You're going to be. If it is true for someone else and you are no longer alone.

Colson Whitehead, someone else and you are no longer alone.

Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys. It's hard to know what to say, so here is the truth of the matter. If you were on my front porch this week or out on my back patio, we'd be talking about George Floyd.

It's just the truth.

And so it felt silly to run a podcast episode business as usual without acknowledging the events of the past week.

Like the front porch I grew up on, I want our bookstores podcast to be a safe and kind place,

a place where you can escape when you need to, but also a place where you can learn and grow.

The past week has been filled with horrific headlines and video footage of George Floyd being murdered in the street.

I am heartbroken over the deaths of Brianna Taylor in

Kentucky and Amad Arbury in Georgia. I am sorry and I am paying attention.

We all have so much learning and unlearning to do and I am hardly an expert in the best ways to do that.

But I do own a bookstore and I am committed to learning at the feet of wise teachers and writers willing to show me the way. Our staff has watched over the last few

days as orders have poured in for books like How to be an Anti-Racist, Just Mercy,

and I'm still here among many others.

If one of the ways you're committed to learning and unlearning is through literature,

we wanted to direct you to resources we think can help.

Last week both Tracy from the Stacks

podcast and Jamie from absorbed in pages on Instagram hosted excellent lists of

fiction and non-fiction titles addressing anti-Black racism and anti-racism.

We'll link to both lists, there's a fiction and a non-fixed one, in our show notes today.

And if you're on Instagram, we highly recommend both of those bookish accounts.

The SavePost's feature on Instagram is a great way to keep track of titles all year long

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