I adore bookstores. I can get happily lost in them for hours, and leave with a lighter wallet and a heavy shopping bag. While I love living here in Auburn, Alabama, one of the things I miss the most is having an independent bookstore in town. There isn't one for miles and miles. And miles. It's Books-a-Million or bust, and trust me, they get A LOT of my money.

The very best independent bookstores are a boon to their communities. They can draw readings with big names and small, host reading groups and workshops, and are staffed by avid readers who know exactly which are the compelling new books for the season, support the excellent indie presses, and play host to all those wonderful authors on tour year round.  They attend bookseller events, meet authors, and hustle to support their stores, the literary world, and their communities. They are heroes to the arts, truly.

For that reason, every time I visit Miami I make sure to squeeze in a trip to my favorite bookstore on the planet--Books & Books.

Run my Mitchell Kaplan and Cristina Nosti, Books & Books is the literary heart and soul of Miami.

Stop by at any given time and you'll see some of Miami's best writers perusing the shelves, or eating at the café. MFA students from the University of Miami and Florida International University can often be found there talking about craft and books and their classes. Children run in and out of their gorgeous children's section, and locals stop by for a drink at the bar in the evenings (yes. It's a bookstore with a bar. You see why I love this place so? It's so very cool).

I gave my first reading ever at Books & Books back in 2005, when I was newly pregnant and newly published. It was a wonderful, exhilarating time, and you can read about it here.

I've seen some of the greats at Books & Books--Cristina Garcia, Edwidge Danticat--listened to plenty of newbies, too. Mitchell and Cristina welcome them all, which isn't something all top-notch bookstore do. There are many stores (names I won't share, but grr...GRRR) who won't book a writer until he or she has a National Book Award, or a Pulitzer, or has shared a couch with Oprah. Typically, these stores like to hire people with British accents to man the register. There are more of these kinds of stores than you'd imagine. Books & Books, delightfully, is both welcoming AND impressive.

I mean, LOOK AT IT:







Stunning, inside and out.

And I get to go back this Friday, September 5th, at 8 p.m. for a reading from A Falling Star. I'm so very appreciative to Mitchell and Cristina for the opportunity to come back (and I hope I can do it again for THE DISTANT MARVELS next year!).

For those of you in South Florida, please come! I'll try to be entertaining. For those of you out of town, they're going to live stream the event (I know. Shut up. I love this place so hard). You can find that on their website.

And if you can't do either, perhaps you'll be inspired to visit your local indie. Buy a book or two, chat up the people who work there, tweet or post about your favorite indie bookstore, and, to use a Southern expression, love on them a little.

Mañana, Miami-bound!