Buffalo Street Staff

Gary Weissbrot, General Manager

About Gary: Before becoming the proud proprietor of Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca’s last independent, comprehensive bookstore, Gary Weissbrot needed to work through a few things, including NYC cabdriver, a formerly avid Dodger fan, diamond cutter, actor, poker dealer, amateur watch repairer, Terezin enthusiast, and social studies teacher. He is now Liz’s husband, and Mike, Kate, Marcel, Marley, and Zoe’s uncle.

Favorites: All-time favorites include Joseph Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel and M. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge.

Currently reading: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

Alice Ball, Children’s Book Buyer

About Alice:  I moved to Ithaca five years ago after finishing a Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Buffalo.  I have been the teacher-librarian at South Hill Elementary School ever since.  Originally from the rural hamlet of North Rose, NY, I grew up surrounded by farmland, forests, and books.  My favorite activity as a child was laying on the floor of my brother’s room in a patch of sunlight as he read to me from The Lord of the Rings trilogy or from collected stories by Edgar Allan Poe.  I am passionate about books for children and young adults, and I am excited to share that passion with our community here at Buffalo Street Books.

Favorites:

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

A Hole is to Dig by Ruth Krauss and Maurice Sendak

The Way to Rainy Mountain by N Scott Momaday

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Any picture books by Chris Van Allsburg, short stories by Sherman Alexie, and poetry by Billy Collins.

Currently reading:

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Abandon by Meg Cabot.

Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Me – an autobiography by Charles M. Schulz

Scott Brown, Bookseller

Currently Reading: The Passage: A Novel by Justin Cronin
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts
Perfume the Alchemy of Scent by Jean-Claude Ellena
The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Audrey DeMello, Inventory specialist
About Audrey: I was born on a farm 18 years ago, moved to Ithaca 6 months later and haven’t left.  This is my first job. I’ve only been working at Buffalo Street Books for a little over half a year and very much enjoy it. I make movies with a group of friends using the production name Divine Films. Right now the director and musician are just putting the finishing touches on our feature length film.

Favorites:
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
A Dirty Job – Christopher Moore
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

Currently reading: I’m reading Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way by Bruce Campbell and In the Woods by Tara French.

Kevin Kanda, Bookseller

About Kevin: I’m one of the newbies. I came to Ithaca in 2007, when my wife started working at Ithaca College. Since then, I’ve been taking classes and doing some database-related consulting and volunteer work. In addition to being an avid reader, I also enjoy hiking, cooking, playing far too many video games, being a sci-fi/fantasy/comic/food/wine/indie rock geek and punishing myself for my food-related sins with an exercise program called Crossfit.

Favorites: Anything by Haruki Murakami, with a special place in my heart for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; George R.R. Martin’s excellent A Song of Ice and Fire series; P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves & Wooster stories; Ian Fleming’s pulpy but fun James Bond books; J.R.R. Tolkien; and the travel and science writing of Bill Bryson.

Currently Reading: A Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, the follow-up to his stellar debut The Name of the Wind; At Home by Bill Bryson; Stretch by Neal Pollack and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Leigh Keeley, Bookseller

About Leigh: I am a semi-retired nurse, still working a few hours a week in the nursing field as well as in Buffalo Street Books. I have done quite a bit of acting on local stages (the Firehouse Theatre, the Kitchen and the Hangar), last seen at the Kitchen in Old Times by Harold Pinter (winter 2008). I do voice-over work (commercials and narrations) when possible. In my spare time I’m busy weeding and tending to my slightly wild garden.

Favorites: I’m a very eclectic reader, generally preferring fiction over non-fiction. I confess to being a great fan of really well-written mysteries. (The Colin Cotterill series starring Dr. Siri Paiboun in 1960′s-70′s Laos, for example). I also have a large collection of Buddhist and Jewish writings in my ever-expanding library.

Currently reading: I’ve read (and loved) State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, The Magician King by Lev Grossman, The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka and The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.  Also Ready Player One by Ernest Cline … sci-fi, futuristic, liked it.

 

Originally from Rockland County, NY, I graduated from Cornell in 1975 with a degree in Animal Husbandry. My husband and I raised our family, and a variety of crops and livestock, on a small farm in Genoa, NY. I retired in 2008 after working 26 years for United Parcel Service. Currently my passion is researching and writing about Agricultural issues particularly as they relate to the environmental and social health of rural CNY.

I have been rereading favorite books from my youth and sharing them with my grandchildren. Some are classics like Rascal by Sterling North, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. Others are a bit more obscure. Ajax: Golden Dog of the Australian Bush by Mary Elwyn Patchett (1953) was a bit harder to find. The independent child, free to explore nature, usually with animal companions is obviously my archetype. With whom can you share that long ago child?

Favorites:
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler
The Good Husband by Gail Godwin

Currently reading: As You Sow by Walter Goldscmidt
Osama Bin Laden by Michael Scheuer
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Bob Proehl, Director of Operations
About Bob: I moved to Ithaca after finishing a masters at Boston University. Since I got here, I’ve worked for Gimme and Madeline’s for a couple years a piece, owned a record store called No Radio Records and done a bunch of DJing. My first book, Gilded Palace of Sin was published in 2009, and I’m currently looking for an agent for my first novel and beginning to work on my second.

Favorites: (in no particular order) A House of Children by Joyce Cary, USA Trilogy by Jon Dos Passos, V. by Thomas Pynchon. Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. Infinite Jest by DFW. Poetry by Frank O’Hara, Wallace Stevens, Charles Olsen, Delmore Schwartz.

Currently reading: Moby-Dick! Avast! Just hit the 2/3 point of 1Q84 by Murakami and decided to take a little breather. It’s great, don’t get me wrong, we just needed some time apart.

Jill Stanton, Director of Buying & Receiving
About Jill: I’ve been working in bookstores for nearly 20 years (16 here at Bookery II/Buffalo Street Books!). Before that, I worked as a librarian for several years – mostly in a medical library. I’m a real Anglophile and enjoy traveling to the U.K. and reading novels set there.

Favorites: Just about anything by: Richard Russo, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Laurie King, Diana Gabaldon, Lois McMaster Bujold, Guy Gavriel Kay.

Currently reading: Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson and Blackout by Connie Willis.

Sharon K. Yntema, Bookkeeper
About Sharon: Sharon has worked in independent bookstores locally since 1978. She has had five non-fiction books published, starting in 1980 with Vegetarian Baby, translated into 5 languages, published by McBooks Press in Ithaca. She currently does bookkeeping in the morning at Buffalo Street Books, and works as a licensed massage therapist in the afternoons at Hands On Physical Therapy.
Favorites:

100 Names for Love by Diane Ackerman
Cleaning Nabokov’s House by Leslie Daniels
Townie by Andre Dubus III

Currently reading: Just finished reading What is the What by Dave Eggers. Currently reading Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan, Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson (coming out in March 2012), A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages by Stephen Rogers and Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.