A post by one of our Booksellers, Mason: . Here at Flyleaf, as we pick our favorite books of the year, we ask ourselves: what best represents us? With this recent Nylon article—https://nylon.com/american-books—on what books best represent America, we've been thinking about what our shelves say. Some particular titles on Nylon's list come to mind: Becoming by Michelle Obama, Citizen by Claudia Rankin, feeld by Jos Charles, Rez Life by David Treuer & Heavy by Kiese Laymon. . In an added complication, today also marks the Transgender Day of Remembrance. The official 2017–2108 list names far too many people & shows how far we have to go: https://tdor.info/. We've made a display in our store to honor these voices, to remember, but really, we hope for a better future & look to books to effect change & appeal to open minds. I see customers come in & read through the blurbs of these beautiful trans books & maybe take them home. I see that happen each day, so there must be some small hope. . As an independent bookstore, we don't just sell books. We're a place of community learning & discussion, challenges & ideas. Like any nuanced narrative, during our everyday, the grave entangles with the goofy; we laugh during the worst of times & feel outside ourselves during the best. All that comes with the territory of working with objects people have poured their hearts into. Just this last March, we had Sarah McBride with us to talk about her memoir—Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality—& she dazzled us with how articulate she was about her experience & what the world can be like. . At the very least, we want to be a safe place away from home—not a place to be coddled, as some might mis-characterize, but a place to feel safely, to learn safely, & above all, to physically be safe. . I know it's a lot, but today, I wanted to share my thoughts. I'm still trying to figure how & when & why to use social media as a platform, especially as a private business in North Carolina in 2018. Saying something, I figure, is better than nothing. I see we still read & write & publish books & that give me hope. As always, I'm thankful for y'all, my community
This #tbt, our wonderful bookseller Lucia totally travelled all the way to Colombia to take this picture of her favorite, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel García Márquez. Lucia says, “Marquez’s novel was inspired by his grandmother’s oral stories. As a result, this book feels true to Colombian family histories—even with all the magical elements. If you can make it through the confusing similar names, you’ll be rewarded by stories that break your heart and make you laugh over and over!” Now in both bilingual & illustrated editions!!! #gabrielgarciamarquez #onehundredyearsofsolitude #notphotoshopped
It’s November, which means it’s Indigenous American Heritage month! Come read some excellent, new voices shaping the future of literature. Genre, age, length, style—there’s something for everyone!!!#indigenousart #indigenousrights #indigenousamerican #tommyorange #tommypico #naturepoem #heartberries #splittooth #peotry #memoir #fiction #bookstores
Talia would like to correct me & say it should be #throwbacklistthursday & not #tbt , but tbh, I still haven’t figured out how hashtags work haha. Our wonderful bookseller Talia recommends John Boyne’s THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES. She says, it’s “quite possibly the best novel I’ve read in years. This book is both laugh-out-loud funny & completely sobering, both breathtaking in scope & entirely grounded in one man’s life. It’s almost 600 pages long, but I read it in just a couple days. This is an instant favorite, an instant classic. Read it!” Look out for it on her upcoming holiday picks list! More info to come!!! #holiday #holidayreads
Mr. Rogers & Daniel Tiger wish you a happy Halloween!!! & if everyday is spooky for you, we just might have some new enamel pins to say exactly what you feel 🧟♀️👻💀#halloweencostume #mrrogers #mrrogersneighborhood #enamelpin #stickers
Thank you @petesouza for bringing the shade to Chapel Hill (despite the rain)!!! You rock! #petesouza #shade #chapelhill
*Reads Patricia Lockwood once* It’s, um, #tbt ? This week, Mason recommends Lockwood’s memoir PRIESTDADDY. If you thought your parents were crazy, think again. Lockwood’s father is a guitar-playing, borderline-nudist priest, and her mother is a highly-quotable hypochondriac—you know, the one that forwards you emails titled, “Weed Killed is in Your Breakfast Cereal.” PRIESTDADDY makes Mason’s top 3 memoirs, and is the funniest book you’ll ever read. (Better than David Sedaris, tbh.)
Get you some readers who wear your name on a jersey. @mjwallace42 #consumingfire #johnscalzi #johnscalzibooks #bookfans
Thank you to everyone who came out to Friday’s West End Poetry reading with Jaki Shelton Green, William Davis, Lauren Moseley, & Gary Phillips! Just some candid shots of the beauty & mess, the uncertainty & love that is poetry. #carrboro #westendpoetryfestival #poetry #community #ncbookstores
...we’re definitely not showing off our new shelves. Here’s Amir looking so studious for this #tbt . They recommend Celeste Ng’s EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU, a book about silences & secrets & growing up in an immigrant family in 1970s U.S. Amir—whose reading list is 600+ books long, so you know this is good—calls it unforgettable, lyrical, & moving!!! #celesteng #lgbt #lgbtq #diversebooks #getyourselfeducated
