Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama. and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore

As a former bookstore employee, current librarian and forever bookaholic, I found so much to relate to in this memoir of a life amongst books. I love the conversational, taken-into-confidence tone. I wish I lived in New England just to be able to visit Edwards books -- I know I'd love it there. If you are a book lover, a haunter of bookstores, and an observer of people, this is a must read! I have picked up a copy of Becoming Finola and look forward to reading the rest of Suzanne's books. She has made a fan for life!

Shea's setting is universal for American booklovers. It could be any bookstore in any small mall anywhere in the United States, but is, in reality, located in a small downtown Springfield, MA mall. It is a setting Shea knows very well because she grew up not far from this county seat, still lives in that same town, and is familar with the bookstore and friends with the owner. "Shelf Life" chronicles not only the ebb and flow of life in a small urban bookstore, but Shea's rise up from depression following breast cancer (see "Songs from a Lead-lined Room.") Working two short days per week Shea does what she does best - observes people and their approaches to things and life - while she arranges displays, unpacks orders and rings up purchases. Readers get an inside glimpse of how small independent bookstores work and some of the many "characters" who frequent them. Readers also are somewhat privy to Shea's attempt to get back to her writer's world and treated to flashbacks of early bookstore readings and signings (including her mother and friends' serving pierogi at the first) and Shea's love of Ireland as a place to visit, as oppposed to Poland. All this flashing back and forth made the book read a little uneven for me. At times I got the feeling that Shea was writing the book because this was a task she'd set for herself...she was laboring. But I'm glad that she did write it as I value her fortitude as well as characterizations of bookstore visitors and comments on the rise and fall of Springfield's downtown. Shea can be thought of as a "regional writer," or a "Polish regional writer," but what she writes is applicable to almost any region or culture in the U.S. She should be better known and more widely read than just in New England or just in Polish communities.

After beating breast cancer, Shea finds herself at a crossroads, not knowing quite how to step back into everyday life. So she gets a job at her favorite used bookstore, and in this book she tells of her adventures in reading and retail. The book is gently paced, which is what you would expect of a book about a bookstore. The book is filled with description and gently amusing stories from the trade, which makes it a good bathtime, teatime, or bedtime book. I think in places it was a little too gentle for me, which is why I read it in tandem with a faster paced book, but the sweetness and genuine love for books that is evident in Shea's writing made this a very enjoyable read.

Suzanne Strempek Shea has discovered what we librarians have known for a while: that dispensing books to the general public can be a rewarding experience. It can also put you into contact with a wide variety of people with a wide variety of interests and/or problems. Any one of us could write a book about it, and Suzanne has. She details her duties in her part-time job at an independent bookstore, where she began to work after surviving radiation treatments for cancer. Here she learns the tricks of the retail trade. She prepares displays for every holiday on the calendar. She watches consumer reactions to 9/11. And she figures out what to tell people who say that they're looking for "something that isn't going to make me think." In a way, her employment is as recuperative and as rehabilitating for her as it is to the customers buying from the store's self-help section.But the story isn't just about a bookstore in Springfield, Massachusetts. Suzanne also traces her own lifetime encounters with books, including those happy childhood days when the community bookmobile would visit her neighborhood. She tells us about the other bookstores she visits on book signing tours (she's published five other volumes) right down to the Polish pierogies that are served as refreshments. Here's a woman who's in love with every aspect of the written word and who conveys that emotion to us on every page.Anyone who frequents a library or a bookstore will be able to relate to Susanne's observations. You might even recognize yourself here! A light and entertaining read, right down to the nifty drawings that number the chapters. And it WILL make you occasionally think.

Suzanne's book captures the essence of life - good and bad times are at the fabric of everyone's life. Learning to work through the bad and capturing the good, found in abundance at Edwards Books. The characters are real and inspiring - reminding all of us that "I can do whatever I want". Read this book for inspiration or motivation or just enjoy meeting Janet, Flora and the other cast of characters found at the local book store.