Cleanup on Aisle Five by Ann Larson

CLEANUP ON AISLE FIVE by Ann Larson is an eye-opening tale of “Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register.” We have all stood in line at the supermarket check-out, often frustrated with the wait and the poor quality of packing. Larson encourages readers to take another perspective by relating her own COVID-era experiences as a worker and those of her colleagues. She certainly made me feel more compassionate towards the frontline supermarket employees, standing in place for hours on end and repetitively swiping products past a scanner. Yet, it is worth pointing out that Larson takes an activist perspective and writes, “it was as an outsider that I saw how the supermarket as an institution is a window into larger social divisions and injustices.” She notes, for example, that “many grocery workers are food insecure” and “being perpetually too tired to cook was one of the ironies of working at the supermarket.” And her statistics on dental care, tooth pain, and missing teeth (“One-quarter of adults in the United States over the age of 65 are missing all of their teeth and our country has one of the highest rates of toothlessness in the world”) are surprising and class related. CLEANUP ON AISLE FIVE received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. This book deserves attention and could join others (e.g., Evicted, Nickel and Dimed, Maid, or even How May I Help You?) which have been part of our curriculum as students learn to appreciate the struggles of their neighbors. Extensive source notes (approximately fifteen percent of the text) are included.

The Second Chance Convenience Store - Ho-Yeon Kim

THE SECOND CHANCE CONVENIENCE STORE by Ho-Yeon Kim is set in present day Seoul, Korea. Perhaps because she is retired, a main character and store owner, Mrs. Yeom, made me think a bit of the feisty Chinese retailer Vera Wong but this Korean woman is not as pushy. The tone of the book is reminiscent of What you are Looking for is in the Library (although that novel is set in Japan); here, various characters appear in each (rather long) chapter and benefit in some way from attention form the convenience store employees. The pace is quite slow and there seems to be a very significant emphasis on drinking corn silk tea instead of alcohol. Ho-Yeon Kim has crafted a gentle book about being a person of principle, reaping what we sow, and caring for each other. Its universal lessons have produced an international best-seller. Although the story feels repetitive, readers may be drawn into the life of Mrs. Yeom and her band of loyal employees, including a formerly homeless man and a student, plus several customers and her wayward son. The audiobook is narrated by Jennifer Kim who uses different “voices” to portray the characters. I found her narration a bit grating initially, but later appreciated her attempts to differentiate between characters.

The Door-to-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn

THE DOOR-TO-DOOR BOOKSTORE by Carsten Henn was published internationally in 2020 and has been a best-seller which, as Booklist says, is a “charming story about the power of books and reading.” In this shorter novel, readers meet Carl Kollhoff who works delivering books in a small German town. The bookstore itself is in transition as the next generation is taking over and fails to appreciate the value that Carl brings. Throughout the story, readers meet a variety of customers and watch them evolve slowly. A favorite character is a nine-year-old little girl named Schascha who acts as a catalyst for much action, including Carl’s own growth and willingness to be more open. Overall, though, I felt little empathy for other characters and would recommend “curmudgeonly old man” stories like A Man Called Ove or the more recent The Lonely Hearts Book Club first.

The Last Bookseller by Gary Goodman

THE LAST BOOKSELLER: A Life in the Rare Book Trade by Gary Goodman will appeal to bibliophiles everywhere.  It’s the kind of non-fiction work that can be read in spurts.  Learn first about Goodman’s discovery and purchase of a used bookstore in 1980s Minnesota and then follow him through the travails of getting established in the business. Particularly fascinating are all of the changes to the used book business brought by the internet and Amazon’s presence. As Goodman notes, “Before, booksellers had to know the price and market for books. Once this information was everywhere, booksellers had no competitive advantage over anyone else.” Another sobering thought: “If you read one book a week, starting [at] age five, and live to be eighty, you will have read a grand total of 3.900 books, a little over one tenth of one percent of the books currently in print.” Alas, so many books, so little time… Goodman fills THE LAST BOOKSELLER with humorous, entertaining stories; make it one of your reading choices.

Bezonomics by Brian Dumaine

BEZONOMICS by Brian Dumaine (an award-winning Fortune magazine writer) describes the various facets of Amazon’s business, including its online retail operations and focus of its Prime program, its cloud computing resources, and forays into businesses as diverse as media streaming, healthcare, and voice recognition technology (Alexa and Echo).  While discussing warehousing, robotics, and machine learning, Dumaine explores “How Amazon Is Changing Our Lives and What the World's Best Companies Are Learning from It.”  He acknowledges three main principles – customer obsession (as evidenced by low prices, fast delivery, and big data manipulation), extreme innovation, and long-term investment – and asserts that Bezos “has created the next-generation corporation.” 

Early on in BEZONOMICS, Dumaine comments that “when a person creates one of the most valuable companies in the world and has more money than every other human on earth, their life doesn’t lend itself to a tidy story line.” Given all of the challenges with COVID (note the new advertising campaign, as one small example) just since this book went to press, that is certainly true. Dumaine writes, “my hope is that readers of this book will grow to understand this complexity and recognize the ways Amazon both helps or harms business and society.” He supports his research with over ten percent of the book devoted to notes and bibliographic source information. Readers will likely pause to contemplate the attention to detail (e.g., reference to Amazon-branded packing tape) and broader integration of Amazon into everyday life. In fact, Dumaine refers to a poll where Amazon was amongst the top institutions in which Americans believe – he says, “51 percent of American households attend church, 52 percent have Amazon Prime memberships.”  We also own the older, award-winning text titled The Everything Store by Brad Stone and given the size, management intensity, and far-reaching impact of this company, there will be many more analyses of Bezos and Amazon.