Welcome to the Quarantine Edition of Butterfly Books, plus reviews of Wrong Side of the Paw by Laurie Cass and Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris

Welcome to the Quarantine/Coronavirus Edition of Butterfly Books! Today we're focusing on how the stay at home rule (now through the end of next month) and the social distancing rules are affecting bookstores/book retailers all over the US and the World. I will try to slip in a couple of book reviews at the end, but to be honest, I've been having a hard time concentrating on reading with the threat of death by respiratory virus hanging over my head everyday.

Online ordering and deliver to your doorstep has become the norm for everything from books to food to toilet paper. Yet I feel terrible for the folks who are putting themselves and their families health at risk by going out each day and delivering whatever people order to their door. 

Quotation of the Day

'I'm Afraid of Falling in Love with Delivering Books'

"Stanley the mailman, the best mailman that ever was, kept leaving us plastic corrugated USPS tubs. They seemed to multiply at night. We'd been shipping a lot more books--even before we knew what was coming--so Stanley picking up packages became a daily thing. He'd bring two empty tubs and swap them out for the two tubs full of books. But the in-store stack of empty tubs kept growing.... Last week, Chris finally asked Stanley to take away the extras, leaving only two. Why the heck would we ever need six USPS tubs anyway?

"The first day we offered free delivery in Lawrence, last Saturday, I hopped in my little red hatchback and delivered three packages. The next day, maybe six. By Tuesday it was 15 books and they were sliding across my trunk. We shouldn't have given away the tubs. Wednesday we asked Stanley for more. That day, two of us delivered 50 books. Thursday it was 75 books and three delivery routes....

"The main interactions I have with customers these days involve me standing beside my still-running car in the driveway as the customer waves from their porch. Sometimes they yell 'thank you!' and I yell 'thank YOU!'...

"We reinvented this business in a matter of a weekend. Our community has unleashed an absolute outbreak of support. The creaky old shop has proven resilient in its first week of reinvention. But these days any Same could be over in hours.... I'm afraid of falling in love with delivering books because I don't know how long it will last."

Danny Caine, owner of the Raven Book Store http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43758601 Lawrence, Kan., in the most recent edition of his "narrative dispatch,"

 Nearly every single convention, conference, sporting event and concert that you can name has been cancelled until the late summer or fall, and that changes daily, as we all watch on TV how the virus has spread and is killing more and more people, and stressing hospitals to the max (they're running out of ventilators and beds and supplies of every kind).

American Library Association Cancels Conference

The 2020 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition, scheduled for June 25-30 in Chicago, has been canceled. The American Library Association http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43758606's executive board announced the decision yesterday, noting that this will mark the first time in 75 years ALA has not held an annual conference. The last cancellation took place in 1945 as World War II neared its end.

"ALA's priority is the health and safety of the library community, including our members, staff, supporters, vendors and volunteers," said Wanda K. Brown, ALA president. "As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, it's become clear that in the face of an unprecedented situation, we need to make tough choices.... I am so sorry that this difficult decision had to be made, but I am certain that it is the right one. One of our greatest strengths is our ability to adapt and reinvent ourselves when needed the most. May these challenging and uncertain times find us working even closer together so that our libraries, our communities, our association and our families will all thrive."

 Thank heaven for online conference calling software like Zoom, and for Skype and YouTube, where many actors/actresses and singers and performers are posting performances and readings to keep everyone from going stir-crazy by being indoors.

Video: Sir Patrick Stewart Reads Shakespeare's Sonnets

To help us, in a small way, sooth our jagged nerves during the global coronavirus tragedy, Sir Patrick Stewart http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43758688 is reading one of Shakespeare's Sonnets each day and posting the video on his Twitter account. I was delighted by the response http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43758689 to yesterday's posting of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, and it has led me to undertake what follows," he tweeted. "When I was a child in the 1940s, my mother would cut up slices of fruit for me (there wasn't much) and as she put it in front of me she would say, 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away.' How about, 'A sonnet a day keeps the doctor away?' So... here we go: Sonnet 1."

Most bookstores are closed now, but a  lot of them are using new services like Bookshop to post books for sale and then they get a percentage of every sale. Others are using their own websites to sell books. I certainly consider them essential, as a bibliophile of over 50 years.

