bookstores

Working in a public library has, by and large, broken me of the habit of just meandering through the stacks, open to whatever strikes my fancy. This is unfortunate. Fortunately, though, working in a library also frequently involves my being in those stacks, whether it's making a beeline for a book a patron wants, pulling a book to fulfill a hold, or seeking out books to fill a gap in a display. So I still get those moments of serendipity, even if I'm not roaming the stacks looking for my own next read.



It was one such occasion that led me to the serendipitous find of Notes from a Public

Bruce Cable is living the life he always wanted and has worked hard to attain. He lives on Camino Island and owns an independent bookstore that over the years has become the hub of culture and literature on the island. Bruce is a collector of many things: first editions, rare books, and works by young women. His bookstore hosts several book signings a month and he is a regular on most author's book tours.  

When the original F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts go missing from the Firestone Library at Princeton University the world of literature is in an uproar. The FBI and Princeton's insurance

Just out of college, Clay Jannon becomes a Web designer for a small business, then quickly loses his job to the sands of economic collapse. Unemployed and without much experience, he accepts a job as the night clerk for a bookstore—an unusual one with stacks upon stacks of books and late night visitors exchanging one hefty tomb for another. Clay’s task as explained by the bookstore’s peculiar owner is to chronicle every aspect of a visitor’s appearance, mood and conversation. And Clay is never, ever supposed to look inside one of these books but, alas, he does . . . Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour

The setting is Stoneham, N. H., where bookstores line the street. This cozy mystery is about Tricia, who owns a bookstore called Haven’t Got a Clue, and she stumbles upon a body when staying a free night at the new Sheer Comfort Inn owned by Pippa and Jon.  The list of murder suspects contains locals and a few new residents, but they all have a motive for murder.  Can Tricia clear her name from the list of suspects before another person is murdered?

(Murder on the Half Shelf is the sixth title in Lorna Barrett’s Booktown Mysteries series which begins with Murder Is Binding.)

A NOVEL BOOKSTORE  is about a novel bookstore.   The Novel Bookstore is a unique Parisian bookstore which sells only  novels chosen by a select committee of authors who agree to remain anonymous--this alone would be unique!   This bookstore is the brain child and dream of the two main characters Van and Francesca.  They share a passion for what they define as the well written word.  Van possesses  the experience and knowledge needed  to manage a bookstore of this  caliber. The haunting, elegant  Francesca is like a small business fairy godmother.  She seems to have unlimited resources and