AMAZON BOOKSTORE COOPERATIVE - http://www.amazonfembks.com/
No, it's not *that* Amazon, thank heaven - it's the *better* and *truer*
Amazon, the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America,
founded in 1970 when Jeff Bezos was but a wee boy in his sandbox
preparing plans to rule the beach. AmazonFemBks.com is also the only
independent to have stood up to Amazon (the Seattle company)in a
trademark infringement lawsuit that was settled so favorably for Amazon
(the Minneapolis collective) that the store was able to expand to a new
building. There the glorious sections that are hard to find in general
stores - Feminist Theory, Violence Against Women, Women of Color,
Lesbian Fiction & Culture - are reproduced beautifully on a site that
specializes in "non-racist, non-sexist and multi-cultural books for
children and young adults." Searchable.
ANDREA'S BOOKSTORE - http://www.andreasbookstore.com
Now in its 11th year, this Palatka, Florida, bookstore has some great
tips for fans of Florida. Take the local bestseller, "Deep Water" by
S.V. Date from Putnam, a satire about planned communities as only folks
in Florida know them, in which the planned development of Serenity,
Fla., turns out to be not so serene after all. The site also provides
descriptions of each year' Sunshine State Readers, a motivational
reading program co-sponsored by the School Library Media Services of
Florida's Department of Education. Students in grades 3 through 8 read
and review the books, take tests about them and vote for their favorites
in the spring. But hey, this is the Internet - readers who don't live in
Florida can take advantage of these librarians' great selections from
current trade publishers' lists. Searchable.
BLUE STOCKINGS - http://www.bluestockings.com/
With a lovely watercolor painting of its storefront on the home page,
Bluestocking's bookstore, cafe and art galley in New York City's lower
east side welcomes us to walk in the door and consider staff picks that
will be unfamiliar to some and a delightful find to many. The store's
collective strives "to be multi-lingual, open to all sexualities and
spiritualities." Here is an "intergenerational" emphasis on books that's
out to "challenge racism, classism, ablism, sexism, ageism and sizism."
Being against all the "isms" ain't easy in this prejudiced world, but in
this store it means you can trust the staff's politics and its
dedication to find the books its cybercustomers want.
BOOK ENDS: WINCHESTER'S CORNER BOOKSTORE -
http://www.bookendswinchester.com/
It's fun to visit the historic corner in scenic Winchester, Mass., where
Book Ends has been "an independent, community-minded bookstore since
1982." This is the cozy kind of store that hosts such
customers-of-all-ages events as an Arts & Crafts Family Afternoon, and
it keeps an eye on local authors such as Maria Testa of Portland, Maine,
who came out of Yale Law School with her heart on fire to write books
for middle-grade readers (yay, Yale!). Her first novel, "Some Kind of
Pride," features an 11-year-old girl named Ruth who plays baseball in
the style of her mentor and namesake, Babe (Babe RUTH, you see) (attempt
at humor mine, not the store's). If you live far away and are looking
for that perfect gift for a New Englandophile, one gets the feeling you
could call or email this store and find some terrific suggestions.
Searchable.
BOOKS & BOOKS - http://www.booksandbooks.com
Thanks to a full-color photo of a pink cadillac pictured in front of the
store, few readers will miss the fact that Books & Books is located in
Miami Beach (and Coral Gables), Florida, and, as of yesterday, was
inviting customers to celebrate Miami's heritage at a store event in
which author Becky Roper Matkov will discuss "Miami's Historic
Neighborhoods." More photos of the stores walk us into a
chockful-of-books environment where we find enthusiastic staff picks
next to Book Sense 76 titles and all the specific store info (book
clubs, local writers, store history, children's specials, "New &
Notable"). I love it that the staff of Books & Books put 1960s activist
Bill Ayers' "Fugitive Days" on the home page despite the scorn it's
received since 9/11 as "unpatriotic." Then when you click to the
official store recommendation page, get ready for picks from no less
than 28 staff members.
BOULDER BOOKSTORE - http://www.boulderbookstore.com
With its rustic Rocky Mountain feel and its invaluable subsites
(YogaSight.com and BuddhaSight.com, which feature databases,
conferences, seminars and such items as Yoga mats and cushions), this
blue-as-the-sky website offers wide-ranging staff recommendations and
lists of prize winners (though I wish these were updated more
frequently) and still runs, for those who missed it, Modern Library's
list of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century and the Radcliffe
Publishing Program's not-so-snooty own list in response. Its politics as
a community activist bookstore are evident in the story behind the
Boulder Independent Business Alliance - a model for many retail
coalitions. The Boulder Bookstore Shares Program (giving back to the
community) are as inspiring as the site's intriguing links (Reclaim
Democracy; Academy of American Poets, Library of Congress, etc.).
