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Volumes Bookcafe: A Beautiful Day in My Neighborhood

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Volumes Bookcafe, Wicker Park in Chicago, 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave.

By Beth Uznis Johnson

Who remembers that glorious day in May 2020 when 28 authors from around the country released a reenactment of the library dance scene from The Breakfast Club to the song “We Are Not Alone”? I’d seen their faces on book jackets, Twitter, and a few in person at writing events over the years. Amid the isolation of the pandemic, to get this inside peek at their homes and dance styles was beyond thrilling.

Themes of social justice proliferate all sections of the Wicker Park store.

Not only did they dance their asses off, they did it in support of Volumes Bookcafe, an independent bookstore in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. The video was conceived by Chicago author, Rebecca Makkai, who is also the artistic director of the nonprofit literary organization, StoryStudio Chicago. At the time, I was a Michigan-based writer without a neighborhood bookstore. To see the literary community rally behind a beloved bookseller touched me deeply.

It was a great day on literary Twitter. I watched the dance video at least 10 times.

It made me long to move back to Chicago, a vibrant literary community, with many indie bookstores sprinkled around its more than 200 neighborhoods. Flash forward to 2023 and I did move back. With the launch of my debut novel, Coming Clean from Regal House Publishing, slated for January 2024, I vowed to never live in a community without a bookstore again.

“Volumes, on Milwaukee Avenue,” my friend Claude said without hesitation, when I asked for the best bookstore around my new condo in West Town. I scrambled to open my maps app and couldn’t believe my luck: Volumes Bookcafe of Wicker Park was only 0.7 mile away. A 15-minute walk! A 7-minute bike ride! A 4-minute drive if I could talk my husband into dropping me off.

Even better, I can pick up Claude on the way. She’s only 0.2 mile away.

Come to find out my kickass neighborhood bookstore has an amazing neighborhood story. When a new landlord upped the rent (during the pandemic, no less), forcing Volumes to temporarily close their doors in Wicker Park, the neighbors rallied. They found a great location, crowdsourced funds to BUY the store space, and partnered with owners, sisters Rebecca and Kimberly George, to open a new, forever location at 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave.

With the community deeply invested in the store and the days of pandemic isolation in the past, Volumes has everything a reader (or writer) could ever need, starting with the heavenly new-book smell and knowledgeable staff who love and care about literature. Foot traffic in the store has returned and the in-person event schedule is back and growing.

Owner Rebecca George greets guests at an author event.

Rebecca, who spends the bulk of her time at the Wicker Park location, gives me her take on the book business, including:

  • 1. Physical books are a much-needed escape in a world where people spend far too much time on screens.
  • 2. Community bookstores are a reflection of the community itself and, in Wicker Park, that means a focus on fiction, science fiction, kids’ books, and nonfiction on topics of social justice, popular culture, and true crime.

Volumes offers handwritten recommendations for books in all categories around the store, from its section featuring Chicago authors to carefully curated literary fiction, best-selling graphic novels, mysteries, memoirs, and on and on. The notes include quick plot summaries, staff picks, who liked the book and why. There are also novelty items and gifts for readers (and writers) like literary-themed mugs, t-shirts, bookends, and socks. There are cozy nooks for reading, a picnic table for discussions, and tables for work-oriented patrons. There’s a café with baked goods, coffee drinks, teas, and other refreshments.

Fiction, memoir, and biography, also popular in Wicker Park.

I sit with Rebecca while she checks out a customer, a man she obviously knows based on their rapport. He’s finally decided to use the gift card he’s been hanging onto, selecting a cookbook with glossy photographs.

“You’ll have to bring in some of the dishes you make and we’ll sample them,” Rebecca jokes. The customer laughs and pauses, seeming to seriously consider it. We chat for a few minutes and I wonder if there is a way to ask them to call me for this sampling party; I like to eat, especially when someone else cooks, and I’m new in the neighborhood and looking for friends.

After the customer leaves with his book, Rebecca shares there’s a story behind the joke: some amazing cookbooks were released in the spring of 2020, the early days of the pandemic, and a local mom and her kids had—indeed—continued to visit Volumes with samples of baked goods they’d made together.

Authors Bradeigh Godfrey and Alison Hammer (aka Ali Brady) at the
launch of The Comback Summer

The café, Rebecca says, is especially nice to have during author readings and other events at the store. She tells me about a literary-themed private event the night before: a husband planned a surprise party for his wife that included an 8-course meal with themes from her favorite classic books. She was one of Volume’s first Wicker Park customers. She was really surprised.

Rebecca also tells me about a children’s book, The Story of Ukraine: An Anthem of Glory and Freedom, that Volumes took to local schools for student readings over the course of a week. The Wicker Park neighborhood is next to Ukrainian Village, where many Ukrainian families live. One child, from a refuge family, read the book to his mom three times and insisted on sleeping with it. Other classmates got enthused and decided to do an action project to support Ukraine.

My new Chicago neighborhood suddenly feels distinctly more intimate than the bookstore-less Michigan suburb I’d lived for more than 20 years. Strange how a big city can feel quaint; a suburb can feel vast and never ending. During the brief years a Border’s Books opened and closed, I never heard friendly chats between shop owners and customers.

Rebecca says Volumes loves to support new authors and local writers. She encourages me to attend some events at the store and recommends an upcoming Ali Brady launch, a summer beach read titled The Comeback Summer. So, I go. It turns out the author is the writing team of Chicago writer, Allison Hammer, and her friend, Bradleigh Godfrey. I’m amazed at the turnout: the bookstore is packed! It turns out the authors are members of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, which has a large Chicago contingency. The WFWA members have come in droves to support the book.

As a proud member of the WFWA since its 2020 pandemic write-ins, I feel the warmth of the Chicago literary community like an embrace. How lucky to be here for the launch of Coming Clean. How amazing that Volumes Bookcafe is my neighborhood bookseller. How exciting to have Volumes in Wicker Park hosting my launch event on January 13, 2024.

How lucky I donated so many books before I moved and can now refill my shelves with all the great new literature. Volumes will see a lot of me in the years to come.

