• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Rachel Bukey

The official site of author Rachel Bukey

  • Coast to Coast Book Blog
    • About Coast to Coast
  • Books
    • Leap of Faith
    • Notes from Hell
    • Fatal Happiness
  • Diary
  • News and events
  • Privacy Statement

Bookstores

New Dominion Bookshop-Charlottesville, Virginia

April 3, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

I’m back on the road after a long hiatus here in the Pacific Northwest. And I’m excited that my literary travels are taking me to Virginia – the tenth state to enter the union. Specifically, I’m going to Charlottesville to visit the oldest bookstore in Virginia. The New Dominion Bookshop opened in 1924 and is now located in the historic downtown mall. The online photos intrigued me and, when I learned that the shop was hosting the twenty-fifth annual Festival of the Book on the very weekend I found them, I wished I could transport myself there and take part in what appears to be a bibliophile’s dream. Instead, I had to be content with leaving a voicemail and getting a call back from a bookseller, Sarah, the next day. They were very busy.

Had I been able to physically travel to Charlottesville, I would have attended the workshop that weekend on Southern Literary Fiction, which included two native Virginia authors: Talley English and Krysten Lewis. Instead, Sarah suggested I read Krysten Lewis’s latest novel, Half of What You Hear, set in the fictitious town of Greyhill, Virginia. I guess I’ll have to content myself with learning about contemporary life in small-town Virginia that way. Moving on to Virginia historical fiction, I could read William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner, but there’s some controversy around that book now and maybe Edward Jones’s, The Known World is a better pick. Also, Barbara Kingsolver has lived in Virginia for some time and her novel, Prodigal Summer might also be a good choice. And what about Annie Dillard’s, Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek, a kind of modern-day Walden experience? Looks like I have many good choices. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Back at the New Dominion Bookshop website, I learned that a long-time owner of the shop, Carol Troxell, loved gardening and planted a rose garden behind the bookstore. Apparently, the once unsightly alley has now become a favorite stop on historic Charlottesville tours. I can see from the photos that the roses are gorgeous – especially the climbers that grow over the arched French trellises connecting two old brick buildings. A profusion of red, pink and yellow roses cascade over the trellises and bloom every May. Their perfume must be heavenly.

I also like the way that New Dominion supports its literary community. Every Thursday night, students in the University of Virginia’s MFA program read from their work – one poet and one prose writer each time. On the last Friday of each month, other young writers and poets read from their work. The UVA Charlottesville Book Club also meets regularly at New Dominion. And the shop hosts a number of author readings, book-signings and launches each month. I’m especially intrigued by this service that New Dominion offers: Dedicated to creating a personalized experience for our customers in-store and out, we’ll collaborate on curating the perfect library completely tailored to you.

I also found this gem, written by a former bookstore employee who went on to have a career in publishing:

Our most famous customer was William Faulkner, who came to Charlottesville because his daughter Jill lived out in the county. He was the writer-in-residence at the University in 1957 and 1958. A conspicuous figure around town, he wore a deerstalker hat and a dashing caped tweed coat and always clutched a pipe. When Faulkner came into the New Dominion, he only spoke with C.C. (That’s the original owner, Christopher Columbus Wells.)

Mostly, what I like about this bookstore is how it feels in the pictures – warm and inviting and stacked floor to ceiling with books. Stay tuned for my reviews.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Bookstores, Coast to Coast, Uncategorized Tagged With: best independent bookstores, Charlottesville, New Dominion Bookshop

New Hampshire Here I Come!

February 24, 2015 by admin 2 Comments

PlumTreeI started my research for the next bookstore in the usual way – Googled “Best Independent bookstores in New Hampshire.” First in line was a Yankee Magazine review which I’d seen during another such search. Sadly though, the only New Hampshire bookstore listed there had a note beside it ‘’Closed,” which reminded me that I sure hope all the bookstores I’ve contacted during my literary road trip are still open when I’m finished. It is taking a while.

