Books at Flyleaf Literature & Libations.
By Daniel Johanson
Lani Martin follows readers’ plans and preferences from the counter back to the shelves.
“Once a woman was in looking for something to read on vacation,” Lani Martin wrote in an email interview.
Martin is the managing director of Flyleaf Literature & Libations, a bookshop, bistro and bar in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. The vacation reader gave her a particular title to start with.
“She was specifically looking for Ocean Vuong's The Emperor of Gladness because someone recommended it to her, but then mentioned she didn't want anything too "heavy," so I steered her away from that one and suggested more beach read type novels, and I believe she may have walked away with The Wedding People,” Martin wrote.
The recommendation changed as the conversation made the reader's plans clearer. Martin describes that exchange as part of the work of finding a book that fits the occasion.
“We usually ask readers what they are looking for,” she wrote.
“Sometimes it's a gift, sometimes for themselves.”
Those conversations sit alongside a regular process of reviewing new titles. The shelves develop through both the lists coming into the shop and the people coming through its door.
“I review new book titles weekly,” Martin wrote.
“Of course there are all the bestseller lists, like The New York Times, Publishers Weekly and regional lists, and for each season I'll review the publisher's list and rep recommendations,” she wrote.
“I also keep an eye on national book club titles, but those aren't always predictors of what will sell at our shop.”
Martin says Flyleaf is learning what its own customers lean toward as it spends more time open.
“Currently we sell a lot of historical fiction, literary fiction and history,” she wrote.
“We do try to give local authors a spot on our shelves, for at least a few months.”
Readers and booksellers bring another set of suggestions into that selection. Martin values having people with different reading interests contribute to it.
“Our booksellers will make suggestions as well, and that's really helpful, when you have a whole team of people who enjoy reading different things,” she wrote.
A reader's request can also outlast the conversation at the counter. A book the shop doesn't carry may become part of what the next visitor finds.
“Sometimes a guest will ask for a specific book that we don't carry, and we'll decide to carry it because it sounds interesting or like something our audience would like,” Martin wrote.