Visit Volumes for the launch of Coming Clean by Beth Uznis Johnson: Saturday, January 13, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. at Volumes Bookcafe, 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622 Website: www.volumesbooks.com ; Instagram: @volumesbooks ; Facebook: @volumesbooks ; X: @volumesbooks

Beth Uznis Johnson’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Massachusetts Review, Broad Street, Cincinnati Review, Story Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Southwest Review, “The Best American Essays,” and elsewhere. She lives and writes in Chicago. Coming Clean is her first novel. www.bethujohnson.com

You’ll Always Be Welcome: Celebrating Lemuria Bookstore’s 48 Years with Founder John Evans

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Gerry Wilson interviews John Evans, the founder/owner of Lemuria Books

The façade of Lemuria Books would be impressive anywhere, but in Jackson, Mississippi, Lemuria’s doors represent the entrance to a long literary tradition. Lemuria’s founder and owner, John Evans, has a story to tell about the sculpture of a “book in hand” over the front doors.

He reminds me that Lemuria spent the early years (I was a customer even then) in a closet-size space in The Quarter, a small shopping center located on the outskirts of Jackson, and in Highland Village, which was a step-up location-wise, but it wasn’t John’s dream store. Lemuria moved to its present location, Banner Hall, in 1988. In the course of that move, John says, he immersed himself in design books and books about bookstores. He became enamored of Irish book shops and diners with unique entrances (think: a donut shop whose entry is a donut hole, or the old A&W root beer chain). Lemuria was settling in at the new location when the eBook craze began and threatened to take down physical book stores everywhere. That was when John settled on the symbol of the “book in hand” that would represent what was and is, for John and for readers, the essence of Lemuria. A design firm in New Orleans created the “sculpture.” Mounted over the front doors, the piece looks like a bronze, but to quote John, “If it were, you’d need a fortress to hold it up!” It’s striking just the same and speaks for Lemuria very well.

John will tell you that, even though much has changed over the years, Lemuria is the same warm place it was when the store first opened in 1975. The interior will remind you of someone’s lovely, dark-paneled home library. The staff are happy to help and/or make recommendations, but they won’t follow you around. You’re free to wander from room to room where the shelves are clearly defined for content.

There’s the “Mississippi corner,” where Lemuria celebrates Mississippi’s literary chops with unabashed pride. I’m happy to have one book on those shelves already, and That Pinson Girl will be there soon, alongside all the “Mississippi greats” I so admire. There’s as fine a selection of poetry books as you’ll find anywhere. Looking for travel or food or nonfiction? Lemuria has them all. There’s a children’s and youth shop, too—OZ, a magical little place. Lemuria boasts all the accoutrements of a “good” book store space but goes one better. The First Editions Room houses an exceptional collection of books you may not find elsewhere, especially the classic, collectible Mississippi authors—William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Ellen Douglas, Barry Hannah, Willie Morris—as well as the newer generations of writers: John Grisham, Richard Ford, Jesmyn Ward, Natasha Trethewey, Katy Simpson Smith, and many, many more. The Mississippi literary tradition lives on.

The photos I’ve included give you a taste of Lemuria, but they can’t tell the whole story. Only John Evans can do that.

He and I got together a while back. In the interview you may be struck, as I was, by his breadth of knowledge and his love for what he’s been doing all these years.

Here’s John:

GERRY: Lemuria’s website tells us, “In 1975, John Evans opened Lemuria in a converted apartment stuffed full of books in The Quarter in Jackson, Mississippi.” In 2025, Lemuria turns 50! To what do you attribute Lemuria’s longevity?

JOHN: Lemuria has many loyal writers, but we’ve maintained a malleable business plan that adapts as the industry changes. For the last 40 years, the industry has often been on a rollercoaster. We’re going through another period like that now. But Lemuria has maintained the loyalty of our readers and has been able to adapt to change.

GERRY: Lemuria has a very active visiting author schedule. Why do you think it’s important to provide the space where authors and readers come together?

JOHN: The answer goes back to when we [Lemuria] first began in the Quarter. A poet, Terry Hummer, came to me and wanted to do poetry readings in the book store. So we started having some poets come and read. The author list grew when the store moved [to Highland Village] around 1977-78. That’s when we met Ellen Gilchrist, we met Barry Hannah, we met Willie Morris, and we began to realize that writers being friends with the store made the books come alive and become more than a product. When books come alive, readers care more about them. It creates a more vibrant experience.

Also it’s fun! I didn’t realize when I started, but the ability to develop long-term friendships with writers has been a gift to my life. I’m not just somebody selling their books. They respect my work as I respect theirs.

So many writers who were great friends of Lemuria are gone. We can’t talk about the book store without talking about Miss [Eudora] Welty. What a gift. She shared so many of her friends [with the store]—like Walker Percy. Those friendships full of integrity and association wouldn’t have happened without her. John Grisham is another writer who has allowed the book store to stay out of debt!

GERRY: How do you want your customers to feel when they walk into the store?

JOHN: Relaxed! If they’re relaxed, they’re comfortable to explore. I’m a believer that books find you; you don’t just find them. Being a browser is like being a prospector; you’re trying to mine something that gives you something that’s unexpected, that makes it a special experience.

GERRY: What are the greatest challenges facing book store owners today? How do you address them?

JOHN: I think the most important thing today is to figure out how to maintain your upstream identity to the publishers and the value you bring to them. In 2020 the trade show was cancelled. That was where I went with staff, made the one-on-one contacts, discovered what books fit for us, what authors to befriend and/or bring to Jackson. I worked with Richard [Howorth] at Square Books in Oxford to “put Mississippi on the map.”

But so many people [in the book industry] quit because of Covid. It’s been difficult working with new people, but we have done a pretty good job. My young [staff] people are talking to their young people. But how do people perceive your authenticity when you’re doing everything by email or digitally? Online ordering became very important during the pandemic. We haven’t quite recovered from all that yet. It’s hard to explain what you think you mean to the community when someone doesn’t come in and see for himself. Ordering online has changed the dynamic.