So, I moved on to the New England Independent Booksellers Association’s website where I found a long list of bookshops under the sidebar: Find Local Stores. Charmed by the names of the towns in New Hampshire (so far from Seattle) that I spent some time imagining what these places might be like: Center Harbor, Concord, Durham, Exeter, Keene, Laconia, Meredith, Milford, Nashua, New London, North Conway Village, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Warner and Wolfeboro. Then I looked through the names of the bookshops: Bayswater Book Co., Toadstool Bookshop, Innisfree Bookshop, Sheafe Street Books. I felt particularly drawn to RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth. So I went there.

Tim Gaudreau, Photographer
Tim Gaudreau, Photographer

RiverRun’s website is simple but attractive: photos scrolliing past across the top banner. First, two author photos: one author looking intense and the other looking playful while sipping an espresso. Then up pops a graphic for a book imprint Piscataqua Press – We publish books! My eye travels down the page and lands on this: Welcome to RiverRun Bookstore, Home of the Brave. We’d really love to see you in person but if you can’t make it to Portsmouth we hope you will take advantage of our home here on the web to buy books, read our recommendations, and leave us a note. This welcome makes me smile and I know I don’t really have to check out any of those other New Hampshire bookstores on the list.  I have found the right place.

I spend some time watching as photos of authors and their books scroll through, along with appearance dates. Clicking on the “Events” button leads me to a new page where I discover that RiverRun hosts over one hundred author events each year! Hooray! Now I’m wishing for a trip to Portsmouth. The next event I see features an author and her dog Finnegan. Now I really want to read these children’s books: The Adventures of Finnegan Begin and Finnegan for Mayor! The dog is adorable. I love dogs. Now I like this bookstore even more. But I continue moving around the website just to see what else they offer.

The “About Us” page tells me that they are “living the dream!” That is, they’re doing what so many of us wish we could do: run a bookstore! Over twelve years ago the owners took the plunge and opened RiverRun. All it took, they say, was “guts and faith in the community.” Lovely. I make the call.

Inside RiverRunI explain my project to Judy who answers the phone and is immediately enthusiastic about helping me. She asks for my phone number so she can do a little research, talk to some of the other booksellers and get back to me. I always like this response. Judy is taking my request seriously. When she calls me back later in the day, she suggests four different authors, two I’ve heard of: John Irving (of course!) and Grace Metalious, whose name doesn’t ring a bell until Judy invokes the name of her racy blockbuster novel, Peyton Place, and I can’t help but snicker. The other authors are: Ernest Hebert, Rebecca Rule and Jessie Crockett. Never heard of any of them and that’s excellent. I love discovering new authors. Judy then suggests I take some time and research the authors she’s mentioned and get back to her when I decide which books to order. This is a great idea and after some time spent scrolling around the internet, I go for Ernest Hebert and, of course, Peyton Place! I’m too young to remember when this novel first came out, but I do remember that there was a television series in the sixties which the moms in my neighborhood talked about in hushed tones, so that I knew it must be something forbidden, even dirty! Of course, I confess, this intrigued me enough at the time that I looked up the book at my neighborhood library and flipped through the pages hoping to find the good parts. Maybe it’s about time I read the whole thing. After all, Wikipedia tells me that the novel sold over 60,000 copies on the day it was released and is really meant to be a composite of all small towns where ugliness rears its head, and where the people try to hide all the skeletons in their closets. It’s based on and was written in several small towns in New Hampshire.

patch.com
patch.com

Judy tells me to expect a delay in getting the books because, what with the latest snowstorm in the Northeast, mail is neither coming in nor going out of Portsmouth that day. I mention that I’m calling from Seattle and tell Judy that it’s a gorgeous sunny day here with an expected high near sixty and that I’m looking out my window at my neighbor’s plum tree in full bloom. Judy is happy for me, but says that looking out the window at RiverRun, all she sees is white.

Filed Under: Bookstores Tagged With: Ernest Hebert, Jessie Crockett, New Hampshire, Peyton Place, Portsmouth, RiverRun Bookstore

Fiction Addiction in South Carolina

December 29, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

FictionAdditionI’m delighted to take my literary road trip back down south right now — smack dab in the middle of the darkest, coldest and wettest season in the Pacific Northwest. I could use a sun break. I’ll admit that it didn’t take too much online research to find the South Carolina bookstore that sounds just right to me. With a name like Fiction Addiction, how could I miss? I’ll admit to suffering from that same problem myself and having no need for rehab. While I occasionally pick up a nonfiction title, fiction is definitely my addiction. This bookstore seems a natural match.

