The North Country, and home
Day 6 and 7, Indie Book Store Road trip. My six-year-old brown Subaru is now filled with stuff I’ve accumulated on the road (at least half of it is Stacy’s!). My day began in downtown Schenectady at The Open Door, a lovely little bookstore tucked into a pedestrian alley in Schenectady’s historic district. Amy, who’s worked at the store for more than 15 years, welcomed me and talked YA fiction, her passion. She likes YA because, “if the ending is bittersweet, it’s always on the sweet end of bitter.” She loved Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park and The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau. She also recommended a great little coffee house down the street, The Happy Cappucino (they had me at “happy”).
Dan and Khai, The Book House of Stuyvesant
From there I drove on to The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, where Khai sold me on The Language of Flowers in about 30 seconds (she’s a very good bookseller). The Book House is a big, welcoming store in a mall with an amazing bread shop just a few doors down. Fresh-baked bread and books is a pretty good combo, too.
Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs is only two months old, but seems like it’s been an anchor of the community forever (it’s a sister store to Northshire Books in Manchester, VT, which opened in 1976 and is still owned by the same family). It’s spacious but still cozy, with cool furnishings like this barefoot coffee table. Nancy, the manager, LOVED Mark Slouka’s Brewster, which I heard about at every bookstore in NY, I think. Bookseller Chris recommends Serpent of Venice and was very excited about Christopher Moore’s upcoming visit to the store. The other booksellers I shanghaied, Amelia and Jessica, suggested Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Amelia’s pick) and The Bone Season (Jessica’s). Jessica and Amelia are such huge Samantha Shannon fans (“Harry Potter for adults”) that they’re launching a fan site, The Seven Dials.
Chris, Amelia, and Jessica, Northshire, Saratoga Springs
I drove straight from Northshire to the other Northshire, in Vermont. Driving on country roads in the northeast in late September is about as good as a road trip gets. I stopped at a farm stand and bought Honeycrisp apples, a super sharp local cheddar cheese, home made biscuits, and ate lunch under a big old tree in a field next to the farm. Northshire in Manchester is a bookstore that wanders all over several levels and in and out of a cafe and is filled with great things like a wooden bench carved out of burled wood near the front door, and a selection of warm wool socks. (It was the only bookstore of the 23 I visited that carried socks. I love that. It’s hard to enjoy a good book if your feet are cold, you know?)
Sarah and Sarah, Northshire, Vermont
I talked to the three Sarahs there, Sarah W., who is reading The Burgess Boys, and also M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans, which I read and loved this summer. Sarah D. just finished Serpent of Venice and Emperor of Thorns. Sarah K. loved How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (love the title, from a Leonard Cohen song) and Howard Shrier’s Miss Montreal.
With Shelly at Harleysville Books
From Vermont I drove through fading light to get down to Connecticut, where I spent a night with my mother-in-law. And then on Friday, Day SEVEN on the road, I made my last stop of the trip, at Harleysville Books in PA. I spent at least an hour talking books, the book business, authors, publishing, community bookstores, and more with owner Shelley. She had just finished (ta da!) an advance copy of Leaving Haven, so we talked about that for a while, too. I’m going to do an online book club with Harleysville Books in November and can’t wait. She’s also reading Jeanine Cummins’ A Rip in Heaven, so I bought that as my last purchase of the trip.
I loved the road trip. I loved meeting all the owners and booksellers and buyers and managers who love what they do, love books, and are committed to keeping community bookstores alive. I’m already plotting another one—maybe North Carolina?
Indie Bookstore Road Trip by the numbers:
Miles covered: 1,397
States: 7 (Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont)
Bookstores visited: 23
Books bought: 9
Other items purchased along the way: 1 rock salt grinder, 4 damask napkins, 1 purple crocheted mini-dress, 1 pair of purple suede boots (size 7), 1 wrought iron toilet paper stand, 1 small bouquet of glass daisies with wire stems, 2 quarts of maple syrup, 1 bag of apples, 5 bars of dark chocolate, 2 brownies, 1 liter of Hudson Baby Bourbon Whiskey. All in all, a fantastic trip!