GERRY: What do you want Lemuria’s legacy to be?

JOHN: I don’t know. I guess what legacy means is when you think about someone, what do you think about? “Well, you know, he shared this great book with me. That was his gift to me.” The connection is the book, the reading experience. And the reading experience is our own little creative art form we practice ourselves, what we’re reading and thinking about.

Also, it’s rewarding to have the third generation of families coming in the store. That makes me realize I haven’t wasted my life! Something’s being done right. That’s real.

As we were closing the conversation, John asked me a question. “You go all the way back to the Quarter,” he said. (I do indeed!) “Do you think the bookstore has maintained its essence?”

I didn’t hesitate. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, and then some.” And the three generations of readers who have now walked through Lemuria’s doors would agree.

If you read the news, no doubt you know that my home town, Jackson, has more than its share of problems. But no matter how often we deal with crumbling infrastructure or water woes, Lemuria stands quite literally “on a hill,” bringing the best of a broad range of reading pleasures to the community. If you’re ever near Jackson or willing to drive a little bit out of your way—then please: “Y’all come,” as my aunt used to call out from her porch as my parents and I drove away on Sunday afternoons. You’ll always be welcome. And if you can’t get to Jackson, do the next best thing: go online and pay Lemuria Books a visit.

Lemuria Books will host the reading/signing launch party for Gerry Wilson’s That Pinson Girl (available February 6, 2024) on March 7, 2024. 

Gerry Wilson is the author of Crosscurrents and Other Stories, published by Press 53, and a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award Nominee in 2016. An early draft of That Pinson Girl (coming from Regal House in 2024) was a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Writing Competition. Residing in Jackson, Mississippi, Gerry is the recipient of a Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowship.

Montclair Book Center: Celebrating An Iconic Bookstore’s New Owners

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by Patrick O’Dowd

When I close my eyes and picture a bookstore, the one that appears is Montclair Book Center. Rows upon rows overflowing with new and used books. Walls floor to ceiling with shelves of the same. A staircase that leads you upstairs from fiction to non-fiction. If you’d rather stay in fiction, you turn right at the stairs, and there’s another sea of books—children’s, sci-fi, fantasy. Deeper still, in the basement, are scores of records and an event space. They have rare books, first editions, comics, movies, anything your heart could desire lurks somewhere in this brilliant maze.

The store itself feels like a character from a novel. Like you wish you could get it to speak and tell you all its stories. It has a history to it. In the same way, a used book is special because you know someone else read and loved it, this store is special because of its past. You think of all the people who have walked in and gaped in awe at the shelves and the labyrinthine structure of the store. All the people who stopped by to kill a few minutes before dinner only to find, to their pleasant surprise, that they had missed their reservation. The moments when someone discovered a book or author they’d never heard of and suddenly fell in love. That’s the magic of Montclair Book Center.  

It opened in 1984, but it feels older. It feels timeless like Montclair came to life around it, and if it weren’t there, the town would collapse.

I’m sure this is largely my own mythologizing. When I first started seeing my partner, we went to this bookstore. We had one of those days where you walk in expecting to spend fifteen minutes and emerge hours later with arms full of books and an inescapable joy coursing through your veins. It’s a fond memory we revisit every time we walk back inside and feel that excitement well up in us. I always feel like a kid inside those walls. I think of all the possibilities, the thousands of stories that live in that space. There’s a part of me that never wants to leave.

Chelsea Pullano and Ryan Whitaker bought the store a little over a year ago. They’d spent the last few years working for a start-up, knowing it wasn’t the right fit. They felt, as so many of us have over the past few years, that corporate life wasn’t for them. That years spent staring at a screen and working for somebody else wasn’t what they’d envisioned for themselves. So, they decided to make a change.

They didn’t set out with the intention of buying a bookstore. Instead, they had different visions, a café or a bar, some sort of place where people would gather. I can’t help but wonder if, after the terrifying isolation of Covid, this vision was born out of the need to connect with people and become part of a community, something larger than themselves.

Montclair Book Center happened on a whim. After a fruitless search for retail space, Chelsea decided to go rogue and see if any bookstores were for sale in the area. After all, if you’re looking for a place where people can go and get lost and connect, what’s better than a bookstore? And when she heard that her favorite bookstore, a place she’d spent hours wandering, was available, she was sold.

Chelsea had anticipated a hard sell with Ryan, a long process where she convinced him that this store in this town was the right choice. But in the end, all she needed to do was get him there.

“I took one walk through this place,” Ryan says, relaying the story. “And said, ‘This is the idea now.’”

Because that’s all it takes. You walk inside and feel both awed and comforted. You sense a familiarity as if every bookstore you’ve walked into before this one was preparing you to find Montclair Book Center. A common refrain you hear as you walk through the rows of books is, “This place is just so cool.”

As a longtime patron, I can say that Chelsea and Ryan are the exact people—so full of life and spirit—that you hope will take over your favorite bookstore. They aren’t some soulless corporation or, worse, a developer who plans to knock it down and build condos, but people who see the store’s magic and want only to help it thrive for years to come.

They plan to utilize the store for more events—local authors are a particular area of emphasis. They stress the idea of it being a third space, somewhere that isn’t your home or work, where you can come to hang out and feel safe. In our increasingly difficult age, I can’t think of a place I’d rather spend my time than Montclair Book Center, run by Chelsea and Ryan.

“We’re all about community, sincerely, community and culture,” Ryan says. “We need to create spaces where people can come and learn and be seen and heard.”

There’s a crucial importance to a local, independent bookstore in the same way that a movie theater, restaurant, or school has value to a community. The new owners welcome this and are eagerly working to cement their status in Montclair. They’ve had young, aspiring filmmakers come in and shoot in their store, they’ve begun hosting events, promoting charity drives, and you can see this is only the beginning.

I asked them about books that inspired their love of literature, and Chelsea told me about discovering Wuthering Heights in high school and how it awakened something in her. Not only the novel but the way her teacher encouraged her to view and discuss it. You can see a glint in her eye as she envisions their store as a place where others can discover and discuss works that will awaken that same passion in them.

