Ep 17: Holland Saltsman - The Novel Neighbor

Drunk Booksellers

Epigraph

Welcome to episode 17! We're interviewing the a.m.a.z.i.n.g Holland Saltsman, owner of The Novel Neighbor in Webster Groves, MO.

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Chapter I

In which We Discuss Bookstore Bathrooms, Discover that Staff Picks Work, and Talk About... Books...

Before we start drinking, check out Novel Neighbor's bathroom:

We’re Drinking

It's too hot for bourbon, so we're rocking dirty gin martinis out of mason jars, coffee mugs, and martini glasses (apparently Kim's the classy one this episode).

Holland's Reading

• Amazing Adventures of Aaron Broom by A E Hotchner (for Novel Neighbor's Subscription program)
• Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss (pubs 10/30/18)
• The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King (the audiobook is read by LeVar Burton!)
• Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen
• The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature by Viv Groskop (pubs 10/23/18)

Emma's Reading

• I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking by Leyna Krow
• They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
• Betwixt-And-Between: Essays on the Writing Life by Jenny Boully
• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Kim's Reading

• Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity by Arlene Stein
  
• When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri
• Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

Forthcoming & Newly-New Titles We're Excited About

Hannah's Excited About

• The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
• What If This Were Enough? by Heather Havrilesky (pubs 2018 Oct 2)
• The Disasters by M K England (pubs 2018 Dec 12) - The Breakfast Club meets Guardians of the Galaxy!
• Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall (pubs 2018 Nov 20)
• Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness

Kim's Excited About

• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (author of Half-Blood for folks who love Sing Unburied Sing and The Underground Railroad. author of Half-Blood Blues)
• Monstress Volume 3 by Marjorie Liu
• Vengeful by V E Schwab (follow up to Vicious)
• The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
• Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents by Pete Souza (author of Obama: An Intimate Portrait)

Emma's Excited About

• Severence by Ling Ma
• Rosewater by Tade Thompson
  • Also mentioned: The Murders of Molly Southbourne
• Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan (author of the Flintstones comic reboot)
  • Bonus Podcast Recommendation: Super Skull
• All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung (pubs 2 Oct 2018)
• Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (pubs 23 Oct 2018)

Y'all. Hot take here. Staff picks work! Emma had a staff pick on All the Lives I Want and Holland actually picked it up at Elliott Bay while visiting Seattle before our episode! (Shout out to our episode with Amy Stephenson from The Booksmith, who initially recommended it to us, and to our favorite audiobook provider, Libro.fm.)

View this post on Instagram

Picked this up @elliottbaybookco from their #stafffavorite shelf, cracking it open tonight. #essays #hollandreads #literarytourism #shoplocal @grandcentralpub

A post shared by The Novel Neighbor (@novelneighbor) on Jul 29, 2018 at 4:54pm PDT

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Chapter II [26:37]

In Which No One Tells Holland She's Crazy, People Love Their Greeting Cards, The Drunk Booksellers Marvel at Novel Neighbor's Ability to Handsell Events, and We Reiterate that Bookstores are a Business (whaaaa?)

The Novel Neighbor: More Than A Bookstore

The Novel Neighbor is not just a bookstore. In addition to author events, they host birthday parties, summer camps, bookstore yoga, and adult classes (like continuing ed, but sexier), among other things (sorry Amanda!).

Recommended reading for staff retreats:

• StrengthsFinder 2.0