Neighborhood Bookstores

DEBORAH CROMBIE: There's been much in the news lately–hooray for some good tidings–about the resurgence of physical bookstores. Barnes & Noble is expanding–we have a gorgeous new store in a suburb nearer us than the old one, a definite cause for celebration.

But an even bigger cause for celebration is that we now have our very own  neighborhood bookstore! It's called, appropriately enough, NEIGHBOR BOOKS, and is on our historic town square here in downtown McKinney, less than a mile from our house.

This is a huge deal for us, as until now our closest bookstore has been our Half Price Books–not that I'm dissing Half Price! They are great, and have hosted lovely events for me in the past. But there is nothing that compares to having a good general bookstore nearby. Neighbor Books stocks everything from classics to the latest best sellers. They also discount books for a small monthly or yearly membership fee. This is a classic mom-and-pop (Joey and Ginny!) business and we want to do all we can to support them. I'm not sure what the space originally housed, but we know it dates back to 1888 and it's great to see our old buildings housed so creatively.

I ordered (because they'd sold out) a copy (probably insanely considering the weight of the hardcover!) of THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY by Kiran Desai, and while it's lovely that the store will special order anything for you, the best thing about the shop is browsing. On my first visit I found a gorgeous rerelease of E. Nesbit's THE RAILWAY CHILDREN, which I had never read.

I took it home and spent the rest of the day reading it from cover to cover. What a treat! This book was foundational for 20th century English children's literature and I don't know how I managed to have such a gap in my reading. (Nesbit herself is a character for another post–I'll just say that those Edwardians really got up to some stuff!)

Dear REDs, are you lucky enough to have a neighborhood bookstore?

RHYS BOWEN:  I’m the luckiest person in the world because my neighborhood bookstore in California is Book Passage. I’ve known owner Elaine for over 40 years and always launch my books there. I’m also on the faculty ( with Hallie) of their annual mystery conference. They are a true neighborhood magnet with classes and events every night. And they host all the big names. I have found myself speaking between Hilary Clinton and Amy Tan!

Also my neighborhood store in Arizona is the Poisoned Pen. Owner Barbara Peters is a dear friend and regular lunches with her are a highlight of my time in Arizona. Every mystery writer in the world comes to The Pen! I love stopping by to meet friends. 

HALLIE EPHRON: Though they’re on the other coast, I’m a huge fan of the Poisoned Pen and Book Passage. The owners are brilliant at what they do. Survivors and thrivers and nurturers! And, as we say here in Boston, “wicked smaht.”

And there’s a new independent bookstore that just opened near me - The Next Chapter Books in Quincy, MA. They are filling a long empty void. Come to Quincy for the Asian food and the history; stay for the books!

LUCY BURDETTE: I too am very lucky with bookstores! In Key West, we have two with quite different personalities. Key West Island Books is small and quirky with lots of local books and used books too. Suzanne has hand sold hundreds and hundreds of the Key West mysteries. We also have Books and Books, a nonprofit founded by Judy Blume and her hub. It’s much more modern and literary and very fun to browse. In Connecticut, we have one of the best bookstores in the country, RJ Julia Booksellers. I’ve had almost all of my launches there. It’s gorgeous and they have so many wonderful author events. It’s a dream for a book addict like myself!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m going to start with a quote from The Penobscot Bay Pilot: “According to a 2023 story by MaineBiz, there are roughly 37 independent bookstores in Maine. With a population of 1.3 million people, that works out to be one bookstore per 35,000 people as opposed to the national average of one bookstore per 54,299 people.” Yay, Maine!

I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to local bookstores. My closest one, about a 13 minute drive away, is The Bookworm, which is in a two-hundred year old house STUFFED with new and used tomes. In Portland, I love PRINT: A Bookstore (that’s how they spell it) for co-owner Josh Christie’s appreciation of mysteries. (It’s also the best place around to get progressive and queer literature for my daughter and daughter-in-law.)

If I’m on my way up to visit said daughter (and my grandson!!) I can stop at Gulf of Maine in Brunswick, and If I’m staying in Bar Harbor (which everyone should do at least once in their life) there’s Sherman’s, a Maine small chain which is up to ten stores throughout the state. 