She also mentions being raised in a home with a “beautiful, leather-bound classics set,” which she devoured. I can’t help but wonder if having those at her fingertips influenced the person she’s become and maybe planted the seed to buy this store.

I wander the store for a bit and come across a delightful “banned books” display where they briefly explain why each was banned. It’s typical of the store, full of small corners where you can discover something new that stays with you. The display is also emblematic of the store’s attitude and its new owners. There’s a defiance to them, a rebellious streak that drove them to make this leap. Leaving your corporate job to purchase an iconic bookstore takes courage, and I can see that Chelsea and Ryan are not lacking in that essential trait.

They have a wall downstairs in their newly renovated events space with a few polaroids hanging up of the authors who have held events. It’s a big wall, mostly empty right now, but I am confident they’ll fill it. I can already picture myself down there on a weeknight listening to some local author read from their new novel, and the vision fills me with hope. This is what a bookstore should be. A pillar of the community run by people full of hope and energy. I wish every community could have its version of Chelsea and Ryan running their independent bookstore.

My novel, A Campus on Fire, doesn’t come out until the Spring of 2025, but when it does, I can’t wait to have a reading at my favorite bookstore, Montclair Book Center.

I hope to see you there. It’s located in wonderful downtown Montclair at 221 Glenridge Ave. You can’t miss it, and I promise that once you’ve walked inside, you’ll never want to leave.

Visit their website, www.montclairbookcenter.com, to browse their excellent collection of new and used books. And to keep up to date on their events and other information about the store, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Patrick O’Dowd lives in New Jersey, just up the road from Montclair Book Center, with his partner Cassie and their mischievous cat Toffee. His novel, A Campus on Fire, will be released in the spring of 2025. He’s the fiction editor of Sequoia Speaks Literary Magazine, and you can find his writing at patrickrodowd.com.

That’s My Story: Janice Deal on chocolate, pilgrimages & supportive community

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RHP staff got the chance recently to sit down with Janice Deal, author of The Sound of Rabbits (releasing June 6), to ask those particular questions that we’ve always wanted to know! You know, the really important questions about chocolate and wine (in addition to the writing craft!), and we are delighted to share her answers with you! And don’t forget to pick up a copy of her marvelous book (either from us or from your local indie bookseller!)

1. Do you see chocolate/wine as an intrinsic aid to writing?

Oh yes. Yes, please. With an emphasis on chocolate. I operate well under the influence of the “three C’s,” in fact: chocolate, coffee, and cats. On days when I can get a little of all three, I believe I do some of my best work!

2. What questions would you like us to ask other authors?

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on? (The power of place is profound, and going to visit, either virtually or literally, the places inhabited by our favorite authors and their characters can create such a sense of connection to work we love. Visiting or researching a specific place can also deeply inform our own work.)

3. How much to you is writing a solitary activity and how much a communal one?

It’s a mix of both. A few times a year, I steal away on “mini writing retreats” with my close friends Katie (Katherine Shonk) and Sandy (Sandra Jones): we are all, always, working on some sort of writing project, and we’ll rent a house in Indiana or Michigan and spend a few days writing and exploring. Once a year, the three of us also participate in the residency program at Write On, Door County (special thanks to founding and artistic director Jerod Santek): we spend a week up in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, teaching a class, writing, and for me, swimming laps at the beautiful local Y (swimming never fails to clear my head and I have done some good thinking about characters while in the pool). We tend to land the residency in December, a quieter time in Door County. It suits us all well.

Sandy, me, and Katie at Write On

I also go with my husband David on short writing retreats: to a nearby cottage called Spring Bird

(shout-out to Anna Lentz!), and sometimes to Wisconsin. We work well together, toggling between writing and hiking.

Ultimately, when I sit down to work, that’s where the solitary bit begins. No one can get the words on the page but me, after all. As drafts develop, I turn to a few trusted writer/editor friends for feedback. But when writing, I tend to dig deep; “coming back” to the world is like emerging from deep water. Then it’s time to reconnect with “real life”! I love that balance.

4. What’s next for you?

I have recently completed an experimental short novel, The Blue Door, which is a mashup of a contemporary story and a fairy tale of my devising. My linked story collection Strange Attractors, about the fictional town of Ephrem, Illinois, and its denizens, is due out from New Door Books in September 2023. And I have an idea for a collection of linked short stories, tentatively entitled Whale Fall, that I envision will explore themes of death and resilience. I’ve been taking notes for that project and we’ll see where those ideas take me (presumably with the aid of chocolate)!

5. What is the last book that made you cry?

Claire Keegan’s novella Foster. Just . . . wow. Keegan’s compassionate, nuanced prose absolutely slays me. Foster is a quiet story but it hits hard—and goes deep. Keegan has such a clear-eyed understanding of what it means to be human.

Papercuts Bookshop: A Notable Chapter in One Neighborhood’s Literary Story

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By Beth Castrodale

It’s a weekday and just minutes after opening time at Papercuts Bookshop, but the shop is already bustling with customers. To anyone who’s grown to love the store, as I have, that’s no surprise. Located in the heart of Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Papercuts is home to an abundant, thoughtfully curated collection of books.

A children’s nook

But it isn’t just the books that make the store such a draw. It has a warm, inviting ambience and a sweet-natured pup, Sammy, who roams about, pausing now and then to accept a pat or ear scratch from a customer. Also, it’s easy to get drawn into one of the shop’s several cozy nooks and lose track of time as you browse the shelves, immerse yourself in a book that’s caught your attention, or check out one or more of the one-of-a-kind gift items that are arrayed around the store.

But to my mind, what makes Papercuts especially welcoming is the staff. Even on the busy day of my visit, as they worked nonstop to stock books, ring up purchases, and carry out other tasks, the store’s employees were unfailingly friendly, constantly greeting customers and coming to the aid of those with questions. 

Sammy

Fostering this warm environment is Kate Layte, who founded Papercuts in 2014. Despite being as busy as every other staff member during my visit, she took time to speak with me about the store as she went about her work. Among other things, we talked about how the store has forged a strong connection to the community by serving as a hub for all manner of book lovers. “What other job would let you connect to people of all ages?” Layte observed.

