Variety Act Miami #6: Meet Cristina Nosti, Director of Events & Marketing at Books & Books.
Literary lover and boat-life bibliophile.
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It’s Friday and we have the sixth edition of Variety Act Miami on deck! And I mean “on deck” literally because today we’re spotlighting a book- and boat-lover, Cristina Nosti, the Director of Events & Marketing at one of the greatest independent bookstores in the world—and Miami’s pride and joy—Books & Books.
A daughter of Coral Gables—which happens to be home to the retailer’s sun-drenched flagship location—Cristina is one of the driving forces behind the vibrant, thoughtful, and always-on programming you can experience only at Books & Books. Theirs are insightful, inclusive events welcoming world-class literary talent. It’s programming that is at once hyper-local and global, specific and universal.
Cristina muses:
There was a time when Miami was not thought of as a literary capital, but Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair changed that. Now, authors the world over want to visit the mecca that Books & Books has become. Readers here are quite diverse and they support all genres. They are very enthusiastic and passionate about the authors and the books they love. Our customers are marvelous and quite international and sophisticated in their tastes.
It's a testament to Cristina’s hard work and that of the entire Books & Books team that when the world changed last spring, the intrepid indie didn’t skip a beat—they went virtual, which only made their events even more accessible to authors and readers across the country and the world. Where else can you find the Magic City icon Gloria Estefan in conversation with movie star Sharon Stone about the latter’s new memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice? Or events exploring Colombian cuisine, Cuba’s digital revolution, and America’s origins scheduled weeks apart? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. No matter your flavor—children’s lit, comedy, history, culture—there’s a Books & Books event going deep into it. You can support Books & Books and all of the terrific work their team does for the bibliophile community by shopping local and buying a book (or three) at one of their locations, grabbing coffee or a bite at their café in Coral Gables, or purchasing a ticket to one of said amazing events.
Throughout the pandemic, Cristina has worked day and night to program and market these events, many times while on her boat in Marathon, Florida, aptly named Knot Today. Talk about navigating uncharted waters with spark and ingenuity.
As she puts it:
That’s inspired by Game of Thrones, the scene where Arya is learning to fence with her fencing master who asks, “What do we say to the god of death?” The answer: “Not today.” So we put a “k” in it and made it nautical and, since I spent lockdown on the boat, it made it all the more appropriate and poignant.
Read on for more about Cristina, her inquisitive and curatorial mind, her lit culture recommendations, and her Miami favorites.
MEET CRISTINA NOSTI, DIRECTOR OF EVENTS & MARKETING AT BOOKS & BOOKS.
On discovering her love of books and being swept up by stories:
I’ve been a reader my whole life thanks to my mother, who passed on to my sister and me her love of reading and really cultivated that awareness in us from a young age. I grew up in Coral Gables and I still remember the excitement of getting my first library card at the Coral Gables Library many, many moons ago. I just went back there to cast my vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris last year and had flashbacks to hours and hours spent in that place after school, reading The Diary of Anne Frank, Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Island of the Blue Dolphins and any book with animals in it, like Jack London’s The Call of the Wild—or anything having to do with King Arthur, like T.H. White’s The Once and Future King.
Books have always been a part of my life. I’m convinced that stories are the key to understanding ourselves and others since they truly put us inside the skin of others and teach our imaginations to soar.
On tapping into her marketing experience to cultivate the Books & Books community:
I minored in marketing with a major in broadcasting. I was supposed to have followed in the footsteps of my father, who was a television executive. He did not believe in studying “English literature,” so I opted for broadcasting—but I always longed for literature and would have liked to spend years in academia reading and dissecting the great works. Instead, I had to quickly get to work. I started out at a TV station and later worked in the arts and culture space.
As with all things in life, I found my way back to literature somehow. I didn’t know much about the publishing industry when Mitchell Kaplan, the owner of Books & Books and co-founder of the Miami Book Fair, hired me, and I knew much less about bookselling. However, I now feel like I have a Ph.D. in bookselling courtesy of master Professor Kaplan.
