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.)

Where to Find Your Next Great Read

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Debs has gotten us off to a great start on reading in the new year, talking about what we’ve read in 2022, weighing the pros and cons of book journaling, and sharing suggestions on audio narrators you should be listening to. I want to shamelessly piggyback on her excellent work because I kept running into the same issue when I was talking about these things: where do you find your next great read?

In The Before Times, I used to go to one or another of the several independent book stores we’re blessed with in the Portland, Maine area. Or I would spend an hour or two browsing the shelves at one of the local libraries. I often attended professional events like Book Expo America, the American Library Association annual conference, and regional meetings like the New England Booksellers Association’s. In other words, I was encountering newly published, to-be published and new-to-me reads all the time. Or if not all the time, at least often enough to accumulate piles of TBR tomes.

Now? Not so much. All our local libraries offer remote check out - I can order a book and pick it up. The same thing for my favorite bookstores. Call me Overly-Cautious Octavia, but I don’t linger anywhere where the vast public is in, out and hanging around. And even if I were fine with browsing, it feels more like recreational shopping to me, which I was never a fan of, and am less so now. I want to get in, get what I want, and get out. 

All this is a long-winded way of saying I need help finding places for recommended reads! Of course, right here at JRW we have a tremendous resource in all our widely-read members, and every time we have a “what are you reading?” conversation, I’m taking notes. But where else can I go? Where do I get information on the new non-fiction I haven’t heard of, or the most-anticipated science fiction, or upcoming releases of authors I already love but don’t track? 

Reds, what are your resources? Where would you point readers?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I’m completely interested in all of your  answers to this! With Mystery Scene Magazine gone (sigh), and the NYT Sunday Book Review so elite, where do you all go? How do you hear? Of course I read reviewers I love–and some of them are right here on JRW! And I know I can rely on them. So keep those reviews coming, AND if you have a site, you darling reviewers, put it in the comments!

Because of course I am always looking for new, I am so lucky to host CRIME TIME on A Mighty Blaze and First Chapter Fun–and I have to say ,both are wonderful ways of finding new books!  The bookers (big insiders in book/bookstore/publishing world) on Crime Time schedule the interviews, so I get the benefit of their expertise and connections–that’s how I got introduced to Deepti Kapoor, and Jordan Harper, and Brendan Slocumb and Chris Whittaker and Janice Hallett and Lisa Jewell (now my absolute idol) a whole list of other fabulous authors early in the process. The bookers really know their stuff!  

Same on FCF–we get pitched constantly by people/publicists/publishers who want their authors showcased, and so there’s always a stream of new people. And authors who are already favorites will provide advance copies.

So this can work for YOU, too! Just come to CT or FCF and see who you’ll meet. This week, Deepti Kapoor and Mary Kubica on Crime Time and Pam Jenoff on First Chapter Fun. VoiIà. Your next great reads.

HALLIE EPHRON: I swear by CRIME TIME on A Mighty Blaze and First Chapter Fun. Hank you are such a great resource. It somewhat fills the hole left by so many mystery bookstores that have closed. And I depend quite a bit on my fellow Reds and our amazing commenters to cast a wide net. 

Conferences! Gosh I do hope we get back to feeling comfortable about going in person because there’s no better place to meet new authors and talk to a gazillion readers and find out what they’re enthusiastic about.

LUCY BURDETTE: The one place I will not give up shopping is my local bookstores, Books and Books and the Key West Island Bookstore in Key West, and RJ Julia in Connecticut. Besides browsing in the actual stores, I subscribe to all of those newsletters, so I always get the latest on what’s coming out next. I don’t like to buy books from Amazon, but I do use their algorithms (If you liked this, you’ll like that, etc.)

Other than that it’s word of mouth–I adore our reading blogs here–so many good ideas, and you figure out who has similar taste!

 

JULIA: Lucy, I've been to RJ Julia Booksellers several times, but in my head, it always comes out Raul Julia's Book Store! 

JENN McKINLAY: I let the books find me. Seriously, I don’t think I have ever actively looked for a book in my life. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It’s just that I grew up in libraries (Mom was a librarian), then I became a librarian, and I don’t know how or why but books just find me, much like every stray critter in south Scottsdale. And usually, the book arrives just when I am meant to read it.

RHYS BOWEN: Hank, you are doing us a great favor by hosting A Mighty Blaze and First Chapter Fun. And my fellow Reds are great with recommendations.

I am lucky to live near two magnificent bookstores, Book Passage in Corte Madera and The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, where they have author events every single night. Barbara Peters of the Poisoned Pen will often host a new author with an established one and I’ve learned about quite a few first time books that way. 

 

Also like many of you, I get sent upcoming books to read and blurb. Some of these are just okay but some are wonderful.

But the most fun thing is to browse when I am in UK. WH Smith, bargain table! Such fun finds and books I wouldn’t normally choose.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, I am seconding Rhys on WH Smith in the UK, ditto Waterstone’s. The first thing I do when I fly into London is check the book racks at the airport WH Smith’s. (And the last thing when I fly out, for the plane, of course. Otherwise, books seem to find me. Here on JRW, of course, the biggest source.  FCF and A Mighty Blaze, newsletters from The Poisoned Pen and Murder by the Book and blogs by favorite reviewers. And I have to confess that I am addicted to Bookbub (that is a whole other blog..) and I can’t count how many authors and series I’ve discovered because something was on sale for $1.99 and it sounded interesting.

 

 

JULIA: Dear readers, it's your turn now - where do you find your next read? Is it in real life, online, or in the media? I'll add your suggestions to the front page here as they come in! 

