November is a time to reflect on the things that add to the fabric of our lives.
As the owner of Gramercy Books, I get enormous pleasure from seeing customers engage with new ideas and books, share books with others as gifts, or connect with other book lovers as they experience our curated events. And November brings a wealth of programs that we’re thrilled to offer the community.
We begin the month with a Gramercy Salon@2424 program on November 12th with writer Sarah Smarsh. While still on tour, Sarah’s debut book, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was named a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. The demand to attend this event caused us to move it down the street to the main theater at The Drexel, where there are just a few seats still available. T
hen, on November 14th, we welcome two acclaimed poets—Blas Falconer from Los Angeles and Kazim Ali from Oberlin—in an exclusive joint reading from their latest works. Both poets are also editors and scholars. Blas is the poetry editor of the Los Angeles Review, and Kazim teaches at Oberlin College. The very next day, Gramercy Books welcomes influential guitarist of the rock bands Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen, as we feature his memoir Been So Long: My Life and Music. Gramercy is actually the only bookstore on Jorma’s otherwise tour of performance halls and music theatres across the country, where he is performing with Hot Tuna. For our exclusive event, Jorma will be interviewed by music devotee and community leader Alec Wightman. Our monthly Book Club on November 27th features Barbara Kingsolver’s outstanding new novel, Unsheltered, facilitated by Pulitzer Prize finalist and writer extraordinaire Lee Martin. And to end the month’s events, on November 30th, we host New York Times bestselling novelist Helen Schulman for the launch of her provocative new novel set in the Silicon Valley, Come With Me, just named a December INDIE NEXT pick by the American Booksellers Association.
Gramercy Books is grateful to be able to host all of these extraordinary programs and authors. We spend a significant amount of time seeking out authors and planning events, and investing in promotion and staff to insure the events are well attended and enjoyed by all. As such, we very much appreciate those audience members who purchase the author’s book from Gramercy for our book signings. By doing so, they are supporting the work it takes to run an events program AND are telling the publishers they should keep sending authors to our community!
After all, an independent bookstore is a small business. As such, Gramercy Books invites you to visit us on Small Business Saturday on November 24th. Small Business Saturday is your chance to support those local businesses that keep our communities vibrant and growing. Small businesses keep the local economy strong by employing people, paying taxes, and giving back to their local community in a variety of ways.
This season, from November 1st through December 24th, Gramercy Books is proud to give back by partnering with Franklin County Children Services as part of their Holiday Wish Program. The program is called “Be a Book Angel” and the goal is to put books into the hands of children in the FCCS program. It works simply. The customer chooses a star from our Christmas tree. The star has the name, age, and gender of a child in the care of Franklin County Children Services. The customer chooses an appropriate book for that child, which they can purchase at a 25% discount. An angel with the customer’s name will replace the star on the tree in recognition of his or her donation.
We hear from many customers about how happy they are to now have another local bookstore in central Ohio. And Gramercy Books is grateful to be that gathering place: to support conversation and discourse, to provide inspiration and comfort, to build community, and to bring joy.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Written by Linda Kass
About the author: I began my career as a magazine writer and correspondent for regional and national publications and am now an assistant editor for Narrative, an online literary magazine. My debut novel, Tasa’s Song, was inspired by my mother’s early life in eastern Poland during the Second World War. It won a Bronze Medal for Historical Fiction from the Independent Publisher Award Program and was a 2016 Foreword INDIES Award Finalist. I am also the proud owner of Gramercy Books, central Ohio’s newest indie bookstore!
Learn more about me on my personal website.
