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The week of March 12, 2024 Meet Baldwin & Co.
Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore in New Orleans, LA opened in February 2021 and is celebrating their 3-year anniversary this month. Owner DJ Johnson is a native of the neighborhood where the store is located, and his bookstore has had a significant impact in its short tenure. Johnson also owns New Orleans Art Bar, an art gallery and event venue that shares a courtyard with the bookstore, and Baldwin & Co. Manor, a stylish short-term rental property located on the second floor of the bookstore. The profits from Baldwin & Co. Manor are funneled into the Baldwin & Co. Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the bookstore that offers children’s storytime, literacy tutoring, and free community book festivals that include giving away children’s books, live performances, author readings, live music, free food and beverages, and more. Baldwin & Co. also offers a state-of-the-art podcast studio for the community to rent. Baldwin & Co. is a vibrant community hub, serving as a safe space for kids after school, a tutoring center, and an enjoyable place just to pass a Saturday afternoon. They work hard to create meaningful social change and promote and expand literacy, and their coffee shop offers drinks friendly to dietary restrictions and the BEST lavender lemonade. Johnson said that his favorite handsell this year has been Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward. He also said that Baldwin & Co.’s top priority this year is community, and his favorite SIBA benefit is the people. You can learn more about Baldwin & Co. on their website: https://www.baldwinandcobooks.com/ and you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram @baldwinandcompany, and on Twitter @baldwinbooks. – Candice Huber, Membership Coordinator for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Read This Now | Read This Next | Book Buzz | The Bookseller Directory |
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Read This Now! Recommended by Southern indies… |
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Memory Piece by Lisa Ko Adult Fiction, Women Get ready Memory Piece starts out slow and personal and then takes a whirlwind turn into the intense. Centered around three childhood friends spanning forty years, Ko weaves together a connection through art, technology advancement, and what society considers valuable. For fans of stories that center around the near distant future, coming-of-age, and female friendships. Reviewed by Jenny Gilroy, E. Shaver bookseller in Savannah, Georgia |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Spotlight on: James by Percival Everett 
This is a revisiting of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The more correct answer is, it’s the story of Jim Huck’s slave companion throughout Twain’s novel. How Huck and Jim are not together throughout that novel. And so things happened to Jim away from Huck. To say that it’s a retelling is not precise. To say that it’s a reimagining is not quite correct. It’s finally an opportunity for Jim to be present in the story. I had read [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] first, as a kid. And it didn’t come to me really until just a couple of years ago, shortly before I started this novel, I thought: Jim needs to speak. What booksellers are saying about James 
Percival Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His most recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and The Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University. American Fiction, the feature film based on his novel Erasure, was released in 2023. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the writer Danzy Senna, and their children |
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The Road from Belhaven by Margot Livesey Adult Fiction, Historical, Literary, Women Born in 1873, Lizzie Craig is raised by her grandparents at Belhaven Farm in Scotland. Lizzie discovers that she can see small pieces of the future but doesn’t always understand when and how these events will take place. Lizzie falls in love with a young man helping with the harvest and her devotion to him causes her to make some disastrous personal choices. This compelling story of choices, regrets and second chances is wonderfully written and hard to put down. Reviewed by Mary Patterson, The Little Bookshop in Midlothian, Virginia |
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You Get What You Pay For by Morgan Parker Adult Nonfiction, African American & Black Studies, American, Ethnic Studies, Social Science I have read everything Morgan Parker has written and thus knew this essay collection would be incredible, yet it still surpassed my expectations! I was immediately absorbed in her ideas and prose. I always love reading essays by poets because they don’t waste a single word. A fabulous, thoughtful, candid, a collection that speaks straight from the heart. A must-read!" Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
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Where the Dark Stands Still by A. B. Poranek Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction Meet the darker, gothier little sister of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale—with a hint of Howl’s Moving Castle! Rooted in Polish folklore and set in a wickedly magical wood full of dangers and wonders alike, this grim yet romantic young adult fantasy marks the debut of a writer to watch. Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia |
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Treehouse Town by Gideon Sterer Children, Imagination & Play, Juvenile Fiction Just below the canopy built on sticks and stilts, thats where you’ll find treehouse town With sunset lookout towers, nooks for books, and soft willow tree beds treehouse town has something for everyone. Snuggle up, with a sweet story and illustrations that have stories of their own, this one is the perfect read-together. Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina |
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Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang Comics & Graphic Novels, Romance, Young Adult Fiction Val believes that her family is cursed and they will always be unlucky in love. I loved the sweet and charming graphics and learning about the art of lion dancing. Val’s courage and determination to try and open her heart even if it may end in heartbreak is inspiring. I truly enjoyed this book! Reviewed by Keeshia Jacklitch, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
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Decide for Yourself Books that appear on PEN America’s list of challenged books. |
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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Adult Fiction, Banned Books, Fantasy, Romance I LOVED this book. It begins as a loose retelling of "Beauty and the Beast", but you’re constantly faced with the differences between the tale as old as time and "A Court of Thorns and Roses". Feyre is a strong, wild character. She’s willing to risk it all to save the people she loves. The ending had me on the edge of my seat! Reviewed by Melissa Gray, The Blytheville Book Company in Blytheville, Arkansas |
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
[ See the full list ] |
Parting Thought “Books train your imagination to think big.” |
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Publisher:
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance /
siba@sibaweb.com |
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
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