Around Indies

Maple Street Book Shop Plans Expansion

This summer, Maple Street Book Shop, in New Orleans, Louisiana, will be expanding into two additional locations in historic New Orleans neighborhoods. The Faubourg Marigny shop — slated to open in late June — will be located within the New Orleans Healing Center. The Faubourg St. John location is scheduled to open later in the summer.

In a message posted on the bookstore’s blog, Fighting the Stupids, owner Donna Allen wrote that there were a variety of reasons for her decision to open the new locations, “none the least of which is that the rate of illiteracy in New Orleans is unacceptable. It’s nearly twice the national average. How can this be in our wonderful city? Literacy is vital to the growth and well-being of any community, whether that community is a well established one located near universities or one having to rebuild itself from the ground up after a massive disaster. Maple Street Book Shop has always been a neighborhood book shop and as New Orleans continues to rebuild its neighborhoods, we want to be there to offer the residents a source for quality literature, a source for affordable reading materials, a source for reading materials in all formats, and a place for literary events.”

The River’s End Turns 13

On Wednesday, May 18, The River’s End Bookstore in Oswego, New York, marked its 13^th anniversary with the launch a new IndieCommerce website, which owners Bill Reilly and Mindy Ostrow said would help them better serve current and future readers and writers.

To celebrate, the bookstore served refreshments and offered customers a 13 percent discount on in-stock paperback titles.

Powell’s and City Lights Inspire

Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, and City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, California, are featured on Salon’s list of “The World’s Most Inspiring Bookstores.”

The slide show, which is part of Trazzler, Salon’s Sunday feature spotlighting travel stories, lists impressive and inspiring bookstores from around the world. Powell’s is described as “heaven for literature lovers,” with a 68,000-square-foot space occupying a whole city block stacked with books. City Lights, “a literary monument to San Francisco’s beatnik past,” is featured for its extensive inventory of left-leaning works of fiction, history, politics, spirituality, and most notably, poetry.