“The owners knew the shop's days were numbered, but the pandemic has forced its final chapter.”
Rhythm & Co. Books is opening soon at 101 Elm Street on the historic square in Glen Rose. You can follow their progress—and bookshop-dog Rosie—on their Facebook page.
Market Square Bookshop is an independent, woman-led local business. According to their website, as members of the downtown Houston community, they wanted to share their love of reading by providing a neighborhood bookshop. Currently, Market Square Bookshop is online only, with free delivery within the designated Houston Metro area. Shipment is available to customers outside the Metro area. A physical bookstore is in the works for downtown. Currently, Market Square Books offers a monthly Literary Lit Book Box subscription, virtual story time on Tuesdays at 10 a.m., and the Inspired by History Book Club. A new Urban Reads book club is planned to begin in January 2021.
Kindred Stories is a bookstore coming soon to the Third Ward in Houston. They are currently on bookshop.org, where they write that they “seek to curate a safe space where the beautiful works shaped and molded by Black authors are more accessible to the underserved but culturally thriving community of Third Ward.”
As Houston gains two new bookshops, they’re losing a legend. River Oaks Bookstore, in business for forty-seven years, will close at the end of 2020. Jeanne Jard, who was one of the original founders in 1974, still helps out at the bookshop, but had passed on daily operations to her son Michael Jones and his wife, Josie. The Houston Chronicle reported that when novel coronavirus hit this year, the bookshop "started delivering books and doing curbside pickup to protect its older clientele, among the highest risk for Covid-19. The owners knew the shop's days were numbered, but the pandemic has forced its final chapter."
Whitney Andrews Corson, who has worked at the store for the last seven years, made the announcement on Facebook:
“More than just a job, the Bookstore – and helping to run it – became not only a passion and a calling, but a family and a second home to me as well. The pride and joy I feel for the work I do, for this place and these people, is immense. There are no words to explain what is has meant to me, and to a community . . . But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. After nearly forty-seven years in business, River Oaks Bookstore will close at the end of this year. When our doors close, a huge part of my life – all of our lives – will close with it.
But, yes, we will be okay. Life is always changing. Change is what brought me to the Bookstore. So, yes, we will be just fine.
What I really want to say, is this: I am grateful.”
You can click on the above link to read the entire post—find your tissues first.
In Austin, 12th Street Books has closed their physical location. They plan to reopen the shop in another location in late 2020 or early 2021, so please check back for updates. Until then, 12th Street is still buying, selling, and appraising fine books. They can be contacted here: mailto:orders@12thStreetBooks.com
Meanwhile, Amazon has opened an Amazon Books in the Baybrook Mall in Friendswood, between Houston and Galveston. It is Amazon's twenty-fourth Amazon Books store and its second in Texas.
If you’ve got bookstore news, please let us know all about it by sending an email to mailto:info@lonestarliterary.com!
