I was trying to figure out something fun and exciting to chat about with you all this week. As I scrolled through today's issue of Shelf Awareness, I came across a little blurb about Labyrinth Books.

Book Culture, the New York City bookstore formerly known as Labyrinth Books, has begun a blog that includes Q&As with authors who appeared at the store last fall, news, author posts, book recommendations and more.

Incidentally the store's new marketing and events manager - since November - is Kelly Amabile, a writer, researcher and editor specializing in travel and books who has a blog, Lost in Place, that we've mentioned several times for its references to bookstores around the world.

I only mention this because I have a meeting with Kelly at the end of the week. She is coming down to DC to chat with a couple of independent bookstore people. I am looking forward to hearing how she runs things up in New York and trading a few ideas back and forth with her.

Something else going on this week, you might be interested in. I know Black History Month is NEXT month, but we are getting a jump on it this month. Janurary 24th will see Randall Kennedy at our Penn Quarter location. You may remember Randall from his last book, "Nigger". This one goes a little further in to the race relations discussing what it means to "Sellout", or the intricacies of racial betrayal. We are very excited to host this Harvard Professor and perhaps jump-start the discussions that come every February.

Already a hot topic in the presidential race - both Clintons making comments about the presidential side of the civl rights movement - I believe the discussion of how we are all going to come together will, heat up as the race goes forward. You all know how nasty the politics can get, I would lay money we are only a few months away from outright name calling. Better we learn now about "selling out" before we start tossing the word around.

If you are unfamiliar with the book, Publishers Weekly had this to say about it:

Accusations of "selling out"-of betraying or neglecting the interests of blacks to curry favor with whites-are among the most damaging that African-Americans level at each other, according to Harvard law professor Kennedy. Called a sellout himself after his book Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word appeared, Kennedy here explores the charge's potency. He recounts the centuries-long history of sellout rhetoric-sometimes rooted in real betrayals by blacks who echoed white supremacist ideology or informed on slave rebellions or civil rights organizations-and examines its role both in uniting the black community against racism and in stifling debate within the community. A long chapter analyzes conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whom Kennedy acquits of sellout charges, and a fascinating discussion of racial categories and "White Negroes"-blacks who pass as white-shows how murky the concept of racial loyalty is. Kennedy finds sellout rhetoric to be overblown-often aimed at blacks guilty only of success-but won't entirely repudiate it. African-Americans should "be subject to having citizenship in Black America revoked" if they repudiate "even a minimal communal allegiance" (although Kennedy is hard-pressed to think of plausible instances where this might apply). His is a lively, thoughtful, provocative commentary on a centerpiece of black identity politics.

It should be a great event and, like I mentioned before, we are very proud to host Randall in our store. Please do come out and hear what he has to say.