Anderson portrayed the city in Dark Laughter. - Heidi Pitlor

We — editors, writers, teachers, publishers — need to do whatever we can to enliven readers, to help create communities for them if we want to continue to have readers at all. Our independent bookstores are the front lines, and many booksellers are fighting the good fight. Here, books stimulate conversation. Conversation stimulates a sense of community. Listening happens. Thinking. The exchange of thoughts.

Sometimes people aren't nice,' I began. 'Then why are you always telling me to be nice?' Because someone has to break the cycle. Kindness can be contagious. And it has to start somewhere, right?

The daylight, he remembered, was a sort of medicine. Truly nothing was as acute or upsetting in the first light of day.