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These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever is a beautifully horrifying novel about the way that mutual, obsessive passion can spiral into destruction and ruin. I initially became interested in this book because I read that it was similar to NBC Hannibal and Wuthering Heights. Like Hannibal, this book engrosses you in a world of blurred lines between love, hate, fascination, and resentment. I chose this book for Quita's Corner because a lot of Bryn Mawr students seem to love Hannibal, and though the plot is very different, there are the shared elements of murder and love as means of being seen and understood.

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Before this week, I had never felt like I truly interacted with bookstores and libraries. Of course, I spent time studying in libraries and walked around bookstores, but I did not pay much attention to the humanness behind the pretty displays and spines on the shelves. This week has helped me understand the passion and intent underlying every selection in every bookstore and library. They are in a constant reciprocal relationship with their communities and do not exist as stagnant storage rooms of knowledge. Libraries and bookstores change constantly, and listen deeply to the people they aim to support through not only their books but also by acting as a hub for community events and a place of safety.

Uncle Bobbie's and Giovanni's Room were specifically created to give black and queer authors and readers a place to be heard and understood. In this manner, bookstores do not merely support the world at large but also the smaller worlds that make up individual and community experience. An essential aspect of community, however, involves reciprocity. Bookstores serve the community, but the community also serves them. Uncle Bobbie's, for example, would have shut down during the pandemic if it weren't for copious support from the community. Giovanni's Room was purchased by Philly AIDS Thrift to ensure that it persists, and volunteer effort guarantees its survival.

I used to work at Barnes & Noble, and despite this experience I did not feel that I truly understood the work I was doing before this week. This experience has reignited my passion for reading (though it never truly subsided-- classes just assign so many readings!) and I have found so many interesting books through the process of choosing them for Quita's Corner. Though I had high expectations for what I would learn from this week, they did not reach the actuality. I was reminded of why I read and why I love spending time at places with books. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that everyone can access information and stories. I would highly recommend this internship to anyone who loves books and would like to better understand the incredible, though often overlooked, relationship that exists between readers and bookstores/libraries.

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L.A. interchanges: a brown & queer archival memoir by Lydia R. Otero documents a personal narrative of queerness through the lens of Latinidad. Set in the background of the cultural and political climate of 1980's Los Angeles, Otero details involvement in activism, their push against the gender binary, their work as an electrician, a story of growth.

As one of two of my non-fiction books, Otero's memoir stands out amongst my choices. When I began the internship, I came in with the idea of centering my library picks around literary, domestic fiction. As we moved from bookstore to bookstore, I found myself drawn to historical narratives. While at Giovanni's Room, I began almost circling the memoir as I roamed around the fiction shelves. I had to pick it up!

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Spirits Come from Water: An Introduction to Ancestral Veneration and Reclaiming African Spiritual Practices is by Ehime Ora, author born in Nigeria and raised in the United States. She's a priestess of the Ifa and Orisa traditions, and she writes about reconnecting with one's ancestral lineage and African spirituality as a powerful way of navigating life and radical healing for black communities.

I chose this book because it offers a reflection on Afro-Indigenous traditions and heritage, which I hadn't seen a lot of in our collection at the library or in the bookstores that we visited. The focus on healing and reclamation of one's ancestral traditions stood out to me as very powerful and unique.

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Students Shape the Shelves was a lovely, educational experience perfect for every kind of book lover. I absolutely adored getting to spend a week speaking about books with other people and visiting different shops and libraries all throughout the city.

As I reflect back over the week, two moment's stand out to me as what I think of as the mission statement of this project. When we visited Giovanni's Room, the manager, Christopher, mentioned that the creation of the bookstore back in the 1970s gave the queer community an alternative space to come together in the broad daylight in an environment that didn’t involve partying. At the Barnes & Noble in Center City the manager, Lynn, mentioned how excited she was that young people came in the store because it meant they were cool and how enthused she was about the local author section.

