TIME WAS SOFT THERE, by Jeremy Mercer

(originally posted on October 11, 2006)

This memoir had all the things I could pretty well ask for: a great premise (crime journalist runs off to France and finds salvation and welcome at a Paris bookstore) appealing characters, self-reflection and oh yeah, shout-outs to my hometown, which also happens to be Mercer's place of birth and raising. If you want to know about independent bookstores, of passionately eccentric folk and about community, this is the book to pick up.