"The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap"

Although we take satisfaction in being a safe place for people to tell their stories, please don't get the impression that running a bookshop is all bittersweetness and light. Much of it is dusting and heavy lifting. 

from The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, by Wendy Welch (St. Martin's Press, 2012)

A charming tale of "friendship, community, and the uncommon pleasure of a good book," this memoir is about two newcomers to a small Appalachian town who open a used book shop. Wendy Welch writes with compassion and smart-ass humor as she describes her and her husband Jack's adventures in "being independent booksellers in the face of big-box stores and e-readers." I thoroughly enjoyed The Little Bookstore, and had to finish it in a hurry as my eightysomething mother had already asked me twice to borrow the book.

Comments

[Michelle]

Sounds really good! Will have to put it on the list.

[Susan T.]

You'll get a kick out of some of the small town stuff. These two did have to hang in there for a while...

[Mary Lee]

Sounds like a fabulous read for me and for my 80-something reader mom -- I left the small town, but she's still there!

[Susan T.]

Yes, Mary Lee! My mother also recently enjoyed The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye, by Rachel Joyce, and What There Is To Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, edited by Suzanne Marrs. My mom lives near us now, and has more time to read!

[Melissa Wiley]

Ooh, it sounds delightful! Thanks for the tip. Will add to my list. :)

[Susan T.]

Lissa, I thought it was a fun book and admired the author's approach to bookselling--very non-elitist. And she's an academic by training!