Naughty or Nice?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: So Thanksgiving is over and all of a sudden it's almost December and time to Christmas shop and--EEEK--I have not found a single gift!  The only thing I bought yesterday on Black Friday was some socks that I needed. How incredibly sad is that?

 I have to admit I've never been one of those super organized people who shop all year and have everything tagged and wrapped by Thanksgiving (I do really, honestly have a good friend who does this) but most years by almost December I usually at least have a LIST.

But this year I am absolutely CLUELESS. I cannot even wrap my mind around it. And since I'm probably doing all my shopping online, there's really no excuse.

Not to mention that today is Small Business Saturday, and if we ever needed to support small businesses, it's this year. 

And of course we all want to support our indy bookstores! Two of my faves are Murder by the Book in Houston, and The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale. They both have BOOKS, obviously, but Murder by the Book has all sorts of other gift-y goodies, like puzzles and mugs, t-shirts and socks, and both stores ship nation-wide.

Just thinking about this has inspired me enough that I may actually tackle a list today...

REDS and readers, have you started/finished holiday shopping? What super-duper gift ideas do you have for those of us who are struggling?

And please share with us your favorite independent bookstore, so that we can spread the love!

LAUREN WILLIG'S GARDEN OF INTRIGUE

DEBORAH CROMBIE: As we are still feeling historical (or perhaps hysterical) this week, the wonderful Lauren Willig joins us with a few thoughts about why we like history mysteries, and talks about her new book, THE GARDEN INTRIGUE.

I've just discovered Lauren's books, I'm happy to say, (although sorry not to have done so sooner) when I was signing last month at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale and Barbara Peters, goddess of bookstores, put THE ORCHID AFFAIR in my hand and said, "Here. Read this. You'll love it." Barbara's recommendations cannot be ignored and this was no exception.

And so I was hooked. Napoleonic Paris. Spies. Romance. And knee breeches. All bracketed very cleverly by an ongoing contemporary story that ties the books in the series together--and now I have a new book to look forward to as well as the earlier books in the series!

Lauren has kindly offered to send a copy of THE GARDEN INTRIGUE to one of our lucky commenters, and I'll announce the winner in tomorrow's post.

Oh, and one more thing. Lauren looks much prettier in a tiara than Brad Parks (no offense, Brad:-)) And now, here's Lauren!

LAUREN WILLIG: I heard that there was some discussion over here about literary salons and things historical, so, inspired by Brad’s appearance last week, I couldn’t resist donning my best tiara and barging over—because, really, wearing tiaras and talking about history are two of my very favorite things. It’s what got me into this job. (The history, not the tiaras. Although getting to wear a tiara to work is always a perk.)

To paraphrase a completely inappropriate source, the past had style; it had flair. Fans, coaches, gilded ballrooms, clever turns of phrase, knee breeches… all these are catnip to me. I’ve always preferred court intrigue to electoral politics. The more mistresses involved, the better. (Charles II, I’m looking at you.) For those of us who have always felt that we might have been born in the wrong era, historical fiction is the best way of rectifying that. We get all the glamor and intrigue of an earlier era without the inconveniences of lack of contact lenses, toothpaste, and flush toilets. Until they invent a proper time machine, historical fiction is the best thing we’ve got going (without any of those pesky worries about throwing off the time space continuum and all that sort of thing.)

In historical fiction, we get to hobnob with history’s most interesting characters. It’s the best possible sort of VIP room, and a VIP room to which anyone with a library card is invited. In previous books, I’ve gotten to hang out with the ruler of Hyderabad, Lord Wellesley, George III (during one of his mad phases), and even Jane Austen. In my latest book, The Garden Intrigue, my heroine, Emma, knows everyone who is anyone in Napoleonic Paris. She’s best friends with Napoleon’s stepdaughter, collaborating on a project with Robert Fulton (yes, the guy who invented the steamboat!), and a frequent visitor at Josephine Bonaparte’s country house, Malmaison. Emma’s relationships mean that we get to see the Bonapartes at home, in all their squabbling glory. It’s like gossiping about old friends—or frenemies.

I also believe that historical fiction serves other, deeper purposes. It provides us with a safe space, a happy never-never land in which we can deal with troubling issues in a non-threatening way. Like fantasy and science fiction, historical fiction has the capacity to provide a laboratory for the working out of real world problems. I’ve always been fascinated by the way historical fiction tends to mirror the preoccupations of our own age. I don’t think it’s any accident, as the disparity between rich and poor rises, that we’ve seen a corresponding interest in books set in the Gilded Age. Likewise, I’ve long wondered whether the rise in popularity of Jane Austen and everything Austen-related in the past decade has had something to do with the decay of courtship rituals in modern society. As we find ourselves in a world that seems romantically unsettled, it provides comfort to imagine a society in which courtship was played by the rules. Historical fiction provides both a cautionary tale and a corrective, a mirror for our current concerns.

Along those lines, someone made an interesting point on a panel I was on at the Tucson Festival of Books this weekend (for which I would provide an attribution if I could remember who it was. Oh, well.). In historical crime fiction, we have no DNA samples. There are no lab guys in white coats coming to provide an anodyne scientific solution to the crime. Instead, historical crime fiction, because of the lack of all those high tech doodads, is forced to rely upon analysis of characters, the whys and wherefores—a why-dunnit, as much as a who-dunnit—to solve the crime. In an age of electronics, it’s sometimes useful to back away from all the devices beeping and ringing around us and take a good, hard look at people instead.

It doesn’t hurt if some of those people happen to be wearing knee breeches.

Which is your favorite historical era?