I read on their website that the owner of Fiction Addiction is from South Carolina originally and that she spent five years in New York working as an editor at St. Martin’s Press — excellent credentials! Also, I’m drawn to the events and other bookish offerings I find listed. First, I notice the “For Local Authors” link: If you are a local author with a publishing contract with a New York publisher, we would love to get an advance reading copy of your forthcoming book so that we can help start some early buzz for you. This bookstore apparently goes out of its way to support local writers and I think that’s awesome. And they don’t only support the big time New York published authors, but also offer creative ways to stock books by local writers and published by indie presses. I like that too. Additional resources for writers include links to the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop and a list of local writing groups with contact information — lovely.

Possibly my favorite offering from this bookstore is called “Book Your Lunch.” This is a program to connect readers with writers by bringing them together over lunch. What a fabulous idea! The bookstore invites authors to a local restaurant to read from or talk about their latest book and follow that with lunch and a book signing. Now that sounds like something we Seattleites could really get into. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the Elliott Bay Book Company or Third Place Books adds this to their agenda.

Courtesy TravelLandPhotography
Courtesy TravelLandPhotography

And so it is with completely positive feelings that I make the call to Fiction Addiction. The woman who picks up the phone is pleasant and seemsinterested in my project. When I explain that I’m looking for recommendations for a book or two of fiction that is particularly evocative of South Carolina, her initial response is, “Oh my!” She takes some time to consider my request, and I can’t help filling the silence by talking about The Prince of Tides as an example of the kind of book I’m interested in reading. Though I read this novel years ago, I still remember how it dropped me right into the low country, filled with shrimp boats and salt marshes, and how I could practically smell the humid southern air while reading it. The bookseller (I’m sorry I didn’t as her name) admits that she has not read Prince of Tides and I try not to judge that. Instead, I enthusiastically suggest that she add it to her to-read list and reiterate the kind of novel I’m looking for. We talk a little bit about what Greenville is like, she suggests I look up Falls Park in downtown Greenville and so I find this beautiful photo:

After some thought, the woman recommends Dorothea Benton Frank, an author I’m not familiar with, and I suggest she send along whichever of Frank’s titles she likes the best. “She’s very popular around here.” She tells me. “But her books are not exactly literary — more of a beach read.” I tell her that’s fine with me, since I’m on my way to Hawaii soon. As I’m giving her my billing information, I can’t help myself, so I ask her to send along a copy of Prince of Tides, too. It has been so many years since I’ve read that novel. It’s a classic. And it must certainly be one of the best novels set in South Carolina ever. I can’t wait to re-read it.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Bookstores, Coast to Coast Tagged With: Dorothea Benton Frank, Fiction Addiction, Pat Conroy, Prince of Tides, South Carolina bookstores

Connecticut and R. J. Julia Booksellers

December 11, 2013 by rachelreadsfiction 2 Comments

From Inside Madison
From Inside Madison http://insidemadison.com/photos/

I know Connecticut is beautiful — from the countryside to the shore.  I’ve seen it myself.  My online search for an independent bookstore here pulls me to the shore and specifically to Madison, Connecticut, home of R. J. Julia Booksellers.  Find them here:  http://www.rjjulia.com/  I fell in love with this bookstore as soon as I saw their website.  The masthead of the shop is a quaint rendering of the storefront in summer — all old-fashioned window panes, gas lamps and tables of books out front.  And their motto:  A Great Place to Meet Books — I love that!  I find myself clicking around to find out about the store’s history.  R. J. Julia has been around for over twenty years. The owner Roxanne Coady and her husband Kevin purchased an abandoned old brick building on the main street in Madison, Connecticut which, in an earlier life, was home to Nick’s Bar & Grill.  With the goal of moving permanently to Connecticut and turning the old building into a place where words matter, where writer meets reader, where the ambiance and selection and merchandising of books creates an atmosphere that is welcoming and presents the opportunity for discovery.  Nice.  And when I read this:  We are fiercely committed to putting the right book in the right hand, I give them a call. rjjulia