Bookstores are supposed to uplift their community. Be it through external support (like using the store to host charity events or making donations to different groups with similarly aligned missions), or in the actual store (highlighting authors, speaking to customers, and giving people a place where they can hide away from the rest of the world for a bit), books, and bookish spaces, are here to connect us all together.

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The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions is a queer manifesto-fable published in 1977. It takes place in the declining empire of Ramrod and follows the queer communities as they survive the world and ways of capitalism and men.

I chose this book because I was shocked that we didn't already own it in our collection. During a time where it seems radical revolution is drifting further and further away from possibility, I wanted to highlight a book that addressed that experience for those who are not straight men. The fact it has been in circulation since the 1970s only makes its relevance more prominent and helps remind us that it isn't truly the end, but just the time in between.

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Students Shape the Shelves was an amazing opportunity that has reignited my enthusiasm about my personal reading, academic reading, and the future of reading as a whole. I've really valued this chance to learn about the inner-workings of the Bryn Mawr library and other places in our area that provide books.

This experience has enlightened me not only about the process of curating a collection of books in a library or bookstore, but about how these places interact with and provide for the communities that they serve. Choosing what books get put on the shelves of our libraries here at Bryn Mawr, at independent bookstores that serve certain demographics, and even at Barnes & Nobles is an intentional and meticulous process that the staff of those places put extensive work and time into.

Bookstores and libraries provide access to books to their communities, but my biggest takeaway from this week has been that they provide so much more than a new read, and their communities give back to them. A bookstore and their population have a symbiotic relationship, where bookstores provide books, a safe space, and general information, and customers give back not only monetarily by keeping their local bookstores and libraries running with their business, but by spreading the word about the place and how important it is to the community.

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If Cats Disappeared From The World is a novel from the Japanese filmmaker that created Your Name, Wolf Children, and Weathering With You. It follows the isolated narrator who lives alone with his cat, Cabbage, and is diagnosed with only months to live. The Devil offers him the opportunity to extend his life by another day for each object in the world he decides to make disappear, and so he and his cat set off on a week-long journey that asks what really matters in modern life.

I chose this novel partially because of my familiarity with the author's films, and the impact they had on me. I'm familiar with how beautifully the author is able to articulate human life and emotions, both through the highs and the lows, and so I trust that this book is the tear-jerker it threatens to be. More importantly, I think a lot of people are wondering what's important these days, both to them and in general. In the narrator's journey to figure out what he can and cannot live without, I hope that another reader will be able to process their own uncertainty.

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Motheater is a queer fantasy horror story set in Virginia's Appalachian Mountains. Bennie gives up every aspect of her life to find out what is killing the miners on Kire Mountain after her best friend passes in a coal mine, and winds up finding a half-drowned woman who has no memory of herself or why she is there. All she recalls is that she is a witch of Appalachia with a centuries long quest to keep industry away from the mountain.

I chose this book at first because the cover immediately grabbed my eyes. After properly reading the blurb, I settled on it because I wanted to highlight more stories where sexuality wasn't the focus of the plot. As a young reader, I grew incredibly tired of queer stories that focused on struggling with sexuality; I no longer wanted to choose between being represented or discovering a new world to dive into. So, when I was looking to add to Quita's Corner, I wanted to make sure I included queer stories of all natures. Also, frankly, look at that cover. How could it not be in Bryn Mawr?

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Our group met with Jim, the director of the Bookshop at Bryn Mawr College as our first destination on our tour of bookstores and libraries across Philadelphia. Understanding the intentional curation of a place we so often visit for textbooks and merchandise made me reflect on the way I view this store. Jim explained how the selection of books simultaneously reflects the existent tastes of Bryn Mawr's students and faculty and gives everyone the chance to find something new and unexpected. Even though the bookshelves are one area of many, every book had thought put into its procurement, and none of them were selected randomly! This collection took years to build, and it is continually updated with the ever-evolving community in mind. Furthermore, the Bookshop aims to spotlight alumnae/i writers, setting aside an entire shelf for their works.

