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Booksellers to Discuss Future of Bay Area Bookstores on City Visions

On Monday, March 2, San Francisco radio show City Visions will feature four booksellers discussing the future of bookstores in the Bay Area.

Books Inc. co-owner Michael Tucker; Green Apple Books co-owner Pete Mulvihill; Vallejo Books co-owner Dave Tilton; and Alan Beatts, founder of Borderlands Books, which has recently been in the headlines for its struggle with the city’s minimum wage increases, will talk with co-host David Onek about their strategies for staying open and prosperous in a world of rising costs and online competitors.

The program can be live-streamed on Monday at 7:00 p.m. via KALW, San Francisco’s public radio station.

Battle Creek Books Eyes March Opening

Jim and Ginny Donahue are in the final preparations for opening Battle Creek Books in Battle Creek, Michigan, after securing a collection of oak bookshelves from the shuttered Book King bookstore in Rutland, Vermont, the Battle Creek Enquirer reported.

A geriatric specialist who moved to Battle Creek to work at the Veterans Affairs hospital before retiring, Jim Donahue is looking forward to being in business after the long planning process, which included securing rental assistance as the first applicant to Battle Creek Unlimited’s retail acceleration program. Donahue is hoping the store will open in mid-March.

“It’s more exciting now,” Donahue told the Battle Creek Enquirer. “My enthusiasm is even greater now. People down here have been profoundly supportive and it is absolutely compatible with downtown.”

With 2,000 square feet of space, the bookstore will feature an initial inventory of nearly 9,000 new and used books, which will also be sold through the store’s soon-to-be-completed website. Donahue also envisions a children’s section with tables and chairs, regular book club meetings, and author events and signings.

Greenlight Bookstore Launches Second Season of Book/Plate Series

Entering its second season of combining new books with complementary cuisines, Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore has announced the next round of authors to be featured as part of its Book/Plate series in partnership with neighborhood market and restaurant Peck’s Homemade.

On April 26, author Amanda Vaill will present selections from Hotel Florida (Picador) while sharing a dinner inspired by Hemingway’s Spain. Jim Shepard, author of The Book of Aron (Knopf), will dine with guests on May 17, with the menu inspired by the flavors of the Eastern European and Jewish Diaspora.

Events are limited to 40 people and tickets include a copy of the book, a signature cocktail, a multi-course family-style meal, and a talk and signing by the author.

“Good books can make you hungry — they create longing for the world you’re reading about. And the best books make you wish you could have dinner with the author,” said Greenlight’s Jessica Stockton Bagnulo. “Book/Plate fulfills a fantasy of pairing great books with great food, and offers the unique chance to break bread with the creators. The fact that we can do this right here in our neighborhood is part of what makes Brooklyn so special.”

Green Arcade Bookstore Featured for Unique Focus

Hoodline.com featured San Francisco, California’s Green Arcade bookstore this week, calling it “a bookstore with a conscience.”

Taking inspiration from the Global Exchange’s twice-yearly Green Festivals in San Francisco, which look to promote social and environmental health, the bookstore sells new and used books focusing on local and state history, sustainability and the environment, politics and social issues, and food and farming.

“I started selling books at [Green Festivals] based around the green theme, environmentalism, and politics and thought I’d do the same thing with a store that’s a distilled selection based on my experience there,” owner Patrick Marks told Hoodline.

The store continues to hold author events on social themes, like its recent one with Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Belknap Press), and participates in rallies and local activism. Green Arcade is now celebrating its sixth anniversary.