Building Community through Books at Novel
The bookstore, which opened this spring, is the newest endeavor of Andie Ayers, a co-founder of the nonprofit Fairy Godmother Project.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Through her work as a co-founder of the Fairy Godmother Project, a local nonprofit that supports families through pediatric cancer—and her personal experience as a survivor of breast cancer—Andie Ayers has found that people often don’t know what to say to someone in crisis.
But she’s found that the right words and gestures of support can be found in books.
“Books are a unique way to bring up hard things,” Ayers says. “It can easier through fiction.”
That understanding combined with a desire to create a community through the sharing of books led to the creation of Novel, a new bookstore that opened this spring on William Street in downtown Fredericksburg.
“We’ve been here for two months and response has been better than I ever imagined it would be,” Ayers told the Advance on a recent Monday.
The shop carries new releases and popular best sellers, as well as a small but carefully-curated selection of nonfiction and self-help titles—all of which Ayers feels are “relevant to people who are looking for personal growth.”
Novel shares its brick-and-mortar space with Green Eyed Vines, a shop selling houseplants and supplies, and the combination of books and plants is as winning as the combination of books and coffee.
When the shop opened, Ayers said, she’d probably read 95% of what it carried. Through recommendations from customers and staff members, she’s expanded the collection to include romance and fantasy titles, genres she’s not as familiar with but that have a dedicated following.
And through her wholesaler, Ayers is able to special-order any title that a reader requests.
The shop also carries a selection of gifts and cards, items that Ayers personally knows the value of. As she was going through treatment for breast cancer, two of her friends sent her cards every week. They didn’t announce their plan and the unspoken, weekly reminder that she was loved and supported was “priceless,” Ayers said.
“We forget the value” of a handwritten message, she said.
Because Novel’s inventory has been curated by Ayers and the community, it feels personal to customers.
“People have told me, ‘This feels like an old-fashioned bookstore where the owner knows all the books,’” Ayers said.
Novel also facilitates 12 monthly book clubs, most of which meet in the shop’s cozy upstairs lounge. There’s a fantasy club, a contemporary club, a thriller club, a romance club, an LGBTQ+ club, and Ayers’ favorites—the cause club and the rotating club.
The rotating club reads a book from a different genre and meets at a different restaurant each month. The cause club reads a book about a different challenging issue each month and the proceeds from sale of each selection goes to a local nonprofit that supports that related cause.
So far, the club has read books about bipolar disorder, childhood cancer, ALS, and transgender youth.
“It’s about pulling people together through fiction—respectful and inquisitive people who want to know more about a topic they don’t understand,” Ayers said. “Those discussions have been amazing. In every occasion but one, there was someone from the represented community present.”
Ayers also has a goal for the shop to sponsor at least one public event every month. This month, it’s Summer Book Bingo—participants can go by the shop starting at 5 p.m. on Friday to pick up a bingo card with activities to complete throughout the month.
Last week, Novel hosted “Literary Libations,” an event which Ayers hopes to repeat quarterly. It’s an organized night in downtown Fredericksburg, with stops and activities at different businesses and a special menu of drinks and food, all tailored to a certain book.
The first Literary Libations was based on “A Recipe Called Home” by Stephanie Nelson, a local author. The plan for the night was a surprise, so participants did not know where they would be going or what they would be doing at each location.
For Ayers, Literary Libations will be a way to “show up” for area small businesses.
“I really believe in small businesses and in our town,” she said. “As executive director of Fairy Godmother Project, all of those businesses showed up for me, and now I want to show up for them.”
A few months into its existence, Novel has already built new connections between people and businesses and Ayers is looking forward to continuing.
“The biggest thing is not the books or the gifts, but bringing people together,” she said.
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