Clare Doornbos

You know where you can find some actually radical ideas? In an indie bookstore. Specifically in the young teen section. Those kids are reading about some wild ideas like equality, justice and consequences.

I am hoping that someone in publishing will remember that indie booksellers exist and we are the influencers they've been looking for all this time. I'm tired of hearing that middle grade is dying, when it just needs to be handsold by an expert. Also, I miss author dinners.

I saw your face in PW. It was very exciting. Congratulations!

I mean my reach here is tiny. But this is one extremely smart and talented children's book expert.

Today I am on the back of the struggle bus wedged under the seat.

Great disturbance in the bookselling force tonight as B&N buys Books Inc, the oldest indie bookstore in the west.

As a former HS teacher & current kidlit writer, I say, let kids read what they want, read what brings them joy. Graphic novels, awesome! Comics, woohoo! The Silmarillion, more power to them! Read books in school--ideally w student choice, not just excerpts. Destroying literacy is a fascist tool.

And for those of us who are less cool. Alex Kingston will be on Strictly!

Crap

This morning in #bookselling an elderly customer was complaining that “the animals in this book don’t even live in this country”. So I guess even animals can be the target of isolationist nonsense.

Is it just me or does the news seem like something from a South Park episode right now?

In awe of this icon at MoMI in Queens when a Gen Z woman behind me said “she’s so beautiful”. She is.

Pulp’s Misshapes has never sounded more spot on. I keep listening to the live version from Glasto this weekend and I just cry.

Oh Alanis, I wish I had 10,000 spoons.

Everyone who went to school between Sandy Hook and today gets a free pass. No one over forty gets to tell you a damn thing about “back in my day.”

Adults spent over two decades “protecting” you from books and did less than dick to protect you from getting shot.

Have all the middle fingers.

There have been a lot of bad days. Today seems to be one of the worst. Read. Think for yourself. Check in with your real life communities.

In the spirit of Glastonbury I am seeing a symphonic version of Bowie’s last album today and Earth Wing & Fire tomorrow. I contain multitudes.

Today in #bookselling a retired librarian asked me if I’d heard of Alan Garner. This was the moment I’ve been training for since I was 9 years old.

If Democrats truly want to appeal to young men, they should probably start presenting themselves as the party that definitively *won’t* draft you into an illegal war.

I am begging people not to look to the NYT for coverage of what's happening. The BBC, Le Monde, Ajazeera and others will have more truthful coverage.

What? I mean, I know we’ve previously synced up on the books we’re reading by accident, but this is a new level of synchronicity. We must be magic.

Yesterday in #bookselling I met an enthusiastic dog named Gusto and played catch with a two-year-old. It's not a good living, but it's a good life.

TikTok’s Owner Wanted to Publish Books. Not Anymore.

Today in #bookselling TikTok admits it "was not enough, it seems, to build a successful publishing business." I've been saying this for ages, I think social media just promotes books. Booksellers sell them. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/b...

I woke up today with the realization that the majority of Talking Heads songs either don’t rhyme or barely rhyme. Most people probably know this, but I’m amazed that I seem to have dreamt it.

Mary Engelbreit visual ( older woman with cup in hand) stating Keep Calm. They Hate That.

Mary Engelbreit 👇
Goodnight everyone. 🥱

I am at a conference today where I will be talking about the critical thinking, community building and empathy that comes from reading aloud. I can’t join a protest today. But I will continue to be anti fascist today and always. #nokings

The cops shot and injured THREE journalists in LA yesterday. This isn't "responding to violence" this is "starting a fight".
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

“Tasted a little tear gas— tasted like fascism”

@transitbooks.bsky.social and @owlkids.bsky.social

Today in #bookselling a bookselling colleague referred to our monopolistic wholesale supplier as "a gaggle of chaotic goblin geese" and I will now forever think of them this way.