women's bookstores

[gwynnega]

I've been trying to think of a name for a fictional mid-1970s women's bookstore (for the Jo book). Any suggestions?

The women's bookstore I worked at (in the mid-1980s, when I was an undergrad at UCLA) was called Bread & Roses. In many ways it was my favorite job I ever had, though I practically paid them to work there, what with all the books I bought. I really wish it (and Sisterhood Bookstore, my other local feminist bookstore) still existed.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

I loved Sisterhood bookstore! I used to drive up from Irvine just to go browse the shelves there...

[gwynnega]

A couple of my friends from UCLA worked there in the '80s. It was such a great store...

[usedtobeljs]

Hmm. I immediately thought of London feminist bookshops -- Googling tells me that the famous one on Charing Cross Road was Silver Moon, and there was another called Sisterwrite.

Maybe that gives you a lead?

[gwynnega]

I remember going to Silver Moon! I'm pretty sure I went to Sisterwrite too. Women's bookstores and British feminist publishing were flourishing the year I lived in Bath (1990).

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

When I first came to California, there was one in Menlo Park called, I think, Three Sisters.

::googles::

No, it was Two Sisters! Here's a whole list of feminist bookstores in the U.S. and Canada:

http://users.rcn.com/seajay.dnai/fbn/stores/stores.html

My favorite feminist vegetarian cookbook, The Political Palate, was written by the Bloodroot Collective, a name I've always loved for its slightly threatening tone. How about Bloodroot Books?

[gwynnega]

Thanks for the link! I wonder how many of the bookstores on that webpage are now gone?

I don't think I ever went to Two Sisters. I did go to Mama Bears in Oakland! Looks like there is/was a Bloodroot Restaurant and Bookstore in Bridgeport!

::googles::

It still exists, and it's the bookstore/restaurant of the people who made the cookbook! :-)