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Dec 28, 2025
Booksellers Best of 2025
With Lisa Swayze and Laura Larson
Summary
Lisa Swayze has been the General Manager at Buffalo Street Books for 8 years and will transition to becoming the Executive Director of the bookstore’s new literary nonprofit in 2025. Lisa is on the board of directors of the American Booksellers Association and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance.
Laura Larson is the owner of Odyssey Bookstore. In 2019 Laura decided to return to her hometown of Ithaca NY to satisfy her life-long dream of opening her own bookstore. Now Laura enjoys spending her days talking about books, reading books and thinking about what to read next.
Recommended Books from our Booksellers:
Lisa's Favorites
- Cursed Daughters - Oyinkan Braithwaite
- The Bone Thief - Vanessa Lillie
- Wild Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy
- The Hounding - Xenobe Purvis
- I Want to Burn This Place Down - Maris Kreizman
Laura's Favorites
- Calculation of Volume I-III by Solvej Balle (9780811237253, 9780811237277, 9780811238397)
- Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue by Yoko Tawada (9780811237871)
- The End of Drum Time by Hanna Pylvainen (9781250871817)
- January by Sara Gallardo (9781953861641)
- Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (9781250338020)
- Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (9780593854280)
- Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (9781984820716
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (9780307700155)
Related Topics
Your Host
Chris Holmes
Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.