What Mitchell has done with his small business and how he has married the art of running an indie bookstore with community and marketing is truly his own brand of bookselling that I have been fortunate to learn. What we do is less marketing than it is community-building, and I think when you do what you love authentically the marketing comes naturally. It’s a very creative hybrid.
On the pivot to programming virtual bookstore events:
Before the pandemic, we literally did over 600 in-person events a year, so you can imagine. If you do the math, I’ve been at Books & Books for coming up on 20 years. How many events have I been a part of? Literally thousands.
Last year, we were forced to go virtual. That was a big learning curve and a completely new situation, the silver lining of which was that you could literally ask all of your dream writers to be in conversation with their dream moderators and mostly everyone all over the world said, “YES.” Those first conversations, complete with the tech difficulties and glitches, were truly mind-blowing and so moving, as we all shared our common suffering and uncertainty but continued to celebrate new books. It gives me goosebumps to think of it, how strongly the entire book world rallied to keep what we love intact and to support and uplift one another. Now, there are hundreds of recorded conversations that anyone can watch on our website anytime in the day or night and each one is richer than the last. It’s a treasure trove and a document that will one day be history.
I am always learning and growing on both a professional and a personal level. This last year has been especially meaningful and profound. Technology isn’t perfect, of course, but how lucky are we that we can use it? Not to mention the quality of the authors, the conversants and their conversations has really been mind-blowing and expansive.
On fostering a diverse community of book-lovers and readers in Miami:
Miami’s book-loving community has shown their loyalty to Books & Books by sticking with us, tuning into our events, and ordering books online. It’s crazy how you can still feel their presence out there virtually. Everyone has been so supportive and I feel like they would follow us to the ends of the earth to get a dose of the literary life that they love.
There was a time when Miami was not thought of as a literary capital, but Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair changed that. Now, authors the world over want to visit the mecca that Books & Books has become. Readers here are quite diverse and they support all genres. They are very enthusiastic and passionate about the authors and the books they love. Our customers are marvelous and quite international and sophisticated in their tastes.
On a particularly meaningful recent Books & Books event:
If I had to point to one recent conversation that was truly special it would be the virtual conversation with Dr. Jane Goodall and the German forester Peter Wohlleben about our ancient bond with forests and nature.
This conversation involved the participation of 21 independent bookstores around the nation. That’s a model that I first suggested to our bookseller friends and I didn’t know if it would actually work, but it did. That was truly rewarding because I’ve come to care so deeply about my colleagues at other indies. We’re a tribe and we have always come together to share best practices but this year, especially, has brought us closer together and reinforced the power of partnership—something that Mitchell has always believed in and taught me to cultivate.
On the one author, living or dead, she would Zoom with to discuss their creative process:
There are so many. The beauty of this past year is that Books & Books has pretty much been able to Zoom with the majority of living authors who are publishing books right now through its virtual program and with the Miami Book Fair, our year-round partners.
If there was one dead author I’d like to Zoom with, it would be Jane Austen. Her work has meant so much to me and it would be thrilling to talk with her about her writing process. I think she’d be so surprised to find out about all the wonderful and diverse adaptations of her work and how relevant it continues to be.
On literary discovery and the emerging talents we should be reading more:
I’m excited by the diversity of voices that are now coming to the fore. There is room now for women’s voices and Black voices and queer voices and... well, here’s an example, a debut novel that is a masterpiece: Robert Jones, Jr.’s The Prophets, about two queer slaves in the South who are in love with each other and how this love touches those around them. So, I’m a straight cis woman, but this book is one of the most romantic books I’ve read.
Just last week, the non-binary trans human, Akwaeke Emezi, published their memoir, Dear Senthuran, a memoir in letters about their Black creative spirit, and it really knocks the socks off the genre.