Searchable; emailable; sign up for monthly listing of author events.
BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH - http://www.brooklinebooksmith.com/
"You gotta love a bookstore where dogs are welcome," as the Boston
Phoenix wrote when its readers named the Booksmith "Best Store for New
Books," and somehow this website recreates the store's atmosphere of
"creaky floors, wooden shelves, reading chairs and the smell of printed
paper." It's a very heady, literary, joyously eccentric and opinionated
place where you can save money because you're on the Internet with the
Online Bargain Title of the week and fall in love with the articulate
and enthusiastic mini-reviews. When I read the Staff Picks page at the
Booksmith, I want to buy ALL the titles. Don't miss pages with great
ideas for gifts and for kids. Searchable; emailable; sign up for online
newsletter.
CANTERBURY BOOKSTORE - http://www.madisoncanterbury.com
"Welcome to Canterbury," the home page greets us, "conveniently located
far from reality." This cozy Madison, Wisconsin, bookstore does come to
us as if in a dream - you can almost walk into the photos of the store's
interiors - and it even offers a way to visit dreamland through its
unique Frequent Buyer Program: Since Canterbury is both a
bed-and-breakfast and a bookstore, your online book sales could earn you
a free night for two in one of the six guest rooms (including The Wife
of Bath!) upstairs - the equivalent of a 20-30% discount. Of course you
have to have plans to visit Madison, but if you don't, here's another
great independent that tries its darndest to send you autographed copies
to online customers who email their requests before the author event.
Since Canterbury's reading series has featured such writers as Kazuo
Ishiguro, E. Annie Proulx, Tim O'Brien, Chinua Achebe, Gita Mehta, Ivan
Doig and Sherman Alexie, for collectors this could be a site to watch.
Searchable.
CODY'S BOOKS - http://www.codysbooks.com
Here is one of the best collections on the Internet of literary
information from varied sources: A lengthy and diverse list of
succinctly described Staff Picks; holiday gift ideas; cookbooks;
children's books and archived backlist are just the beginning. Juicy
interviews follow with authors ranging from Simon Winchester ("The
Professor and the Madman") to children's writer Jack Prelutsky, plus
first-person essays by diverse authors (mystery writer Dana Stabenow,
poet Albert Goldbarth). A feature worth checking frequently is "Read
Up!" - essays and annotated lists of books related to the news (the
Gore/Bush election, events of 9/11 and aftermath); books that inspired
movies (and whether the film adaptation changed the ending!); books
after The Pill; and the BookSense 76. Store bestsellers, book awards
(national and regional, with links) and essays on the book industry make
this one helluva stop for booklovers. Searchable, emailable.
DUTTON'S BRENTWOOD BOOKSTORE - http://www.duttonsbrentwood.com/
This politically tough-minded Los Angeles bookstore makes no bones about
its dissatisfaction with the settlement of the American Booksellers
Association's lawsuit against chain bookstores last spring. Dutton's was
one of the plaintiffs in the case and after three years of providing
legal documents and depositions, wanted to go "down fighting ... to the
bitter end" rather than "abandon the fight for principle" because of
money. Few other independents have posted such a message, and when you
come upon it in cyberspace, it gives this bookseller's site the kind of
integrity that makes its many resources - links to the nearby Huntington
Library, the wonderfully liberal Boston Review, the fabulous Arts &
Letters Daily ( http://www.aldaily.com/ ) - hefty and adventurous. These
first pages seem to have come from an older site and segue into the
BookSense.com template, which would seem to show that Dutton's forgave
the ABA while still being mad. All the details about store functions and
staff picks are here, but again I wish the book recommendations were
more current.
ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY - http://www.elliottbaybook.com
That great Northwest woodsy interior of this exposed brick-and-cedar
Pioneer Square (Seattle) bookstore brings hearty inspiration to a
website loaded with diverse and often surprising book suggestions. This
is a bookstore that's papered its bookshelves with handwritten staff
suggestions, so it's no surprise the website should offer photos of
smiling and scowling staff members who recommend titles ranging from
books you've always wanted to read but have forgotten to books you've
never heard of and will thank your lucky stars when you finally read
them. A click on the children's book page with its winged alligator and
inviting castle makes you want to cross that moat into the Children's
Room forever. Don't miss the Booknotes section - wonderfully chewy
essays about politics, poetry, feminism, short stories, science fiction
and the best resource for books of all time - those engaged and
articulate customers who walk in the door. Searchable.
HARRY W. SCHWARTZ BOOKSHOPS - http://www.schwartzbooks.com/
Milwaukee's oldest and largest independent bookstore (founded in 1927)
is so much fun to visit online (see its "Short Irreverent History"
complete with a wine-stained napkin note to William Faulkner and the
original Harry's "slashing attack" on book collecting) that you may
forget to peruse its "Features page" with great picks and unexpected
discounts. But don't miss the "Schwartz 100" books of special merit
(which unfortunately ends at #8, so you have to email a request for the
full catalog). Schwartz's five stores are loaded with "serious readers"
on the staff who are "passionate about our favorite authors and
subjects. Some of us are writers and many of us have spent our adult
lives in bookselling. Living as we do in a time when alienation from
one's job, we are
privileged to spend our days in an occupation we love." And it's a
privilege for travelers in cyberspace to see the commitment of the store
(see "Schwartz Gives Back") and to understand why they say "providing
readers with the books they seek is a commitment we do not make
lightly." This is a searchable website, and you can send queries by
email.
HARVARD BOOKSTORE - http://www.harvard.com/
This privately owned independent bookstore - not connected to Harvard
University and not in any way operated, god knows, by Barnes & Noble
(B&N runs the Harvard Coop) - offers wonderfully inventive book
suggestions linked to politics, the news and the world of academe. Each
week, for example, the site reprints an eye-opening article from the
Chronicle of Higher Education that's bracketed by o a list of books that
are thrillingly relevant to the subject. Titles from the store's
spirited Friday Forum discussions with authors of scholarly books
constitute an invaluable resource, as do business books from the store's
Competitive Advantage Breakfast series. The idea that a website can
scoop up the books most featured and talked about at the bookstore and
offer them with as much enthusiasm to Internet readers as
person-to-person talks between staff and customers would have seemed
unreachable only a year or so ago. But it's just one of the many
opportunities available to cyberbrowsers who won't want to miss the new
"Remainders Sneak Peek," either. Searchable.
JOSEPH BETH - http://www.josephbeth.com
It's fun to put a face to the recommendation when this site's "Master
Booksellers" - veterans, "legends," experts, all - offer their own
smiling mugs to introduce an eclectic array of books, neatly and
succinctly reviewed. Since these Master Booksellers come from the Joseph
Beth stores (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Lexington) and their sister
bookstores Davis Kidd (Nashville, Jackson, Memphis), over time, you can
find the bookseller whose tastes are closest to yours and not only
follow his or her recommendations but also send email questions about
titles that will fit your interests even more snugly. An addictive
service called "Bringing Readers and Local Authors Together" entices
online readers to view photos of author events and read about local
authors and books with universal appeal at every location. And don't
miss "JB Author Interviews," a lively and growing archive. Searchable;
sign up for email list of author events.
KEPLER'S BOOKS & MAGAZINES - http://www.keplers.com/
"What sets Keplerís apart is its history, function and attitude," we
learn in the About Kepler's page. The description accurately
characterizes the store as "a literary living room" where readers from
all walks of life - including those who attend and teach at nearby
Stanford University - gather to "relax, meet friends and share ideas."
The best part is "attitude": Kepler's still retains the tough-minded
independent stance of founder Roy Kepler, a conscientious objector
during World War II who stocked so many kinds of books that store
windows were often shattered by pipe bombs and antiwar celebrities like
Joan Baez were as much celebrated as protested. Today, through the lens
of Roy's book-loving and far-seeing son, Clark, the store continues to
take stands (it was one of the major plaintiffs in the ABA lawsuit that
resulted in Penguin's settlement of $25 million). But best of all for
the Internet reader, its "Staff Recommends" page offers some of the most
insightful and articulate store reviews I've seen in bookseller
websites. About "Golden Gate" by Richard Misrach (Arena), who took 85
photographs of the San Francisco Bay from his Berkeley Hills porch "at
different times, weather and conditions," Kepler's staff member Nancy
Wirth writes, "Viewing the photos, itís easy to fantasize the bridge as
a sea serpent with two vertical scaly fins that mystically unites the
aspects of land, sea and sky, while tiny car-pests run along its back."
