other entrepreneurs to come do pop-up shops in our store. We wanted to celebrate small businesses we loved, and it wound up being such a great day. We hosted our local kids' craft studio, which meant 5-year-old entrepreneurs got to sell their handmade goods in our bookstore, and an 11-year-old author signed copies of her self-published book. (We were basically all in tears watching the joy on their faces.) To top it all off, we did a live recording of our store podcast in partnership with The Popcast, a pop culture podcast we're big fans of. It was a jam-packed day, but everything went swimmingly, and we got to partner with so many people we loved. It was perfect.

Top priority going into 2018:
I'd love to see us maintain and sustain our growth. So much of 2017 was experimenting and seeing what worked, which was great, but also exhausting. I want to keep doing the things we do well, and if possible, eliminate the excess for my own well-being and the well-being of my staff.

Favorite SIBA programming benefit:
SIBA has introduced me to fellow booksellers I wouldn't have met otherwise, and those connections have allowed me to create a network of people I trust with my business. As someone still relatively new to the whole bookselling enterprise, some of SIBA's educational courses and seminars have also been really helpful. 

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Submitted this week on Edelweiss+ using the "send to SIBA" option. Thanks to Avid Bookshop, Copperfish Books, The Country Bookshop, Downtown Books, Fiction Addiction, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe, The Oxford Exchange, and Vero Beach Book Center.

9781427212689 The Great Alone 2/6/2018
"Wonderful! Well-drawn characters navigate painful, almost impossible situations exacerbated by the beyond-tough Alaskan environment."

9780525522874 How to Stop Time 2/6/2018
"Such an interesting concept...people living for hundreds of years. Not forever, but long enough to experience times that turn into well-known history."

9780553419054 Macbeth 4/10/2018
"Nesbo did an excellent job of melding the theatre of Macbeth with the grittiness of a 70s drama--think Serpico on the Elizabethan stage."

9780805243321 This Narrow Space 1/30/2018
"I went into this book interested in the cultural and medical experiences of an accomplished physician; I came out blown away by the reflections of a profoundly gifted writer."

9780062676979 The House of Impossible Beauties 2/6/2018
"Set in and around the drag scene of 1980s, this is a novel completely and utterly alive, in character, setting, and prose."

9780062667601 That Kind of Mother 5/8/2018
". . . a beautiful, bold novel about motherhood, race, and privilege. With a singular aesthetic and style, Alam explores the limits of family and of knowing those closest to us."

9780545709569 I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain 5/29/2018
"How in the world do I review this book? It's a love poem; it's a eulogy; it's poetry; it's prose; it's uplifting; it's heart-cracking."

9781619023345 Heart Berries 2/6/2018
"Terese Marie Mailhot addresses numerous people she has loved in her life--a mother, a father, a lover, and others--and in doing so, she gets right to the core of it: what it feels like to love, to accept love, despite our and its limitations."

9780062429933 Rich and Pretty 6/7/2016
". . . reads like a romance between two friends, exploring the ups and downs that occur in any long friendship."

9781250127488 Brave Enough for Two 6/12/2018
"With classic-feeling illustrations and a gentle back and forth story, Hoot and Olive is reminiscent of the friendships found in the AA Milne Winnie the Pooh stories. "

9781451657647 Lost in the Beehive 4/10/2018
"A novel that reads like a memoir in the manner of Patty Smith, and even Jeannette Walls. I often forgot it was fiction, that these were not real people."

9781250081438 The Resurrection of Joan Ashby 8/29/2017
"This is the kind of book that changes the reader alongside the change of the characters."

9780778330691 Rosie Colored Glasses 2/20/2018
"Wolfson's first novel is a beautifully heartbreaking work that deals with the effects of opiates on addicts and their families."

9781250140227 The Bishop's Pawn 3/20/2018
"Berry's venerable Cotton Malone will lead you on a journey unraveling a mystery that will leave you wondering long after you finish reading this book."

If your store does not have an Edelweiss+ account and neesd help setting one up, contact Linda-Marie.