{"id":4244,"date":"2024-06-22T15:18:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T19:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=4244"},"modified":"2024-06-29T22:50:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T02:50:32","slug":"james-patterson-park-road-books-and-a-dog-named-yola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2024\/06\/22\/james-patterson-park-road-books-and-a-dog-named-yola\/","title":{"rendered":"James Patterson, Park Road Books, and a Dog Named Yola"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In addition to being a bestselling author, James Patterson is a leading supporter of independent bookstores.  His desire to celebrate booksellers is reflected in his new release titled The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians:  True Stories of the Magic of Reading, <\/em>which he co-wrote with Matt Eversmann. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One of the booksellers who is featured in this book is Sally Brewster, the owner of Park Road Books.  When I first heard this news, I sent Sally an email and asked her for more details.  She said that Matt Eversmann contacted her and set up a time for them to have a telephone conversation. She reported that she and Matt talked \u201cfor an hour or so.\u201d He then transcribed the interview and turned it into a first-person narrative. She added, \u201cI had no control over what he wrote!\u201d Intrigued, I went to Park Road Books and purchased my own copy of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chapter featuring Sally begins with an amusing anecdote about her dog Yola.  As Sally explains, \u201cShe\u2019s our bookstore dog\u2014I bring her to work every day. If Yola\u2019s not in the back with me, she\u2019s wondering the store, greeting customers.\u201d  Sally tells the story of how she was contacted by a reporter from Charlotte Magazine.  <\/em>Sally initially thought that the reporter wanted to do a general story about the store, but she found out that the reporter was primarily interested in writing about Yola since Yola had been \u201cnominated for Charlottean of the year.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n

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Sally goes on to relate how she came to purchase Park Road Books in 2003.  She talks about how much she enjoys running the store.  She also discusses, however, the struggles that she faced during the recession that hit in 2008 and the pandemic that hit in 2020.  Sally credits the ongoing support that she has received from \u201cthe people of Charlotte\u201d for making it possible for the store to stay in business throughout these economic downturns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Sally points out, Park Road Books is more than a store; it\u2019s \u201ca small community, a place where people can come and browse, discuss books with others and get book recommendations. And visit Yola, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sally\u2019s chapter concludes with another amusing animal-related anecdote.  Sally recalls a time when a little girl came up to her with a question.  The girl said, \u201cI saw that dogs are allowed in the store. Are other animals allowed?  I have a tortoise.  His name is Shelly.  Can I bring him in?\u201d  Sally remembers giving the girl permission to bring Shelly into the store, expecting that the girl would \u201cbring in a stuffed animal.\u201d  However, the girl returned with a real tortoise.  According to Sally, Shelly is now \u201ca regular customer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love the story about Shelly the tortoise in part because it reminds me of the many times that I read Yertle the Turtle <\/em>aloud at Park Road Books during my annual Seuss-a-Thons and most recently at the Read-Aloud Rodeo that I organized this past March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For readers who want to know more about Park Road Books, please click on the following link:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.parkroadbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For readers who want to read more about Sally and the many other booksellers and librarians who are represented in Paterson\u2019s book, I highly recommend The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians. <\/em>As Paterson puts it, booksellers and librarians create what he calls \u201cbook joy\u201d by providing \u201cthe right book for the right person.\u201d My thanks go to Sally the other booksellers and librarians who call Storied Charlotte home for providing all of us with so much book joy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to being a bestselling author, James Patterson is a leading supporter of independent bookstores.  His desire to celebrate booksellers is reflected in his new release titled The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians:  True Stories of the Magic of Reading, which he co-wrote with Matt Eversmann.  One of the booksellers who is featured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[293,16],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-james-patterson","tag-park-road-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4253,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions\/4253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}