Books Set in Bookstores That Get the Book Business Right

Kim van Alkemade is the author of Upstate, out today from William Morrow. Below, she recommends three books set in bookstores that get the book business right.

In the summer of 2021, my partner saw an article in Book Riot titled, “If You Dream of Owning a Bookstore, Here’s Your Chance.” Beneath that enticing headline was a fairytale picture of a red barn in a green field with the word BOOKS spelled out in jigsawed letters above the doorway. I can’t say that either of us had ever dreamed of owning a bookstore, but the pandemic had us questioning everything about our careers and life choices, so we thought, why not take a look? We fell in love with the place and even made an offer, but it turned out that owning this bookstore wasn’t our destiny. Instead, that unfulfilled dream became the inspiration for my novel, Upstate, in which a grieving writer sets out to revive an abandoned bookshop in upstate New York only to discover hidden letters that reveal the shop’s secret sapphic history.

Since writing a book set in a bookstore, I’ve become a bookseller myself at a local independent in my upstate town. While fictional bookstores can inspire romance and conjure magic, I especially appreciate books that reflect the realities of the business. Here are three of my favorites:

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams What role do bookstores play in a community, and how is a community reflected in its bookstore? Spanning 1834 to the present, Adams offers a fascinating perspective on American history through this in-depth exploration of how Black-owned bookstores have served as touchstones of entrepreneurship, identity, and activism. I especially loved the inquisitive and insightful details about the myriad ways Black-owned bookstores anchor and inspire the various communities in which they operate. A must-read for booksellers!

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich There is magic at work in Erdrich’s bookstore novel, but the story encompasses wider issues of social justice, incarceration, rehabilitation, and the legacy of settler colonialism. When COVID-19 shutters the store, the booksellers who have found redemption within its walls bridge the isolation of lockdown through the books they deliver to their loyal customers. Gorgeously written, this novel is a testament to the transformative power of books and the people devoted to putting them in the hands that need them most.