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Wheatberry Books Plans December Opening

Chillicothe, Ohio, will have a new independent bookstore this December when Wheatberry Books opens at 41 South Paint Street.

Wheatberry Books is opening in December.Owner Chelsea Bruning is renovating the space with plans for a general interest bookstore featuring children’s books as well as a reading room for kids to play, she told the Chillicothe Gazette.

Bruning plans to hire three to four people to run the shop while she continues to work as a pharmacist. Her husband, Matt Bruning, is a former journalist now working for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Bruning has been sharing photos of her renovation efforts, including shelf-building this week, on the store’s Facebook and Twitter pages for the community to follow.

McNally Jackson Heads to Brooklyn

New York City’s McNally Jackson will open a branch store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this fall, reported Brownstoner.

At the September 11–17 Brooklyn Book Festival, McNally Jackson staff handed out business cards that featured the address, 76 North 4th Street, and the remark “opening soon.”

In recent years, McNally Jackson has opened several new stores, including two Goods for the Study locations and the McNally Jackson Picture Room.

Lahaska Bookshop Opens in Pennsylvania

The Lahaska Bookshop, a branch location of the The Doylestown Bookshop, opened in Lahaska, Pennsylvania, on September 15.

The Lahaska Bookshop, which is managed by former ABA Member Relationship Manager Nathan Halter and owned by Glenda Childs, features the same atmosphere and offerings as The Doylestown Bookshop, including books for all ages, magazines, gift items, and a full calendar of author signings.

The new store is located in Peddler’s Village, a large outdoor shopping mall development in Bucks County that features 65 stores, three restaurants, and a hotel as well as frequent events and festivals.

Books of Wonder Expands in New York City

Independent children’s bookstore Books of Wonder has opened a second location in New York City, at 217 West 84th Street. The original store at 18 West 18th Street opened in 1980, making it the city’s oldest children’s bookstore.

Owner Peter Glassman told The New York Times he spent a year trying to find the right space on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, including one with a doorway wide enough for double strollers.

Books of Wonder will carry the same mix of products at both locations, including children’s classic and contemporary picture books, board books for infants and toddlers, foreign language children’s books, reference books for children, nonfiction, and chapter books and novels for children from beginning readers to teens.

Dunaway Books has new owners whose canine companion Blue is at home among books.
Dunaway Books has new owners whose canine companion, Blue, is at home among books.

New Owners for Dunaway Books

Earlier this year, Kevin Twellman and Claudia Brodie took over St. Louis, Missouri’s Dunaway Books, a used bookstore featuring nearly 80,000 titles.

Since then, the store has undergone a facelift: the biography section has moved to the basement, and the science fiction/horror section now features a carpet, chairs, and a table.

New events include a regular evening of wine and poetry, and last month the store began hosting live music. Twellman and Brodie’s dog, Blue, is also a new feature at the store.

Ellen Plumb’s Celebrates First Anniversary

Ellen Plumb City’s Bookstore shared a heartfelt thank you with its supporters on Facebook on September 6, its first anniversary in business and a month after water damage destroyed thousands of dollars worth books and forced a move to a new location.

Ellen Plumb’s celebrated its first anniversary this month.Marcia Lawrence, owner of the Emporia, Kansas, bookstore, described how her customers and community leaped into action when a “perpetually leaky roof became a real disaster.”

In a post that received dozens of “likes” and “loves” from customers, Lawrence wrote: “Our town stepped up again. From Emporia High football players who moved all the bookshelves to community members who led the book brigade, moving all the books in less than an hour from one end of the block to the other. And every single day in the new store at 1122 Commercial, someone drops in for no other reason than to offer their help to the bookshop.”