Bernadette Murphy (Herald Tribune)

Happy birthday and I hope very much you keep going to celebrate many more. Coral Gables must be one of the loveliest bookshops on the planet. Not only does the selection of books provide much food for thought, but the restaurant provides much food for pleasure and adds to the browser's experience. When I go to Miami, I stay near Lincoln Road so I am more familiar with this store. It is smaller and perhaps more charming in comparison. But what is remarkable is how its bright, cheerful persona is so perfectly attuned to the atmosphere on the rest of the street. It's always pleasant, interesting and tasteful. For the casual passerby who wanders in, buying a book becomes irresistible and certainly a pleasure. I look forward to my next visit.

Bernadette Murphy
International Herald Tribune
Neuilly, France.

Elisa Albo

Last fall, when I celebrated the publication of my chapbook with a reading at Books & Books, a dream come true, I recalled with Mitchell how nearly twenty-five years before, I would attend the monthly Friday night open poetry readings, at first much too nervous to even consider reading a poem of my own until I shakily did and gradually, over the years, grew more confident so that my hands didn't at least visibly tremble. I also reminded Mitchell of the time I wandered over to the magazine stand in the original store on the night of a reading and to my astonishment, found a copy of Bomb Magazine, in which I had just been published. I rushed over to Mitchell to show him, and I will never forget his reaction: He took the magazine from my hands and standing there, read the two poems all the way through. Then, when I went to buy the four copies he had--and I probably shouldn't reveal this!--he gave them to me. His kind and generous support that evening sustained me for a long time, as I'm sure he had done for innumerable writers over the last 25 years. From the local writers' side, what would we do without Mitchell and Books and Books, our independent gem. Thank you, and congratulations!

Elisa Albo
Poet

Jane Friedman (Harper Collins)

When I hear the name Mitchell Kaplan, I always smile.

Mitchell and Books & Books are essential threads in the fabric of our publishing lives.

25 years is such a milestone. What you have accomplished is EXTRAORDINARY. You have made Miami (a second home of my childhood) a literary destination.

We have shared so many careers together. I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for so many authors and for the smart readers who come to you and your
superlative staff to see to their tastes and their needs.

I wish you everything you wish for yourself in the future.

Happy 25th Anniversary, and thank you from your friend and a "publishing veteran,"

Jane Friedman
CEO Harper Collins

Mim Harrison (Levenger Press)

The abracadabra ampersand

The books, of course, are just the half of it. There is an ampersand that joins Books and Books, and it has come to be a kind of totem that represents a union of a deeper sort. The abracadabra ampersand, symbol of the magic door that opens to community.

All the more remarkable given that it is here in South Florida, a part of the country where presumably there is no strong sense of community. Books & Books is the village well, the gathering place for a most diverse, disparate and far-flung network of people. We don’t even all know each other but we are drawn together, and not merely by a love of reading but by something more fundamental—something as elemental, perhaps, as the water in that well.

Only connect, said Forster. And so we do. The sustenance we take and the succor we find is in the sharing of ideas. It is a connection that grows stronger, deeper and more satisfying the more we come to the well. Can we achieve great things because of it? Perhaps. But more important is simply knowing that we can achieve.

Most infrastructures in a community grow weaker the longer they exist. But the infrastructure of ideas grows only stronger. The well simply never runs dry. And the magic door is always open.

Mim Harrison
Editor, Levenger Press
author of Words at Work

Walter Isaacson

There is no better spot on earth than a lovingly-run bookstore, and of such paradises one stands out: Books and Books. It is a haven of civility and letters. I have visited dozens of times, sometimes to talk and sign, but mostly to browse and replenish my mind. Congratulations.

Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe
and or Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.

David Maraniss

When I think of going to Miami, my first thought is not of the beach, nor even a delicious Cuban pork sandwich, but of going to Books & Books and seeing the greatest bookseller in America, Mitchell Kaplan, who makes an author feel completely at home. Congratulations on 25 years of great books and friendship. - David Maraniss

Rabbi Harold Kushner

BOOKS AND BOOKS AT TWENTY-FIVE

The 25th anniversary of Miami’s premier bookstore coincides with my twenty-fifth anniversary as a best-selling author. But long before I was a creator of books, I was a consumer of books. Bookstores have always been magical places for me, and Books And Books has to rank high among my favorites.

How could it be otherwise when the single most memorable experience of all my book tours happened there. In 1989, I was promoting my book Who Needs God and my tour brought me to Books and Books in Coral Gables. I was about to end my talk by interpreting a parable from Gabriel Garcia Marquez when a paperback fell off the shelf and hit me on the head. It was a collection of Garcia Marquez’s short stories. It seems he was offended by my interpretation. But you see why I consider Books and Books to be a magical place.

The union of the bookstore and the people of Miami is a perfect marriage, a clientele that appreciates good books and a bookseller that knows how to meet their needs. I wish you many more years of prosperity.

Rabbi Harold Kushner