Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty; Clean, by James Hamblin; Fierce Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff; and These Violent Delight by Chloe Gong
When Claudia Vega described the intent for her new bookstore, she always came back to one word: community.
Whose Books, which celebrated its first anniversary in November, is a space intended to cultivate a love of reading among Oak Cliff residents.
“We try to create a space that is welcoming, that is representative of the community that we serve,” Vega says. “So if you look on the shelves, (you’ll find) every shade imaginable, different voices and opinions and stories that are diverse.”
The lighting inside is bright and the bookstore’s walls are white, but it can in no way be described as austere. Any wall space not devoted to bookshelves features a decoration or art of some sort, including a large, neon blue sign reading “Oak Cliff Book Nerd.” The store is located in Tyler Station, so music and chatter from neighboring stores provides a constant soundtrack. In the center of the store, there’s a loose circle of upholstered chairs, where Whose Books regularly hosts a book club and community storytimes.
The book club meets monthly, and Vega says over 20 people from around Dallas participate.
“Because they’ve joined this book club together, they’re not only crossing paths, but they are engaging in meaningful conversation,” Vega says. “They’re connecting with literature, learning about each other and gaining new perspectives.”
The community storytimes at Whose Books feature engaging books geared toward children. The storytimes are intended to create positive reading experiences in order to foster a lifelong love of books, and Whose Books holds sessions both in English and Spanish.
For the holiday season, Vega has several titles that she thinks would make good gifts.
“We’ve started to see a lot from people, that what they’re looking for as they go into the winter months (are) books that focus on renewal and growth,” Vega says. She recommends two self-help books: Fierce Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff, a book which encourages women to be kinder to themselves, and The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck, a book about staying true to yourself that Vega describes as “life-changing.”
Vega spent over 20 years working in public education, but owning a bookstore had been a dream of hers for as long as she could remember. She credited other Oak Cliff bookstores with helping Whose Books get off the ground. In fact, Vega and her husband, John, ironed out many of their plans to open the shop at The Wild Detectives, a bookstore just a couple miles away.
The Wild Detectives isn’t quite your ordinary bookstore, unless your ordinary bookstore serves beer and moonlights as a live music venue. Like Whose Books, The Wild Detectives also hosts a series of events intended to promote literacy and foster a love of books, including a “difficult reads book club” — participants are currently grinding their way through Infinite Jest — and author visits.
Olivia Leigh, who has worked at The Wild Detectives for six of the eight years the store has been open, recommended checking out the store’s collection of local authors. She also endorsed some of her favorite authors, including the American Gothic author Denis Johnson and Zadie Smith, a British essayist and novelist.
Leigh also recommended a book called Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? The book is written by Caitlin Doughty, a mortician, and it answers children’s frank questions about death and decomposition. The book is appropriate for kids and adults alike.
If you’re planning to buy a book from The Wild Detectives, consider going in the afternoon. Every day from 3-6 p.m. is the store’s “book happy hour,” where every book purchase comes with a free beer.
A few blocks away from The Wild Detectives is Poets Bookshop, a small store on Bishop Avenue. The store was opened by Marco Cavazos, who is, as the shop’s name suggests, a poet. Cavazos released his debut poetry collection, Some Notes on Love, in the summer of 2021.
The store stocks books in all genres, not just poetry. Kayland Jordan, who has worked at Poets for a little over a year, recommended Clean, a book by James Hamblin, which investigates the way we conceptualize hygiene and challenges whether or not those conceptions are scientifically sound. Jordan also recommended books by Chloe Gong, an author who recently made her debut with These Violent Delights, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai.