You know, the state motto is “The Way Life Should Be,” and honestly, I think the profusion of local bookstores is a big part of that!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Well, of course, Barbara Peters is the bookstore queen and fairy godmother to all.

Around here, we have some amazing bookstores! Ten minutes away, Newtonville Books, whose brilliant owner Mary Cotton was the mastermind behind my movie theater launch of ALL THIS. (Her first store hosted my very first bookstore event! Imagine that! 20 years ago.)

And An Unlikely Story, where I have interviewed many a bestselling star–Ware! Jewell! Sager! Abrams!--is absolutely magical. Jeff Kinney (yes,the Wimpy Kid) is the owner, and he is a flat out genius. (I’ll be there next week interviewing Adele Parks!)

A bit farther from home but still “neighborhood”--BookLove in Plymouth, and as Hallie mentioned Next Chapter Books, and if you are on the Cape, you must visit the wonderful Titcomb’s.

JENN McKINLAY: I just just checked the distance on Google Maps. I am exactly 3 miles from the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale. Hub and I love being so close. We shop there at least once a month, go see authors we love who are passing through, and have become close friends with the owners and staff, who are the best in the biz. Very lucky! 

DEBS: Readers, do you have a neighborhood bookstore? Tell us all about it!

I should add if you don't have a regular neighborhood store, many of the stores mentioned offer online sales. Two of my favorites are The Poisoned Pen and Murder by the Book (in Houston.)

Lori Rader-Day--What's Your Obsession?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am such a fan of Lori Rader-Day and I am beyond chuffed to have her visiting us again here on JRW. And this book, WRECK YOUR HEART, I have to tell you, is an absolute corker! It's a pick-it-up-and-don't-put-it-down read, so I'm warning you. Block out some time for this one. 

And this cover?? If there were awards for most fun covers, this one would definitely be in the running!

What’s your obsession?

By Lori Rader-Day

I have been lucky enough to be invited to visit Jungle Red Writers for every one of my books.

In my guests posts here, I have talked about Muppets and nail polish and cookies made of ground-up angel’s wings. About the metaphor of the time loop in the movie Groundhog’s Day reflecting the realities of writing. On the death of Saturday morning cartoons, the “Dukes of Hazzard,” and the hazards of nostalgia. About the fantastic cream teas and afternoon teas I’ve enjoyed as “research.” About stargazing and my cousin the astronaut and my childhood, viewed from the back of a motorcycle. And about the playlists I have always made for my books, from the music I listen to as I write.

But really? I have only one topic, no matter what I’m writing about.

Obsession.

Writing is all about obsession, absorption. What can I care enough about to spend the vast amounts of time required to write a novel? What can I care about, even as the muddled middle stagnates, as the first draft’s finish reveals my disappointments and the long road of revision ahead? What can I care about all the way to the last, teeny, tiny edit, when I can finally let it go? 

(My agent once said of my editing process, "No one does it like this, Lori," and I am still chilled by that.)

Time passing means we never cross the same river twice, as the saying goes. What I’m obsessed with right now might be spent in the process of writing, used up, and I’ll never think about it again. (Except when I’m holding up a copy of the book in front of readers and explaining why they should join me in my obsession, at least for a few hundred pages.) I might regret the loss of that obsession, that glorious time when I was able to dedicate myself fully to a topic, when it was my job to care so much about, say, the historical records of one lovely English house once owned by Agatha Christie.

 

(It was a lovely time to be obsessed with Agatha's house while I was stuck in mine in the pandemic lockdown.)

As writers we get asked a lot… isn’t it easier to write a book once you’ve already done it a few times? The truth is… no. It gets harder. One of the reasons this is true, I suspect, is that we are worried about stepping into that river and finding the same water. We don’t want to write the same book over and over. Even series authors want to outdo themselves from book to book. But as a standalone author, I am at pains to keep discovering new things to obsess over to form the basis of my character’s job and life and dilemma. For each book, I must learn enough to, if not to become the leading worldwide expert, then at least not embarrass myself. As someone who is research averse, it’s about finding new topics I don’t mind spending the time on.

For my latest book, Wreck Your Heart, it was music.

