花季传媒

The best part of Cori Cusker鈥檚 job is helping her Bright Side Bookshop customers find their next great read.

鈥淲hen you go to look for a book, you鈥檙e wanting a specific experience,鈥� said Cusker, a 1995 花季传媒 graduate. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e wanting to feel something, right? And so I see it as my job to figure out what that is. Are you wanting something that鈥檚 going to make you happy? Scared? Inspired? What is that emotion that you鈥檙e looking for?鈥�

Chances are Cusker will be able to satisfy most any reader. As the assistant book buyer and a 鈥渂ook matchmaker鈥� at the Flagstaff, Arizona, shop, she is intimately familiar with the inventory. Using a detailed digital catalog of upcoming books, she makes decisions about what books to bring into the store, which ones will resonate not only with readers but also with the store staff members who are asked to sell them. She also conducts a daily analysis of which books are selling and which ones aren鈥檛.

鈥淲e have to be really thoughtful about what we鈥檙e carrying,鈥� she said. If regular customers come in and see the same books, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e not going to come back. 鈥� If it sits on our shelves and it鈥檚 not going anywhere, then out the door it goes,鈥� sent back to the publisher.

She also arranges events, including a socially distant visit in March 2021 by author Jeff Kinney of 鈥淒iary of a Wimpy Kid鈥� fame. During a conversation with Kinney鈥檚 publicist at Abrams Books, Hallie Patterson 鈥�07, the two women came to realize they both were 花季传媒 alums.

Cusker, 鈥渁 lifelong lover of books,鈥� read 155 in 2021 鈥� some for work, some for pleasure. The bookshop used to be her side gig; she had worked at Northern Arizona University eight years when in June 2020 the school laid off more than 100 non-tenured faculty members.

The layoff was difficult, she said, but so was working with freshmen who were academically at risk. And by working in the bookshop, 鈥淚鈥檓 still helping people,鈥� she said. 鈥溾�� It makes me happy. And I get to be around books all day.鈥