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L-R, Susan Ito and Kathleen Caldwell of A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland celebrate the release of Ito\u2019s memoir \u201cI Would Meet You Anywhere\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\nAnother\u00a0local independent\u00a0bookstore\u00a0is closing its doors. Kathleen Caldwell, owner of\u00a0Montclair Village\u2019s beloved A Great Good Place for Books\u00a0in Oakland, will close the shop in June.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Making the decision was heartbreaking for Caldwell, who says, \u201cWhen you\u2019re putting more into the store than you\u2019re taking out \u2014 you know, we can put a Band-Aid on it again, but it\u2019s been a really hard six years.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caldwell, who\u00a0inherited the\u00a0store\u00a0two decades ago from her friend\u00a0Debi Echlin,\u00a0said\u00a0shoppers got used to mail-ordering books and did not return to in-person shopping after the pandemic, as\u00a0she\u2019d\u00a0hoped.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other\u00a0East Bay stores\u00a0that\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0survive post-COVID include Books Inc. (acquired by Barnes & Noble in September 2025), Half Price\u00a0Books,\u00a0and Eastwind\u00a0Books in Berkeley.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caldwell\u00a0posted on Instagram: \u201cOne of the great joys of my life has been my role at the helm of Montclair Village\u2019s Great Good Place for the past 22 years. I have loved being a part of your community, watching your children grow up, being their safe place, turning you on to that book I just\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0put down and introducing you to the authors who have set your imaginations on fire. Sadly,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0time for me to step away. Through many tears, difficult conversations, and sleepless nights I have decided to close A Great Good\u00a0Place for\u00a0Books in the weeks ahead. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know what my next chapter looks like, but I hope many of you will still be a part of it. Thank you for an amazing ride; who knew GGP was everything I never knew I wanted?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
L-R, Susan Ito and Kathleen Caldwell of A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland celebrate the release of Ito\u2019s memoir \u201cI Would Meet You Anywhere\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n
When\u00a0Caldwell\u00a0took over the store, she\u00a0immediately\u00a0began to put her stamp on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI made it more family-oriented and carried more rom-com-y stuff; my reading preferences are probably more contemporary books,\u201d she says. The most \u201cKathleen\u201d part of her bookshop features literary\u00a0rom-coms\u00a0by authors such\u00a0as\u00a0Carly Fortune and\u00a0Taylor\u00a0Jenkins\u00a0Reid. \u201cThose are the books I really love,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She adds,\u00a0\u201cI expanded the children\u2019s section to about a third of the store.\u201d\u00a0Patrons love\u00a0the lively children\u2019s area\u00a0section in the back,\u00a0home to\u00a0innumerable\u00a0story\u00a0sessions throughout the years.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caldwell\u00a0also hosted\u00a0special groups, local\u00a0authors\u00a0and internationally acclaimed writers.\u00a0She\u00a0especially loved visits by Reid, Sean Greer, Annabelle\u00a0Monahan,\u00a0and Lauren Groff, who came for\u00a0each\u00a0of her books except the last one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a wild ride \u2014 I\u2019ve had a lot of\u00a0people through\u00a0here,\u201d Caldwell\u00a0says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frances Dinkelspiel, author of \u201cTangled Vines\u201d and\u00a0co-founder of\u00a0the digital newspaper\u00a0Berkeleyside, says, \u201cThe closure of A Great Good\u00a0Place for\u00a0Books is a huge blow for the literary community. Kathleen has been incredibly generous, always willing to host author events and champion local authors. She talks up the work of Bay Area writers so much that their book sales soar. She and her store will be missed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caldwell, who grew up in Pleasant\u00a0Hill,\u00a0always\u00a0has\u00a0been an\u00a0avid reader. She says,\u00a0\u201cNo matter how little we had, my mom never said no to a book.\u201d\u00a0She\u00a0remembers\u00a0shopping at the indie Larry\u2019s Books\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0B.\u00a0Dalton\u00a0in the mall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though she\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0sure\u00a0where the future will lead\u00a0her,\u00a0she\u00a0hopes to\u00a0stay\u00a0in the book industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While she\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0compare herself to\u00a0Kathleen,\u00a0the bookshop owner-children\u2019s book\u00a0author in \u201cYou\u2019ve Got Mail,\u201d\u00a0she says,\u00a0laughing, \u201cWe\u2019re watching that movie tonight as part of rom-com night, which we do every Thursday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She adds,\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0write kids\u2019 books, but\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0love to be able to write and make a living at it. You never know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Supporters have set up a\u00a0Go Fund Me to help Caldwell.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n A Great Good Place for Books is at\u00a06120 La Salle Ave., Oakland; visit\u00a0https:\/\/ggpbooks.com\/.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The post Kathleen Caldwell closes the book on Oakland\u2019s \u2018Great Good Place\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Local News Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another\u00a0local independent\u00a0bookstore\u00a0is closing its doors. Kathleen Caldwell, owner of\u00a0Montclair Village\u2019s beloved A Great Good Place for Books\u00a0in Oakland,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-323811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323811","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=323811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}