I also feel very strongly that we have been reading the work of white male writers who have constituted “the canon” for far too long and that women are rising as never before to share their own stories that have nothing to do with the male gaze but are purely female texts. I’m devouring work by women these days, as I recognize myself there and in these voices.
As a reader, you should always be on the lookout for debut authors. If you don’t already know about LitHub, you should immediately look them up, as they are the best portal for news about the literary world and will send you a daily delivery of articles from all over the world right into your inbox. If you’re interested in books and literature, follow Books & Books on social media—we’re always posting about new releases. Also follow bookstagrammers and bloggers and read Publishers Weekly, The New Yorker, and The Guardian. Lastly, support literary journals and publications that publish first-time poets and short story writers—that’s where you will find the next up-and-coming literary stars.
On curating her cultural diet:
I’m a lover of culture in so many shapes and forms. Yes, it informs everything I do at Books & Books and I’m always looking for the next interesting idea that I can bring back to what I do.
I am, however, kind of a snob, and as I’ve grown older, I am quite selective. I am now fully aware of my tastes and not afraid to curate, to go for the jugular and to pick and choose and go to the essence of things. This year, especially, has made that realization even more profound. We have only so much time in life, how do we want to spend it? Only on what is excellent. Now, if I start a book and do not like it, I have no qualms abandoning it and moving on to the next. I like the best books, the best music, the best films, the best TV that I can find and I am damn choosy and picky about it. I never spent so much time scrolling through social media as I did during this past year in order to stay connected and to find out what others were thinking.
On my bookshelf: My favorite genres are literary fiction and memoir, but I read loads of poetry, too. I keep notes on the books I read and love so that I can look back on each month and year’s worth of reading and understand what has meant the most to me.
On my playlist: Music is in a category of its own; sometimes only music and poetry can truly speak to the soul. I love all kinds of music, except country and heavy metal. I am always eager to discover new artists and sounds, so I will listen to everything with an open ear. Billie Eilish for example, Childish Gambino, bluegrass, classical, Buika... I’m all over the place. I listen hard and go deep. I like to go deep into everything I do.
On my streaming queue: As for television, I grew up in that milieu—remember, my father was a television executive, as well as a film lover. I love long-form television and devour it in binges.
I think the quality of what is being created in film and TV is sensational because the majority of it is now based on books. Look at what Reese Witherspoon has done with her Hello Sunshine production company. Every writer I speak with has a TV contract in place for their work or is in a writers’ room or is executive producing their work. People are hungry for content, and books are where they turn to. My own boss, Mitchell, formed a film and television production company, Mazur Kaplan Company, over 10 years ago now with this very concept in mind. He has produced films based on books and has many projects in development right now.
It’s a very exciting time. I think the world is bursting at the seams and all of us on every level are re-inventing ourselves and longing to do their best work.
On how she’s unwinding at 5 pm on a Sunday:
One of my major challenges is finding time to “unwind”—I mean, it’s 5 pm on Sunday and I’m sitting here completing the answers to these questions because I know they are due today, and that’s basically how life is for me these days. I am pretty much working all the time, so I have to find the joy in the work.
The joy in answering these questions, for example. It’s so kind of you to be interested in what makes me tick, and it’s a great exercise for me to have to sit here and come up with my responses. I try to transform my work and all of my various tasks into a creative endeavor and that helps me unwind.
I don’t really drink too much anymore, so it’s not a glass of wine, and although I am a Buddhist and should be meditating, I am a terrible meditator and have never managed to establish a consistent practice. So, I look at my life as the practice: I try to remain aware of my actions, to do the best I can to wring meaning from the things that happen, and that’s my practice.
On carving out moments to reflect and recalibrate amid a challenging year:
I do love to think deeply and just to be. I find myself waking up at 4 am just to be quiet and not connected to any device, but rather to that greater sense of being—to the Divine, if you will—but then I end up scrolling through my social media and making a list of all the things I need to do this week. Ha! It is a challenge to unwind.
