It starts with a parade Julia Sabin, the proprietor of Staunton Books & Tea, grew up in the Soviet Union, where May Day, International Workers' Day, was one of the year's great collective performances. Factories, schools, state organizations of every kind: everyone marched. There were banners and flowers, brass bands and slogans. The worker was the hero of the state. Labor was not something you endured — it was something you celebrated, publicly, with your neighbors, in the s

Before my 40th birthday, I set out to visit 40 independent bookshops. I ended up visiting 54 across two continents, four countries, and 18 cities. Along the way, I learned that great bookshops are not defined by square footage, bestseller tables, or even coffee quality (though they all help create a great experience!). They are shaped by curation, community, and an enormous amount of invisible labor that most customers never see. This is what a year inside indie bookshops tau

A note from Julia, on our March curated exhibition wall. Join us on March 18th for the first-ever Staunton Reading Society , a conversation-based gathering where we will discuss books about women who shaped history. I grew up in a society that had women's rights designed into its foundations. Not as a movement, not as a conversation, not as something women had to fight for in the streets. It was written into the constitution. The Soviet Union was, in many ways, a pioneer of f

Bonus: Books We’re Excited About Right Now As we prepare for our inaugural Winter Books Salon , it feels like the right moment to add our own voices to the Community Bookshelf - a growing list of books recommended by our readers, special guests, partners, and collaborators. This shelf reflects not just what we sell, but how we think, read, and try to understand the world. I’m Julia, proprietor of Staunton Books & Tea, and this is a glimpse into how our shelves came to look t