Bookstores Want to be Essential Infrustructure

More than a dozen independent bookstores throughout Washington State have signed an open letter to Governor Jay Inslee asking that they be included as essential critical infrastructure in the stay-at-home order Inslee issued this week.

"Time is of the essence and we ask this approval be granted immediately," the letter reads. "The past week many of us have closed our doors to the public to eliminate browsing in our bookstores. We've continued fulfilling orders for home delivery, mail, or pick up outside the front door. The communities we serve are hungry and asking for books at this very moment. We must stay open, behind the scenes, for book fulfillment. We are passionate about continuing to do our part in helping during the crisis."

Janis Segress, co-owner and manager of Queen Anne Book Company http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43760222 in Seattle, spear-headed the writing of the letter, and said she also plans to get it to Washington Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. She added that she and her team are currently processing a "frenzy of orders" to fill before the store closes tonight. From tomorrow on, unless the exemption is made, she and other Washington indies will have to shift to fulfulling web orders through Ingram.

Little Joe’s Books Tells it Like It Is During Pandemic

There is no business as usual anymore. "Every day at this time http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43761980 I get an e-mail from the folks closing up at both businesses," Little Joe's Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43761981, Katonah, N.Y., posted on Facebook Wednesday. "I miss this e-mail more than you can imagine as there is often something personal or a little story about the day's events. Today here's my end of day report: A morning customer checked in to ask about our staff and to tell them he's thinking about them. The staff hopes his wife who is pregnant is doing well--but they also hope she knows he takes three sugars in his latte.

"Another customer is on her next to last bag of cinnamon tea and hopes we can help her out soon. Her son urged her to use the word penultimate in the request, so we assume his homeschooling is going just fine. Another customer is nearly out of jellybeans and needs a desperate shipment. We spent the day torn between wanting to fill orders and get goods to our people--and listening to Cuomo's orders to just STAY HOME. And just so it's clear--we love hearing about you missing us and needing your goodies. Because it's sooo normal. And I pass the stories along to the staff every day to keep them cheerful too. Anyway, we hope you are listening too and staying home so we can come back sooner."

I'm thinking about one of my ancestors. He lived in a cave. It was a long time ago, though he had fire by then. One of his morning rituals was to stoke the embers and get a flame going before the family woke up. The fire was probably near the cave's entrance, to let smoke out and keep creatures that weren't part of the family at bay. As my ancestor squatted near the blaze, he would survey the distant terrain--maybe open land, maybe high grass, maybe trees, maybe undergrowth--that might camouflage life-threatening hazards... and food.

A good provider, he made daily calculations: the family's survival depended upon how far he was willing to venture out on the open savannah, or into the forest, to hunt and gather. Stay in the cave too long and his family died of hunger. Go too far away from it and he became prey. That he survived long enough to keep threads of my DNA going is a testament to his ability to strike a balance between the two.

With the microscopic predator Covid-19 on a worldwide hunt for us now, we all wake each morning and squat near our own cave entrances, calculating how much we're willing to risk to get through another day safely.

Thank heaven for people coming together to save one of the most iconic bookstores in the US, Powells City of Books in Portland, Oregon. It has been my mecca for years, and I've been going there once a year for decades to trade in books for store credit and leave with bags full of more books. Since the coronavirus shutdown and stay at home rule, that's not possible, but I still have hope that the store will reopen once this is over and I can get back to important things like padding my TBR with fresh books!

Powells is Saved From Closure

Because of a jump in online orders to Powells.com, Powell's Books has called back more than 100 employees. At least 340 staff were let go earlier this month when the store had to close its five locations in and near Portland, Ore. In an open letter http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43789884 on Friday, owner Emily Powell wrote, in part:

"Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your incredible and unwavering support. Your kind words, messages of encouragement, ideas for perseverance, and orders for books have taken our breath away.

"Thanks to your orders on Powells.com, we now have over 100 folks working at Powell's again--all full time with benefits. Most importantly, we're working hard to keep everyone safe and healthy. Doing that work means we have to move a little slower as a company than usual. Please bear with us as we take all the necessary precautions to keep everyone healthy, 1

Powell added that for now, the company is paying only "expenses that keep folks employed, and the lights on, for the time being. We can't do that forever--we love our vendors and business partners, and want to support them as well. Right now, however, our focus is on keeping Powell's moving, keeping our community healthy, taking care of our wonderful customers, and having as many folks working with health insurance as our sales can support.

