Welcome back SHC! Over Easter break, I had the pleasure of taking a quick jaunt to the East Coast for a father-daughter trip, stopping at colleges, spending time with family and friends, and, of course, shopping for books! Each time I travel, the first thing I look up is the best bookstore to visit, not only because I’m a reader and love a great book, but because bookstores lead to coffee, which leads to pastries, which equates to cafés. And where there is a café, greenspace, and kitschy shops, a diverse community often follows: pro travel tip, look for a good bookstore–the rest of your trip will plan itself. Boston’s bookstores certainly did not disappoint!
Beacon Hill Books and Cafe, which opened back in 2022, sits on Charles Street with just a hop-skip-and-a-jump to Boston Public Garden, Newbury Street, and other iconic Boston neighborhoods. The bookstore and cafe found home within a renovated brownstone that has the bookstore taking up the top four floors and the cafe on the first floor, which can be accessed by its own separate entrance. The store never stops bustling. Perhaps the best part about the store is its atmosphere. However, each floor had perfect tranquility in its walls. One step and you feel transported back to 19th-century Boston, in which the upper-class blue-bloods would have walked into your own private library. Start on the second-floor-slash-entry-level to the bookstore and pick up some nonfiction or Beacon Hill merchandise; next, head upstairs to the fiction room where all-things romance, fantasy, sci-fi, coffee-table books, and more are found; and if you have little ones or are so inclined, climb to the fourth floor for the children’s and young adult section. Each room has something for everyone without feeling disconnected from the rest.
One delightful surprise, though, was the addition of Persephone Publishing House’s books. For those of you who do not look at labels when book-buying, Persephone Books is a British publishing company that features 154 underrepresented fiction and non-fiction writers of the 20th century. Whilst they center around female authors, their chief goal is to republicize all underrepresented authors. These minimalistic smoke covers with patterned interiors oozed sophistication and intrigue, so of course I had to pick up at least one!
At the end of the day, I ended up with Flush by Virgina Woolf, Don’t Look at Me Like That by Diana Athill, and Practice by Rosalind Brown (Persephone Books, New York Review Books, and Picador Publishing, respectively, for those curious) and a boatload of fun memories browsing the store with my dad. Next time you’re in Boston, take a few minutes (or hours, if you so please) to wander their shelves and get the quintessential Bostonian experience of books, coffee, and East-Coast architecture. Happy Spring!
x Simone