Am I a musician? No more than I was a sociology professor, hotel cleaner, handwriting expert, night-sky photographer, construction company administrator, or a rejected and reassigned World War II nurse. No more than I was a mother, or widowed, or kidnapped as a child, or Agatha freaking Christie herself. I write fiction, so I’m allowed to play with these roles, imagine and reimagine what these lives might be like so that my readers receive the same opportunity.

If I do my job right, my readers will wonder about each character… is their obsession mine?

For instance: Am I a good singer? No. But I was willing to put the time the vocalist protagonist of Wreck Your Heart needed. Oh, poor me. I had to listen to music (which I would have been doing anyway; here’s the playlist for Wreck Your Heart). I was compelled to read memoirs by some of my favorite recording artists. I was forced to witness the awe of the shared experience of a live music audience, to watch how audiences interact with performers, how stage lighting paints skin. Again and again, concert after concert, poor me.

(See that little woman with the big shadow on the wall? Look for her in Wreck Your Heart!)

Actually, though Wreck Your Heart is about a musician yearning for rockstar status, the book became, in the end, about obsession, about putting your whole self into what you care about, about laying yourself open to criticism and derision and vulnerability by being your truest self. Loving something or someone fully is what makes us human. The thing you love most can be the lens through which you see the world in all its brightest colors.

I said it to Jungle Red Writers readers long ago: obsession is good for you. It’s been good to me. As soon as I figure out my next obsession, I’ll start singing about it. So to speak.

What are you obsessed with, Jungle Red readers? Tell me everything.

Here's more about WRECK YOUR HEART: 

Ann Cleeves called it “wisecracking and wonderful.” Elle Cosimano called it “Phenomenal.” Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly both gave the book starred reviews. 

 

The book is the instant USA Today bestseller Wreck Your Heart, a crime novel with a big heart, about a country and midwestern singer out to catch her big break before family—or murder—wrecks everything.

 

Dahlia “Doll” Devine had the kind of hardscrabble beginning they write country songs about. As part of Chicago’s—yes, Chicago’s—country music scene, Dahlia is an up-and-coming singer in spangles and boots of classic country tunes. Up and coming, that is, until her boyfriend up and went, taking the rent money with him.

 

So Dahlia is back to square one, crashing in the apartment over McPhee’s Tavern where she performs and relying on the kindness of the pub’s owner—again. When the mother Dahlia hasn’t spoken to in twenty years shows up and then disappears again—really disappears, leaving a distraught half-sister Dahlia didn’t know she had—and a body is discovered outside McPhee’s, the two mysteries threaten not just the place Dahlia has made into a home, but everything she’s believed about her past, her dreams for the future, and the people she was just, maybe, beginning to let into her heart.

Lori Rader-Day is the USA Today bestselling author of eight novels including Wreck Your Heart, The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, and Under a Dark Sky. She has been nominated for crime fiction’s highest award, the Edgar Award, and has won the Mary Higgins Clark Award, the Agatha Award, three Anthony Awards, and an Indiana Author Award. She has also been nominated for Thriller, Barry, and Macavity awards. Lori is a former national president of Sisters in Crime and a former national board member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Chicago, where she co-chairs the crime fiction readers’ event Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing at Northwestern University. Visit her at www.LoriRaderDay.com.

DEBS: And you can stop in today to say hi and tell Lori all about your obsessions!

The Girls' Team

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I know I've mentioned here on the blog that my granddaughter (who will be TEN tomorrow!! Happy birthday, Wren!) is playing soccer, and how much I LOVE going to her games. I tried to get a good action shot last night but it's hard when they're moving so fast!

Obviously, I love supporting her, but I also love supporting all the girls. It's been fascinating to watch their personalities and characters develop over the couple of years the team has been together, and to see their strengths in the way they play and interact with one another. I love that they are such good sports–more important than any athletic achievements, in my opinion. They're good natured when they lose and they're kind to their opponents. You wouldn't guess Wren's team lost from this picture with her dad!

My daughter played sports, too (as she reminds me!), a couple of years of soccer and then softball up into early middle school, when she switched to gymnastics. 

I, however, did not, and I envy these girls the experience. Before Title IX in 1972, a few high schools had girls' basketball and volleyball teams, but there was nothing organized for younger girls. Girls were expected to want to be cheerleaders and that was pretty much it.

