Books Books is South Floridas premier independent bookstore
Books & Books is South Florida’s premier independent bookstore with locations in Coral Gables, Miami Beach and Bal Harbour Shops
“I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books. ” -- Borges
BOOKS & BOOKS 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables , FL 33134 Founded in 1982, the store is currently located in an exquisite 1927 building listed in the Coral Gables Register of Historic Places.
The 9, 000 sq. ft. Mediterranean-style building has original tile floors, a fireplace, beamed ceilings, floor-toceiling dark wood bookshelves, an open-air courtyard and a full-service café.
The Café at Books & Books in Coral Gables
BOOKS & BOOKS COURTYARD The Coral Gables store wraps around a beautiful, Mediterraneanstyle, open-air courtyard, a signature architectural element of the bookshop.
The courtyard is the perfect setting for live performances, author receptions, poetry readings, film screenings, private parties and more…
Café events feature menus, inspired by cookbook authors and their books. Anthony Bourdain spoke following a dinner, inspired by his Les Halles Cookbook. Naked Chef Jamie Oliver, conducted a live cooking demonstration and rock n’ roll performance. Jennifer Rubell hosted a Mother’s Day brunch inspired by her new, Real Life Entertaining.
Dr. Steven Schnur launched his new book, The Reality Diet.
BOOKS & BOOKS GALLERY Books & Books participates in the monthly Coral Gables Gallery Night with exhibitions of photography, drawings and paintings by Miami-based artists. A new exhibit opens every first Friday night of the month, and the City of Coral Gables provides shuttle service to Books & Books' front entrance, every 45 minutes.
EVENTS at BOOKS & BOOKS Books & Books is eventdriven! Our monthly calendar of events includes author presentations and book signings every night of the week, Monday through Sunday, at our Coral Gables location, as well as reading & discussion groups, lectures, workshops, offsite events and book parties.
French cultural critic and author Bernard Henri-Lévy captivates hundreds at the Coral Gables bookshop.
Books & Books hosts local and visiting authors, including debut novelists, established writers of great renown, children’s authors, poets, scholars and celebrity authors.
Camille Paglia John Dufresne Nicole Krauss Aron Ralston
President Jimmy Carter
Isabel Allende
Paul Rusesabagina Guillermo Arriaga
Joan Didion
Michael Ondaatje
Jane Fonda Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Star Jones Reynolds
Edwidge Danticat and Julia Alvarez TC Boyle Umberto Eco
Salman Rushdie
Eric Bogosian Les Standiford
Russell Banks Gary Shteyngart
Susan Sontag
Books & Books’ Mitchell Kaplan and Robert Gottlieb… and Rachael Ray! and TC Boyle…
Some will be larger than others…
Like President Clinton’s autographing for over 2, 000…
The line was eight blocks long and people staked out their places as early as 4 am the night before.
Dear Books & Books, I really wanted to take a few moments out of my day to put fingers to keyboard and send some kudos that you can share with your staff. From the organization of the line to keeping the lavatories stocked and clean to periodically sending staffers out (in the heat!) with informative updates, everything was seamless. We were all so impressed. We certainly appreciated the Cafe staff coming out with the baskets of muffins, cakes, sandwich lunches & sodas for sale. In fact, when we saw them giving out the mini bottled waters, we were incredulous at the generosity. Truly going the extra mile. Let me tell you how great your staff was. So friendly, courteous, and keeping their sense of humor. It was nice of the Gables [City of Coral] to allow us to have our folding lawn chairs out there in the line. Had that not been the case, we're quite sure that more folks would have had heat stroke. Thanks again for providing average civilians with the opportunity to meet an American president. Sincerely, Sheila Cooper
BOOKS & BOOKS 933 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach Opened in 1989, this store is located in the historic Sterling Building in the Art Deco District of Lincoln Road Mall, between Jefferson and Michigan Avenues.
The store specializes in art, design, fashion and architecture. Additionally, a large magazine collection contains international publications as well as locally published periodicals.
THE CAFÉ AT BOOKS & BOOKS Miami Beach The Café at Books & Books, Miami Beach recently expanded into a full-service restaurant with an After-Five menu of grilled seafood specialties by Executive Chef Bernie Matz.
BOOKS & BOOKS/BAL HARBOUR SHOPS 9700 Collins Avenue, Bal Harbour, 2 nd Level, Near Saks Fifth Avenue This lushly-landscaped, open-air mall houses such famed merchants as Gucci, Cartier and Bulgari, Luis Vuitton, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and now…Books & Books.
Bal Harbour Shops ranked the number one most productive shopping center in the U. S. , based on average sales per square foot according to Women’s Wear Daily.
Being a Kid at BOOKS & BOOKS Young readers, parents and educators alike love the Children’s Room. Our shelves are bursting with new titles and classics as well as toys, games, stuffed animals, journals and gifts. Coral Gables Children’s Room
Gloria Estefan Lane Smith Mo Willems We play host to some of today’s hottest children’s authors…
Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce spoke to over 1300 school children and teachers.
Tomie de. Paola celebrated his 70 th birthday at Books & Books with a cake, balloons and lots of fans.
We hold weekly storytelling and craft time, kids’ yoga, class fieldtrips, children’s theatre, reading parties and in-store bookfairs, which are designed to promote a love of reading, while helping to raise funds for the schools who participate.
