Once upon a time—that catchphrase from childhood. But doesn’t it always have a way of sneaking into our brains and wooing us, no matter how old we are? Six, sixteen, sixty, and beyond—where will that simple phrase lead us? To La Mancha with Don Quixote in Cervantes’ classic tale? Or Navarre with Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorsen in Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing? Whether we read the classics, mysteries, or modern romantasy, “once upon a time,” even if unstated, inevitably draws us inward, outward, or onward.
As Lewis Buzbee mentions in The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, we are “alone together” when we read. We are together with other worldwide readers of the same book, even though each person reads in solitude. We are together with our new-found, or familiar, literary friends. No longer are they just figments of the author’s imagination or just black marks on a page or screen. From the pages of well-written books, the characters stroll into our space and enact their lives in our imagination. Sometimes, we can literally see them—almost.
Beloved Bookshops
In this enjoyable memoir, Buzbee gives a brief history of the book trade and booksellers through history. He then guides us on a trip to his favorite bookstores-ones at which he worked and ones he’s visited as a sales representative. Even those he’s visited as a bibliophile in search of a good book to read. Buzbee never met a bookstore he didn’t like. One can almost see him slowly strolling down the aisles with a few books under his arm. Anything from a new release to a book he’s always wanted and just found on the “remainders” table. Or see him sitting in the café, if the shop has one, and thoroughly enjoying his finds while sipping coffee.
I’ve read The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop three times, now. I’ve savored it immensely each time I’ve read it. For me at least, it doesn’t get stale with rereading.
The Yellow-Lighted Bookstore
by Lewis Buzbee
© 2006
Greywolf Press
For lovers of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, such as I, 
In Dance Noir: The Latin Beauty, Tom Riggins brings the 1930s to life. Under his skillful pen, Sacramento, California, comes alive with speakeasies, dancing, and life lived on a boat docked under a bridge. There’s also Selena, a beautiful woman caught in a tough situation. Did she kill her husband as the police suspect? Can she be helped by Nick Gazelle, an aging former cop turned private investigator?
Ken Courtenay’s The Case of the Man Who Died Twice: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure seizes the reader’s attention and does not let go. This novel’s pace and plot lure the reader into a London filled with misadventure and arrogance.
From London to England’s Lake District to Edinburgh, Scotland, Sherlock Holmes and his reliable companion, Dr. John Watson, are always ready to solve the case. In David MacGregor’s Sherlock Holmes Takes the Case: Eight Tales of Mystery and Intrigue, the detecting duo travels great lengths in search of intrigue and crime. For example, they research a case of tiny coffins found on Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh in “The Adventure of the Scottish Coffins.” They uncover fraud in “The Amateur Mendicant Society.” Mudlarking in the Thames in London dirties Holmes’ boots in one of the stories. They uncover how an ancient Egyptian scroll went missing in “The Adventure of the Alexandrian Scroll.” And Holmes diverts attention by suggesting multiple solutions in a stabbing in “Death at Simpson’s.”
Why are children dying when wallpaper from Henderson and Company is hung in their bedrooms? Could there be something wrong? But why aren’t any parents talking about it?
With Shadow at the Morgue, 
If you like historical fiction and/or mysteries, 
Violet Chase, the protagonist of The Nomad Detective, Volume I, by 
The six stories in Orlando Pearson’s The Redacted Sherlock Holmes Volume III are a mixed bag. In some stories, such as and “The Book-Thief and the Blitz,” Holmes seems slow and withdrawn. In fact, Watson reports at one point,” Holmes spent the time we had in a daze.”