For the Love of Bookstores . . . in Books!

"Sometimes we tell our stories and sometimes our stories tell us."

The title says it all. Who wouldn't want to read about a bookshop at water's end? In The Bookshop at Water's End, Patti Callahan Henry tells an emotional tale about childhood friends who reconnect after years apart. As children, both women escaped to the local bookshop to share secrets and dream about their futures. Now that life has thrown some unexpected curve balls, the women reconnect with the bookshop owner and together work on unraveling mysteries from their past to heal their present.

"Books are not just things, but dynamic artifacts, milestones showing where the road took a sudden turn on our individual journeys — our very individual journeys, since a book that changed one person's life is another person's dreaded English assignment. There's no rhyme or reason to what impacts whom except the alchemy of timing, temperament, and title."

Wendy Welch and her husband always dreamed of owning a bookstore. The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap chronicles their journey through the obstacles of building a brick and mortar bookstore in a rising digital world, the friendships made, the books they found, and the life they made. "A book about losing your place, finding your purpose, and immersing yourself in what holds community, and humanity, together — books."

"Bookstores attract the right kind of folk. Good people like A.J. and Amelia. And I like talking about books with people who like talking about books. I like paper. I like how it feels, and I like the feel of a book in my back pocket. I like how a new book smells, too."

We are all a collection of the stories of our lives. This is the message at the heart of Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Zevin writes a beautiful exploration into why we read the stories we read and how that both defines and creates the lives we lead. A.J. Fikry's wife has died, his bookstore is facing a downward spiral and his most valuable item, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Fikry begins to isolate himself from everyone, until a mysterious package arrives at his door and his life is forever changed.

"Courage and endurance are useless if they are never tested."

The Book Shop is a tiny novel about the strange intricacies of small-town life and one woman's struggle to keep her love of books (and bookstores) alive. The main character, Florence, is a strong and determined woman who stands defiantly in the face of adversity to pursue her dreams of owning a bookstore. Not for the faint of heart, this novel will send you on an emotional journey about why the courage to follow your dreams is so important, even if it doesn't always work out the way you planned.

"The books of our childhood offer a vivid door to our own pasts, and not necessarily for the stories we read there, but for the memories of where we were and who we were when we were reading them; to remember a book is to remember the child who read that book."

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee is both a memoir and a historical treatise on the evolution of bookstores and the bookseller trade. It is also a celebration of the intricacies of books and bookstores. "Standing in the middle of this confluence, I can't help but feel the possibility of the universe unfolding a little, once upon a time."

"I love to slip into the bookstore. It is my haven. I don't have to prove myself there."

Esme Garland is pregnant and alone. In order to support herself and her child, as well as keep her scholarship, she takes a part-time job at The Owl, a secondhand bookstore on the Upper West Side. With a unique cast of characters, The Bookstore is a celebration of bookstores, books, and the power of reading.

"We want splendid books, books that immerse us in the splendor of reality and keep us there; books that prove to us that love is at work in the world next to evil, right up against it, at times indistinctly, and that it always will be, just the way that suffering will always ravage hearts. We want good novels . . . And even if there is only one such book per decade . . . only one . . . every ten years, that would be enough. We want nothing else."

In A Novel Bookstore, Ivan and Francesca open a bookstore in a tiny enclave in Paris. Stocked with literary classics that have been handpicked by a select group of "literary connoisseurs," the store becomes a huge success. But with fame comes scrutiny and destruction. Someone is out to get Ivan, Francesca, and their group of literary angels. This novel comes together like a mysterious puzzle as readers search for pieces and clues that will help them resolve the secrets and save the bookstore.

"Can you smell it? The scent of new books. Unread adventures. Friends you haven't met yet, hours of magical escapism awaiting you."

In The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Sara has traveled all the way from Sweden to Broken Wheel, IA, to meet her pen pal and friend Amy. Unfortunately, she arrives just as Amy's funeral is ending. The townspeople rally together to welcome Sara to their tiny town. All of Sara and Amy's correspondence had revolved around books, and therefore she decides to open a bookstore to honor her friend. Sara is on a mission to bring the delights of reading to the people of Broken Wheel.

"The right book exactly, at exactly the right time."

The recession has forced Clay Jannon out of his tech job and into Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. The store, and its visitors, are strange, arresting, and curious people, and Clay is intrigued by what happens in the tiny corners of this unusual store. Much like a great novel, the bookstore holds secrets that can only be found by opening the door and stepping inside.

