Left Bank Anniversary Commemorated

Left Banks Books [4] co-owners Jarek Steele and Kris Kleindienst stand before an IndieBound poster commemorating the store’s 45th anniversary. The St. Louis, Missouri, mainstay celebrated its longevity and service to the community with a party and other special events earlier this month.

A highlight was a Writers Under Glass event, featuring Mark Tiedemann (Gravity Box and Other Spaces), Ann Leckie (Ancillary Justice), Kevin Killeen (Try to Kiss a Girl), and Scott Phillips (Hop Alley) writing live in the store’s front window based on a prompt chosen by Left Bank customers. Photos and the fruits of their labors can be found on Left Bank’s Facebook page [5].

Brooklyn Indies Curate Readings Beneath the Bridge

Indie booksellers in Brooklyn, New York, are curating outdoor readings, including Q&A sessions and book signings, for Books Beneath the Bridge, a free summer literary series presented by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

Participating bookstores, including BookCourt [6], Community Bookstore [7], Freebird Books [8], Greenlight Bookstore [9], powerHouse Arena [10], and WORD [11], select a theme and the authors for their respective evenings. Future readings may feature music and group drawing sessions and all are framed by views of the sunset against the New York Skyline.

This is Books Beneath the Bridge’s third season. Events are on Monday evenings through August 11 at Pier 1’s Granite Prospect.

“One of the best things about being an independent bookstore in Brooklyn is getting to collaborate with new independent businesses that make the borough unique,” Stephanie Valdez, co-owner of Community Bookstore, told the Brooklyn Eagle [12].

St. Mark’s Bookshop Reopens in NYC’s East Village

New York’s St. Mark’s Bookshop [13] opened last weekend in its new location on East Third Street, near Avenue A, after rising rents forced the bookstore from its longtime Third Avenue home. The 1,325-square-foot space, which is less than half the size of the original location on Third Avenue, features a modern look with rounded shelves and display tables that can be deconstructed and used as chairs for readings and events, store co-founder Terry McCoy told DNAinfo New York [14].

St. Mark’s began looking for a new location in 2012 when the rents the building owned by Cooper Union became unaffordable. The new store was built out with donated material and volunteer labor, and some of the costs were funded by an Indiegogo campaign, which raised $51,740.

Creekside Reopens With New Owners

On July 10, Creekside Books & Coffee in Skaneateles, New York, reopened with new owners, Adam and Ksenia Tontarski, who bought the 10-year-old store from founder Erika Davis. Creekside had been closed since the end of May for the transition, AuburnPub.com [15] reported.

The store has a brand-new book inventory with expanded selections, including a children’s section with books for every age and grade level from babies and toddlers on up to young adults. Some new furniture and a green-certified espresso machine and barista-trained employees have been added to the mix, and plans are in the works to add craft beer on draft and wine once a liquor license is approved, but the food menu will stay much the same.

A new point-of-sale system, Coffee Shop Manager, will allow customers to create a profile online and set up coffee and food orders. “For here, to go, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, next Wednesday, every 30 days, my usual, whatever you want, and you can have it ready when you get here,” Adam Tontarski told AuburnPub.

The Tontarskis have also started Skaneateles Coffee Roasters, a wholesale roasting company, to market the community and its coffee to those who visit the village from around the state, country, and world.

Black Bear Books Moves to Mall Kiosk

Faced with rising rents and the prospect of closing Black Bear Books [16] at the Boone Mall in Boone, North Carolina, Karen and Chris Walker decided to move their business to a kiosk at the mall instead, The Mountain Times [17] reported.

The new kiosk is located a few feet from its previous storefront, and while title selection is not nearly as immense as it was within the store’s four walls, the Walkers told Mountain Times that feel they are now better equipped to focus on consumer needs. In addition to a sizeable inventory of children’s books, Black Bear will have large selections of bestsellers, fiction, and science fiction, as well as the classics.

“I couldn’t stand the thought of not owning a bookstore,” Karen Walker said. “When kids with their mothers would come in and see that we were closing, they would start crying and say, ‘Mommy, what’s happening to the book store?’”