Bookstore Sections

I was searching for a book in Borders. Specs: a new paperback memoir by a staff writer for The Atlantic. Should have been easy to find -- New Nonfiction, right? Or New in Paperback? Bestselling Nonfiction? New in Memoir? Any featured section, face-up, next to a biography of Andrew Jackson? I couldn't find it anywhere. A search of the useless Borders computer told me it was "likely in store," but not where it was "likely" to be. Thanks for nothing, Borders computer! My boyfriend used to work at Borders, so I finally called him, described the book I was looking for, and asked if there were other memoir or nonfiction sections that I hadn't come across yet. "I bet it's in the African American section," he guessed. I argued that it wouldn't be; it wasn't a historical book or some sort of sociological case study. "Doesn't matter," he said. "Go look."

And why I'll be! There is was, right in African American, right there hidden in the back of the store. First off, don't hide new books in the back of the store and then wonder why branches all over the country are closing. Second, maybe don't file books exclusively by the skin color of their author. What do you think the average readership of The Atlantic looks like? Beloved gets to go in the Literature section, but is Zane under romance, or shelved next to The Beautiful Struggle? I haven't read a ton of Zane, but something tells me she doesn't belong on a shelf next to Ta-Nehisi Coates.

RATING: 8%

THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE by Ta-Nehisi Coates: 87%