December 2022 Dear Booksellers and SinC Members, For the December issue, fellow board member and award-winning author Delia Pitts recommends checking out The Cloak & Dagger bookstore in Princeton, New Jersey! Starting in January, to streamline and focus newsletter content, the publication schedule for WLB News will shift from monthly to every other month, following the schedule of the WLB award announcements. A new We Love Bookstores winner will be selected in January 2023. Please find more information and a link to the online application below. |
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I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and heartfelt thanks to Robin Agnew (pictured above) for her hard work this year as the Coordinator of the We Love Bookstores award! |
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The Cloak & Dagger: A Mystery Bookshop by Delia Pitts |
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Princeton is a bookish town, with soaring gothic buildings and leafy pathways through its famous university campus. Libraries and bookstores are plentiful as are tributes to notables like Albert Einstein and Alexander Hamilton. History weighs heavily here, so it’s delightful to wander into the Cloak & Dagger Bookshop for a rest and a warm welcome. The brain, spirit, and soul can find cheer in this quaint outpost on historic Nassau Street, just a few minutes’ walk from the university. Founded a quarter century ago by husband-and-wife team Aline and Jerry Lenaz, the Cloak & Dagger occupies a 100-year-old colonial revival home decorated in the cozy style of an English country house. Refurbished fireplace, mullioned windows, richly upholstered armchair, books stacked to the ceilings on all sides. When I visited the shop on a recent rainy afternoon, I felt the only missing elements were Sherlock, his trusty pipe, and his faithful chronicler. The Cloak & Dagger’s crowded and ample collection covers a full range of mystery and crime genres. I found traditional and historical mysteries, cozies, thrillers, Golden Age classics, anthologies, private eye noirs, domestic suspensers, and scores of titles for young sleuths too. The store features audiobooks, videos, puzzles, games, and collectibles to charm the most finnicky mystery lover on your gift list. A prominent display near the highbacked reading chair featured autographed books by local authors, including several members of regional Sisters in Crime chapters. Along one wall, a glass-fronted display highlighted the store’s collection of Sherlockiana, so I guess Holmes wasn’t absent after all. |
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In addition to supplying books for a wide range of tastes, the Cloak & Dagger offers in- person and online events highlighting mystery authors in conversation with each other and with avid readers. Colorful displays in the shop’s bowed front window are such delightful seasonal tributes, I hesitated to disrupt the abundant book arrangements. But Jerry insisted I dislodge to my heart’s content. So, at the end of the afternoon, I stepped out into the dreary drizzle with a satchel full of treasures, warmed by the bookish chatter and knowledgeable conversation at the Cloak & Dagger. Connect with Cloak & Dagger Website: https://www.thecloakanddagger.com/ |
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Born and raised in Chicago, Delia graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s degree in history. After working as a journalist, she earned a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Chicago. She is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat. Murder Take Two, the sixth book in her contemporary noir mystery series, was published in 2022. Her short story, “The Killer,” was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Another story, “A Deadly First,” was published in the 2022 holiday crime anthology, Festive Mayhem 3. She is an active member of Crime Writers of Color and serves on the national board of Sisters in Crime. Delia's next novel, featuring small-town Black private eye Vandy Myrick, will be published by Minotaur Books in 2024. Delia and her husband live in central New Jersey and have twin sons living in Texas. |
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Write for We Love Bookstores News! Would you like to write an entry for We Love Bookstores News about your favorite shop or something else? Did you put together or see an amazing bookstore display? Submit your ideas to Susan Hammerman, Library and Bookstore Liaison at librarian@sistersincrime.org |
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Apply for the We Love Bookstores Award |
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To find out more about all SinC offers, including live webinars, please visit our website. Thank you for all you do for your community. Sisters in Crime loves bookstores. Best wishes for a festive holiday season! Susan Hammerman Library and Bookstore Liaison: Susan Hammerman, a former rare book librarian, is the Library and Bookstore Liaison and coordinator of the We Love Libraries program. Susan writes crime and neo-noir short stories. Her stories have appeared in Mystery Magazine, Dark City Mystery Magazine, Blood and Bourbon, Retreats From Oblivion, and the Stories (Within) anthology. Website: www.susanhammerman.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/shammerman1 We Love Bookstores Coordinator Robin Agnew owned the Raven Award-winning bookstore Aunt Agatha’s Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for 26 years with her husband Jamie. Robin writes a review blog at auntagathas.com and the cozy column for Mystery Scene Magazine. WLL and WLB News Editor Gail Lukasik’s latest book, White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing, was named one of the most inspiring stories of the year by The Washington Post. She is also the author of the Leigh Girard Mystery series and the stand-alone mystery, The Lost Artist. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, such as The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and The Georgia Review. Gail appeared in the documentary, History of Memory, which is available on Amazon Prime. Her fifth mystery, The Darkness Surrounds Us, a Gothic, historical mystery, will be released in Fall 2023. Website: www.gaillukasik.com |
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We've put our member books in a spreadsheet that we'll update every month, and send as part of this newsletter. This month's releases are on a separate worksheet. Feel free to sort by author name, book title, or author location. |
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Sisters in Crime hosts LIVE webinars each month. Webinars last 60-90 minutes depending on the topic and the audience questions! These webinars are open to all. |
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Sisters in Crime is the premier crime writing association focused on equity and inclusion in our community and in publishing. Our 4,500+ members enjoy access to tools to help them learn, grow, improve, thrive, and reinvent if necessary. They also gain a community of supportive fellow writers and readers, both peers to share the peaks and valleys of writing, and mentors to model the way forward. |
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