She also noted that Papercuts has become part of Boston’s – and, more specifically, Jamaica Plain’s – long and storied literary history. Less than two miles away is Forest Hills Cemetery, where several notable writers, including poets Anne Sexton and e.e. cummings, are buried. Also, the first home that Sylvia Plath knew is just a half mile from the store. That connection to local writers continues to this day. As a Jamaica Plain-based author, I’m grateful that Papercuts stocks books by local writers and that the store has featured both Boston-area and national writers in store-sponsored events.

Papercuts has also made a significant effort to feature books that shed a more inclusive light on local history and other subjects. During my visit, Layte pointed out one such book, Black Walden, which explores the lives of formerly enslaved people who made lives for themselves in Walden Woods, a place that for many people, calls to mind only Henry David Thoreau and the book he’s most known for.

Like many other Boston-area booklovers, I was delighted when, in early 2020, Papercuts moved from its original location in Jamaica Plain, which was just 400 square feet, to a much larger space in the neighborhood. But Papercuts soon faced a major setback when, in March 2020, Covid forced the business to close for a period. By April, the store was in dire enough financial straits that it was at risk of ceasing operations. But Layte was determined to keep it going. Looking back on that time, she said, “I just wasn’t going to give up.”

She set up a GoFundMe campaign for Papercuts, and in just two weeks it raised more than $55,000, which was used to pay vendors, rent, utilities, and other expenses. “Everyone just stepped up,” Layte said. “I was so floored.”

A tire mark testament to Papercut’s resilience

But Covid wasn’t the only big challenge that Papercuts has had to face. In April 2022, two cars crashed into the front of the store, shattering windows, destroying books, and causing structural damage that, fortunately, wasn’t severe. Thankfully, because the store was empty at the time of the crash, no one sustained any injuries, and Papercuts was able to reopen not long after the incident. Today, a tire mark from one of the cars remains etched into the floor, serving both as a reminder of the crash and a testament to the store’s resilience.

Susan Hardy Brown

Another testament to the store’s resilience is how busy it is on any given day, including the day I stopped by. During my visit, I had the pleasure of speaking to one of the many customers: Susan Hardy Brown, a visual artist and longtime resident of Jamaica Plain. She is also a longtime fan of Papercuts. “I have told Kate that it was the best thing to happen to JP since I’ve been here,” Brown said. “Especially now that she’s in the bigger space she can indulge herself in curating this amazing collection of books, and her passion just spills over to everything, not just the books. There seems to be something for everyone.” (Notably, Brown is more than just a devoted customer of Papercuts. For a time, she helped out at the store’s previous location, and some of her art has been featured at the business.)

The passion that Brown described is evident in every aspect of Papercuts. As for the experience of running the store, Layte said, “I wouldn’t trade it.”

Beth Castrodale is the award-winning author of three novels: Marion Hatley, In This Ground, and I Mean You No Harm. Her latest novel, The Inhabitants, will be released by Regal House Publishing in fall 2024.

The Boy in the Rain: Catching up with Stephanie Cowell

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We, at Regal House, had the delightful opportunity to sit down with Stephanie Cowell, author of the upcoming The Boy in the Rain, a love story of two young men in Edwardian England, releasing May 1, 2023, and ask her all the particular questions we had regarding her writing process, her hobbies, and her inspiration for her upcoming book. We’re thrilled to share that interview with you!

What surprising skills or hobbies do you have?

Stephanie as a balladeer age 25

Before I threw myself into writing novels, I was a high soprano, singing both traditional folk music with guitar, and opera. With folk songs, I sang everywhere from prisons, schools, on a cruise on the lake around Stockholm, and the most elegant private parties in New York City apartments. I sang in several languages though my favorite was British songs, particularly “Greensleeves” and “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton.” I performed many roles in opera, among them Gretel wearing my hair in braids and Gilda in Rigoletto, the young Renaissance Italian girl who is seduced by the Duke of Mantua. Her father vows vengeance and death, and the baritone singing the role and I had a very dramatic duet, when he keeps singing “Si, Vendetta!” (Vengeance!) and she begs him to forgive the scoundrel Duke because she still loves him. At the end Gilda must sing a very high note: the Eb above High C. I was terrified, and my throat would close which meant no high note. So, my old Italian voice teacher discovered I could manage if I ran while singing. Everyone thought I was wonderfully dramatic with my long hair streaming behind me, running across the enormous stage while sustaining that note. But I could not do it otherwise!

I still sing a little when I do the dishes, but nothing nearly that high.

How do you research your work?

Stephanie researching in Eccleston Square in London

When I first began to write novels (1984) there was no internet, and I had very little money for books, even if I could find them. I would go to the research libraries which still had index cards cataloguing books. There was always tremendous excitement finding a book. The New York Public Library’s main reading room (the Rose Room) where I sometimes went to study is unbelievably huge and gorgeous. You wrote out a call card and handed it to the librarian and after a time someone from somewhere in the seven stories below the ground where the books were stored, the book you wanted would be fetched. My new novel, The Boy in the Rain, was researched in old book shops and libraries and later, books bought online. I also went to England several times to research it, to London and to Nottingham where the two young men in the book lived. But research also is sensory memory. I stayed many summer weekends as an adolescent in an old country house which was security for me. I heard the heavy tree branches moving against the house. It became the house in my novel.

How long did it take you to write your book? Revisions?

The Boy in the Rain, releasing May 1, 2023

It took forever! The Boy in the Rain was the first novel I tried to write, begun on a dare from two friends. It was very short and undeveloped, but a friend remembers, “it had tremendous passion.” So, I hid the printout in my closet and every four or five years, I’d miss it awfully, and bring it out to revise and share it with a few friends. Agents would fall in love with it and some editors but in the end, they thought it was too unusual and wanted other books from me. I’m terribly glad actually because it took that long to develop into its full strength, 

Have you published anything before? If so, what and where?