We discussed the importance of independent bookstores such as Bryn Mawr's in the face of Amazon and Barnes & Noble's popularity. While the latter stores may have a wider selection, and B&N in particular is trying to reflect each store's local community, small bookstores are intentionally created to help the local community thrive and be heard. When so many local and alumnae/i authors find it difficult to publicize their writing, independent stores such as Bryn Mawr's give back to them by saving a place for their books on the shelves.

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This experience really opened my eyes to the importance of bookstores and libraries in our communities- they're so much more than just places to get books or to do work! Over this week, I've learned so much about the many resources and supports that both libraries and bookstores offer.

Although I had visited a few of the places we visited (BMC bookshop, Giovanni's Room, and Barnes & Noble), I really appreciated getting to know the people who make these places what they are, and learning about the exchange between bookstores/libraries and their communities: communities benefit from the resources these places offer, and libraries and bookstores are shaped by the needs and wants of their communities. Everyone we talked to was so enthusiastic about what they do, and it was inspirational to see how much of an impact these places can have.

Overall, I think community is my biggest takeaway from this week—community support, social spaces, representation, etc. I feel like I have a greater appreciation of just how much places like bookstores and libraries do for us, and how important it is that we support them in turn.

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Our conversation with Allison Saltzman about how book covers are made seemed off topic for curation at first, but quickly became one of my favorite parts of the internship. Allison works at HarperCollins as a Senior Art Director and has worked on a number of famous and captivating covers. She explained to us the work that goes into producing a cover. The manuscript is read over, and notes are made about symbols or themes to possibly pull from, and then several cover drafts are made and transferred between several teams until everyone is satisfied with it. She told us about how one cover once required fifty revisions before the author accepted it, but explained how that isn't the majority of her work or time. We also learned that fonts were an extremely important aspect of a cover, as well as it's layout and structure. Fonts are picked carefully to fit both the story and how the author wants you to feel about it. Any cover that simulates those of a different series/author are done intentionally to draw in those readers. Overall, it was incredible getting to discuss the intricacies behind something that we mostly glance at, and to understand how each decision in the process is intentional.

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Ludington Library offers many fun items you can check out including: telescopes, a ghost hunting kit (spirits not included), and a movie bundle kit that features a projector, speaker, and 20ft. screen! 

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One of the greatest opportunities this internship gave me was being able to see how interconnected independent bookstores and their communities are firsthand. Reading articles about the crowdfunding that kept Giovanni's Room and Uncle Bobbie's alive to this day was one thing, but going to the stores and talking to the managers gave me a whole new perspective on how vital each is to the other. I had come in with the idea that smaller bookstores that survived did so due to overall success and luck. While those play a part, I hadn't really understood what a united community could (and does) do for the life of those stores. Giovanni's Room survived for years off rental payments, relocations, and several owners because the people were dedicated to its mission. Its purchase by Philly AIDS Thrift and current longevity is another result of the community's support. Uncle Bobbie's too is both supportive of and supported by its community. When it nearly had to shut down in the Pandemic, it survived because people raised $100,000 to keep it alive. I've always understood the value that smaller bookstores held, but seeing that people have and continue to rally together to ensure that these places exist is moving. I had assumed the relationship between community and bookstore would struggle to find a balance between profit and its mission, but instead I found that they're in a symbiotic relationship.

The opportunity to see the behind-the-scenes of libraries was amazing. I was unaware of the work that the BMC and Ludington Libraries put into curating and selecting books for their audience, as well as providing immense resources. I didn't know that there was a team in Canaday dedicated to mending broken books, or that Ludington Library offered telescopes, hotspots, and so many other necessities, until I had gotten the chance to talk to the people doing the work. It was also wonderful to talk to everyone. Each person we met was passionate about books and supporting their communities. It was a really wonderful opportunity to remember that not everything has gone completely commercial, and that indie bookstores and the people who love them are still out and fighting.

