Today is Small Business Saturday. American Express will give a $25 credit to your account for shopping small box this weekend. The stores you shop at don't even need to accept AmEx, which is a good thing since most small businesses can't afford to honor their cards. The 3/50 org has more good reasons for you to shop local.
Of course, I recommend you shop at a bookstore. You can find your local bookstore at indybound, or for those of you in the Northwest, we now have Northwest Booklover'sthanks to the PNBA for this site. PNBA also brings us the Holiday Catalog (simple pdf), and here are a few of my favorites:
Something Fishy This Way Comes by Ray Troll (Sasquatch Boooks, $19.95) This best of Ray Troll's art will be sure to get chuckles from fishermen or lovers of bad puns.
Hiking Washington's History by Judy Bentley (University of Washington Press, $18.95) will give you more background than you'll get from the historical marker at trailshead or highway pull-outs. UW Press has sample chapters to peruse.
One of my favorite novels this year is now in paperback, The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter (HarperCollins, $14.99)
A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression by Ted Gup (Penguin Press, $25.95) This one really tugs at the heart, Ted Gup found a cache of letters in his grandfather's possessions that told the story of an anonymous donor who offered $5 to 150 people during the height of the depression. Check out this dedicated issue of Shelf Awareness, for pictures and an author interview.
And finally we come to the time of November you've all been looking forward to: this year's shortlist of titles nominated to The Bad Sex Award are covered in the Guardian. The winner will be announced November 29th at the In and Out Lounge in London.
These books are available at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores. We're on FaceBook now.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.