Burned By Books

The Last Bookstore, Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca, NY


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An interview with Lisa Swayze, the General Manager of Buffalo Street Book in Ithaca, New York. Buffalo Street Books is one of a handful of community-owned bookstores in the country. It survived the double plague of a Borders and a Barnes and Nobles in the same tiny city with them by reaching out to the community to buy ownership shares. We discuss her latest recommendations for reading during the pandemic, and I share my delight with the sub-genre of the “paranoid campus novel.”

Books Recommended in this episode:

  • The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
  • Lisa’s Best of last 5 yearsAsk Again Yes - Mary Beth Keane; The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai; History of Wolves - Emily Fridlund; The Mothers - Brit BennettThe Nickel Boys - Colson WhiteheadThe Night Watchman - Louise ErdrichNothing to See Here - Kevin Wilson; On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean VuongPachinko - Min Jin Lee; Red at the Bone - Jacqueline WoodsonSing Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward; There There - Tommy OrangeWomen Talking - Miriam Toews.
  • What to look forThis Town Sleeps by Dennis Staples; Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis Sharma; Days of Distraction by Alexandra ChangThe Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet; Migrations by Charlotte McCongahy; And Lisa’s best book of the year thus farThe Death of Vivek Oji by Awkeke Emezi
  • The Paranoid Campus Novel: The Secret History, Donna Tartt; The Magicians, Lev Grossman; Catherine House, Elisabeth Thomas; BunnyMona Awad; Never Let Me GoKazuo Ishiguro

  • Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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