Literary Matchmaking: Books about the Power of Booksellers

Some years ago, an organization of writers to which I belonged hired a consultant to discover what it was that convinced people to buy a book. For this, they paid, I can divulge without telling any secrets, $25,000. When they told me about it, I thought for a second and then said: “Was it word of mouth?”

And the group’s president said, “Wow, yes, that’s right! Amazing.” (I shoulda been a consultant, I guess.)

I mean, yeah. Everyone knows that word of mouth sells books, but the key is a more complicated question: How does that word-of-mouth start?

And anyone in the book world knows one of the main answers to that is — booksellers!

We’ve all had the experience of walking into a bookstore and being enticed by those glossy, gorgeous covers, but with the self-imposed plan to buy just one specific book. And then what happens? A wise, experienced and enthusiastic bookseller approaches us and says, “Oh, if you are interested in that book, let me show you some additional ones you might love.”

And off we go. And before we can say “charge it,” we are buying more books than we had planned. And wise booksellers again have changed an author’s life, along with a reader’s life.

Of course, you know the legendary novels, the ones booksellers have blessed with their magic —  The Help, The Night Circus and Like Water for Chocolate. They help us discover the genius that is All The Colors of the Dark, The Nightingale, Martyr! and Razorblade Tears. It was the buzz of booksellers that helped those now-iconic novels take flight.

I remember a bookseller handing me Ruth Ware’s In A Dark Dark Wood, and my devotion was set for life. I remember a bookseller handing me Lisa Jewell’s The Night She Disappeared, and I gobbled up her backlist and waited eagerly for the next jewel from Jewell. I know it’s happened to you. And we are forever grateful.

So, no wonder booksellers are lauded and acclaimed in books with them as main characters! I mean, of course, we write books about our heroes. In my upcoming novel All This Could Be Yours, many of the most tense and pivotal scenes take place in bookstores, as the main character — an author on book tour with a book called All This Could Be Yours — is shepherded, advised and protected by booksellers through some truly terrifying times. And, as her book tour from hell continues, the real-world tightrope-walking, razor’s-edge business of bookstores is revealed. (Book tour as the stuff of nightmares? Yup. It could happen. And, in my book, booksellers can be superheroes.)

So many wonderful books are set in bookstores — mysterious stores, scary ones, magical ones, dangerous ones. How many of these have you loved?

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

This is one of those books where you pound the desk with your fist, just for a moment, and allow yourself to be filled with envy — because this is such a brilliant idea! A bookstore owner and obsessive reader has compiled a list of the techniques in the most perfect murders in the genre — the ones in specific books by authors like Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith. Then the FBI shows up at his door because people are being killed exactly the same way as on his bookish list. Cue suspenseful music. So clever!

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Why do we read, and why does reading change our lives? And how can books connect us? I have to admit, I really held off reading this particular book — I had this feeling I would not like it. That turned out to be ridiculous. I was so wrong! I adore this book, and forgive me, Gabrielle Zevin, for doubting. This book — about a struggling owner of a struggling bookstore and the mysterious package that arrives — is a life-changing little miracle.

The Plot is Murder by V.M. Burns

What better place to set a cozy mystery than a bookstore? And the terrific Burns has a whole series of them, just right for fans to gobble up one after the other. In this first installment, Burns cooks up a book-in-a-book as the bookstore (a promise to the main character’s husband) finally opens. And then, of course, the plot of the book and the plot of the book-in-a-book take off in bookish ways, and the main character discovers the power of books to change her customers’ lives. And her own.

Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

It’s a lineage that is storytelling royalty — from The Shop Around the Corner to You’ve Got Mail to Battle of the Bookstores. One thing I absolutely adore about this brand-new book is that because of the lineage, we think we know what’s going to happen. I mean, we’ve all seen (and loved) You’ve Got Mail! And yet this only-one-bookstore-survives tale is contemporary and touching and witty and new. And very, very insidery. Here’s a sentence from chapter one, and I dare you to stop reading: “…the manager who earns the most profit during that period will be the manager of the new store. The other will be looking for a new job.” Let the bookish games begin!

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Open this book, and from honestly page one, you know you are in a magical place with magical stuff and even if you don’t quite know what the magic is or how it works at first, this crystalline and wonderful book about a mysterious bookseller weaves its spell over you instantly, and you are a happy captive on its pages. What is it about our imaginations that become captivated by a bookstore, in real life or on the page? This delightful and touching adventure will have you searching for your own special bookstore. And special book club. And who is Mr. Penumbra, anyway?

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan

I wish I could be inside Matthew Sullivan’s brain, just for a moment. I don’t know how he does it, or how his imagination works, or how he can create such a haunting, funny, witty, tragic, propulsive novel about a bookstore clerk who becomes a true heroine by solving a crime with clues from books. My little description is not doing it justice, and that is part of the joy. This debut novel will linger long after you close the final page, and you will never look at books and booksellers the same way.

If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Because it’s not only immersive, brilliant, genius writing, but also writing about reading, and how we read, and how and why we choose a book in a bookstore. And about what can happen next. Just go get this book, and have no expectations, and let yourself be drawn in. Calvino has tapped into our brains as readers, and the role of bookstores and booksellers, and we are utterly changed after reading it.

You by Carolyn Kepnes

Fine, fine, fine, you know that not every book about a bookseller is going to be magically, literarily, adorably romantic. Some are going to be downright creepy, and You wins the prize. Easily. This is one of the creepiest of the creepy, immersive and terrifying and with suspense at a level that will have you reading through the spaces between the fingers that are covering our eyes. Caroline Kepnes is a genius — and truly, this book will teach you to pay in cash at the bookstore so no creepy-but-handsome bookseller can Google your deets and follow you home.