East Moriches resident Jocelyn Maningo Kaleita opened A Book Place on East Main Street in Riverhead earlier this summer in the former Taste the East End boutique next to Jerry and The Mermaid.
The 750-square-foot space is complete with built-in shelves, lighting and furniture, exposed ceiling beams and white walls. Ms. Kaleita also continued using the shop’s iconic cash wrap — a converted 1957 Ford truck — as the shop’s check-out area.
The store stocks nonfiction biographies, memoirs, history, sports, travel, home and garden and mindfulness books, as well as a table of bestsellers and seasonal items.
A section at the far end of the shop houses Long Island-inspired titles as well as the annual Long Island Reads book, which seeks to bring readers from both Suffolk and Nassau counties together and selects one book each year with a Long Island connection. Authors with a Long Island connection are also featured, from contemporary authors including Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
A lengthy wall will be dedicated to fiction: Mystery, thrillers, contemporary and literary fiction and a large, interactive children’s area is also found within.
A Book Place is located at 469 East Main St. in Riverhead.
