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A Light in the Midst of Darkness: The Story of a Bookshop, a Community, and True Love

On the eve of Bookshop Santa Cruz's 50th anniversary, widely seen as one of the most vibrant and community-friendly independent bookstores in the nation, longtime Santa Cruz Sentinel arts editor and columnist Wallace Baine authors a love song to the power of books to enrich our lives in A Light in the Midst of Darkness: The Story of a Bookshop, a Community and True Love.

Baine tells the amazing and inspiring story of Neal and Candy Coonerty, who met at a Yeats conference in Ireland and went on to own Bookshop Santa Cruz, detailing how they turned the bookstore into a colorful and thriving hub of the Monterey Bay community. With their daughter now at the helm, the book chronicles Bookshop Santa Cruz’s 50 year history including surviving a devastating earthquake, the digital revolution, and the withering forces of contemporary American capitalism, ultimately standing as a beacon in the national independent bookstore movement.

A Light in the Midst of Darkness is a publication of Wellstone Books and kicks off Wellstone Books' "Support Your Local Independent” series. The publication of A Light in the Midst of Darkness celebrates Bookshop Santa Cruz’s 50th anniversary in November, 2016.

Neal Coonerty's Introduction

Read an excerpt.

For more information on Bookshop's 50th Anniversary Celebrations

About the Publisher

A Light in the Midst of Darkness: The Story of a Bookshop, a Community, and True Love is published by Wellstone Books, the publishing arm of the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods—a writer’s retreat center located in the Santa Cruz Mountains and run by Sarah Ringler and Steve Kettmann. Wellstone Books publishes four to eight titles a year, focusing on California fiction and personal writing that is not afraid to inspire. Bookshop Santa Cruz and the Wellstone Center have a strong partnership. From that starting point, we jointly decided to publish a book about the history of Bookshop Santa Cruz as example of the ways in which independent bookstores shape, and are shaped, by their communities. 

A Light in the Midst of Darkness: The Story of a Bookshop, a Community and True Love (Support Your Local Independent #1) By Wallace Baine Cover Image
$14.99
ISBN: 9780986189852
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Wellstone Books - November 15th, 2016