Your guide to Independent Bookstore Day 📚 Plus, seven new releases

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April 20, 2025

Mark your calendars: Next Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day! More than 1,200 stores across the country are participating, and 11 of them are right here in the Madison area.

Arcadia Books (Spring Green), The Book Deal, Kismet Books (Verona), Ink Cap Books (Stoughton), Ink & Ivy Book Boutique, Lake City Books, Leopold's Books Bar Caffè, Madison Paperbacks, Mystery to Me, Republic of Letters (Mineral Point) and A Room of One's Own are teaming up to offer a few special deals on April 26.

A raffle. For each store visited, shoppers get one entry in a raffle to win a gift card to one of the participating stores. (So, if you visit all 11 stores, that's 11 total entries.) 11 shoppers will win a $50 gift card and 11 more will win a $25 gift card.
A commemorative art print. A local youth artist, Stella Balsley, has created a 5-by-7 inch print, which all participating stores will be giving out as a keepsake to shoppers visiting on April 26. Supplies are limited.
A Golden Ticket for free audiobooks. Search among the shelves for a Golden Ticket, which will earn the finder 12 free audiobooks from Libro.fm, an indie-supported audiobook platform.

You'll find unique specials at each of the participating stores, too — a free gift with every purchase at Lake City Books, a bookstore scavenger hunt at Mystery to Me, a gift card drawing at Madison Paperbacks, a complimentary glass of prosecco with every purchase at Leopold's Books Bar Caffè, hourly local author visits at Ink Cap Books and more.

Writing about this day of celebration for local indie bookstores reminded me of Doug Moe's column from our March 2025 issue. Doubters have been predicting the death of brick-and-mortar bookstores for more than a decade, but Madison continues to prove that bookstores aren't just surviving, but thriving. The success of our local bookstores is, as Moe writes, evidence of "the city's appetite for the printed word."

I read plenty of rented eBooks and audiobooks, and my shelves have a fair proportion of thrifted and gifted books among those I've bought. But there's something special about shopping in-person. I'm more likely to pick up something outside of my usual comfort zone, like "King" by Jonathan Eig, which I bought on impulse at Three Bells Books in Mason City, Iowa or "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert, which was recommended to me at Viroqua's Metaphysical Graffiti. Looking at the spines of books bought on road trips or special occasions brings back cherished memories: My boyfriend bought "Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby Van Pelt for me on my 23rd birthday at River Lights Bookstore in Dubuque, Iowa. "Coop" by Michael Perry, bought at Arcadia Books in Spring Green, was a gift I bought myself to mark being hired full-time at Madison Magazine.

Watching Madison's indie bookstore community grow — from eight participating in Indie Bookstore Day last year to 11 this year — reminds me that I'm not the only one that feels that way.

Also in this month's newsletter:
🚌 A Bookmobile in Middleton and a new pop-up shop for books and records
🔎 My review of a thriller series set in the Maine woods
✍️ Madison's poet laureate discusses his debut poetry collection

Anna Kottakis is digital editor at Madison Magazine. She curates this monthly newsletter. Reach her at akottakis@madisonmagazine.com.

Hot off the press from the current issue of Madison Magazine

The cover and spread of Madison Magazine's May issue.

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People have been recording travel experiences for thousands of years, but the practice of journaling can make even the most well-trodden path feel like it's unique to you. Our editorial team set out on our road trips — to Mineral Point, Lake Geneva and Eagle River, respectively — with travel notebooks and instant cameras in hand.

Find the issue

On Storybook Hill

Throughout her decades-long career, Renée Graef has illustrated over 80 children's books (including American Girl's "Meet Kirsten" books, which Graef drew in collaboration with Pleasant Rowland). In this issue, Graef shows us around her studio, housed in a historic Mineral Point schoolhouse that she's lovingly named Storybook Hill.

Spotlight in print: Read this issue's Editor's Pick

The cover of "Shelter and Storm" by Tamara Dean.

"Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless" is a collection of 12 essays drawing on Madison-based author Tamara Dean's outdoors-focused upbringing. Dean takes on the climate crisis, the shifting landscape of our farm country and divisive politics as she offers ideas for living a sustainable, small-scale, biodiverse life.

Dean will discuss the new book on April 24 at the UW Arboretum.

Published by the University of Minnesota Press, release date April 22.

Favorites from past issues

Have you heard of Baldwin's Books & Records yet? The new pop-up is a Black and trans-owned business with a special focus on diverse literature and media. Find them this summer at Picnic on the Patio, a new open-air market for Eken Park vendors on April 22, June 17 and July 29. (Bloom Bake Shop, Cafe Domestique and Young Blood Beer Co. are the other confirmed vendors.)

If you're doing some bookshelf spring cleaning, the business is currently accepting like-new and lightly used books, records and other media, particularly those which celebrate queer, BIPOC and marginalized communities.

Another exciting recent development for Dane County book-lovers came on April 12 when the Middleton Public Library unveiled their new Bookmobile. To see the new "library on wheels" (which holds approximately 1,000 items), head to a family-friendly Earth Day event on April 26 at Middleton Community Church.

I do occasionally get to read books by authors beyond Wisconsin's borders. Here's what's on my reading stack this month.

Over the last three years, my dad and I have read all 28 books in the Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box. When I searched for a similar series — and a way to continue my inadvertent "book club" with my dad — I discovered Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch series. Both series feature a stubborn, lovable game warden solving crimes in a beautiful and ruthless wilderness. Doiron's series is just as addictive, and his description of Maine's woods, coasts and bogs is lush and immersive.

(A note for the audiobook lovers: David Chandler's narration of the Joe Pickett series is extraordinary, in my opinion.)

New book releases, author events and other local literary news

In his memoir "Ginseng Roots" (releasing April 29), Craig Thompson weaves his childhood memories of weeding and harvesting ginseng on rural Wisconsin farms with the 300-year history of the global ginseng trade.
"The Thief of Words" by Anthony Bukoski (releasing May 1) is a collection which follows the Polish American communities of northern Wisconsin and Louisiana, where World War II refugees were resettled.
The collection of stories in "Never Stop Exiting," the latest from Michael Hopkins (releasing May 1) is kaleidoscopic, following a baseball pitcher, a young amputee, a couple dealing with an Alzheimer's-afflicted father and more.
"Urban Trails: Madison" by Andrea Debbink (releasing May 1) guides readers through 40 local trails, from lakeshore walks to hiking on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
In "Lunkers, Keepers, and Ones that Got Away" (releasing May 6), UW–Madison professor emeritus Jerry Apps reflects on a lifetime of fishing — and the memories and lessons netted along the way.
Tom Alesia follows the Madison Mallards' entertaining 25-year history in "Baseball Like It Oughta Be" (releasing May 20).
When thrill seeker and treasure hunter Max Nohl died suddenly in 1960, his complete memoir sat, unpublished, in the Milwaukee Public Library Archives — until now. "I Live Underwater" (releasing May 20) is a posthumous record of an extraordinary life.

Seven upcoming author events and workshops

Book Launch Party with Erin Gleeson at Garth's Brew Bar (1726 Monroe St.) | April 27, 4-6 p.m.
Author Talk: Ali Novak at Lake City Books (107 N. Hamilton St.) | April 28, 7-8 p.m.
Writing workshop with Zara Chowdhary at A Room of One's Own Bookstore (2717 Atwood Ave.) | April 29, 6-8 p.m.
An evening with Jennifer Chiaverini at Mystery to Me (1863 Monroe St.) | April 29, 6 p.m.
Ben Riggs at Ink Cap Books (220 W. Main St, Stoughton) | May 3, 4 p.m.
Doug Moe in conversation with Stuart Levitan at Mystery to Me (1863 Monroe St.) | May 8, 6-7 p.m.
Madison Public Library's 150th Anniversary parties (various locations) | May 10, 17, 31