A little Super Bowl counter-programming takes place this weekend on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network show Super Soul Sunday, with special guest Ayana Mathis, whose novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is the latest Oprah's Book Club 2.0 pick.
In a pair of video excerpts, author Ann Patchett praises fellow University of Iowa Writers' Workshop alum Mathis and, as co-owner of Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn., explains why the rumored death of neighborhood bookstores is greatly exaggerated.
"A lot of people think that bricks and mortar bookstores are dead, that books are dead, but Oprah and I and all of you know that that's fiction because here we are, doing great," Patchett said, adding: "When there isn't a bookstore in your city, there's an incredible void because what you realize is that the bookstore isn't just the place you come to buy books. It's a community center... I can't imagine a world without reading, without books, and I can't imagine a world without bookstores."
