Around Indies

Greenlight Bookstore Launches Civic Engagement Series

This week, Greenlight Bookstore, which has two locations in Brooklyn, New York, announced the launch of a monthly Civic Engagement Series, which aims to support vital community organizations by connecting them with Greenlight’s reading community.

On the last Monday of each month at Greenlight’s new location in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, the store will host nonprofit groups working in social justice, community organizing, and the arts for hour-long interactive sessions with the goal of providing tools for involvement, creativity, and action. In addition, 20 percent of Greenlight’s sales — at either location or online — on event days will be donated to the featured organization. For its inaugural event on April 24, Greenlight is partnering with the New York Writers Coalition; in May, it will partner with Make the Road New York.

“An independent bookstore is a unique kind of community space: welcoming, inspiring, and humanizing,” said co-owner and events director Jessica Stockton Bagnulo. “Along with our colleagues in bookstores around the country, we at Greenlight are looking now for new ways to use our space and other resources to address the issues that affect our community. We have always been a place for conversations, stories and ideas; we hope to become a place where neighbors can make connections and find tools to help one another when we need it most.”

Breakwater Books Changes Ownership

As Breakwater Books in Guilford, Connecticut, prepares to celebrate 45 years in business, employee Liza Fixx has purchased the bookstore from Maureen Corcoran.

Marion Young and Marion Herald opened Breakwater Books in 1972, and in 2007 Corcoran became owner. The bookstore, which carries a variety of genres including a large children’s section, serves the both the Guilford and Yale communities.

As the new owner, Fixx plans to update the store’s interior “while maintaining the essence and the history of the store, as well as the wide inventory our customers have always enjoyed,” she said. “In the future, the store will also have a dedicated event space to host author events.”

Fixx, who holds degrees from Smith College, is a former elementary school teacher and served as director of publications and publicity for a Connecticut boarding school. She previously worked at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Kentucky and has been with Breakwater Books for two years.

Title Wave Books Gets New Owner

Angela Libal, the longtime manager of Title Wave Books in Anchorage, Alaska, has purchased the store from founders Steve Lloyd and Julie Drake, who are retiring after 27 years at the helm. Libal has worked at Title Wave for 20 years and has been manager of the store since 2008.

“I am excited and fortunate to have the opportunity to continue Title Wave’s legacy serving the community. An entire generation of readers has known this bookstore as a reading wonderland, and we’re seeing customers who shopped here with their parents now come in with kids of their own,” said Libal.

“We are thrilled to have Angela take over the store,” said Drake. “Steve and I are confident it will continue to be an extremely successful bookstore and to play an important role in the community.”

Reader’s World Marks 50 Years

Reader’s World, located in downtown Holland, Michigan, is celebrating 50 years in business, reported the Holland Sentinel.

Chris DeVries, grandfather to current owner Lisa Hungerink, and Bob and Laurie Hungerink, her parents, opened the bookstore in 1967. Lisa Hungerink’s grandfather and father were in the wholesale book, magazine, and newspaper business at the time. Hungerink remembers being tasked with stocking candy and greeting cards as a child, she told the Holland Sentinel.

Reader’s World was originally open every day, all year round. “The reason we were open every day, even though it could be controversial, was because we did such a huge newspaper business,” Lisa Hungerink said. “Back then, people wanted to get their Sunday paper because it didn’t go online. We used to have stacks as tall as me back then.”

Bunch of Grapes on the Move

Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, located in Vineyard Haven on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, is moving from its current location at 35 Main Street to a two-story building at 23 Main Street, which is just down the block, reported the Vineyard Gazette.

The bookstore opened on Main Street in 1964 and has been in its current location for the past five years. The store will close on April 8 for the move, which will be completed by May 1.

The move will allow the bookstore to carry adult books on the first floor and gifts and children’s books on the second floor. Author readings will continue to be offered at the store during the island’s busy seasons.