Even though I didn't know I was applying for the job,
I have somehow become the spokesperson for independent bookstores.
Ann Patchett
The new novel The Sentence by Louise Erdrich takes place in a bookstore. The main character, Tookie, is a bookseller who has strong opinions on what to read. I loved the book, and since Louise Erdrich owns a bookstore, it got me thinking about other authors who not only write books, but sell them as well.
Also, we are taking part in the #22in22 Challenge. Join the challenge and you will be rewarded as you visit bookstores 22 times in 2022. Find out more here: https://www.22in22.net.
These five author-owned bookstores are a great place to start your journey.
Louise Erdrich is the owner of Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her latest book, The Sentence, is a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.
Ann Patchett is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee. Her latest book, These Precious Days, is a deeply personal collection of essays focusing on home, family, friendships and writing.
Emma Straub is the co-owner of Books are Magic in Brooklyn, New York. Her next book, This Time Tomorrow, is coming in May, 2022. The novel cleverly turns all the traditional time travel tropes on their head and delivers a different kind of love story—about the lifelong, reverberating relationship between a parent and child.
Jeff Kinney is the co-owner of An Unlikely Story: Bookstore and Café in Plainville, Massachusettes. Kinney is the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. In Big Shot, book 16 in the series, Greg Heffley and sports just don’t mix.
Jenny Lawson owns the Nowhere Bookshop in San Antonio, Texas. Lawson is an award-winning humorist known for her great candor in sharing her struggle with mental illness. Her most recent book is Broken (In the Best Possible Way). You can read Roxanne’s review of Broken here.