Around Indies

Changing Hands Celebrates 40 Years

Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, is celebrating its 40th anniversary on Saturday, April 5, with live music, YA author readings, and kid-friendly activities, including magic shows, cookie decorating, and story time with The Lorax.

Store co-founder Gayle Shanks told the Republic that when the store opened in 1974 she just hoped that it would continue for at least a year. “But from nearly the first few months we were in business, it became a love affair,” she said. To ensure its success, Changing Hands’ owners reached out “to schools, community-service groups, and anyone who would work with them.”

The bookstore, which has been in three Tempe locations since its founding, has been in its current site since 1998. A second location, in Phoenix, which was financed in part through an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign, is set to open by May and will feature a bar.

Beach Books Honored

Karen Emmerling, the owner of Beach Books in Seaside, Oregon, recently accepted the 2014 Clatsop Economic Development Resources Award for Business Service to the Community.

“Among other efforts, Beach Books erects a wishing tree during the holidays to support Seaside School District, opens the store to local artists and visiting authors, and holds book drives for various groups,” the Daily Astorian reported.

Emmerling, who serves on the local downtown development association, was honored last year with the Seaside’s Rotary Club High Ethical Standards Award.

Anderson’s Sold? April Fools’!

Anderson’s Bookshop, which has locations in Naperville and Downers Grove, Illinois, pulled an elaborate April Fools’ Day prank on its customers. Inspired by the characters and plot of Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Anderson’s co-owner Becky Anderson changed the store’s name for the day to Island Books and touted a new slogan, “No Man is an Island, Every Book is a World.” The store’s fictional identity, along with a new logo, was posted in signs in the windows of the store, at the top of its website, and on Twitter.

The news caused some alarm among members of the community, publicity manager Candy Purdom told the Chicago Tribune. However, those who read to the bottom of the store’s website found it was a joke. “We are still and will forever be Anderson’s Bookshop. We just love The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and we think you will too,” Anderson’s said of April’s #1 Indie Next List Pick.

The joke was conceived by Anderson and the publicity team from Algonquin Books. Zevin is scheduled to appear at the Naperville store on April 30.

Santoro’s Finds New Owners

Next month, the retail operation of Santoro’s Books in Seattle, Washington, will be purchased by author and former Jeopardy! champion Tom Nissley and his wife, Laura, according to the news blog PhinneyWood.com. The couple plans to remodel and reopen the bookstore in June as Phinney Books.

Current owner Carol Santoro is holding a farewell party on May 3 to thank the community for its support. The store will offer discounts and refreshments. Santoro’s Books will continue as a wholesaler, servicing school accounts that it has developed over the past 10 years.

“I feel completely confident that Tom will take the bookstore in an interesting new direction,” Santoro said. “He’s extremely knowledgeable and well-connected in the bookselling world — it’s a perfect fit.”

Nissley was an eight-time winner on Jeopardy! in 2010, a runner-up in the Tournament of Champions in 2011, and was recently back on the show for the “Battle of the Decades.” Since winning Jeopardy!, he quit his job as a book editor at Amazon and is a full-time writer, PhinneyWood said.