This kind of originality abounds at Kepler's, a store to bookmark for
its voluminous "Kepler's Kids" page and its uplifting (with post 9/11
thoughts) Holiday Showcase. Searchable
LEFT BANK BOOKS - http://www.left-bank.com
With its palm-fronded entrance and photo of its famous bookstore cat,
this 32-year-old St. Louis bookstore provides a "cultural and
progressive political focus" that generates fund-raisers for literacy,
pro-choice, reproductive health and environmental groups. "Our latest
project is 'Pass the Book,' wherein our customers sponsor 35 students at
Clark Elementary School who will receive a book a month until the end of
the year." Customers love Left Bank so much that they convinced the
store to create a Friends of Left Bank Books Literary Society as a way
to raise money and offer member invitations to private receptions with
authors and other perks. Staff picks are personal, often eccentric and
hugely entertaining, such as Phil's recommendation of "The Gallery of
Regrettable Food." Taken from such 1940s-60s canons as "Cooking with
7UP," Phil writes, "these ancient texts, comprised of unfortunate food
combinations photographed in unflattering fashion, have something to say
about our culture. Something terrible." Among the Phil's favorites are
"disturbing images of Ketchup-Pistachio Cake and Veal Ring Salad." You
have to special-order this one, but typically, the write-up is worth the
price of the book AND the wait.
MYSTERY LOVERS BOOKSHOP - http://www.mysterylovers.com
"Nothing says happy holiday to me more than curling up in a comfy chair
with a special hot chocolate (from the Mystery Lovers pantry, of course)
and a good mystery," writes the host of the cheerfully murderous page
called "Holiday Homicides" at this enthusiastic Oakmont, Pennsylvania
bookstore. And what a great idea this is: "A special gift basket of
mysteries and goodies can extend the merriment to friends and family."
Put in a couple of holiday murder novels such as "Rest You Merry," "Mad
as the Dickens" and "Corpus Christmas," add some
books-adapted-to-famous-movies such as "Laura," "Strangers on the Train"
and Cornell Woolrich short stories including "Rear Window" and you've
got a true "basket of goodies" even if the person on your list is not a
mystery lover. For those who are, though, the MLB staff has the goods on
all those character series that dominate the mystery scene and has
brought that expertise into a search program that leads even veteran
mystery lovers to books they didn't know existed. Searchable.
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL - http://www.msbooks.com/
Any bookstore site that lists "Public/Sex" as a Featured Section surely
calls to the adventurous cyberreader for a further look-see, and sure
enough, not only does this savvy Santa Monica store boldly list books
few booksellers have featured up front elsewhere, it also leads us to
the excellent guerilla artist adopted by the store, Robbie Conal (sample
posters shown for sale here), as well as essays demanding the most
opinionated of customer response, and details about the latest invasion
in the area of chain superstores, which, "no matter how honorable their
intentions, may well kill us." With each section of the store converted
into a web page, and a variety of resources popping out all over the
place from "resident experts, e-mail discussions, book reviews and
recommendations," this "social and cultural bookstore" certainly does
offer, as it claims, "books & ideas to change the world." Searchable.
POLITICS AND PROSE - http://www.politics-prose.com/
Talk about widely read - the wise and articulate owners of this
legendary Washington D.C. bookstore seem to march forward with all their
staff members alongside to help you find exactly what you're looking for
even if you don't know what that is. See, for example, the stunning,
exhaustive and magnificent treasure trove of book suggestions in their
Holiday Book Catalogue (including a section for stocking-stuffing mamas
called The Perfect Little Book). A thoughtful essay appears every month
to chat about the news and good books to go with it, and what a great
holiday gift idea is the Monthly Book Club, for which you send P&P the
name and interests of a book-reading friend (or your own book-loving
self), and the staff will handpick and ship a new title to that person
every month (billing you, of course). Great links here to reading group
guides and local favorites like the Congressional News Service. Fully
searchable; subscribe to email newsletter.
