Shea works at a book store in Springfield Massachusetts, but really she is a novelist, and her memoir shows it as she describes the customers, their requests and reactions, and her thoughts on it all. Interspersed are her impressions of other bookstores where she visited on her tour, and memories of earlier bookstores and libraries. But at the center is the store itself, identical to all small independent bookstores in having its own unique personality. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

To fill the time as she recovered from cancer and chemotherapy, Strempek Shea volunteered at a friend?s independent bookstore in Springfield, Mass. An accomplished novelist (Around Again; Lily of the Valley), Strempek Shea felt at first like a spy??a farmer hanging around the dairy section??as she observed customers in constant discovery of books. Despite the bleak reason for her new job, she embraced it with delight and here recounts her sojourn at Edwards Books with humor and passion. Not a great deal happens though, even during the coverage of 9/11. She looks at the small, independent bookstore, and how it stays in business. Although she can?t help making fun of the inane questions she?s sometimes asked (?What would you recommend for a flight to California? I?ll be sleeping most of the time?), she lovingly portrays devoted book folks, such as ?the tiny older woman who arrives on her payday to buy two or three more mysteries. The young woman who received the call that the latest of the Gothic novels her mother collects have arrived.? The author also shares droll, albeit tacitly self-promoting, insights on the tour for her latest book (?there are maybe forty people at my reading, and I even know two of them!?). As readers absorb the life of the bookstore and author, many will be tempted to look for the titles she drops throughout the work. Book enthusiasts who pine for a friendly, like-minded community will love this light, funny memoir. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In this memoir, Shea continues the narrative begun in Songs from a Lead-Lined Room, detailing her experiences working in a local bookstore to occupy her time while she recovers from breast cancer. She recounts her memories with humor and wit, showing the reader why the book provides "the basic ammunition for daily life." Shea's own experiences as a writer are blended with the everyday details of working in a bookstore. The result is an engaging mix of memories that readers will no doubt be able to appreciate-from Shea's anxieties about how her own book will sell to her concerted efforts to help customers find just the right title for their situation. The author also remembers fondly how her love of books began: with the neighborhood bookmobile and the librarians who were "straight from central casting, with cat-eye glasses and sweaters draped over the shoulder and held with pearly clips." This is a quick read, best suited for public libraries with browsing collections.-Valeda F. Dent, Hunter Coll. Lib., New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

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