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Lefties attempt to get into U.S. bookselling market

There’s a new online bookselling venture in the U.S. called the Progressive Book Club, and though it doesn’t ship to Canada at the moment, it’s still worth a look. The month-old PBC is, as the name implies, a sort of book club for lefties, which offers a small, juried selection of titles chosen by an editorial board made up of authors like Bill McKibben, Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Barbara Kingsolver, Hendrik Hertzberg, Gail Sheehy, and many others. The PBC website claims it currently has “200+” titles available, including Canadian Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine.

According to the U.S. book blog Book Publishing News, which has just posted a piece about PBC:

More than two dozen of the country’s leading progressive organizations have signed on as [PBC] partners to help extend the Club’s reach and mobilize the broader community, including Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress, Kos Media, Media Matters for America, Mother Jones, The Nation, and the Service Employees International Union. With nearly every book purchase by its members, Progressive Book Club will donate $2 to support a progressive organization of the member’s choosing dealing with such issues as environmental stewardship, public education, domestic violence and media reform.