One of the great joys of working at Green Apple lies is the fact that the store has been in the same location since its opening. As it has grown , it has absorbed other rooms in the building, taking on a second floor and an annex as the need arose. This organic growth gives the store its wonderful back rooms and stairs, nooks and crannies—but it also means that some great sections can be slightly hidden and easy to miss.
One such section is “Belles Lettres," which contains essays and memoirs, and is tucked in the upper southeast corner of the store, near the end of the reference section. Thus it does not get much in the way of casual browsing. However, there are some great books in this section, including some lesser-known titles by favorites such as George Orwell, Flannery O'Connor, and Chuck Klosterman.
Recently I have been reading a fair amount of memoir. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman, an account of her year spent in prison, is one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time. It is an incredibly honest book, as Kerman, who admitted her guilt after being arrested, comes to terms with her (indirect) complicity in the drug trade. Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley and The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm both deal with the loss of a parent (in Buckley's case, both parents within the span of a year). Funny In Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas is an old favorite of mine, dealing with growing up in the US as a child of Iranian immigrants. This is a fun book (I’ve heard that Jimmy Carter is a fan of this one as well).
So the next time you have some browsing time in Green Apple, spend some time in some of the less traveled sections. There are treasures waiting to be found.
(photo by Robin Allen)