Indie Bookstore Day 2025

Today is Indie Bookstore Day in the United States. This is the twelfth year for Indie booksellers who are part of the American Booksellers Association to band together to host special events at over 1600 bookstores in all fifty states. It seems to me a wonderful way to celebrate the vibrant and growing presence of Indie booksellers.

I think of the bookseller I interviewed recently at the Birch Tree Bookery in Marion, Ohio. Marion is one of the small to medium size county seats in Ohio. This husband and wife bookselling team launched the store a couple years back in a bookstore desert. The nearest store was at least 20 miles away. They are now in their third location, each larger than the last as they’ve built a reading community. No Barnes & Noble is going to move here. And this is what Indies are doing across the country.

The long and the short of it is that today is a very good day to visit your nearest Indie (the Indie Bookstore Day site will help you find one). Not only will you find fun, bookish activities. You may also find your next great read.

Can’t make it in person? Most are set up to take orders. I placed an order at my favorite Indie since I won’t be able to support them in person. If you can’t figure out how to order from the store, you can also order through Bookshop.org which has raised nearly $38 million for local bookstores.

Our Indie bookstores are a crucial ingredient to making our towns places livable, interesting, unique places. They are gathering places in a world lacking good third places. And they are far better than algorithms when it comes to matching people with books they will love.

Five Articles Worth Reading

It’s National Poetry Month. And who would have thought of Iowa City as a poetry mecca? ” ‘Poetry City: Iowa City, Iowa” tells the story of a college town, the home of a famed writing program and how they’ve kept it “weird”–a center for poetry where one might never expect it.

Tomie dePaola’s Strega Nona is turning 50. Elisabeth Egan has a unique take, which she offers in “I’ve Read ‘Strega Nona’ 100 Times. Now I Feel Sorry for Her Sidekick.” She thinks Big Anthony has not gotten the credit he is due.

Did you know that Isaac Asimov wrote some of his books under the pen name Paul French? And did you know that a reviewer who hated Asimov’s writing loved that of Paul French, amusing Asimov to no end. You can read all about it in “When Isaac Asimov Decided to Secretly Write Under the Name Paul French.”

I’ve seen pictures of the J.P. Morgan Library, in New York City. It is an amazing personal library. “Ambition, Discipline, Nerve” is a fascinating article about the librarian Morgan hired to build that library.

You would think people of faith would die well. In “Fragments for the End of Life” Justin Hawkins reviews Burdened Agency: Christian Theology and End-of-Life Ethics by Travis Pickell, a book that explains why this is so.

Quote of the Week

Charlotte Brontë was born April 21, 1816. She makes an observation we desperately need in our culture of grievance:

“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.”

Miscellaneous Musings

As we get older, it becomes harder to find people further along than we. Luci Shaw is in her late 90’s and just published another poetry book, An Incremental Life. If I can grow older half as well as she, that will be a good thing.

He spent much of his work as a book editor, work he did well. In my last job, part of my work involved editing, work for which I had no experience. He gave me a crash course. As a fellow “retiree,” one of the things Andy LePeau does is review books. I love seeing how he does it, particularly when we’ve read the same book. I commend his blog, Andy Unedited.

This week marked the passing of Pope Francis. He died on Easter Monday and on the day before Earth Day. He lived the Easter hope and taught us to care for our common home. If you have not read it, LAUDATO SI’, an encyclical letter, is a marvelous and sweeping statement of a vision for caring for our common home, inspired by his namesake, Francis of Assisi. Requiescat in pace.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: James Crossley and Chris Keith, eds., The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus

Tuesday: Michael Innes, The Open House

Wednesday: Ida Friederike Gorres, John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed

Thursday: The Month in Reviews: April 2025

Friday: William F. Buckley, Jr., Tucker’s Last Stand

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for April 20-26, 2025!

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