#i was also a children's and YA bookseller in a bookshop for a while

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

#also even if all YA books WERE popular US fantasy #this still not nearly specific enough to hate the whole genre #like not only is it an inaccurate and ignorant view it’s also just an argument that does not make sense #like you’re going to tell me that a well written fantasy novel by an American author has never been both popular and good? are you really? #alright everybody go home Americans can’t write good fantasy and if they do it won’t sell #and same for romance. and dystopia. #genres go through trends. most of the ya dystopia published in recent years is trying to copy the success of the hunger games. #most of the supernatural romance is trying to copy twilight. it’s literally just what happens because publishing is an industry. #I can critique YA all day long as long as the argument makes sense #but a lot of these arguments boil down to ‘women and teenage girls like it on tiktok therefore it’s bad’ #ya lit

(via @ghosthauntsthelibrary)

yeah i mean all generalisations are generalisations and generally the way tumblr talks about stuff is in the least charitable / positive way possible which is just. exhausting tbh

the reason i mentioned us-published YA fantasy in particular is because a lot of the generalisations i see about YA literature that *do* have a grain of truth in them are nevertheless *specific to that subgenre* and don't apply equally or at all to other genres within the category. and there is a lack of recognition that other YA exists. discussions about how YA is too "old" these days and full of sexy romance ignore that UK YA skews younger than US YA and that YA without romance exists, for example. discussions about magic systems in YA ignore the fact that non-fantasy YA exists. etc.

those critiques are always lacking in nuance and they are always too broad a generalisation, and "this subgenre does things i don't like" is valid grounds for not reading that subgenre, but not for saying it shouldn't exist. but i've just seen a slew of posts recently that made generalisations about all YA based on that specific subsection of it which is why i singled it out

(at this point i read enough YA and also am friends with enough YA authors that i can usually tell what book people are hyperbolically vagueblogging about, and you start to notice patterns)

PLUS there is a side issue of people constantly calling fantasy/sci-fi YA, particular when written by women, and this is also partially the result of treating "YA" and "fantasy" as though they're synonymous, which is the other reason this particular generalisation bugs me. i see so many posts about "YA authors" doing x,y and z on twitter and when i actually look at the thread, they're literally all adult SFF and romance authors and it's like. why are you blaming this on YA, come on bro, at least make half an effort

i will happily talk about the broader trends in YA that piss me off and have led to me reading less of it but the second Tumblr users start acting like "US-published YA fantasy that's popular on tiktok" = "all YA books" i switch immediately into YA Defence Mode bc honestly regardless of whether I agree with the critiques of more specific subgenres, this category is HUGE and has so much going on and we can't have a meaningful conversation about that until people get their heads out of their arses and acknowledge that fact

[drunkbooksellers]

Ep 16: Julia & Christen, Itinerant Literate

Epigraph

Y'all. It's been a minute (or, ya know, 8 months). But we're back with a brand new episode featuring Julia Turner and Christen Thompson Lain, the founders of Itinerant Literate, a mobile bookstore in Charleston, SC.

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, our website, or subscribe using your podcatcher of choice.

Support the show! All books in our show notes link to Indiebound, a website that connects you with your local independent bookstore. Purchases made through our affiliate links help fund Drunk Booksellers, so you can support your favorite indie bookstore and your favorite podcasting booksellers.

If you want to get our show notes delivered directly to your inbox—with all the books mentioned on the podcast and links to the books we discuss—sign up for our email newsletter.

This episode is sponsored by Books & Whatnot, the newsletter dedicated to books, bookselling, and bookish folk; check out their newsletter archive here. Follow Books & Whatnot on Twitter at @booksandwhatnot.

Chapter I

In which a local coffee shop assists in alcohol acquisition, we want more spaceships and dragons, and a book brings Emma to tears.

We’re Drinking

Christen and Julia were given some free beer from their local coffeeshop, Orange Spot Coffee: Stillwater Artisinal's Stateside Saisan and Sake-Style Saison. As our cocktail for the evening, we're drinking the Lime of the Ancient Mariner from Tim Federle's Tequila Mockingbird.

