3.5 trending toward 4. What happens when an author goes to work in a bookstore? She makes a beautiful, noticeable display of her own books, to start with. Suzanne Shea's nonfiction account of a year at Edwards Bookstore, an indie mecca in Springfield, MA is both touching and interesting and speaks to the power of a bookstore to both bolster a community and foster community. She calls a bookstore a place that sells "ideas, stories, encouragement, answers, solace, validation, the basic ammunition for daily life." Suzanne has her own personal reasons to take off a year of writing -- she is recovering from cancer -- and when her friend, Janet, Edwards proprietor, calls with a job offer this seems like another angle on healing. The year's passing is indicated through store displays that highlight the holidays and also measure Suzanne's growth and progress. Reclusive at first, she soon embraces the bookstore "family" of employees and regular shoppers -- some who come in daily for their newspapers and other simple pleasures that emphasize how vital a good bookstore can be in a neighborhood. Suzanne brings some innovative ideas that help boost sales -- she is kind of a guru, having been in hundreds of bookstores for signings and readings(shout out to Women and Children First in Chicago, and Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park) -- and the place is transformed, and so reciprocally is she. This happens to be 2001, so the 9/11 attacks are particularly poignant with the heavy death toll intersecting with her own recovery arc. "....change is the only guaranteed story element." (220) she acknowledges. Because Shea is a thorough writer, there is some extraneous detail here about how to conduct inventory, order books, unpack them, etc which feels like minutiae better left to the actual worker than just the wanna-be reader -- like learning how sausage gets made-- better to not know. An entertaining read about a mutually beneficial relationship. ( )

http://www.literaryfeline.com/2011/06/from-archives-mini-reviews-from-april.html ( )

Author Suzanne Shea, shortly after battling cancer, is at a loss for what to do when her friend, a proprietress of a bookstore, calls her up needing help - Shea jumps at the opportunity and begins working at the bookstore, collecting a year's worth of reminiscences in this story.

I initially was intrigued as a book-lover myself. I work at a library, and one of the high points of my day is when the holds appear. After working there for nearly two years, I'm able to guess which book is whose even before I scan it and find out definitively. Then, of course, is the joy of finding a new book someone brings to the counter, or fielding the questions, "I'm looking for a book. It has a blue cover, I think? I don't know the title. Can you find it?". And, of course, there is my own love of bookstores - mostly independently-owned used bookshops half-hidden away with reader prodigy owners who can tell you exactly what you'd like.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't really that. The bookstores Shea loves and lovingly details are the brand new, glossy kinds where, as she mentions, the furniture has a price tag and there are more candles, tarot cards, and wind chimes for sale than there are books. While I'm no bookshop snob and have been known to while away the hours at Barnes & Noble, it does put a hamper on the more esoteric stories waiting to be told; this read more like working in retail than working in a bookstore, specifically. (And if you think they're the same, allow me to assure you that they are not - no customer of Macy's comes in later because they wanted to tell you how much they loved their blouse, or spends hours sitting on the floor, staring at the latest pair of shoes).

Additionally, Shea often goes for pages on things only tangentially related. There are two pages filled with a list of all the magazines carried, with little else. There are pieces of history that, while I'm sure were interesting to somebody, bored me to tears. And Shea's own experiences book touring were interesting, they weren't why I picked up the book.

Occasionally she did have the kind of anecdotes I was expecting - a pilot who wanders in looking for a book on rekindling love, a man who forgets his dentures at the counter, but they were few and far between.

I'm glad that Shea found something at the bookstore that gave her guidance, particularly after facing cancer. I can't even imagine and I wish her the best of luck. However, I just can't say this book lived up to the title or my expectations. ( )

When the author was recovering from cancer, she took a part time job for a year in a bookstore. She tells about the customers and the ins & outs of running a successful independent bookstore, including little trivia like, setting up the season displays, setting up and rotating the cards, what gets placed & does well as impulse buys, as well as detailing what life is like on a book tour. Very informative and interesting! ( )

Who here wouldn't want to work around books all day?! As for me, I'm headed to a library, about as close as you can get to a bookstore without opening your purse. Shelf Life is a perfect book forall of us book-crazed people...helping people find books...meetingauthors..."hafta" reads for kids in school....Recommended. ( )