52 No nfi c ti o n
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, A History by Lewis Buzbee
381.45 BUZBEE
From the first paragraph to the book’s last paragraph, it is evident that college professor and ardent reader Lewis Buzbee is a passionate and totally consumed book aficionado and lover of reading. Buzbee uses personal stories from his childhood to reflect on how he became fascinated with and by books. Buzbee’s delightful tale leaves no stories untold as he painstakingly describes his first job as a young bookstore clerk, and later as a publishing representative. Buzbee is a refined storyteller and regales the writer with cerebral facts about library history, banned books, the publishing industry and the simplicity of visiting his local bookstore to purchase new books of interest. Buzbee’s The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop has that emotion-driven, literary appeal for everyone. The frolicking exploration of both book-making and book-selling from ancient Rome and China winding down to contemporary America is a university course within itself. While the author is quite competent and erudite in literary history, he does not shy away from tackling divisive issues of the day, such as Amazon online and the impact of big box bookstores on the small independents shops Buzbee likes to frequent. Buzbee’s The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop gets a thumbs up! – Carter B. Cue