"We don't know what the future holds--none of us does. We're going to keep the doors to Powells.com open as long as we can, and we will open the doors to all of our stores as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we are eternally grateful for your support. We love nothing more than connecting readers and writers, and sending books out the door to their new homes. Your orders allow us to keep working and keep our team of incredible booksellers employed."

Wrong Side of the Paw by Laurie Cass is another of the Bookmobile Cat Mysteries that my 82 year old mother is obsessed with and that I enjoy every once in awhile when I need an easy read. This installment in the series had the usual perky/feisty petite librarian who is nosy and annoying (but beloved in her small community of course) and manages to suss out clues and solve the mystery of how one woman's horrible father ended up dead in the bed of her truck. Here's the blurb: As Laurie Cass continues the national bestselling Bookmobile Cat mystery series, librarian Minnie Hamilton is happy to take her bookmobile for a spin with her rescue cat, Eddie—but her tenacious tabby always seems to find trouble...
 
As the bookmobile rolls along the hills of Chilson, Michigan, Minnie and Eddie spread good cheer and good reads. But when her faithful feline finds his way into the middle of a murder, Minnie is there, like any good librarian, to check it out.

Eddie turns a routine bookmobile stop into anything but when he makes a quick escape and hops into a pickup truck…with a dead body in the flatbed. The friendly local lawyer who was driving the pickup falls under suspicion. But Minnie and Eddie think there's more to this case than meets the eye, and the dynamic duo sets out to leave no page unturned.

Cass' prose is breezy and light, and her plots are clear sailing...not too hard to understand but twisty enough so you don't figure out whodunit within the first two chapters. I'd give this 6th book in the series a B, and recommend it to anyone who likes Cass' other mysteries, and those who like spunky librarians and their grumpy cats.

Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris is a WWII romantic historical fiction novel set before, during and after the war from the perspective of two families, one Japanese American and one Caucasian American whose children grow up together and eventually develop larger bonds. The Japanese internment camps are outlined in detail here, as are Japanese POW camps and Japanese American soldier units who fought for America during the war and died with honor protecting the country they loved and its people. Here's the blurb: An “impeccably researched and beautifully written” novel about a California marriage threatened by the Japanese internments of WWII (Karen White, New York Times–bestselling author of The Sound of Glass).

Los Angeles, 1941. Violinist Maddie Kern’s life seemed destined to unfold with the predictable elegance of a Bach concerto. Then she fell in love with Lane Moritomo.

Her brother’s best friend, Lane is the handsome, ambitious son of Japanese immigrants. Maddie was prepared for disapproval from their families, but when Pearl Harbor is bombed the day after she and Lane elope, the full force of their decision becomes apparent. In the eyes of a fearful nation, Lane is no longer just an outsider, but an enemy.

Maddie follows when her husband is interned at a war relocation camp, sacrificing her Juilliard ambitions. Behind barbed wire, tension simmers and the line between patriot and traitor blurs. As Maddie strives for the hard-won acceptance of her new family, Lane risks everything to prove his allegiance to America—at tremendous cost—in this “beautiful, timeless love story . . . McMorris’ words reach right off the page and grab at your heart” (Sarah Jio, New York Times–bestselling author of Blackberry Winter).
 Though I agree that this is a poignant story, I felt that it was a bit overwritten, with too much description and flashbacks and renderings of every thought in a character's head. A good editor could have cut out at least 50 pages of padding and the story would not have suffered at all. Still, I enjoyed the main characters, Maddie and Lane, though I didn't like the angry young man TJ, and felt that he was a controlling, violent jerk. I was (SPOILER) very upset when the author chose to have Lane die rescuing the worthless TJ from a POW camp. I would have preferred that Lane come home to his family and be with his wife and daughter and his parents. Still, I realize that in these kinds of books, it lends authenticity for at least one of the soldiers to die, considering how many men didn't come home in 1945. So I'd give this book an A-, and recommend it to anyone who likes WWII stories that are diverse and well written.

I must add a plea from an immuno-compromised person (Me) to everyone reading my blog...PLEASE STAY HOME. Wash your hands, wear a mask if you go outside at all, and stay six feet away from everyone else. Why not sit down and have a nice read or watch Netflix or CBS All Access on your computer?! Take care and stay healthy, my friends!