POWELL'S CITY OF BOOKS - http://www.Powells.com/
The grandaddy of online independents still has that youthful exuberance,
hilarious cynicism, kick-up-your-literary heels and wiseacre
adventurism that makes this Portland, Oregon-based site as enjoyable as
it is informative. Miss good reviews at home? Subscribe for free to
Powell's Review-a-Day emails (culled from various sources) or better
yet, watch for continued musings called "Bibliolatry: Opinions from a
VERY Independent Bookseller" named Carlisle whose wide-ranging essays
are erudite, cranky, humorous and downright convincing. Like the big
barn-within-a-barn-within-a-barn atmosphere of the store itself.
Powells.com is loaded with sections to browse, annotated lists, "Other
Voices" (great links), author interviews, "Host Bookshelves" (from
Atlantic Monthly, BlueEar.com, Mother Jones, etc.), award winners,
collectibles, "Great Deals," staff picks and "HOT TITLES" (as quirky and
reliable as the word of mouth they're based on). Don't miss readers'
picks called "The Daily Dose," which includes cash prizes for
Internetlopers. Of course this site is fully searchable, and be sure to
subscribe to Powell's email news, one of the newsiest, most erudite and
hilarious newsletters on the web.
THE REGULATOR BOOKSHOP - http://www.regbook.com
Here's an example of a smart way to channel information through a
bookstore website to local customers: Instead of spending hours
answering questions on the phone, state carefully in writing what
happens when a best-selling author comes to the store. In the case of
The Regulator of Durham, North Carolina, great pains have been taken to
explain Diana Gabaldon's coming appearance in such detail that customers
who want to buy the book and get a ticket at the same time can do so
online, while customers who want only the ticket can buy it for $5 in
the store and return it later for credit, and customers wanting to know
whether seats are reserved learn that seating is by ticket number and
... well, fans pore over this stuff, and who can blame them? I live some
3,000 miles away, but this write-up makes the Gabaldon event so exciting
I want to go. Staff recommendations are superb at The Regulator, thanks
to the personal enthusiasm and irreverence of store workers like Tom
Campbell, who says the novel "Crooked River Burning" will be "the sure
winner of the award for The Great Cleveland Novel - which I thought was
a contradiction in terms." Tee hee, everybody but Cleveland residents
will chuckle through these picks.
SAM WELLER'S BOOKS - http://www.samwellers.com/
First, take a moment to read this magnificent bookstore's turbulent
history, which begins with migrating German grandparents who in 1925
opened a bookshop specializing in Mormon books and whose son, Sam, while
resisting his father's insistence he take over the store, grew up with a
"zealous commitment to finding books" of all kinds, "even a few
contraband Henry Miller titles." Sam Weller, still in his mid-20s, saved
the store from severe debt after World War II and again pulled it from
disaster after a crippling 1972 fire, from which he carried out armloads
of inventory until forcibly restrained by fire fighters. Rats, I'm using
up all the space for store history, but the wonderful part is that Tony
Weller, though he too resisted his father Sam's wish that he take over,
has clearly kept the store healthy through a number of drastic changes
in downtown Salt Lake City until the place is by now bursting with
titles, new and rare, reflecting Tony's proud and curmudgeonly watchcry,
"We have more books than sense." You can feel that energy and the
crammed-with-books atmosphere all over the website. When Tony
discovered that "Thunder Cave," a Depression-era children's classic, was
out of print, Weller's published the book under its own imprint, Western
Epics, and received blistering protests because some of the book's
references, acceptable for the time, are considered racist today. Tony
Weller's defense of the decision to publish the book without sanitizing
it is a ringing endorsement of free speech that is heartening. The site
is, of course, a great place for regional titles and its Author
Spotlights (Tony Hillerman, Terry Tempest Williams), offering staff
reviews and chunky excerpts, are a delight. Searchable.
SHAMAN DRUM BOOKSHOP - http://www.shamandrum.com/
Any website that pictures a bald-headed boy with a big lizard on his
head surely has an original appeal, and this Ann Arbor store -
specializing in scholarly books in the humanities and literature -
doesn't disappoint. The photo inside draws us into a sophisticated and
warm atmosphere with soft lights and wooden shelves, and the website is
just as alluring. On one page, three people review the new novel by
"Fight Club" author Chuck Palahniuk - two are staff members who love it
and one is the author, who hates it ("What you're getting here is a
stupid story about a stupid little boy...").
