Help Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day!

Mark your calendars, friends — it may be digital, but Independent Bookstore Day is this Saturday, April 25th, and the celebration is already in full swing on Twitter. You can find participating bookstores, help support indies, find great reads by great authors, and hang out with other booknerds at the hashtag #VirtualBookstoreParty.

And, if you’re an audiobook fan, Libro.fm has a special deal on Laurie’s audiobooks (as well as many others). If you sign up with code SHOPBOOKSTORESNOW, you’ll get a 2-for-1 audiobook special, and 100% of your payment will go to your own local bookstore. Get the details at Libro.fm/IBD.

We are, obviously, huge fans of indie bookstore here at Team Halse Anderson, and there will be more news soon about some upcoming collaborations with indies in place of Laurie’s planned tour for SHOUT. So stay tuned, stay safe, stay healthy, and remember we’re all in this together.

One Reply to “Help Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day!”

  1. Laurie… I was strolling through the book section at my grocery store. I saw the latest book; admittedly, I hadn’t purchased a LHA book in far too long.

    Of course, I had to pause. I opened the book and stood there lost in a world I hadn’t expected. Poems and words that left a chill in my spirit, but in a very… purposeful way.

    I was 15 when I commented on your blog. One of many voices, and yet… Laurie, you read my posts and my blog… and you called my school.

    They didn’t take it seriously before you did. Unfortunately, the aftermath was pretty unfortunate, too. The SRO pulled me into his office and told me that pushing charges against the offender would likely not go well, and I would have to recount my story over and over and go against his word.

    Then, he detailed to me a rape of his friend. What he clearly considered a real assault… and I believe he believed that he provided me with perspective.

    I felt silent. I changed after that.

    My parents… they… well my Dad never said anything to me at all. My mother… she… she said things I believe she regrets now.

    You were the only person who made me feel heard. Believed. Worthwhile.

    I struggled for years. I still do, sometimes. I struggle to forgive myself, my parents.

    But I also have children of my own now.

    My daughter, she’s powerful. I’ve raised her to be spitfire and mouthy and honest. I’m proud of who she is becoming. She will be 7 in June. People are taken aback by her ability to speak her feelings and thoughts into reality, and unabashedly so.

    I won’t raise her to be afraid. Quiet. Timid.

    Laurie… I teared up standing in that store flipping the pages. Saved a photo of the page that said:

    “We are all born to fight, but few are ever trained, instead they tell us, be nice.”

    And held it in my heart.

    Bought the book and thought about that year. The year that you, you fought for me when not one other person did.

    And I will never stop remembering that.

    Not once. Not ever.

    I’m 30 years old now.

    And once upon a time, you taught me to fight.

    Thank you.

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