R.I.P. Dutton's Brentwood Books, 1984-2008

write like you mean it

Good Enough

Paula Yoo scores big in her hilarious debut novel about an overachiever who longs to fit in and strives to stand out. Available at amazon.com

By Paula Yoo - Posted on April 30th, 2008

Dutton's Brentwood Books
1984-2008
R.I.P.

Here are photos of my visit to Dutton's Brentwood Books on April 30, 2008. The bookstore closed on this day after 24 years of wonderful service to the community. I posted a blog on this as well. I'll also be speaking with NPR correspondent Karen Grigsby Bates about the store's closing on "All Things Considered" on NPR this Thursday May 1, 2008 between 3 and 7 p.m. (check your local listings).

I've also included some "before" pictures my friend Rob See took of my GOOD ENOUGH book launch party on Feb. 23, 2008, to show you what the bookstore looked like in happier days.

The store was packed with well-wishers and book lovers grabbing books off the shelves during the 40 to 60 percent off sale. Others were either buying or taking whatever souvenirs of the store they could carry - several bookshelves were sold to eager buyers while others simply took stuff like a cafe menu or a small sign on the bookshelf. Anything that was a piece of the store's history.

I bought Diane Leslie's novel, FLEUR DE LEIGH IN EXILE (Simon & Schuster '03) as well as Kate Chopin's THE AWAKENING, Jean Rhys' WIDE SARGASSO SEA (LOL - yes, I clearly was interested in novels about women with sex and passion and love as their main themes! ) and a collection of stories entitled SO LONG by Lucia Berlin, my brother (David Yoo)'s professor at the MFA program at UC Boulder. I also took two signs - one that said PLAYS/SHAKESPEARE that was in the literature section and a sign that said TOILET TRAINING because it was in the children's section!