SKYLIGHT BOOKS - http://www.skylightbooks.com
This Los Angeles bookstore proves its claim of being "fiercely
independent" with offbeat recommendations and photos of staff members
who are aren't exactly as "photo-shy" as the site promises. Take
Garrett, pictured in what appears to be a store mosh pit of ecstasy
(other revelers' eyes are covered by a little black rectangular box) and
whose favored themes range from transmutations of horror, abductions and
murder to "Postmodern Fiction Supercool," teenage girl angst and
Post-Punk fairy tales. For his turn, Charles demonstrates that "since
he gave up booze about 8 years ago, he is not anywhere near as obnoxious
as he used to be." My favorite is the store cat, Lucy, who recommends
among other titles, "Vacationing with Your Pet." This is a fun site to
watch for underground film titles (the store collaborates with the
Sliver Lake Film Festival), and my only wish is that the staff recommend
newer titles.
SQUARE BOOKS - http://www.squarebooks.com
You'll feel almost set down in the hot and leafy Courthouse Square of
Oxford, Mississippi, as you meander toward the cool interiors of the
two-story Square Books that's pictured on the home page. The store's
entire catalog is featured in full color on the site each season and a
joy to see and peruse. Square Books offers an astounding range of books
about the South - "Mississippi Lit" in particular - as well as a full
inventory of new books for the general reader. Don't miss "Dear Reader,"
the newsletter that updates us about up-and-coming Southern authors,
University of Mississippi writers' conferences and visiting (or
returning) favorite authors. Signed collectibles a big plus here.
Searchable, emailable; subscribe to online newsletter, the Speed Reader.
TATTERED COVER - http://www.tatteredcover.com
You wouldn't think a website could duplicate the feeling of
mountain-cabin sanctity that permeates this magnificent three-story
Denver bookstore - and you'd be right. But the next best thing is the
series of photos that alternately click on and off on the home page,
showing interiors and street shots of both the main store and downtown
branch, where "antique overstuffed chairs and couches offer snug places
to nestle, reading lamps provide warm lighting, and a homey, relaxed
atmosphere encourage readers to linger for as long as they like." At the
Info Desk page, doors open before our eyes and welcome us to Tattered
Cover's 25-year-old history. A great idea is the Autographed Book Club,
where members who collect books "receive one signed first edition chosen
by our special events staff each month." These books are written by VERY
collectible authors, but you still get two refusals a year, and after
you've purchased 10 books, the next selection is free. Tatteredcover.com
is not a self-promoting site, so you have to find the web newsletter
("Tattered Times Online") and click on "TC in the News" to read the full
story of owner Joyce Meskis' heroic pro-customer and pro-Constitution
stand against privacy-invading police - and it's worth it when you find
it.
THAT BOOKSTORE IN BLYTHEVILLE - http://www.tbib.com
This 25-year-old Arkansas store has become "a unique Mid-America
landmark," thanks in large part to the great eye and bountiful energy of
its owner and founder, Mary Gay Shipley. It's one of the few stores
where John Grisham appears regularly (and where you can order the first
signed copies of his latest, "Skipping Christmas"). You can almost feel
the heat building up when Shipley gets behind an unknown writer - in
this case Ken Wells, author of "Junior's Leg," who speaks to a Kiwanis
Club luncheon in Blytheville tomorrow - because her enthusiasm
practically sparks off the screen. That Bookstore's newsletter for
December is now online, where "Upcoming Cool Happenings" in the store
and "What the TBIB community is reading" offer an intriguing mixture of
popular and up-and-coming authors.
WOMEN & CHILDREN FIRST - http://womenchildren.booksense.com
One of the largest feminist bookstores in the country, this Chicago
legend offers a human touch right off the bat by introducing a gifted
worker on the home page. Deirdra Bishop "creates our window displays,
selects the beautiful jewelry and cool magnets we carry, receives and
shelves books, helps customers . . . and fulfills all the online orders,
which are growing each month." That is great news. An upbeat idea at
this 22-year-old store's website is to offer "Holiday Shopping Parties"
for schools and organizations that want to "have a party, support your
favorite feminist bookstore and get your holiday shopping done all in
one fell swoop." Staff picks ranging from "the pride of the store" - a
gorgeous book called "Women Building Chicago: 1790-1990" - to "Even Dogs
Go Home to Die," a "sharp memoir by outsider artist Linda St. John," are
consistently well-written and absorbing, though like many customers, I
wish newer titles would be recommended.
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