I have published three novels with W.W. Norton: Nicholas Cooke, The Physician of London, and The Players: a novel of the young Shakespeare. Then came Marrying Mozart through Viking Penguin, and after with Crown Random House, Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet.  My books have been translated into nine languages and the Mozart novel was made into an opera. I am the recipient of an American Book Award. I have at least six novels in draft, always hoping to finish them. Maybe eight….

LAST QUESTION: When you are writing which is more real, the world all of us live in or the one only you can see? How does to feel to share that world??

When I am writing, the world of the novel is as real as the one I physically live in. I feel the characters walking next to me in the street. When I was an only child (until the age of nine), I would be taken to school and brought back again to my room where I was alone most of the time until dinner. We lived in NYC and I had no way to go to other kids’ houses, as little kids don’t walk the streets alone! Actually, I kept changing schools, so I don’t remember having any friends until after the age of nine when we lived in one place for a few years, and I was able to walk a few streets to visit my first friend or go downstairs to visit a girl in the building. So, I made up people.

I had a made-up friend called David, and I believe he was the genesis of some of my characters, especially Robbie in The Boy in the Rain. Everyone has imaginary worlds in them, but most people are private about them. Writers share them in books. For a long time, I felt The Boy in the Rain was too private to share, that it was just for me. When I first saw the novel printed between covers, I was a little terrified. It is such an intimate world to me. Writing these words, a month before publication day, I am still not sure I want to stand up and talk about it before people.  So, there was a great tug between keeping it a secret forever and sharing it. I guess sharing it won. 

Broadside Bookshop: a Northampton Icon

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by Thérèse Soukar Chehade

Broadside Bookshop has been in the same Main Street location since 1974

Broadside Bookshop in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first bookstore I visited after moving to western Massachusetts from my native Lebanon in the summer of 1983. I liked the welcoming staff, the small space, and the shelves piled high with books. Even though my Arabic and French education hadn’t exposed me to the English-speaking authors on display, I felt that I was viewing a collection curated with love and intelligence.

I made it a point to visit often. The civil war was still raging in Lebanon, but the bookstores had remained open, providing havens of stability and reason in a shattered country. I went to Broadside for the same reason I went to the bookstores in Beirut during breaks from the fighting: to lose myself among the shelves and forget the difficult world outside. I was struggling to find something to tether me in my new and unfamiliar life. But books I knew. A friendly staff member would offer to help or simply let me browse to my heart’s content, and the world would get a little brighter. I read and was drawn into the magical circle of belonging.

The region of western Massachusetts known as the Pioneer Valley is home to many colleges. The New York Times describes it as “arguably the most author-saturated, book-cherishing, literature-celebrating place in the nation,” featuring many bookstores to satisfy book lovers. Located in the same spot on Main Street since 1974, Broadside is a Northampton icon and a popular destination for locals. It is part of a network of local bookshops that are rooted in their communities, their excellent customer service providing a welcome relief in an increasingly automated world. 

Bruce MacMillan, the shop’s original founder, died in 2001 after leaving the store to four of his employees. Bill Clements is one of these owners. He has been with the store since 1992 and agreed to meet with me. We’ve known one another since the late 1990s, when our sons attended the local Montessori school. After catching up for a few minutes, we began the interview.

Bill Clements in front of the fiction section

There are many bookstores in this area and they all seem to coexist. Why do you think that is?

There aren’t as many as there used to be. I moved here in 1982. For the first ten years that I lived in Northampton, there were four stores that sold new books. Now there are only two. 

The town has changed. Rents had risen even before COVID. There are a lot of empty storefronts. It was never like this before. On Thursday nights, the entire town used to be open, but now there isn’t enough street traffic to support it. In fact, for the first time, we are considering not being open late once our winter hours end in a month or so for the rest of the year. We’re usually open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and we’re debating whether to keep that up. There aren’t enough people. It’s much more difficult to run a store and make enough money to keep it open. There are fewer places to shop and hardly any retail. It is driven primarily by restaurants in the evenings. I’ve recently traveled and seen a lot worse, so we’re fortunate, but it’s not what it used to be.

What effect did COVID have on sales?

At the start of COVID, Channel 22 did an interview with store owners. They followed up with them after COVID, and we were the only store they originally interviewed that is still in business, out of 4 or 5. So yes, it’s been difficult for local businesses.

Your store will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year!

The community values us and people here have always gone out of their way to support local independent businesses in general. Because of the politics of the area being what they are, people are aware of the corporations and the big box stores and they know this is not the lifestyle they want to be around as much. They want it, but they don’t want only that. They want us as well. So we really are valuable to them, and they realize that we want to be around for them. That’s a big thing for us. Before the founder of Broadside, Bruce MacMillan, passed away, he made it possible for the store to be passed on to us, and in doing so, he was aware of the legacy of the store. We, too, are very aware of the need for this to continue, and in fact we’re probably going to be in transition in the next three years or so. It will be a generational change, and a lot of stores don’t survive that. When the owners of a store want to retire, they try to sell and find that it’s not easy. Fortunately, we’re setting up things now that will put in place people who will be carrying it on. 

So the key is to stay local?

Yes, as well as the politically aware locals who recognize our value as a kind of third place outside of home and work to gather and create community. We’re seen that way. We are not the only ones, but we are part of that.

How do you give back to the community?

We have a non-profit program where we sponsor a non-profit that we feature in the window once a month. We offer them space to be noticed and recognized by people walking by, and give them the money we have raised to help them out. It’s a very popular program. We also provide books for the schools and hold regular reading events featuring local authors.

A book is born. How do you decide which books to display? 

Before that, we must decide which books to buy. We order from a company that provides catalogs for all major and minor publishers. The criteria are the author’s track record and, if nonfiction, the subject’s track record. If it’s fiction, we also look at the track record in that genre. We have knowledgeable and experienced buyers who understand what works and what doesn’t. Everyone has their finger in the wind. Publishers don’t know what will work or not, so they put it out there. Most of the books published do not make any money. It’s great that they’re publishing so many writers, but only a small percentage of the successful books drive the whole engine and pay for the ones that are losing money, which accounts for about 80 or 90 percent of the total.

