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Around six hundred employees at independent bookstores will be getting $500 bonuses for the holidays from author James Patterson this year.
“I’ve said this before, but I can’t say it enough — booksellers save lives,” Patterson said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. “What they do is crucial, especially right now. I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and their hard work this holiday season.”
“We all continue to be awed by, and grateful for, Mr. Patterson’s continuing support of independent booksellers,” Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, said in a statement obtained by the AP. “It means so much to have him recognize the valuable role booksellers play in the industry and we appreciate his financial generosity as well as his generosity of spirit.”
The employees were selected through a process either by recommendation by store owners, managers, community members and others or by nominating themselves.
Patterson began giving employee bonuses in 2015, the AP reported. It was the same year he was given an honorary National Book Award for “Outstanding Service to the America Literary Community.”
Patterson has given away millions of dollars over the years to booksellers, teachers and librarians, according to the AP. He is also one of the most popular writers around the world.
A total of 32 independent booksellers in Massachusetts received an award from Patterson:
Shana Hausman, Somerville, MA, All She Wrote Books
Julia Caudle, Plainville, MA, An Unlikely Story
Toyoko Kumasaka, Boston, MA, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe
Sophie Chen, Belmont, MA, Belmont Books
Amanda Zarni, Winchester, MA, Book Ends Winchester
Katie Mannix, Plymouth, MA, Book Love (Provisional)
Kate Ouimette, Easthampton, MA, Book Moon
Scott Purcell, Northampton, MA, BookLink Booksellers Inc.
Tineke Brinks, Webster, MA, Booklovers' Gourmet
Michelle Koch, Brewster, MA, Brewster Book Store
Roxie Mack, Northampton, MA, Broadside Bookshop
Sara Waltuck, Brookline, MA, Brookline Booksmith
Kristine Jelstrom-Hamill, Cohasset, MA, Buttonwood Books and Toys
Jessie Wright, Beverly, MA, Copper Dog Books
Richard Carey, Provincetown, MA, East End Books Ptown
Sophia Rock, Franklin, MA, Escape Into Fiction
James Fraser, Cambridge, MA, Grolier Poetry Book Shop
Victoria Yaden, Cambridge, MA, Harvard Book Store
Lexi Walters Wright, Florence, MA, High Five Books
Beth Orsini, Westborough, MA, Hygge House Books
Eleni Sacre, Boston, MA, I AM Books, Inc.
Thea Lamarre Anderson, Lowell, MA, LALA Books
Debra Rivera, Ayer, MA, Little Bee Bookshop
Laure Colodner, South Hadley, MA, Odyssey Bookshop
Hannah Robinson, Cambridge, MA, Porter Square Books
Deb Sullivan, Stoneham, MA, The Book Oasis
Cheri Anderson, Great Barrington, MA, The Bookloft (MA)
Megan Birch-McMichael, Acton, MA, The Silver Unicorn Bookstore
Noah Willette, Boston, MA, Trident Booksellers & Cafe (MA)
Peter Sherman, Wellesley, MA, Wellesley Books
Alyson Cox, Marlborough, MA, Word on the Street (MA)
Timothy Ballou, Greenfield, MA, World Eye Bookshop
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