Kingdom Books
283 East Village Rd
Waterford VT 05819
Beth and Dave Kanell opened this reader’s 8 years ago. They were nice enough to answer a few questions.
Do you have a speciality?
We offer mysteries from classic to cutting edge, and our specialty has become linking them together — showing how a genre grows, guiding readers from one author’s work that pleases them to new adventures where they can discover fresh approaches.
What are your own favorite mystery styles?
Dave’s favorite style is hard-boiled, with a soft spot for noir; Beth likes character-driven mysteries where the protagonist has to “grow and change” in the process of solving the crimes.
Do you have any pet peeves?
I know this sounds weird, but we often avoid books written in the present tense!
What do you look for in a mystery?
Most of all, we look forward to mysteries where the author has found her or his voice and plunges into the strangeness and difficulty of life.
What bores you? What gets you excited?
If there are too many pages describing kitchens or decor, we put the book down; on the other hand, we’re excited by the risks that authors like Charles Todd and Stuart Neville are taking with the quirks and longings of the stressed human mind. We’re okay with violence if the characters have enough depth to make it worthwhile. And we get really excited when authors come here to visit, to meet with great gatherings of readers and fans.
Where would you like to see the publishing industry go?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have more publishers willing to take risks with fresh voices? We’re encouraged by presses like Soho, with its raft of foreign authors, and by Serpents Tail, with its open door for hard-boiled and edgy books. And we see women writing with more freedom and power, and can hardly wait to discover
what the next decade brings. Keeping things fresh and reading in depth are our twin obsessions.
Kingdom Books has a review blog at: kingdombks.blogspot.com.
Indie book stores like this one are wonderful. And are at risk by the evil dark side of the Kindle…just saying…
Close your eyes and see the future…the books are gone…in its place are terminals where people come to Indie book stores to “plug into” a book…stare at a square glowing screen and read. They purchase minutes of time on the readers instead of books. Our skin goes pale, our body weak and flacid from hours spent staring into the SGS…Week and unable to stand direct sunlight from hours spent under fake lighting we are easily over run by the book reading third world countries…who have assumed all of our laboring jobs…pass books and knowledge from one generation to another and live together…easily we are picked off in our individual cubicls because we no longer live life through direct contact…instead via our SGS’s…I can see it in my glowing crystal ball…err monitor…
Just kidding – i havent had enough coffee yet.