The Novel Neighbor — Attraction in Webster Groves

I love The Novel Neighbor! It's wonderful to have an awesome female-owned indie bookstore in the STL area. The shop is just so profoundly charming: you can tell a great deal of time, thought, and care has gone into every detail, making the shop a tremendously inviting, pleasant place to browse and explore. Their selection of books is excellent (I always really appreciate their staff recommendation section, and the personalized recommendations from staff members you'll find throughout the store: they give a great, thoughtful reviews of books they recommend.)

The shop's dedication to inclusivity and diversity is also wonderful: there are always extensive displays and book recommendations for Pride, Black History Month, Women's History Month, etc., and their commitment to consistently highlighting authors of color, queer authors, authors of different abilities, etc. all year round is so much appreciated and so important. (They also go all out for Banned Books Week, which you love to see!)

The range of gifts for book lovers they have is tremendous (great journals, candles, bookmarks, stickers, and so much more--if you like Austen or the Brontes, prepare to drop a lot of money on adorable tchotchkes), and the staff is always so friendly and helpful--they really take the time to help each customer, and connect folks with books they'll love.

I also love their Mystery Box option (where you pick a price point and offer a description of the types of books you're interested in, and then staff members select books for you.) I've given Mystery Boxes as gifts to friends numerous times, and the selections they've received have always been new to them, and deeply enjoyed!

The events they host are also fantastic (they get so many wonderful authors to come to the store!), and they offer a wide range of in-person and online book clubs for just about any interest and genre (and their selections for these book clubs are also great!) That they have an associated charity, The Noble Neighbor, which works to provide books to students in area schools, also says a lot about the value they place on providing access to books to all readers.

Though visitors of any gender can (and will!) enjoy The Neighbor, I really appreciate how richly the store celebrates and lifts up female-identified authors and historically-female-dominated genres. (For example, it's not every store which has a really robust, diverse, and thoughtfully curated romance section and a romance book club!) This is a space in which women, femmes, and the feminine are really affirmed and valued, which is not always the case in bookish spaces (I've definitely been to shops in my travels where the focus remains on Great White Male Authors, and visiting author lineups only feature Current White Male Authors): it's great to see the shop highlight so many female-identified authors in their book selection, and bring a diverse range of female-identified writers for their events.

If you're a book lover in the STL area, the Neighbor is...

I called The Novel Neighbor from where I live in Baltimore because my mom was unexpectedly in the hospital at BJC and was in desperate need for a book she had already started at home, plus maybe one more, just in case the docs kept her there longer. The gift shop in the hospital didn't have any books when I called, so I randomly Googled local bookstores when I saw that some delivered. When I called, about 40 mins. before closing time on Wed. night, May 17, I had the great good fortune of speaking to Heather. Heather knew immediately that they had a copy of the book, signed by the author no less and, when I asked for a mystery-thriller too (naming a few sample authors), she selected a perfect one by an author my mom likes - even though his wasn't one of the names I reeled off. This speaks to Heather's deep knowledge of books, genres, and authors. You'd think that would be great enough service, but noooo. Heather bagged up those 2 books and, even after working all day (and this being late at night), she delivered them straight into my mom's hands at the hospital on her own time - and wouldn't take a tip for this when I made the payment. She just said for us to come visit The Novel Neighbor next time we were in town. My mom told the nurses, the doctors, and every family member (locally & out of state) about Heather's awesome generosity and kindness, above and beyond. Everyone was in awe and Heather is now a total LEGEND to us all. My mom was able to distract herself from the tedium, pain, and constant medical interruptions by reading a good book. I'm about to order a couple more books from them - rather than Amazon - for both my mom and myself. Support local bookstores! And thank you, Heather and The...

The Novel Neighbor is AMAZING! For Christmas this year, I decided to buy a monthly subscription box for my wife. I had ordered it early December and was confused when it had not shown up by Christmas, but wasn't too worried considering I had already paid for it. On December 30th, I decided to call in and check on it just to see if there was something wrong. I talked to Kassie, and asked about my "mystery box" subscription (not realizing this was different from the monthly subscription box) On December 31st I called back to check in again, and we both realized that I flubbed up on my part and ordered a monthly subscription starting January through March, and this was why my gift had not come in.

All good! Nothing to worry about since that is what I signed up for, though on New Years Eve, we got it figured out and that was more than enough. I was prepared to give my wife her gift mid-January, until we hear the doorbell ring, and I look outside and see a gift bag on our front porch. I open it up, and see 2 books and a handwritten note from The Novel Neighbor apologizing for the miscommunication and letting us know they wanted to make it up to us by giving us two free books separate from the subscription!

I was more than elated to tell my wife and give her the first part of her gift. I cannot stress enough how amazing they are because, this was all clearly miscommunication on my part, and they did NOT need to give us these two free gifts at all! They clearly care about their customers and we plan on buying all of our books from her moving forward. If you are looking for a local bookstore who clearly cares about their customers while also giving you a highly personal experience,...