Around Indies

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Café Con Libros Opens in BrooklynCafe Con Libros

Café Con Libros, a new feminist community bookstore, opened last month in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, Patch reported.

Couple Kalima Desuze and Ryan Cameron opened the bookstore to provide local booklovers a place to meet, drink, and read, according to Patch.

“Café Con Libros is a feminist community bookstore catering to folks who are book lovers, coffee aficionados, or both,” the store’s website reads. “We aim to provide space for anyone seeking a community of readers and thinkers and to spread the love of reading as a source of healing and joy.”

Highlights include fair-trade coffee and tea and locally baked pastries as well as a selection of books for young feminists. The owners plan to host a monthly book club, book fairs for YA fiction, and readings, according to Patch.

Anchorage, Alaska Bookstores in the News

Vered Mares, owner of The Writers Block Bookstore and Café, and Angela Libal, owner of used bookstore Title Wave Books, in Anchorage, Alaska, recently spoke with local news station KTUU about the state of independent bookselling.

Mares told the station that while there may be a misconception that the industry is declining, it’s not true, at least in Alaska.

“The Alaska region is very different. We knew that Anchorage needed an independent bookstore,” he said. “This has been a community project the entire time we’ve been trying to set this up. It’s largely community funded, built and engaged from the ground up. And so that’s what I think makes it relevant is listening to and responding to the community around us. You need to be able to blend the bookstore idea with other elements that mutually cross-support each other and that’s why we brought in the café.”

Libal also praised Writers Block’s entry in to the community, telling KTUU that the store fills a niche for Anchorage locals that it cannot, since the store sells new books and hosts events and author signings. “I think any time a bookstore opens in a community, that’s a good thing,” Libal said.

SIBA’s “Meet the Bookseller” Features Malaprop’s Stephanie Jones-Byrne

A new feature in the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance’s (SIBA) Lady Banks newsletter recently highlighted the bookselling career of Stephanie Jones-Byrne, a bookseller at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café in Asheville, North Carolina.

The new column featured a slate of questions for Jones-Byrne, who has been a bookseller for 14 years, including five at Malaprop’s. Topics included the best part about being a bookseller, the books she is reading now, her favorite hand-sell of 2017, her top priority going into 2018, and her favorite SIBA programming benefit.

As far as work priorities for 2018 go, Jones-Byrne said she is planning to focus on her new role with Malaprop’s author events and marketing team, which she joined in 2017.

“I want to help continue to expand our events, streamline our event processes, and grow our audience and community,” she said.