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Years ago, while still in college, a "foine" sister I was infatuated with, recommended that I read The Clan of the Cave Bear. It was not a book I would have ever picked up on my own in fact the title made no sense to me. For no other reason than her recommendation, I read and ultimately and I enjoyed the book a great deal. The story and the woman are perhaps the only reason I recall the book to this day The book, like all books I really enjoy is a love story. In this case familial love. Not one of biology, but adoption. It is not like any adoption story that you'll ever read. The story came to my mind during a dragged out debate I'm having with @Chevdove, who believes that Neanderthals are still among us rather than being extinct as all the current scientific data tells us. What I did not know when reading this story, over 35 years ago was that it tells the story of a Homo Sapien girl being adopted by an Neathanderthal clan [my take thinking back on the story]. It really is a brilliant story and I highlighly recommend it. Side bar: Now I don't sell this book on AALBC, so I can't post a link to this title here on this site (technically I could but I don't feel like adding this book to my database). In the past, I would have simply linked readers to Amazon, but since I'm boycotting Amazon, now I figure it is a good time to test the Bookshop affiliate program, which has been getting so much press lately. As a bookseller, I could not think of any benefits of Bookshop to AALBC, at least until now. I'll experiment with linking readers to bookshop for books that I recommend, but do not plan to stock or sell, because they are outside the scope of books we cover on AALBC.

I was just on Lip Alley where they have a much more vibrant Black book discussion than AALBC. I wish that were not the case, but anywho ... Someone there just recommended a book, by N.K. Jemisin, whose work I follow, so I was surprised to learn about a book i never heard of (image below). The book is not in distribution -- it isn't even in Books in Print's database. So I mosey on over to Amazon and see that it is an "Amazon Original Stories." I was like WTF!!? So Amazon is now selling books that they have the exclusive right to sell and Black writers are signing up for this bullshit?! This is outrageous. Amazon is the same company that announced during a global pandemic ,when millions of people have already lost the jobs, that they are cutting affiliate commissions 50 to 70% with just one week's notice. This has to be devastating to the businesses involved. How freaking cut throat can you be! Now I stopped directing readers to Amazon last summer. I did continue to link to Amazon for paid advertisers, but this is a practice I'm going to have to discontinue. Amazon already dominates the online Black book market. They already dominate all ebook and audiobook sales -- so much so that I can no longer sell these products on AALBC (side bar: readers simply do not buy libros audio books or kobo ebooks from me. I would still offer them for sale if the those vendors made it easier to determine which books had ebooks or audio books available -- but that is another story). So N.K., perhaps the most celebrated living science fiction writer on Earth, has a new ebook, Emergency Skin, which I can not offer for sale. Beyond this post, or similar commentary explaining just how f@cked up Amazon is, I will make believe the book does not exist. Just image if this ebook were made available to all indie booksellers by only making it available via Kobo and not the Kindle. Could the author make as much money? Why not? Indie booksellers, Black, white, online, brick and mortar -- whatever, are going to have to unite against Amazon or be buried. Amazon is predator taking advantage of weaken competitors while they are down. Some bookstores, many perhaps, will not survive the combination of a global pandemic and Amazon’s business practices. Readers, support your indie booksellers or lose them.

I stopped buying books from Amazon a while back. Best move I've done in years. I also now don't buy anything from them. I only wish I knew about their endeavours a lot earlier but better late than never. Thanks Troy .