And yet books keep getting published.

It’s an interesting model, and it has its ups and downs. Another major factor is the escalating financial crisis. I attended a conference in Seattle three weeks ago, and the main topic of discussion was what we should do about it, and where this is all going. The rising cost of books is a big concern. Novels are selling for almost $30, and non-fiction can cost up to $45. 

That leaves out a lot of people.

That’s a big concern. Going back to the business of bookselling, we order the books and we put them out. Some will succeed unexpectedly through word of mouth, while others will be carried because they are written by well-known authors. In a way, the rich get richer. We make a point to stock works by local authors. We accept books, even self-published books, from walk-in authors. We have a consignment program, and we carry these books for a small fee. If they sell, we order more. If not, after a year or so we ask them to take them back. This creates a local connection. Most of our reading events are by local authors. We have a lot of authors in this area.

Books have a different business model than food or clothing. The books can be returned. The publishers accept them back at no cost. If a book doesn’t sell, we return it and that’s it; we pay the return freight, which isn’t cheap, but there’s no discount on them. We can keep the books flowing that way, but you must stay on top of it. Ordering, returning, culling, and reviewing records on a regular basis. If a book hasn’t sold in three months, it is returned. It’s a judgment call whether you continue to carry it after selling one in three months and for how long.

NPR and the New York Review of Books are both important venues for book promotion. We have a very popular bookcase where we keep titles that have been reviewed by NPR. Many people get their recommendations from them. It’s a constant flow.

On the subject of “the rich getting richer,” I’m wondering how small presses fit into the picture as you decide which new books to purchase. Small presses frequently publish writers from underrepresented groups like women, minorities, and lesser-known authors. Keeping in mind that booksellers are trying to survive in an increasingly difficult economy, do you believe they have a role in highlighting some of these lesser-known voices in an effort to broaden the literary playing field? 

It is part of our mission as booksellers to carry lesser known and marginalized authors. This is made easier by the publishing and book distribution industries: publishers are making a substantial effort to publish women, minorities, and lesser known authors, especially after the wake-up call of the controversy over the publication of American Dirt several years ago. There’s been far greater diversity of voices published since then. Distributors are carrying small presses so we have easy access to them. The bookselling business is always about a balance between carrying what sells–we need to stay in business, of course–and doing our job as purveyors of culture(s), writ large and small. We are very aware of the need for the latter.

I’m one of those people who prefer to have a book in my hands rather than read on a screen. Do you think that’s still true for most people?

Yes. a lot of people are mixed. They do both, but it’s circumstantial. If they’re on a plane, it’s an e-book. If they are reading genre fiction, it’s often e-readers, partly because people tear through a romance or mystery in a short time, and do they want to spend $17 on it? This drives which format they use. Many people discovered in the last 10 or 15 years, when e-books looked like they were going to take over the world, that the readership went up and then plateaued. That’s because a lot of people like the feel of the book. Astonishingly, I heard years ago that young people were getting tired of their screens, and it was almost a relief for them to have a book in their hands. 

That’s hopeful.

Hopefully, that is true. Our readership skews older, but there are many young people who come in to buy books.

I believe that people are not reading as much as they used to. Is that consistent with your experience?

I just read an article in the New Yorker about the decline in college enrollment in the humanities. In an interview, a Columbia English professor said that he used to read five novels a month. Then he bought a cell phone. Now he’s happy if he reads one book per month. If someone like him is reading this much less, imagine what it’s like for other people! We’re all reading blogs, responding to emails, and listening to podcasts. Few people read the long form, although people continue to write them. How many people nowadays read Dickens?

Are you seeing these changes reflected in sales?

Somewhat. But we had our best year ever two years ago, as did almost everyone. Because of the outpouring from the community following COVID, 2021 was far above any other year. Last year was not as good, but it wasn’t bad. Things are sluggish this year, but we hope sales will pick up.

The opening keynote speaker at this year’s ABA (American Booksellers Association) Winter Institute conference said that there are currently 530 new independent bookstores in the pipeline nationwide. The book industry suffered significant losses during the 2008 recession, which didn’t really level out until 2012. But, since then, there has been a steady increase in the number of new independent bookstores opening, proving that it is a viable business model. The real indicator is that Barnes and Noble has been struggling. It used to be the big box stores were our main competitor before Amazon became the boogeyman. The independent stores won that battle to the point where Barnes and Noble hired the guy who turned around BigBox books in England. The way he did it there, and is now attempting to replicate his strategy at Barnes and Noble, is by giving power back to the actual managers of each store á la indie bookstore model, rather than corporate dictating what you buy and where you display. It’s all about reinvesting in the local community.

I wonder if they’ll succeed. Barnes and Noble feels cold and big to me.  

It may not be able to fully replicate us. Also, customer service is what sets us apart and was the bedrock of our turnaround. Indie bookstores are staffed by people who know books and are trained booksellers. That’s what we have that the big ones don’t.

Aside from buying books, how do we support our local bookstores?

Attend events. Join book clubs that are sponsored by the stores. We don’t have one but others do. Mostly, it’s by financially supporting us.

And don’t go anywhere near Amazon!

That’s also mixed. It’s similar to what we said about e-books earlier. This was the message at the Seattle conference: get used to Amazon. Your best customers are buying from Amazon. It’s very difficult to resist that whim in the evening, when you go over to your computer and hit the button. It’s amazingly convenient. There are also a large number of people who do it for the lower cost and do not bother with us.

Bookshop.org can scratch that itch.

It’s good that you know about it. That’s a measure of its success.

Is it helpful?

The guy behind Bookshop, the one responsible for the whole enterprise, gave a presentation at the conference. He said that COVID really increased the success of Bookshop. It was the right time to start it. He was trying to give booksellers a platform that would not necessarily be able to compete with Amazon, but would at least allow us to stay in the game. He was successful, and part of it was the timing, with COVID triggering community support. Bookshop has grown five times since then. It is spreading and incredibly generous. We aren’t very active with it. But we get two checks from them each year with no effort on our part. They pool money and then divide it among the participating stores. And the customer can get the book by mail while still supporting independent bookstores in general. If you want to support a specific store, you can do so by choosing one when you first log on to the Bookshop website.