I also think, as we come out of this pandemic—and we’re not completely out yet—that we are all unaware of what the subconscious has recorded of it, the worldwide trauma that can’t help but affect everyone’s mental health in one way or another. I mean, I felt like I was in a war zone, day in and day out, fighting for my life and taking care of my family. My 87-year-old mother was with me throughout the pandemic; my partner got COVID; his kids got it, too. My mum and I managed not to. How do you explain that?
Waiting for the vaccinations, cleaning, masking, running to get supplies, cooking, cleaning, masking, worrying, crying, trying to assimilate the magnitude of the deaths, following the news, trying to understand what was happening, the Liar-in-Chief bulldozing and bamboozling all of us, worrying about voters’ rights, BLM, feeling the pain of so many Black friends, then seeing the artforms arising, like Barry Jenkins’s magnificent The Underground Railroad, based on Colson Whitehead’s magnificent book.
Anyway, I digress. All of us are struggling with the mental health issues that have come as a result of what we have been through and we are all survivors who must continue struggling to find the right answers. Really, it’s the entire world that is in the balance, so that is quite heavy. Many of us have seen that our belief systems and structures can collapse and that there is no such thing as solid ground; that’s an illusion. The only ground is the day to day and taking care of others to the best of your ability, because if this pandemic has shown us anything it’s that death is a great leveler and we are all connected by our shared humanity. We must care for one another as we move forward and continue striving to find the answers.
I came across a great quote by James Baldwin that really resonated with me: “Literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks at reality, then you can change it.” I believe this to be true.
On one picture from her camera roll:
One of my favorite baby pictures—taken a month after I was born—that is charged with the lore of having been taken on the very day President Kennedy was assassinated.
On the first long-haul place she’s visiting post-pandemic:
Right now, New York City is calling my name. It’s a city that I have always loved for so many reasons, but the cultural life is certainly at the forefront. I want to visit the museums again. I want to see a show. The last show I saw was King Lear at the Cort starring Glenda Jackson, with my sister. (I haven’t seen my sister in over a year now, and I miss her like crazy.)
I’ve always wanted to usher in the New Year in some fantastic far-away location. Not at a crowded restaurant or at a party, but in a place that is different from the place that I’m always in, with my partner, in the most romantic way, over a quiet dinner and with a bottle of champagne and a night of intense lovemaking. Right now, I miss the idea of a hotel and room service. I think Paris, at a quaint little hotel, a simple dinner of lush yet fresh ingredients, cheese and fruit, a great bottle of champagne. 2022, here we come.
CRISTINA’S MIAMI FAVORITES.
Miami anthem (current or classic!): Rick Ross’s “Hustlin’.”
Restaurants & bars: It’s hard to know what is happening in the restaurant scene right now after not having visited any in so long, but I have faith that the restaurant industry is going to get its groove back as we begin to emerge. I’ll be keeping an eye out to visit and support the old hangouts and the new places that come along.
I love fusion cuisine; everything Asian; a great entraña with chimichurri from Graziano’s Market; un cafecito at a local ventanita. I love passing by El Palacio de los Jugos and picking up some fresh pomegranate juice. I love Our Daily Bread for Middle Eastern food; I go there at least once every few weeks for a falafel sandwich and their sweets, kibbeh, et al.
Really, my visits to supermarkets have been the most exciting this past year: double-masking and visiting The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Publix and discovering every kind of food and ingredient. Cooking at home for my family has become so important for me this year. We’ve seen so many restaurants shuttered and we’re trying to support them by ordering delivery and becoming more aware of tipping and supporting those who work in this setting.
I miss the Farm-to-Table dinners at Books & Books.
For bars, any place wood-paneled and dark, where no one will ask you to leave for hours and you can just hang and hang. Or a Su Shin Izakaya, where you can sit at the bar and order sushi rolls and sake, with a beer chaser.
I miss John Martin’s as a local watering hole. Before Books & Books had a bar of its own, all of us would head to John Martin’s and Mitchell would hold so many of his meetings there. I love meeting my colleagues at the Books & Books courtyard bar for drinks and conversation, which I have sorely missed.
