So, yeah, very unusual to my mother in law, she'd never been in a situation like that before. So, it was just very funny to me, just just sort of that moment of realizing I didn't really do a great job of primin g someone for this cultural experience. This past year, although I didn't love not really being able to see my parents for Passover because of the pandemic, it was nice for my wife Lucy and I to just kind of have our own Seder with our kids, we were able to just do exactly what we wanted to do and not have to argue with anyone about anything. So it's sort of two sides of the same coin.
It's Tikkun Olam Time. So this is your chance for a little bit of activism. So I want to ask each of you, what action would you like to invite listeners to take to help repair the world?
Mine is pretty simple. I have spent a lot of my career as a librarian but also working at independent bookstores, and independent bookstores are fantastic, wonderful places, and they are really hurting right now. I would just like you to buy a book from an indie buy this book from an indie, buy any, any book. Go to a signing, listen to a talk, could be virtual or in real life, to support them. They will ship to wherever you are, they're there for you, they will answer your questions. They want to help you out. You can buy from the indie directly, you can buy from Bookshop.org. I really don't want to see this industry go away. I think that we need bookstores, I think they're important,
Very good advice. Sean?
To that I would also add local comic shops, if you have one in your area. They're also a great place to find books, especially graphic novels. For my part, a population that has been hit especially hard by the pandemic is the homeless population. My family supports The Haven in Charlottesville, Virginia, a day shelter for the homeless and very poor in Central Virginia. They hosted me for a artist's residency for a year when I was working on my debut graphic novel, Bolivar. I did most of the first chapter, working out of the second floor of their facilities, which was a blessing. The Haven at First and Market of course is a great place to support, but I'm sure that wherever you're listening to this, there's probably a day shelter or something similar in your community. And during COVID times, it's just been really hard on the homeless population because a lot of the things that we kind of take for granted as being strategies that we could use to mitigate the spread of COVID and whatnot, they can't really do that in a homeless shelter. They're just doing their best and it has made a difficult situation, somewhat worse. So anything that can be done to alleviate that I think is really important.
Thank you for telling us about that. What else are you working on?
I am almost finished with a book called This Very Tree, a story of 911 resilience and regrowth, which is about the Survivor Tree that was present at Ground Zero during the 911 attacks in New York, and was pulled out of the rubble about a month later, brought back to health and then replanted in the memorial about a decade after the fact, and it's still there.
So I'm really excited about having a story in an anthology, and it's a bar mitzvah anthology called, It's a Mitzvah with many truly accomplished writers and, Heidi as you know, I'm very committed to new Jewish literature, so this is very exciting for me.
Susan Kusel, Sean Rubin, a zissen Pesach and thank you so much for speaking with me.
Have a wonderful Passover. Thank you so much, Heidi for continuing to have me on, and lovely to talk to you, and always great to talk to you, Sean.
A zissen Pesach. Thank you.
[MUSIC, DEDICATION] Hi, I'm Ambika Sambasivan. I'm the publisher and cofounder at Yali books.
Hi, I'm Maxine Rose Schur. I'm the author of the advanced picture book Brave with Beauty.
We'll be joining you soon on the Book of Life podcast.
I would like to dedicate this podcast to all the travelers in the world. Somerset Maugham once said that the good traveler has the gift of surprise. So I would like to dedicate this episode to all travelers who travel to learn, to wonder, and to be surprised.
[MUSIC, OUTRO] Don't be a stranger. Say hi to Heidi at 561-206-2473, or BookofLifepodcast@gmail.com. Check out our Book of Life podcast Facebook page or our Facebook discussion group Jewish Kidlit Mavens. We are occasionally on Twitter too @Bookoflifepod. Want to read the books featured on the show? Buy them through bookshop.org/shop/bookoflife, to support the podcast and independent bookstores at the same time. You can also help us out by becoming a monthly supporter through Patreon, or making a one time donation to our home library, The Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida. You'll find links for all of that and more at BookofLifepodcast.com. Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening, and happy reading