Do you have a favorite section in the store?

I’m a non-fiction guy. I love history, especially local history.

If you had infinite space, what would add?

I would have more sidelines. (Laughs.) There was a flattening out of sales in the 1900s and the downturn in 2008. Both times, the ABA highly recommended that we make up the difference by increasing the number of sidelines and not rely only on books. The founder of Broadside, Bruce, was a book guy. He had literally one spinner rack of cards from one guy in Maine. That was it. I’m naturally inclined toward liking the old-fashioned kind of stuffed place where you walk through and see something different at every turn. The store reflects my cluttered mind, I guess. (Laughs.)

It feels like a small library to me, and the sidelines are just part of the decor.

I keep stuffing things in here, much to the chagrin of my colleagues. They’re always rolling their eyes. We do have a filter, and we try to keep it to things related to words. We try not to have anything way out there. We still want to have some sense of dignity and integrity as a bookstore. (Laughs.)

Broadside Bookshop

Address:

247 Main St.,

Northampton, MA

Phone: (413) 586-4235

Website: http://www.broadsidebooks.com

Thérèse Soukar Chehade, author of Loom, has spent the last two decades teaching English Language Learners at a public school in Amherst, MA. She lives in Granby, MA, where the autumn foliage still fills her heart with gladness. Her upcoming novel, We Walked On, will be published by Regal House in the fall of 2024.

BookBound: Children’s Book World

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by Ona Gritz

In 1989, Hannah Schwartz, a former buyer for the children’s department of The Book House of Suburban Square in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, decided to open a shop that specialized in books for children. Children’s Book World quickly became a vibrant hub and crucial community resource for the children, families, teachers, readers, and writers in the Philadelphia suburb of Haverford and surrounding areas. Thirty-three years later, it still fills that role. And at eighty-five, Hannah, together with her daughter Heather Hebert, is still at the helm.

Recently, on the mild last day of January, I visited Children’s Book World with its inviting displays and shelves of bright spines, the striking mural by Renee Daily above the door, featuring a fox and a bear, each engrossed in a picture book. I’d just missed Hannah who does much of her work— special orders and backlists—from home these days. But I got to spend the better part of an hour talking to Heather who was twenty-one and just out of college when Children’s Book World first opened. She helped out in the store at first, but, inspired by her mother and her own love of art, soon opened a craft shop where, as it happens, the renowned children’s author Paula Danziger came to learn scrapbooking with the thought that she might use the skill to illustrate her next book.

Heather ran her craft shop for a decade, but after she had her first child, she came back to Children’s Book World as manager. Her first baby is now twenty, and many of the customers who were little children when Heather first returned to the store now come in with their own kids.

“They thank me for not changing the place,” she told me, laughing.

Even customers who haven’t gone on to have children often visit as adults. A few have even written their college applications on Children’s Book World. It’s the place where they not only discovered books and became readers, but had some of their most memorable experiences.

Kids in wizard costumes making friends by playing cards and reading together as they waited in line to meet J.K. Rowling. Or chatting about which graphic novel in the Smile series they’d decided to ask Raina Telgemeier to sign. Kids who got to draw pigeons with Mo Willems or dress up for the Fancy Nancy parties the store held.

Recently, the owner of Snapology showed children how to make Lego mosaics of their favorite characters. Books flew off the shelves as everyone looked for what they wanted to create.

Children’s Book World is also where some of the local schools hold their book fairs. There’s so much joyful noise in the shop on those afternoons, Heather told me, you can’t even hear the phone ring.

Something the staff noticed was that many students found the book fairs overwhelming. With so many choices, they didn’t know where to put their attention. So the Children’s Book World staff began visiting the schools to give booktalks on their favorite ten books for each grade. This, of course, requires a good deal of reading and preparation, which, Heather says, is the best kind of homework you could have.

“We feel very fortunate that we get to do this, what we love to do. That the community is so supportive, that the schools and the educators we work with are so caring about what they put in kids’ hands, and that they trust us to help them with that.”

Children’s Book World has also fostered several literary successes. Isaac Blum, who came to the store from the time he was six years old, just won the William C. Morris Award for his debut young adult novel, The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen, which was also longlisted for The National Book Award.

Katherine Locke, who, as a shy teenager, used to attend all the young adult book signings, is now a successful author of books for all ages. And Rachel Hartman, author of the New York Times bestselling Seraphina Series, worked at the store for years.

“We saw her wanting to do this, and knew how talented she was. So when other people realized it, it was fantastic.”

Heather and the Children’s Book World team show this kind of love to all their local authors and illustrators. And in Heather’s words, “We have gobs of them.”

Every year, on the first Friday in November, Children’s Book World hosts an author/illustrator evening. When Hannah started this tradition, about three years after the store opened, there were ten in attendance. Last November, there were over eighty.

“Writing is a solitary job, so it’s nice to get out there and see everybody and see what they’re doing. They get to have their night to just to buzz around about the business, but then we also bring the public in to get books. The new crop of young authors and illustrators are nurtured by the ones who’ve been doing this for a while. Just to watch those interactions and conversations is nice.”

“Can I come?” I couldn’t help but blurt, an hour in this infectious place bringing out the child in me.

“Absolutely. You’ll be on our list. We put all our local authors and illustrators on our list.”

Heather smiled at me. Actually, she’d been smiling the whole time we spoke. It’s no wonder. What her mother built, and she has gone on to sustain and grow, is rare and beautiful, joyous and necessary. Haverford Pennsylvania, thanks to these remarkable women, is home to the luckiest community of children, parents, teachers, librarians, writers, illustrators, and readers you could meet.

Ona Gritz’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Utne Reader, Ploughshares, Brevity, and River Teeth, and has been widely anthologized. Her recent honors include two Notable mentions in Best American Essays, a Best Life Story in Salon, and a winning entry in The Poetry Archive Now: Wordview 2020 project. She is the author of the recently released middle grade title, August or Forever.