Cafés, diners, bakeries, & ventanitas: The Café at Books & Books, of course—a place where everybody knows your name. I would have also said Small Tea, but sadly they went out of business during the pandemic.
It’s hard to find a good bakery in Coral Gables, but I swing by Chocolate Fashion when I need a fix, and the flourless chocolate cake from Zak the Baker is a personal favorite. Do you see a theme here?
Jimmy’s Diner in North Miami used to be a favorite hangout when I worked at MOCA, many moons ago.
My favorite ventanita will always be the classic one at Versailles on Calle Ocho. Swinging by there to hear the crazy political talk and grab a couple of croquetas with the saltines and lime on the side and a cortadito just never goes out of style.
Cultural centers: I love PAMM. Every time I visit, I am grateful that we finally have a world-class museum like this in our midst. The Coral Gables Art Cinema is my go-to moviehouse, but I haven’t been back since they’ve re-opened. The Bakehouse. The Rubell. The Margulies Collection.
The Great Outdoors, exercise and recreation: I don’t do much exercise, I have to admit. Yet, I do love to walk and for that Coral Gables never disappoints.
For recreation, I head to the Florida Keys, to our boat in Marathon which is named Knot Today. That’s inspired by Game of Thrones, the scene where Arya is learning to fence with her fencing master who asks, “What do we say to the god of death?” The answer: “Not today.” So we put a “k” in it and made it nautical and, since I spent lockdown on the boat, it made it all the more appropriate and poignant.
When you’re on a boat, you do a lot of boat yoga: pumping out the toilets, adjusting the lines, fixing the A/C, checking the bilge, climbing up and down and getting on and off. I highly recommend boat yoga!
Shopping: I love Merrick Park because it’s so relaxed and it’s outdoors and it’s close to home, but a trip to Bal Harbour Shops is always a treat. The art of fashion is fully and beautifully on display here, and although it’s mostly window-shopping on a bookseller salary, you momentarily feel like a king or queen when you’re there—and I can still afford to buy a book at Books & Books on the third level. I still prefer shopping in person to shopping online. Who can order a pair of shoes without trying them on first?
Grooming: I love my stylist Erick Parodi at 231 Salon just steps from Books & Books. Why? Because he listens to me and does what I ask and not just what he wants. I’ve gone grey this year and am thinking of joining the women who will never color their hair again but will instead embrace their silver linings. I could never do that without a great haircut and Erick’s advice on how to grow it out and tame it.
I’m dreaming of a mani-pedi at Body & Soul down Coral Way, but I haven’t been there all year either.
Small businesses: Books & Books comes first to mind and takes over. We’ve been so intent on making the case for supporting indie bookstores all over the nation that I cannot think of small business without thinking specifically of all my fellow indie booksellers and how we couldn’t have survived this past year without the support of those who understand how important shopping local and supporting small business really is.
Local Miami artist, author, and performer: There are so many great visual artists in Miami and you will find the majority of them form part of the superb collection of Liza and Arturo F. Mosquera. My sister and I curated an exhibition of selected works from their collection at Miami Dade College’s Freedom Tower in 2010—he’s got the best of the best, always on revolving display at his home in Coral Gables. Every year they have this wonderful tradition of doing a Masitas & Mojitos gathering on Christmas Eve day for all of the artists and friends, and it was sorely missed last year.
Miami childhood staple: Going to the beach with my mom, sister, and cousins in Key Biscayne (El Farito) and swimming classes at Venetian Pool.
Most delightful Miami discovery made during quarantine: That living on a boat is hard but magical and there is nothing like the healing power of the ocean to energize and revitalize.
The recommendation you’ll always give to a first-time Miami visitor: A visit to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
THANKS, CRISTINA!
Celebrate Cristina’s marketing and magic-making brilliance by following Books & Books on Instagram, Facebook, and/or Twitter.
Until the next edition of Variety Act Miami, un besote!