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Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books is a Black-owned bookstore in Germantown. They have a cafe and seating area at the front for events and for people to gather, and their books at the back. Their collection is comprised of a black and other POC authors, with a mix of fiction and nonfiction. We talked to the general manager, Justin, about the way that he runs the business and curates their book collection while keeping the needs of their staff and their community in mind. Justin balances the various challenges of owning a business like Uncle Bobbie's that serves a specific demographic rather than prioritizing selling mainstream books, but he's found that the community that's formed around Uncle Bobbie's is willing to pitch in and keep a the valued business open.

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The Dark Side of Skin by Jeferson Tenório tells the story of a Brazilian man whose father was recently killed by the police, as he goes through the remnants of his father and pieces together his life. Tenório reflects on “cordial racism” in Brazil and what comes with the experience of being black and Latinx in a predominantly white region of southern Brazil.

I selected this book because it offers a unique point of view that is often less talked about within Latinx fiction.

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Never the Wind is a gothic fantasy set in Italy in 1996, from the perspective of a recently blind teenaged boy. As Luca learns to navigate his new life and relationships, he discovers generational rivalries and fantastical secrets.

I was drawn to this book as I was researching disability fiction—I love seeing disabled protagonists in fiction, especially when their disability isn't the only focus of the story, and I'm also excited by the magical realism of this book. I'm so excited for it to be part of our library!

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Waiting for the Fear by Oğuz Atay is a collection of short stories published in Turkey in 1975, and first translated into English in 2024. True to modernism, these stories present the reflective and introspective realities of its characters, depicted almost as psychological dramas. It plays with streams of consciousnesses, the barriers between the reader and the characters, unreliable narrators, and a distinct lack of plot (which I personally love ^_^).

These short stories will appeal largely to fans of absurdism and modernism, as reviews have compared the writing style to Kafka, Pessoa, Woolf, and Joyce. It is impossible to crawl inside of someone else's consciousness, but writing like Atay's helps you stray close to it, and that is why I recommend this fascinating collection of stories.

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Watch Over Me follows 18-year-old Mila as she begins a teaching job on an isolated farm in Northern California and confronts her past, and learns to move into the future.

This is one of my favorite books, so when I noticed that it was not in the Tri-Co collection, I had to make sure to buy it. This young adult novel is a ghost story—both in the traditional sense, but also in terms of ghosts of one's own past and memories. LaCour's writing is beautiful and emotional, especially her portrayal of trauma, healing, and found family.

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I thought I knew a bit about bookstores and libraries before this internship, but this week has taught me so much about the most important thing that bookstores and libraries do—get books. There are so many factors that go into acquisitions that I learned about this week, including how books are bought in the first place; concerns for the community, to make sure books are accessible for everyone; representation and creating safe spaces; and meeting the needs of the customers and communities that bookstores and libraries serve. In particular, talking to Justin at Uncle Bobbie's and Jim Huang at the Bryn Mawr College bookstore taught me a lot about the past and future of the book trade; even despite the different needs and communities that both booksellers serve, they both had a lot of similar things to say.

I came to this internship hoping to add more small press titles and speculative fiction to the collection, since that's mostly what I read, and through my creative writing classes I've learned about the importance of small presses. However, over the course of the week, I learned to refine my collecting interests, focusing on rural voices and indie publishers—rural voices are somewhat underrepresented in the Quita Corner collection in Canaday Library. I also learned how to balance those competing curation interests—I had some difficulty finding indie press titles, which shone light on the struggles that bookstore owners and libraries may face. On a lighter note, I also noticed a dearth of books about cats translated from Japanese in the collection, which I tried to rectify, since I'm a complete sucker for those titles!

As a whole, I had a wonderful week, and I learned so much about what it's like to be on the "other side of the counter," so to speak, and what goes in to forming a community around and for books.

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Yr Dead, a novel by Sam Sax, touches on the main character, Ezra's, relationship with their family, with their Jewish faith, and with their queerness. Ezra lights themself on fire and their entire life flashes before their eyes.

A lyrical novel described as, a “diasporic coming of age story that questions how our historical memory shapes our political and emotional present” which called to me especially as the nation sits in the current moment.

