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Reading, Publishing & Summer Book Picks (Rebroadcast)

Furcifer Pardalis
/
Flickr

A dispute at Amazon over e-book pricing has some authors encouraging readers to ditch the retail giant and head to their local independent bookseller. Major brick and mortar bookstores continue to struggle. Self-publishing is on the rise. E-books and e-readers are pervasive as ever, but their sales are starting to level off. Meanwhile, the American Booksellers Association has reported a fifth straight year of membership increases for indie bookstores, once considered doomed with the advent of the digital age. Books are a rapidly changing business, so we'll check in on the state of the publishing and bookselling industry. And summer is almost here, a time when many people catch up on their reading so we'll get some book recommendations.

Guests

  • Sally Brewster - Owner of Park Road Books, the oldest continuously operated independent bookstore in Charlotte
  • Alan Michael Parker - Professor of English at Davidson College; author or editor of thirteen books, including The Committee on Town Happiness and The Ladder, a new collection of poems due out next year
  • Ed Southern - Executive Director of the North Carolina Writers' Network; author of the short story collection Parlous Angels and the nonfiction books Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas and The Jamestown Adventure

Summer Book Suggestions From Today's Guests

Alan Michael Parker:

  • Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill
  • The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler
  • The Silent History by Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby & Kevin Moffett
  • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Neighbors of Nothing by Jason Ockert
  • Spectacle by Susan Steinberg
  • The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death by Colson Whitehead
  • Country Music, The World of Ten Thousand Things, and Negative Blue by Charles Wright

Ed Southern:

  • Wynne's War by Aaron Gwyn
  • An Untamed State by Roxane Gay

Sally Brewster:

  • Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson
  • I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
  • A Southern Girl by John Warley
  • The Unexpected Waltz by Kim Wright
  • Trapped Under the Sea by Neil Swidey
  • The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA & the Battle over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn
  • Half Bad by Sally Green
  • We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
  • Help! We Need A Title by HerveTullet
  • Dog vs Cat by Chris Gall
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