The woman who picks up the phone is pleasant and courteous. I explain my project and she’s interested but asks if she can call me back since there’s is a line at the checkout.   I hear convivial murmuring in the background and imagine myself in that line.  Of course, I say, and give her my number.  When she calls back, I’m at the office and a little distracted.  Nevertheless, she’s excited about my project and quite clear about the books she’s recommending.  First, she mentions Wally Lamb’s I Know this Much Is True and I think about that but reject it because I tried and rejected an earlier novel of his a few years ago as too depressing.  I’ll probably give this acclaimed author another chance, but not right now.  Next, she mentions SkylightConfessionsAlice Hoffman and I perk up — I have read something by Hoffman and ask which one she’s recommending.  It’s called Skylight Confessions (haven’t read it)  it takes place right in Madison, Connecticut where R. J. Julia is located, and that sounds great to me.  Next, she recommends The Ice Storm by Rick Moody.  Another author I have not read but feel I should know, since this novel of his has also been made into a movie.  We agree that she will send those two along and we chat briefly about her community, Madison, which she theIceStormenthusiastically suggests I visit.  You’d love it!  She assures me and I believe her.  When I look at a map of Connecticut, I discover that Madison is right next to Guilford and realize that I must have passed very near to this place a few years ago when my brother and his new wife took us to the shore not too far from their house.  Funny how the longer I live, the more I feel like a character in a Russian novel — all those chance meetings and coincidences.

I find myself returning to R. J. Julia’s website frequently as I wait for my package of books to arrive — it’s filled with recommendations, lists of events (over 350 per year) and bios of the booksellers.  Now I’m sorry I didn’t ask the name of the person I spoke with.  Note to self — in the future, find out who you’re talking to!  The owner of the shop, Roxanne Coady, also writes a column, Dear Reader, and I find myself returning to that more than once because I like the tone of her writing and because it makes me feel a little more connected to this place which is almost three thousand miles from where I’m writing.  Now for the best part — unpack those books and get reading!

 

Filed Under: Bookstores Tagged With: Alice Hoffman, independent bookstores, Madison Connecticut, R. J. Julia Bookseller, Rick Moody, Skylight Confessions, The Ice Storm

Southern Hospitality

October 16, 2013 by rachelreadsfiction 1 Comment

Southern Hospitality

I have to admit that I’m kind of happy to be leaving the Northeast, if only for this brief stop in the South.   The South produces great literature, right?  I’m ready to find out — beginning with Georgia.

Photograph by Walter Bibikow/Getty Images - National Geographic
Photograph by Walter Bibikow/Getty Images – National Geographic

Usually, when moving to a new state, I check out a map, look for a place that seems geographically interesting, and go from there.  I’m not necessarily interested in the biggest city in that state — I’m looking for a place with character.  For Georgia, someone recommended Savannah to me, selling it as a beautiful spot, so I start by researching independent bookstores there.  At first, I’m draw to a bookstore that looks like it’s in an historic part of town, but when I start reading the Yelp reviews, more than one person remarks about the poor customer service, so I move along.  Now I find The Book Lady Bookstore http://www.thebookladybookstore.com/ which, according to its website has been around since 1978, is in a hundred year old building and is jam-packed with books.  Their About page tells me that they have a knowledgeable (opinionated!) staff.  Perfect.  I make the call. [Read more…] about Southern Hospitality

Filed Under: Bookstores Tagged With: Georgia, Savannah, The Book Lady Bookstore

On to New Jersey

September 23, 2013 by rachelreadsfiction 2 Comments

SlatefordJunctionPA-CourtesyChuckWalsh
SlatefordJunctionPA-CourtesyChuckWalsh

I’m kind of reluctant to leave Pennsylvania, the rolling hills and beautiful, though coal mining damaged countryside to head off to New Jersey.  New Jersey?  Yeah, I have all sorts of preconceived notions about New Jersey even though I’m most familiar with the airport, having flown to New York via New Jersey from Seattle several times over the years — there’s a nonstop.  New Jersey immediately conjures up images of mobsters, a notorious Mafia hang out. No surprise that The Sopranos was set in New Jersey.  Also, Jersey Shore and Real Housewives of New Jersey, right?  But I haven’t watched those so that’s no help.  I also know that Martha Stewart went to High School in Nutley, New Jersey, thanks to my good friend Robin who went there too — though years later than Martha so their paths never crossed.  Of course, these random facts don’t really give me a handle on what it would be like to live in New Jersey or what it’s like as a place.

