From the Land of SIBAA message from SIBA to its membership
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First Things First...
6/16: Mental Health Check-in with Micro-chillers (register) 6/16: Glorious Girls Southern Summer Reading Presentation (register) 6/16: Extended ABACUS Deadline (start here) 6/17: Coffee with the Board (register) 6/17: Deadline to
sign up for RAMP "Hot Summer Reads" email (more info) 7/8: THIS! Hybrid Events Roundtable with John Cavalier and Jamille Christman (register) 7/9: RAMP Winter Catalog Direct/Saturation Mail Info Session (register) 7/15: Deadline to nominate a video to the VIndies (here) 7/16: Deadline to sign up for RAMP "Back to School/Work" email (more info)
7/19-7/22 NVNR New Owners Retreat (register) 9/27-10/1 NVNR 2021: Opening Doors (register)
There are a couple of important things happening next week we don't want booksellers to miss:
1. The deadline to sign up for the next RAMP Summer email (Hot Summer Reads!) is June 17. You can see the list of books here and more information
about the summer email program and the winter catalog program here. Don't end up kicking yourself for missing the deadline. Sign up now--less stress, more
sales!
2. Also, the ABACUS filing deadline has been extended to June 16. ABACUS provides vitally important information to stores about where their business stands in relation to the rest of the industry. The analysis will
help you run your business better and more profitably. Devote an afternoon to completing the survey, it will pay itself back tenfold. Start here
NVNR Presents: The VIndies!
A Celebration of Indie Bookstore Videos
(From A Bookstore Not Very Far Away) -- Lights, Camera, Fiction! New Voices New Rooms, the collaborative partnership between NAIBA and SIBA, is launching The VIndies to recognize the spirit and creativity of independent
bookstore videos.
NVNR and an academy of judges drawn from the bookselling community will award prizes to videos created by independent bookstores in the SIBA and NAIBA territories from January 1, 2020 through June 1, 2021.
Next month John Cavalier, co-owner of Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, LA, Jamille Christman, Marketing and Merchandise Manager of Eagle Eye Books in Decatur, GA, and Rebecca Doel, Digital Media and Event Specialist at Quail
Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC, will come together to talk to booksellers about that mysterious thing known as "Hybrid Events." John and Jamille have years of experience running and recording events, and are actively working
on plans for hybrid events. They’ll lead a discussion on the elements that go into making an event "hybrid" and invite other booksellers to join and share ideas, tips on equipment, how to stage recording, livestream,
and other tools for creating an event that works for both in-person and virtual audiences.
Gay, Catholic, and American: My Legal Battle for Marriage Equality and Inclusion by Greg Bourke University of Notre Dame Press Publication date September 1, 2021 Paperback $26.00
"Greg Bourke’s remarkable memoir Gay, Catholic, and American is about how he and his husband became plaintiffs in one of the most pivotal Supreme Court cases in LGBTQ+ history. . . . Throughout, he refuses to accept that his sexual orientation and his religion cannot coexist. His text is inspirational, humble, and engaging." —Foreword Reviews
In this compelling and deeply affecting memoir, Greg Bourke recounts growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, and living as a gay Catholic. The book describes Bourke’s early struggles for acceptance as an out gay man living in the
South during the 1980s and ’90s, his unplanned transformation into an outspoken gay rights activist after being dismissed as a troop leader from the Boy Scouts of America in 2012, and his historic role as one of the named
defendants in the landmark United States Supreme Court decision Obergefell vs. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.
Over many years and challenges, Greg and his husband Michael have successfully navigated the choppy waters of being openly gay, deeply involved in their local parish community, and raising two adopted sons. Their faith provides the
framework for this inspiring memoir of their struggle to overcome antigay discrimination by both the BSA and the Catholic Church and fight to legalize same-sex marriage across the country.
A limited number of signed galleys are available. Email Michelle Sybert at msybert@nd.edu for more information or to request a signed print galley.
The Anti-Racist Bookseller
Testing your implicit bias
In MPIBA’s series on Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, led by with Prismatic - Varied & Brilliant, participants were asked to take a well-known and documented Harvard test for revealing one's implicit biases. In fact,
they were asked to take it at least three times:
Unexamined bias is something every person has. But if it remains unexamined, then it can undermine our best intentions to create an inclusive and equitable workplace, and sabotage our efforts to make real, effective change. Bookstores
doing Anti-Racist work should make identifying implicit bias a first step in the process of examining their organization's policies, so they can become aware when it is impacting their decisions.
In Brief:
Sisters in Crime's "We Love Bookstores" Contest Sisters in Crime is offering six $500 prizes for stores promoting member authors' books. (more info)
Paz & Associates Resuming "Indie Bookstore Bootcamp" from August 15-17 The "Owning a Bookstore Workshop Retreat," aka "Bookstore Bootcamp," will return this summer for three days of bookstore startup best
practices, training, networking, and guidance. (more info)
Reader Meet Writer Upcoming
General RMW Event information:
RMW events are held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7:00 PM Eastern
Each event is fully moderated and hosted, with plenty of time for author Q & A. Current host is Wiley Cash, author of When Ghosts Come Home (William Morrow, 2021)
All events are recorded and available to stream at SIBA's Reader Meet Writer TV YouTube channel.