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Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni's Room is a queer and feminist bookstore located in Philadelphia's Gayborhood. I have visited Giovanni’s Room multiple times, but never knew the extent of the community engagement work they do or their history until my experience with Students Shape the Shelves. The first couple of times I browsed their collection, I was excited by the number of zines they had and the several flyers advertising neighborhood events. So, when our host mentioned the book clubs Giovanni’s Room puts on, and that you couldn’t even act as a customer those days because it was so crowded, or a music launch event—I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was! It was such a unique store, given all of its little features. How it’s connected to Philly AIDS Thrift, the art in and around the store/storefront, how it takes poetry submissions for its newsletter, the combination of being a used and new bookstore. It was such a treat to get to rediscover this store.

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I read The Golem of Brooklyn a couple months ago, and it was one of the first books I added to my list. This novel tells the story of a high school art teacher who builds the Golem, a man-made figure from Jewish folklore who protects the Jewish people but often inadvertently causes destruction. The protagonist goes on to bring his golem to try to stop a neo-Nazi rally. This book is hilarious and very Jewish, but also brings up ethical questions around confronting hatred. I chose this book, both for its humor, but also for its relevance to the rise of far-right extremism. I also came into this internship with an interest in Jewish studies and Jewish fiction, so this contemporary Jewish novel stood out to me as an important edition to our collection.

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A black book cover with a torch and white lettering reading, The Golem of Brooklyn: A Novel, by Adam Mansbach, #1 New York Times bestselling author

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Good Girl is the debut novel from German poet and author Aria Aber. The novel follows main character Nila, the daughter of Afghan parents, through Berlin's nightlife. Nila meets American writer, Marlowe, as racial tensions in Germany come to a head which leads Nila to ask herself who she wants to be.

As someone who is interested in books written in lyric (or lyrical prose), I was drawn to this book written by a poet. With family at the center of this novel, complicated by political setting, coupled with the push and pull of adolescence, this book grappled me and wouldn't let me go!

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Pessoa & Co.: Selected Poems is a collection of Fernando Pessoa's poems curated by Richard Zenith, the most respected translator of Pessoa's works. This volume contains not the voice of Fernando Pessoa alone, but rather that of his heteronyms: distinct identities with their own worldviews, personalities, philosophies, and linguistic styles. Pessoa was famous for his multiplicity and fragmentation, as the majority of his works were written through personas that both "were" and "weren't" him. This challenges the common assumption that everyone has a singular, distinct identity, as Pessoa felt that there were more identities within him than one.

Poems from several of Pessoa's heteronyms are contained within this volume. Alberto Caeiro, for example, was a young man suffering from unrequited love who died young of tuberculosis. Another is Alvaro de Campos, a naval engineer who is in love with the beauty of machinery and cities. Pessoa's own voice is portrayed here, too.

I chose this book because I am in love with Pessoa's work, especially The Book of Disquiet. I would recommend Pessoa's work to anyone, as it is incredibly reflective and existential, portraying a deeply phenomenological account of what it means to exist as a human being.

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The Confessions/Las Confessiones is a poetry book by Argentinian author Fabián O. Iriarte. The poetry is in Spanish, with side-by-side English translation by Lawrence Schimel. Much of the book was written after the passing of Iriarte's mother, but alongside themes of grief and loss he writes about his artistic life as a gay man trying to find his way in his community.

I selected this book because I wanted to feature more Spanish language options in the library. I also find that poetry and short story books are easier for students (including myself) to read during the academic year. I can't always bring myself to read a full novel while I'm doing so much reading for my classes, but a shorter poetry book or collection of short stories feels more accessible.

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Ludington Library is the largest library in the Lower Merion library system, and also the library with the most circulation. I had somehow never visited, and I was impressed by the number of resources they had to offer- telescopes, movie projectors and screens, a ghost hunting kit, museum passes, and, of course, lots of books (in many formats!). Although Bryn Mawr is a very affluent area, Ludington serves a wide range of needs and provides crucial support (for example, computer and internet access). The library also features a room dedicated to preserving local history. I noticed how much the library focused on providing access to a variety of spaces and resources: there were rooms for different age groups, quiet and social spaces, entertainment, cultural offerings, academic support, locally relevant information, and so much more. Our guides, librarians Andrew and Laurent, were so enthusiastic and welcoming, and I loved our visit!