My research into independent bookstores in New Jersey leads me to Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey.  I’m drawn to Watchung because the bookstore’s website tells me that Montclair is “a town that really values the word,” and the store owner’s comment

Courtesy-Patch
Courtesy-Patch

that she estimates sixty authors live there. Perfect.  Someone at Watchung will definitely be able to recommend a New Jersey novel for me.  I call them up and speak with someone who seems perplexed by my request — a novel that takes place in New Jersey, one that would give me a sense of New Jersey as a distinct place.  Philip Roth is the first author who pops into her head but she asks if she can call me back, wants to think about it.  I’m good with that.  In fact, I figure she’s really taking me seriously.  When she calls me back, she’s come up with  a book called something like “Legends of New Jersey” which doesn’t appeal to me — mostly because it’s not a novel.  She then suggests that I do an internet search to find a book I might like.  “That’s what I would do,” she tells me.  Now I’m disappointed because I’m really counting on the expertise of independent booksellers to make recommendations for this project.  So I decide to get American Pastoral by Philip Roth and then take her advice and do some online research about a more current author who has written about New Jersey.

My search leads to me an essay by Bill Morris in an online literary magazine called, The Millions, titled, “Who Wrote the Great New Jersey Novel?”  Find it here:  http://www.themillions.com/2012/07/who-wrote-the-great-new-jersey-novel.html   In welcome-to-new-jersey-signit, Morris says, “New Jersey’s lack of defining character traits —  it’s facelessness, its rootlessness, its lukewarmness —  make it an ideal portal to get inside the soul of a nation that becomes more faceless, rootless and generic — more soulless — by the day. . . . In contemporary America, anomie is a moveable feast, and its template was exported from New Jersey.”  Oh, he’s wonderfully cynical and I can’t wait to read his list of nominees for the great New Jersey novel.  But first, he asks, “what, beyond a New Jersey setting, makes a novel a New Jersey Novel?  He then quotes several writers on this subject.  Michael Aaron Rockland, a professor at Rutgers who teaches a class in “Jerseyana” (really?) says that the whole notion of New Jersey is that “we live in a never-never land, where we pretend we’re living on a farm.  The real centers of New Jersey are these office parks in the middle of nowhere.. . . what every writer writes about is our trying to find a center in our lives.”  Another author who grew up in New Jersey says, ” New Jerseyness is a kind of vagueness.  It’s peculiarly indeterminate.”  And this makes me think about my interaction with the bookseller at Watchung.  She seemed unable to recommend a book that exemplifies New Jersey, maybe because it’s so hard to put your finger on this place.  It’s fuzzy, mercurial.  Is it a suburb of Manhattan or a distinct place with character all its own?

I scroll through the list of New Jersey novels offered by Bill Morris and find that I haveRichardFordBooks read many of them but have somehow missed that they were set in New Jersey.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  I love Richard Ford and eagerly read my way through the Frank Bascombe trilogy, one after the other and loved them all.  But I agree with Morris, who says the thing about these novels is that they’re all about what goes on inside Frank’s head.  Since Frank is a failed novelist who turns to sportswriting and then to selling real estate, he, like his home state is the “poster boy for the uncelebrated.”  He offers this quote from Frank as one of the most left-handed compliments any state ever received:  “Better to come to earth in New Jersey than not to come at all.”

Philip Roth is on the list, American Pastoral, specifically.  So I decide to start my New Jersey reading here and also order up Morris’s favorite Jersey novel, Jernigan, by David Gates from Watchung Booksellers, as my second source since I’ve found that reading two novels set in a state gives me the sense of continuity and departure that I need to form a deeper understanding of the place.

Filed Under: Bookstores Tagged With: Montclair, New Jersey, New Jersey fiction, Watchung Booksellers

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Connect with me on Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Want to keep in touch?

Sign up for mailing list

Copyright © 2025 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...