Caroline Kennedy
BOOKS & BOOKS - OFFSITE Books & Books regularly presents authors at various outside venues including: The Historic Biltmore Hotel
TEMPLE JUDEA 5500 Granada Blvd. in Coral Gables Capacity: 300 -1, 000
Elie Wiesel at Temple Judea
THE CORAL GABLES CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 3010 De Soto Blvd. in Coral Gables Capacity: 400
Madeleine Albright speaks to an overflow crowd at The Coral Gables Congregational Church.
CHAPMAN CONFERENCE CENTER Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, Downtown Miami Capacity: 800
Dwyane Wade promotes reading at the Chapman Conference Center
University of Miami Maurice Gusman Concert Hall Capacity: 600 School of Business Storer Auditorium Capacity: 300
LINCOLN THEATRE 541 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach Capacity: 700
MACY’S DEPARTMENT STORE 5 -STAR CELLAR KITCHEN Capacity: 300 -900 Books & Books presents cookbook authors at Macy’s department store in Dadeland Aventura Malls. Their cooking demonstration stage is equipped with a kitchen and video screen coverage. Here’s recent guest Rachael Ray cooking up a storm to a crowd of over 1, 000!
Watching Rachael. . . Yum-O!
BOOKS & BOOKS at LEVENGER 420 South Congress Avenue, Delray Beach In 2004, Books & Books and Levenger joined forces to bring a personalized bookselling experience to more South Florida readers. Books & Books began a series of monthly author events at the Levenger store in Delray Beach. The arrangement reflects an emerging trend in retail, in which two compatible brands come together to create a stronger shopping experience for their customers. Clockwise from left: Ross King; Gail Godwin; Simon Winchester; Steve Leveen (Levenger CE 0) & Joseph Finder
SOUTH BEACH WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL February 23 rd – 26 th, 2007 Books & Books coordinates guest chef booksignings at this annual destination weekend event, with star -studded dinner series and wine, culinary and lifestyle seminars that feature prominent figures in the international wine, spirits and culinary industries.
The Grand Tasting Tent This event, which is held right out on the sand, with the beautiful blue ocean as a backdrop, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors throughout the weekend.
Bobby Flay Cooking demonstrations and booksignings abound with average audience of 500 -1, 000.
Emeril Lagasse Giada de Laurentiis The Kidz Kitchen features kid-friendly recipes from top celebrity chefs like Rachael Ray, Giada de Laurentiis, Emeril Lagasse and Alton Brown.
MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL November 12 th -19 th, 2006 The largest and finest event of its kind in the U. S. , it hosts over 300 authors from around the world and draws hundreds of thousands of booklovers each year.
Books & Books presents a selection of the finest titles in art, fashion, architecture and design at this international art fair – the sister event of Switzerland’s 35 year old Art Basel.
BOOKS & BOOKS MARKETING … is a combination of guerrilla tactics and standard practices. . .
CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS Books & Books partners with many cultural, social and educational organizations in the community to present special events and has ongoing relationships with many of South Florida’s finest.
We have partnered with: Miami Art Central • Florida Grand Opera • Miami Performing Arts Center • Museum of Contemporary Art • Tigertail Productions • Rhythm Foundation • City Theatre • Miami Children's Museum • Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden • South Florida Historical Museum • Miami International Film Festival • New World Symphony
We celebrated the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with magic wand arts & crafts provided by the Miami Children’s Museum.
We presented Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, author of the novel, The Night Buffalo, and screened his film, Amores Perros outside in our courtyard in collaboration with Miami International Film Festival.
MEDIA COVERAGE We have excellent media relations and are able to generate reviews of events in the feature and book pages of The Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald, The Fort Lauderdale Sun. Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, Miami New Times, Miami Today and many other publications. We also work in tandem with publicists to schedule authors for interviews before, during and after their events with us.
We start by sending local, regional and national media PRESS RELEASES of the event to our entire media list and then follow up with targeted calls to engage their interest and commitment to coverage. (see Books & Books Media List, attached)
We publicize the event in our ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER which goes out to over 15, 000 active Book Club members and is posted on our website.
We also publicize on www. booksandbooks. com in the weeks before the event
We publicize the event in a MONTHLY PRINT NEWSLETTER, which is distributed in our three stores, and at select locations in South Florida.
We send out an EMAIL BLAST approximately a week before the event to our 15, 000 active Books Club Members as well as to targeted email lists.
We print and distribute FLYERS in-store and to local community groups and schools before the event.
RADIO SPOTS We run targeted promotional radio spots on WLRN-FM, the public radio affiliate in Miami. These spots run during drive-times and specific programming hours for two weeks prior to the event.
On a case by case basis, we run PRINT ADS announcing the booksigning in The Miami Herald and other local publications.
We also run ADDITIONAL ADS in publications which target specific communities.
Before the event, we create instore DISPLAYS… using promotional materials with photo and booksigning information.
Books & Books forms part of the Book Sense network, an alliance of independent booksellers throughout the U. S. , who work together to promote books, reading, literacy and freedom of expression.
Remember. . . Shop Local. . . For every $100 spent in their stores, LOCAL BUSINESSES GIVE BACK $68 to their local economy, while for every $100 spent in national chains, those companies return only $43. Good sense for you is good cents for your economy!
For Events and Marketing: CRISTINA NOSTI (786) 554 -1764 cnosti@yahoo. com EMILY D’AMOUR (305) 444 -9044 emily_damour@yahoo. com Photos courtesy of Suzy Horgan
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