Would I have been any more athletic or coordinated if the opportunities had been available? Maybe not, but I'm sorry I missed that boat, and really glad I get to experience it vicariously!

How about you, dear REDs? Did you play sports? Did/do your kids/grandkids play sports? And did you love it or hate it?

RHYS BOWEN:  I had sporty high achieving parents. My mom was a schools high jump champion. My dad a good soccer and cricket player. I started tennis when I was 8 and it was a big part of my life until I was in my 60s and got a damaged disc between my shoulder blades. I played for school, college and in various groups. In school I was also on the netball team. In college captain of table tennis ( in which I still play a mean game!) 

Going to a girl’s school we had every sport offered to us. My own kids started on swim teams when they were five and some moved to water polo ( still an important sport for Jane and daughter Meghan) They play golf and pickleball. 

I also watch any sport on TV ( except darts and bowling. Too boring) 

I should add that the one sport I hated was watching my grandson in high school wrestling! Horrifying! 

HALLIE EPHRON: There were virtually no sports for women (pre Title 9) when I was in grammar school. We had “gym” every day but all I remember is lining up in size places and taking a shot at the basket and playing dodge ball. In high school, having to take swimming was pure torture, and I had a very frequently recurring “period” that excused me.

Things are so much better now. My daughter played soccer – on the girls team and a coed team. She liked the girls team better. My granddaughter is on the swim team and does gymnastics and (heaven help me) “cheer.” It’s great, but exhausting from a parent’s perspective, having to show up (which we WANT to do) at so many events and cheer her on.

DEBS: That's a lot, Hallie! Wren is still in gymnastics, but it's very low key, and I'm not sure how much longer that will last with the demands of soccer.

JENN McKINLAY: YES! Basketball, volleyball, and judo as a youth. Volleyball as an adult. And now, I’m taking Tai Chi in an adult ed class because why not? I was a kid in the seventies and a tween/teen in the eighties so sports were a big thing for girls. Mostly, I got lucky that I had a sibling less than a year older than me and he included me in everything so I also played hockey, skateboarded, kayaked, hiked, fished, boogie boarded, and skied. I’m sure I’m missing some stuff, too. Looking back, we were very busy in the best possible way. 

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Argh. ALL I wanted was to be on some team, any team, anything. There were no girls teams, though, not formally, it was more “let's play softball during gym class.”  But there was no one worse at sports than I–maybe because I refused to wear my glasses, which does create problems.  Always chosen last. And “PE” in those horrible horrible horrible snap up the front gymsuit things was, to use Hallie’s perfect word, torture.

I was a pretty good horseback rider, I have to say, back in the day. And I could actually ice skate pretty well, strangely. And I was in all the plays–that kind of team sport I could do.

LUCY BURDETTE: I regret that there weren’t sports for girls when I was growing up, but girls did dancing and cheerleading. Boys played the sports. In another world, our daughter Molly was a very talented athlete with a lot of options. She played soccer and lacrosse, and then lacrosse for UC Berkeley. Her kids are not as driven, which I think is a disappointment, or at least a puzzle. John and I had lots of fun watching Thea play soccer last time we visited. Her team won their first tournament, and as you can see in the photo, she was thrilled. 

DEBS: So cute! And that trophy is enormous!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I straddled the Title IX era - it was passed when I was in grade school, but the tiny and always underfunded rural school I went to after we came back from Germany couldn’t support many teams. There was field hockey for girls, which I played with zest, and I was in the ski club, which started a life-long passion for alpine skiing. I skated a LOT, both in Germany, and in upstate NY, and when Mom married Dad and we moved to the Finger Lakes, I got my boating and sailing licenses. I still sail whenever and wherever I can.

Other than that… not so much, and I’ve had to be grudgingly driven to exercise for my health. Ross loved riding (his parents were both professional equestrians) and racket sports. We used to joke we had to-the-manor born tastes in sports and a living-in-the-hovel income.

DEBS: I'll bet there are a lot of younger women who don't realize that girls weren't offered the opportunity to play sports. We take things for granted so quickly.

What about you, dear readers, guys and girls? Did you grow up playing sports? Was being part of team important?