"What is childhood without stories? And how will children fall in love with stories without bookstores? You can't get that from a computer."

Sarah Jio imagines the inspiration for Margaret Wise Brown's childhood classic Goodnight Moon in her novel, Goodnight June. A sweet and heartfelt story about a woman whose life is crumbling when she is called to handle her great-aunt's estate, including her beloved children's bookstore, Bluebird Books. Amid the store's papers, June discovers letters between her great-aunt and the late Margaret Wise Brown — and, in turn, creates a vivid story behind the pages of American literature.

"'Books were my friends,' said Catherine, and cooled her cheek, which was red from the heat of cooking, on her wineglass. 'I think I learned all my feelings from books. In them I loved and laughed and found out more than in my whole nonreading life.'"

In The Little Paris Bookshop, Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. He prescribes books to help people solve any problem in life. Unfortunately, he can't seem to heal himself. Still reeling from losing his one true love, Perdu can't even bring himself to open the letter she left for him. After deciding to read the letter, he sets off on an adventure to the South of France, hoping to finally put an end to his suffering and find peace. He's joined by a blocked author and a chef and their journey results in some of the most quote-worthy passages for any book-lover.

"I can't go back to what we had in childhood. I can't relive those times, retrace my tracks and undo what's been done. It's not like writing a book and rewriting the ending to make it happier."

Three very different sisters, facing extremely difficult and tumultuous periods in their lives, reunite to save the family's beach-community bookstore in Driftwood Summer by Patti Callahan Henry.

"You see, bookshops are dreams built of wood and paper. They are time travel and escape and knowledge and power. They are, simply put, the best of places."

Every bookshop has a story, and Jen Campbell beautifully explores this in The Bookshop Book. She takes readers through the history of bookstores, talks to authors about their favorite bookstores, and uncovers the most unusual locations that have been transformed into bookstores.

"There was a universe inside every human being every bit as big as the universe outside them. Books were the best way Nina knew — apart from, sometimes, music — to breach the barrier, to connect the internal universe with the external, the words acting merely as a conduit between the two worlds."

Jenny Colgan is a master storyteller. Her books are comforting, uplifting, and inspiring. In her charming novel The Bookshop on the Corner, Colgan introduces the reader to Nina Redmond, a literary matchmaker. She works in a city library and adores her job . . . until she loses it.

Determined to start over, Nina moves to a tiny village and opens a bookmobile, a traveling bookshop that she can take from town to town, changing lives all along the way.

"The books housed in one's first adult bookshelf are the geological bed of who we wish to become."

In The Secret of Lost Things, Sheridan Hay explores the curiosities and interests of booksellers and collectors through the lens of a used and rare book store in New York City. When a missing manuscript of Herman Melville's is discovered, a young woman is thrown into an unexpected journey toward answers. The unusual bookshop is so vibrant and alive that it feels like its own character in the novel.

"It was the sort of bookshop that stole time . . ."

Does every story have a happy ending? Emilia has returned home to rescue her family's bookstore, Nightingale Books. Throughout her time at the bookstore and the obstacles she faces in keeping her family's hard work alive, she meets a cast of delightful and absorbing characters. How to Find Love in a Bookshop story of self-discovery, love, and the undying passion for books.

"We are the books we read and the things we love."

Words in Deep Blue is a mesmerizing and multifaceted love story told through letters found in books. It's a character study, an introspective look at death and its impact on those left behind, and a love letter to books and bookstores. Once upon a time, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones and decided to proclaim her love in a letter she tucked into his favorite book at his parents' bookshop. After moving away and never hearing from him, she takes the rejection in stride. When Rachel and Henry are thrown back together in his family's bookstore, they are forced to reckon with everything they've done, who they are, and the lives they are leading.

"Plans — nothing ever goes as planned, and the survivors are the ones who can adapt on the fly."

In Camino Island, John Grisham is back and true to form with a tale about an orchestrated heist and the rare books dealer who is caught in the middle. A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a vault below Princeton University's Firestone Library. The star of Grisham's latest read is Bruce Cable, owner of a popular bookstore in a sleepy resort town in Camino Island. He makes his real money as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts. Grisham also introduces us to Mercer Mann, a young novelist with a severe case of writer's block, who is offered a job with a mysterious company that brings her into Bruce Gable's orbit of literary friends. A fast-paced read with a literary flair.