Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriet’s Bookshop

Cook (It’s Me They Follow) delivers an inspiring account of opening an independent bookstore in Philadelphia just weeks before the 2020 Covid-19 shutdowns. Growing up with a terminally ill father and a blind librarian mother, Cook found solace in reading and nurtured a lifelong dream of running a bookstore of her own: “I realize now that part of building the bookshop is me seeking to build a home for those who need one again and again,” she writes. After quitting her three jobs to realize that dream in February 2020, Covid hit. Suddenly, Cook faced a litany of financial and practical obstacles to keeping Harriet’s Bookshop—half-ironically named after Harriet Tubman, who couldn’t read—alive. Blending memoir and manifesto, she organizes the account around letters to historical figures including Tubman and Josephine Baker, personal essays about the ups and downs of owning a bookstore, and potent reflections on 2020’s racial justice protests, which underscored Cook’s desire to carve out a safe haven for her community. The survival of the bookstore, and its recognition with a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures award, provides the memoir with a satisfying conclusion. This triumphant tale will inspire book lovers of all stripes. Agent: Marie Brown, Marie Brown Assoc. (Mar.)