We Are Each Other's Harvest with Natalie Baszile Thu Jun 10th 7:00pm - 8:00pm | REGISTER
Natalie Baszile is the author of the novel Queen Sugar, which was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2014, longlisted for the Crooks Corner Southern Book Prize, nominated for an NAACP Image
Award, and adapted for television by writer/director Ava DuVernay and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN. Baszile holds a M.A. in Afro-American Studies from UCLA and is a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program
for Writers. She lives in San Francisco.
The Killing Hills with Chris Offutt Thu Jun 17th 7:00pm - 8:00pm | REGISTER
Chris Offutt is the author of the short-story collections Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods, the novel The Good Brother, and three memoirs: The Same River Twice, No Heroes,
and My Father, the Pornographer. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays, among many other places. He has written screenplays for Weeds, True Blood,
and Treme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations.
This week on Circle of Sites
Read more about SIBA's Circle of Sites Program (aka the "banner for dues" program) and find out whether your store is eligible to participate and
receive free membership dues.
Animal distills the insidious and permeating violence of rape culture into one killer dose of strong medicine that will have you redefining what it means to be a predator, or prey. -- Megan Bell from Underground Books in
Carrollton, GA Buy from Underground Books.
I can't put this book in one genre; it has twists, it has strong emotions that the characters and the reader will feel, and I couldn't get enough of it. --Grace Sullivan from Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA Buy from Fountain Bookstore
I could not put this book down. I simultaneously wanted to throw it across the room out of anger and amazement! --Kate Hults from M. Judson, Booksellers in Greenville, SC Buy from M. Judson, booksellers and storytellers
Sometimes it’s the mundane that’s the most fascinating. Kristen Arnett’s novel With Teeth takes the everyday marriage challenges of staying in love, being faithful, having patience with an unknowable
child, and figuring out what to make for supper, tosses that with a dose of bizarre behavior which gives us what becomes to one queer family’s happily ever after. Arnett’s characters are infuriating and I think
you’ll puzzle over Sammie, Monika, and Samson well after you finish the last page.
Linda-Marie: Reading:Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau. This sweet, poignant, can’t-put-down read is set in the 70s, from the POV of a sheltered 14-year-old girl. She soon discovers her summer job as nanny is for a
boundary-challenged family housing and rehabbing a rockstar addict and his movie star wife. Listening: Mellow and meditative stations on Pandora. Watching: The glorious “Life in Color with David Attenborough” series.
Lucy: Reading: If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy - A fun, sweet, and inclusive reimagining of Disney’s 1950 animated Cinderella film! Listening: The covers from Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Watching: Hamilton on Disney Plus
Nicki: Reading:Slightly Foxed No. 70 Summer 2021 (blessed be the little literary journals!), and How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith Listening:Peaceful Choir: New Sound of Choral Music with Lavinia Meijer & World Choir for Peace Watching: CNN. Hence the Peaceful Choir album on my playlist.
SP:
Reading: Finished With Teeth, Kristen Arnett (Mostly Dead Things). Complicated, funny, Florida story with an occasionally endearing, highly unreliable narrator prone to very bad behavior. In the middle of Palace of the Drowned,
Christine Mangan (Tangerine), another fever-dreamy psychological thriller with bad behavior and unreliable narrators galore (sensing a theme?) set during the 1966 Venice flood. And the letters of Sylvia Beach are winging
their way to my door. Listening: If you're a fellow Cocaine & Rhinestones fan, you've probably also been listening to some George Jones, and maybe especially to his duets with Melba Montgomery. Watching: The marvelous Jean Smart in the equally marvelous Hacks. I don't know what to say--just watch it. Given that she was driven to playing a guardian angel in a Hallmark Christmas movie only two
years ago, I couldn't be more thrilled at this latest development in her career.
1. Sooley John Grisham, Doubleday, $28.95, 9780385547680 2. Malibu Rising Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine, $28, 9781524798659 3.
The Midnight Library Matt Haig, Viking, $26, 9780525559474 4.
Golden Girl Elin Hilderbrand, Little, Brown, $29, 9780316420082 5. While Justice Sleeps Stacey Abrams, Doubleday, $28, 9780385546577
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. The Anthropocene Reviewed John Green, Dutton, $28, 9780525555216 2. The Premonition Michael Lewis, Norton, $30, 9780393881554 3. How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America Clint Smith, Little, Brown, $29, 9780316492935 4. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Charlie Mackesy, HarperOne, $22.99, 9780062976581 5.
World Travel Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever, Ecco, $35, 9780062802798
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Supporting independent bookstores in the South SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
Useful Links SIBA Office Hours on Zoom by appointment. Available during regular business hours at 803-994-9530, or anytime at siba@sibaweb.com
Thank you for your interest in SIBA, Nicki Leone SysAdmin
nicki@sibaweb.com
THANKS TO OUR INKREADIBLE SPONSORS:
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805 You have received this email because you are currently subscribed to receive general correspondence. Please click @@unsubscribe_url@@ if you
no longer wish to receive these communications.
Gay, Catholic, and American: My Legal Battle for Marriage Equality and Inclusion
Testing your implicit bias
We Are Each Other's Harvest with Natalie Baszile
The Killing Hills with Chris Offutt