Christen's Reading

  War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Shout out to Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Julia's Reading

    Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka (audiobook via Libro.fm)

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

Monsoon Mansion by Cinelle Barnes

Daphne by Will Boast

Kim's Reading

  Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (audiobook via Libro.fm)

Amateur by Thomas Page McBee (pubs August 14, 2018)

McBee's previous book, Man Alive, is also excellent

Emma's Reading

  Circe by Madeline Miller (audiobook via Libro.fm)

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 

Forthcoming & Newly-New Titles We're Excited About

Julia & Christen are Excited About

   The White Darkness by David Grann (pubs Oct 30, 2018)

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (pubs Nov 20, 2018)

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura

Kim's Excited About

  So Lucky by Nicola Griffith (audiobook via Libro.fm)

also check out her bestselling historical fantasy novel, Hild

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn

Emma's Excited About

    There There by Tommy Orange

Fight No More by Lydia Millet

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (pubs July 10, 2018)

her previous book, Uprooted, is one of Emma's faves

Half-Witch by John Schoffstall (pubs July 17, 2018)

Chapter II [23:30]

In which we discuss how bookstores work (and how you keep books on the shelves in a bookstore that moves), Julia and Christen give advice to future bookmobile owners, and the mobile bookstore finds a forever home!

Customer: So, is this a library?

Interested in breaking into publishing (then abandoning your fancy degree to become a bookseller)? Check out the University of Denver Publishing Institute. Julia and Christen met there, so that bodes well.

Shout out to Blue Bicycle (founder of YALLFest, Charleston's Young Adult Book Festival)

Fun fact: the aunt in Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is described as itinerant. Maybe not the best role model, but not the worst!

The bookmobile is so purrrrrrrrrty:

  Books that Itinerant Literate must have in stock:

City of Thieves by David Benioff

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine 

Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer

Replica and Ringer by Lauren Oliver

Tips for potential bookmobile owners:

What's an SAN? Ok, go to www.bowker.com

Have an accountant in the family.

Indiegogo is your friend. (Kickstarter only gives you the funds if you meet your goal, whereas Indiegogo allows you to choose to still get your funds if you don't meet your goal.)

Bungie cords are clutch.

Know your legal obligations (you need separate business licenses for every municipality!)

For the first few months, plan two hours more than you think you'll need.

Ask someone who is not in your field to walk through your store and give you feedback.

Don't take everything a customer says to heart.

Engage sometimes, but not always.

Bookstores are businesses too, y'all.

Chapter III [44:30]

In which Julia, Christen, & Emma have the same wheelhouse; we debate Christen's concept of "feel-good" books; and Christen wants to be fierce & fearsome while naked

Book Description Guaranteed to Get You Reading

Christen loves fiction containing witches, dystopias, feminism, misandry, unreliable narrators, and anachronistic elements. Also, nonfiction books about product and content marketing. Highly recommend Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller.

Emma recommends We Were Witches by Ariel Gore, cause witches + misandry = win!

Julia digs retold fairy tales and pop science/medical nonfiction (shout out to This is Your Brain on Parasites by Kathleen McAuliffe).

Desert Island Pick

Christen: Harry Potter, natch

Julia: Young Adult faves, such as Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Station Eleven Picks

Christen's practical book: Peterson's Field Guides to Medical Plants

Christen's "feel-good" books: Letters to a Young Poet, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, and The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Or, to go more apocalyptic: The Giver by Lois Lowry (aka "The Handmaid's Tale for children")

Julia: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Wild Pick

Julia: Nature reading (The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery) or books about female resistance

Christen wants a guidebook about how to be Lady Godiva. #legit

Lady Godiva, the ultimate Rebel Girl

Bookseller Confession

Christen actively doesn't finish things she doesn't enjoy. Real talk, this is a necessity for all booksellers. And readers. And humans.

Neither Julia, Christen, nor Emma have read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. For the record, Kim loves this series and owns multiple editions of the books. Because it's awesome and Kim has great taste. Seriously, look at this pretty cover:

Impossible Handsell

Julia: Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks

Christen: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

Everyone: Hogarth's Shakespeare series

Book for Booksellers

Julia: Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashore

Christen: Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller

Favorite Bookstores

Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA

Battery Book Exchange & Champagne Bar in Asheville, NC

Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC

Charis Books in Atlanta, GA

Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA

Tattered Cover (which is where Julia and Christen met! best #meetcute ever)

Favorite Literary Media

Shelf Awareness and Lit Hub

On Twitter: Maris Kreizman (author of Slaughterhouse 90210 and judge for Book of the Month Club)

Poet.org Poem of the Day

Epilogue

In which we tell you where to find Itinerant Literate on the Internets

Website: itinerantliteratebooks.com or chsbookmobile.com

Facebook: itinerantliteratebooks

Twitter: @chsbookmobile

Instagram: @chsbookmobile

Tumblr: itinerantliterate.tumblr.com

You can find us on:

Twitter: @drunkbookseller

Litsy: @drunkbooksellers

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Website

Emma tweets from @thebibliot and writes bookish things for Book Riot. She's also starting a newsletter called All the Books I'll Never Read, which you can subscribe to here. (Working on show notes is the first Kim has heard about this, and it sounds awesome.)

Kim tweets from @finaleofseem less frequently than Drunk Booksellers posts new episodes. #sickburn #stilltrue

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