Neighborhood Reads<\/h2>\n
Whenever I talk to Seattle booksellers these days, after all the customary \u201cWhat have you been reading lately?\u201d greetings have been asked and answered, the conversation often quite literally heads south. The booksellers will lean forward, a serious look falling across their faces, and they\u2019ll ask with some urgency, \u201cHave you been to Grit City Books yet?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then they add, with even more intensity, \u201cOh, you absolutely have<\/em> to go.\u201d<\/p>\n It might seem odd that Seattle booksellers are infatuated with a 2-year-old bookstore in the heart of Tacoma\u2019s Sixth Avenue shopping district. But when you make the trek down I-5 and visit Grit City, you can understand what the fuss is all about.<\/p>\n Every detail of Grit City Books feels deeply considered, from the cozy modernist fireside seating area to the shop\u2019s rich dark brown-and-green color palette to the nook in the kids section where parents tuck in with their children to sample a picture book or two. The store\u2019s surprisingly deep inventory leans toward titles from noncorporate independent publishing houses, but there’s also plenty of bestsellers, and gems are tagged throughout the shop with enthusiastic staff recommendation cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is, in other words, a bookseller\u2019s idea of heaven \u2014 and it\u2019s no wonder that Seattle booksellers have been making pilgrimages and raving about the shop to their co-workers and peers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Given its growing reputation, it\u2019s a bit of a surprise to hear that none of Grit City\u2019s three owners have prior bookselling experience. Co-owner Jeff Hanway explains that a few years ago, he and his husband, Kegan Hanway, faced a crisis of conscience. The pandemic and its lockdowns changed \u201chow we think about community,\u201d Jeff explains. Specifically, at a time when people were turning to online retailers to fill virtually every need, even as neighborhood businesses struggled to stay afloat, Hanway says it constantly felt like having to choose between spending with values and convenience.\u00a0\u201cWe didn\u2019t feel like that should be a choice that you have to make,\u201d he continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cKegan has been a voracious reader his entire life, and I fell back in love with reading in my 30s,\u201d Jeff says. And so the Hanways started thinking about establishing a bookstore that filled a need they saw in Tacoma\u2019s robust literary scene: \u201cAn unapologetically queer-owned and queer-positive space, but one that carries everything a general interest bookstore carries.\u201d<\/p>\n Kegan\u2019s career in technology and Jeff\u2019s background in business operations offered a good foundation, but something was missing. The business plan felt a lot more real when the Hanways partnered with Kaitlin Chandler, an acquaintance of the couple. Though Chandler had never worked in a bookstore, she had spent her entire career working at all levels of retail \u2014 from management to customer service to product displays.<\/p>\n Things began to snowball as the trio daydreamed about \u201cthe bookstore that we wish younger versions of ourselves had,\u201d Jeff says. To start, \u201cthat meant really upfront queer representation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Grit City has three large bays by the entrance that make up the store\u2019s most-trafficked area. \u201cThose are dedicated to bestsellers, staff picks and a section we call \u2018Queer All Year,\u2019\u201d Jeff explains. \u201cWe wanted to be intentional and purposeful about highlighting queer stories all year long and not just during the month of June\u201d for Pride.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n With a winning philosophy in mind, the owners then set about sweating all the small details. Local graphic designer Ashley Schaffer established the shop\u2019s color palette, designed its logo and created Grit City\u2019s mascot George, an adorable cardigan-wearing nonbinary otter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pay close attention to the bookshelves at Grit City, and you\u2019ll notice they\u2019re not particleboard prefabs from IKEA. They\u2019re handmade originals from Franklin Fixtures<\/a>, the Tennessee-based business that built the bookstore featured in the 1998 Tom Hanks\/Meg Ryan rom-com \u201cYou\u2019ve Got Mail,\u201d and they\u2019re shelves designed for selling books \u2014 they tip the spine up at a slight angle toward the customers, to almost imperceptibly improve the act of browsing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Grit City has developed a full event calendar, including a monthly drag story time and dance party with local drag queen Cleo Nova<\/a>, a \u201cTextual Tension\u201d feminist romance book club and a \u201cSurviving Dystopia\u201d book club focusing mostly on nonfiction that imagines a better world.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jeff explains that in lieu of readings, the shop typically prefers the intimate fireside chat format, which places authors in conversation with an interviewer in front of the shop\u2019s fireplace. Grit City has also developed relationships with local authors, including poet James A. Pearson<\/a>, essayist Jenny Bartoy<\/a> and travel writer Kara Patajo<\/a>, championing their work, collaborating with them on events and offering signed copies.<\/p>\n Any bookseller can tell you that brand-new bookstores often require a period of years to discover and refine their identity. But Grit City Books seems to have sprung up from the sidewalks of Tacoma fully formed, with an identity and culture that reflects its community. Is it any wonder why this relatively small shop with a staff of just four booksellers has a good chance of being your favorite bookseller\u2019s favorite bookstore?\u00a0<\/p>\n Jeff says, \u201cIn my short bookselling experience,\u201d Gig Harbor author Matt Dinniman\u2019s funny apocalyptic fantasy novel \u201cDungeon Crawler Carl<\/a>\u201d is far and away the book that wins over the most nonreading converts. \u201cSo many people come in and say this was the first book they\u2019ve picked up since they\u2019ve graduated, or that they\u2019ve never read for pleasure, but they couldn\u2019t put it down,\u201d he says. \u201cAnything that gets people excited about reading is incredible to me.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Jeff\u2019s personal favorite books is \u201cThe Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet,<\/a>\u201d a cozy sci-fi novel by Becky Chambers. \u201cShe does an incredible job of balancing the tensions so there are stakes, but you\u2019re not in a high-adrenaline state the whole time you\u2019re reading,\u201d he says, crediting Chambers\u2019 ability to craft \u201cincredibly complex and well-thought-out characters\u201d as the key to her success.<\/p>\n Chandler says \u201cBury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil<\/a>\u201d by V.E. Schwab is \u201cmy favorite book of 2025.\u201d The multiple-timeline-spanning fantasy novel about \u201ctoxic lesbian vampires\u201d is \u201chaunting and horrifying and beautiful and heartbreaking and wonderful.\u201d On the nonfiction side of things, Chandler says Sarah Wynn-Williams\u2019 memoir about working at Meta, \u201cCareless People<\/a>,\u201d will fuel your antitech sentiments. \u201cI couldn\u2019t put it down,\u201d she raves. \u201cI needed to know more, even though every few pages I was BIG MAD.\u201d<\/p>\n Kegan loves Cat Sebastian\u2019s first contemporary-set romance novel, \u201cStar Shipped<\/a>,\u201d which is about two rival actors on a beloved sci-fi television show who have to feign a friendship for publicity reasons, only to fall in love. He recently read an advance copy of Courtney Gould\u2019s upcoming horror novel, \u201cUntil the Last Light Goes Out<\/a>,\u201d and said he can\u2019t wait to share it with customers. \u201cOn the surface, this is a story about what you would do for the people you love,\u201d he says. \u201cBut really, this is a story about what we would do to survive.\u201d The Grit City staff are such fans of Gould that they\u2019re hosting the launch party for \u201cLast Light\u201d when it\u2019s published this October.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhat are Grit City\u2019s booksellers reading?<\/h2>\n