{"id":183510,"date":"2026-02-18T21:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183510\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T21:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:56:20","slug":"popular-bookstore-in-fresnos-chinatown-moving-to-south-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183510\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular bookstore in Fresno\u2019s Chinatown moving to South Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Judging by the Cover<\/a> bookstore \u2014 known for featuring books by women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community \u2014 is moving out of its Chinatown location and into a new home in the South Tower area of Fresno.<\/p>\n

Ashley Mireles-Guerrero, who owns the bookstore with her husband, Carlos Guerrero, says Judging by the Cover will relocate to 617 Fulton St., where it will host a grand opening event in May. The bookstore will be a retail tenant of the South Tower Community Land Trust<\/a>, which recently acquired the 2,300-square-foot building and is also building its headquarters there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to get stuff off the shelves as fast as possible,\u201d Mireles-Guerrero told The Fresno Bee on Thursday. \u201cThat way we don\u2019t have to re-box everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judging by the Cover opened<\/a> inside The Pop-Up Place, a micro-business incubator on F Street in Chinatown, in late 2024 after first operating as a pop-up business. The bookstore is known for offering literature that has been targeted for bans, putting on community events and for publicly taking a stand on social issues.<\/p>\n

The bookstore will announce a \u201cbig blowout sale\u201d before leaving Chinatown. Mireles-Guerrero is planning for the sale to align with Indie Bookstore Day, which is the last Saturday in April, or April 25 this year.<\/p>\n

\"Ashley Ashley Mireles-Guerrero is seen inside the Judging by the Cover bookstore in Fresno\u2019s Chinatown on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. Mireles-Guerrero owns the bookstore with her husband, Carlos Guerrero. ERIK GALICIA EGALICIA@FRESNOBEE.COM Judging by the Cover, South Tower Land Trust to have new home<\/p>\n

The bookstore\u2019s location in Chinatown\u2019s Pop-Up Place was always meant to be temporary, as incubators typically intend to help businesses get a start.<\/p>\n

Mireles-Guerrero said Judging by the Cover has been working on its move with the South Tower Community Land Trust since last year.<\/p>\n

Kiel Lopez-Schmidt, executive director of the land trust, said the organization is focused on community control of land for \u201cthe shared prosperity and health of the community.\u201d Typically, that involves investing in properties to create affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also there\u2019s a lot of need for community spaces and community-centered businesses within the Tower District,\u201d Lopez-Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

The land trust acquired the property last year. Renovation work is expected to begin soon on the building, which was built in the 1950s, and should be completed by late April, Lopez-Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

The bookstore will operate as a retail tenant of the land trust, which will also build its new headquarters inside the Fulton Street building. Lopez-Schmidt said many of Judging by the Cover\u2019s customers live in the area, and the new location will offer customers walkability.<\/p>\n

\"Latino Latino books are displayed at Judging by the Cover, an independent bookstore in Fresno\u2019s Chinatown. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com \"A A box of copies of the book \u201cNaming the Lost: The Fresno Poets\u201d arrives at Judging by the Cover, an independent bookstore in Fresno\u2019s Chinatown that offers many local titles. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com \"Book Book titles are displayed at Judging by the Cover, an independent bookstore in Fresno\u2019s Chinatown. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n

This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 5:17 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Erik Galicia<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea\u2019s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert. Erik\u2019s work is supported through the California Local News Fellowship program.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Judging by the Cover bookstore \u2014 known for featuring books by women, people of color and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[86735,112,86737,114,113,86738,86734,86736],"class_list":{"0":"post-183510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-bookstore-move","9":"tag-fresno","10":"tag-fresno-chinatown","11":"tag-fresno-headlines","12":"tag-fresno-news","13":"tag-indie-bookstore","14":"tag-judging-by-the-cover","15":"tag-south-tower"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}