Life on the Front Lines

Hello faithful Next Chapter Bookshop blog readers, I'm Hannah, the newest bookseller at the store.  Before being hired in July, I worked for three different Borders, both in Washington and Wisconsin.  I love working here, at a thriving independent bookstore, where it is easy and encouraged to luxuriate in full-on book nerdery.

I am starting a new series of posts called "Life on the Front Lines."  They'll appear every other Monday; a nice dose of bookish stories to start your week.  I'll share highlights of author events, customers' book raves, anecdotes from and for bibliophiles, and other job-related miscellany that I think might pique your fancy.  Please comment on the posts and let me know what you want more or less of.  I plan on the blog evolving as time, experience, and reader input dictate.

For this first post, I'm delighted to write about the rep night we attended last night at Boswell Book Company.  Rep nights are my personal heaven on earth.  Representatives from different publishers come to present to the employees from Next Chapter, Boswell, and Books & Company, about new and exciting books.  We get to pick those that sound most interesting to us and take copies home. 
I left the evening arms full with the following books:

• Awkward Family Pet Photos, a follow up to Awkward Family Photos, that comes out November 1st
• Brotherband Chronicles: The Outcasts, the newest book by John Flanagan of Ranger's Apprentice fame, also out November 1st
• On Bicycles, a neat book about incorporating more bicycle into your life
• The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen, which Morgan thinks is better than the Stieg Larsson trilogy
• and many more.

The reps impress me with their inside and out knowledge of their books and their ability to make any book sound like an immediate must-read.  Their enthusiasm is infectious and helps me figure out what to recommend to customers.  Twas a great evening; I look forward to the next rep night in two weeks.

That's all from me for now.  In the next post, in a fortnight's time, look for highlights from Karl Marlantes, Tomie dePaola, and Larry Watson.

-Hannah