Welcome to this new baby bookstore! We gratefully acknowledge that we work on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, səlilwətaɬ, and sḵwx̱wú7mesh peoples.
I'm Nena, and I began working in independent bookstores in 1995. I've worked in several and had the privilege of owning St. Johns Booksellers in Oregon for ten years. I'm queer, Lebanese-American, a parent, an editor, occasionally even a publisher. I arrived in Vancouver in 2016.
My young adult children grew up in my old shop. Since we arrived in Vancouver, they've been pointing out vacant buildings, asking which ones I think might make good bookstores. I kept shaking my head, because I had promised myself and them that if there was ever a next time, it would be different. Then about ten months ago, I was offered a chance to have a bookstore again--if I could swing it. Amazingly, after a long and fraught process, with the support of my family and a community of reading and writing friends formed over 28 years in books, it's about to happen at last.
So this is how we start out: a bare-bones, temporary website where you can begin to get to know us as we languish on a waiting list for installation of a richer book database. We'll be adding books by hand for now, and cheerfully taking requests for the books you'd like to see. We welcome mail orders within North America. And in a few weeks, we'll move into our brick-and-mortar space in Vancouver. We look forward to meeting you in person!
Please do fill in the subscription box at the bottom of this page, or shoot us an email, and we'll keep you posted about our plans for opening! In the meantime, please ask for the books you don't see here, and we'll hook you up! Or pick up a gift card and come see us when we open our doors! Your support will mean the world to us as we get this baby bookstore launched.