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Barnes & Noble was a familiar name to me, but the experience of walking in the Philadelphia B&N was quite different than what I was used to. Barnes & Noble, since hiring the director of Daunt Books and Waterstones (both in the UK), has taken a turn, prioritizing the local bookstore experience and expanding the autonomy of each bookstore. We spoke to the manager, Lynn, while we were at B&N, who talked to us about the choices that she makes and the demographic in Center City that she serves. We learned that the Center City store prioritizes literary fiction, and we saw some of Lynn's displays, including a section of translated fiction and a "Lynn's Favorites" shelf.

While there, we explored the differences between B&N and indie bookstores, which Lynn talked discussed with us. We also compared their wide range of books to the experience at Uncle Bobbie's and Giovanni's Room. Having had just returned from study abroad in the UK, it was striking to me how much the new Center City store resembles a Waterstones, and what that might mean for the company's future as B&N experiences a resurgence throughout the US.

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We'll Prescribe You a Cat is a novel—though it reads like a collection of short stories—by Syou Ishida, all centered around a clinic in a back alley in Tokyo which prescribes cats to treat various patients and their illnesses. I absolutely love these translated books from Japanese about cats—they're so peaceful and healing to read.

I was shocked to find that there were so few books of this genre in the Quita's collection, so I chose We'll Prescribe You a Cat to get this genre started. This book is heartwarming, funny, healing, and the perfect thing to read at the end of a long day. As a series of interrelated stories, the book is also easy to read between a busy class schedule. Though a translated Japanese cat book is much lighter than many of my other picks this week, these kinds of light and healing books are important, too, especially in the times we live in now.

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Smothermoss by Alisa Alering is a fantasy-horror novel set in 1980s Appalachia, featuring two sisters who live in an isolated town town where two female hikers are murdered. As clues pile up and mysterious happenings begin to occur as the sisters investigate, the ancient mountain they live on starts to take a greater and greater role in their survival.

The author, Alisa Alering, is from Appalachian Pennsylvania, and the publisher, Tin House, is independent—both things I sought to include in my choices to add more rural and indie voices to Quita's Corner. In addition, I was drawn in by the plot and the subtle, atmospheric gothic fantasy—and the comparison many reviewers made to Shirley Jackson.

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The Land is Holy is a collection of nonfiction essays by noam keim exploring their experience as a queer Arab Jew growing up in Occupied Palestine and traveling in France, Europe, the Himalayas, Bangkok, and Philadelphia. They turn to nature and the environment to understand their experience and the diaspora using the restorative properties of nature even amidst times of climate collapse.

I was seeking to include more nature nonfiction throughout the collection, and this book stood out to me because of the deftness with which keim intertwines nature, grappling with their family history of settlement, and a deep appreciation for and understanding of the environment even in a world that feels like it is collapsing.

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Learn more about this Bryn Mawr College program:

https://guides.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/sss-internship

Student Participants:

Sofia Azuara, Piper Farmer, Charlotte Oehley, Hemani Sharma, Esther Rosi-Kessel, Madi Zoernack

LITS Staff Leaders:

Joyce Angelucci, Gillian Baillie, Kate Blinn, Berry Chamness, Jennifer Coval, Amy Graham, Sharin Lefevre, Camilla MacKay, Laura Surtees, Arleen Zimmerle

Thanks to:

Bookstores

The Bookshop at Bryn Mawr College (Jim Huang)

Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books (Justin Moore)

Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni's Room (Christopher Cirillo)

Barnes & Noble Philadelphia (Lynn Rosen)

Ludington Library, Bryn Mawr (Laurent Mondon, Andrew Pelberg)

Allison Saltzman, Ecco (Harper Collins)