I like to start each year with some fresh reading resolutions as a way to both reflect on the year just passed, and to set an intention and stoke anticipation for the year to come. As I’ve long understood, the key to successfully holding to a resolution is to not focus on abstaining from negative behavior, but to embrace the positive. In that spirit, holding to this year’s resolution is going to be a piece of cake: I’m going to visit at least 20 new (to me) independent bookstores. Enthused by my own resolution, I decided to get a jump on things by venturing to Highland Park’s Secret World Books the week before Christmas, where I met proprietors Gayle and Michael Brandeis and realized that what I’m looking for goes beyond the mere transaction of buying books. Gayle Brandeisis an Evanston native and author of nine books, including most recently “Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss.” Her husband Michael is a software developer who spent a teenage stint working in a comic shop. After decades on the West Coast, they grabbed at the chance to relocate to the Midwest and Highland Park for Michael’s job. They’d previously mused about one day opening a combination book/comic store, but thought it was a fantasy. The fantasy became reality, when having coffee one day they looked across the street and saw a for rent sign on a building that had once housed a Christian Science reading room. They opened the doors on Secret World Books, April 27, 2024, Independent Bookstore Day. Walking into Secret World Books has a bit of a time-capsule feel, as the Brandeis’ have leaned into the midcentury modern style of the building’s origins, keeping the original Christian Science reading room cases in the front, and repurposing an old Life Savers display, like I remember from the drug store of my youth, to hold a variety of journals on a side counter. A back room has shelves of used books, many of them acquired through estate sales, and a fireplace and chairs that would’ve been the newest style when the building originally opened in 1953 across the street from its current location. Large slide-out metal cases hold reams of comics. Looking around, talking to Gayle and Michael, and seeing a handful of folks move in and out of the store, I realized that my quest to visit these stores isn’t just about supporting small businesses, but is instead a desire to join in a community of shared values. In some quarters, reading and writing are now viewed as anachronisms of a past age, but at Secret World Books people who believe in the inherent benefit of these things can come together. The Brandeis’ were aware of this need, arriving in Highland Park in the aftermath of the July 4, 2022, parade shootings. They’ve opened the store to all manner of gatherings, clubs, role-playing games, and recently, a last-minute venue for a poetry reading. Success isn’t only about selling books. Gayle Brandeis used the term “shopkeeper,” a reference to a family legacy of a Baltimore general store (Bransky’s Hall) owned by her great-great-grandfather. A shopkeeper is a sentinel and connector, a person in charge of a place where all are welcome to come and find what they need. The store worked for me. I purchased a copy of Theodore Roethke’s collected poetry. My great uncle, Allan Seager, was Roethke’s first biographer (“The Glass House”). Not even the new year and already I was off to a great start. I’m looking forward to encountering many more communities along the way. Co-owner Gayle Brandeis at Secret World Books, a new bookstore at 1774 2nd St. in Highland Park. (John Warner) John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.” Twitter @biblioracle Book recommendations from the Biblioracle John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read. 1. “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson 2. “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak 3. “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War” by Erik Larson 4. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee 5. “Lincoln” by David Herbert Donald — Melanie R., Arlington Heights For Melanie, I’m leaning into the Civil War interest by recommending Tony Horwitz’s one-of-a-kind “Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War.” 1. “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates 2. “War” by Bob Woodward 3. “The Waiting” by Michael Connelly 4. “Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions” by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey 5. “Reagan: His Life and Legend” by Max Boot — Phil Z., Plainfield For Phil, I’m going to classic, true crime, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote. 1. “Sonny Boy” by Al Pacino 2. “Music Has Legs” by David Haznaw and Marlene Byrne 3. “The Story of a Heart” by Rachel Clarke 4. “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt 5. “An Unfinished Love Story” by Doris Kearns Goodwin — Mary Ann O., Barrington I’m hoping that Mary Ann has not yet read Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns,” a book that tells an indelible story about America. Get a reading from the Biblioracle Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected].