I travelled to Phoenix last week and my seven-year-old niece was so excited to tell me about the book she’s reading in school: “The Trumpet of the Swan.” Then she sat down and read a book with me, swapping pages back and forth. The last time I saw her she wasn’t reading fluently, yet there we were, reading aloud together. Like magic.
There is a moment in every reader’s life where you connect to books – be it through a story, an author, a subject, or a bookstore; those moments are precious, life-changing, and worth celebrating. Brick-and-mortar bookstores create a third place in the community where everyone is welcome to browse, read, chat, discover, meet, laugh, cry, wonder, or just share space and time together in a venue that lifts up the power of story, fosters connections in the community and safeguards space conducive to life-changing moments.
This Saturday, April 25, Roundabout Books & Cafe celebrates its 10th Independent Bookstore Day (IBD), a day when 1,600 independent bookstores across the country celebrate the power of reading and the importance of bookstores.
We are fortunate to have multiple independent bookstores in our Central Oregon Community – Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe in Bend, Herringbone Books in Redmond, Paulina Springs Books in Sisters, Sunriver Books in Sunriver, and of course my own shop, Roundabout Books & Cafe in Bend. This year, Roundabout Books is celebrating in several ways.
- Annual IBD Tote of Free Books! The first 70 customers who spend $70 can purchase our limited edition IBD Tote, which we fill to the brim with FREE books and other fabulous goodies! We’ve been saving books all year for this special day!
- Enjoy 20% OFF Roundabout t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, hats, and more.
- Find the Golden Ticket and win a year of free audiobooks from Libro.fm!
- $5 cash raffle to win a $100 Roundabout Books Gift Card. The raffle benefits Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC), a 501c3 nonprofit that supports booksellers in financial need arising from severe hardship or emergency circumstances.
- Exclusive items only sold during Independent Bookstore Day (like a Fight Evil, Read Books Mini-Tote).
- A table full of exclusive signed copies.
- Live DJ set from 10am – Noon to get the party going and spread those good vibes!
- Free giveaways, treats, and more all day long.
- *Pro-tip – Use this day to pre-order your favorite new releases or reserve a ticket for an upcoming author event and it counts toward your tote bag purchase.
But the most important reason to visit an independent bookstore on IBD is to spend time supporting your bookstore, ensuring it will stick around for a long, long time. Bookstores build community, provide a restful and comfortable place to spend time and offer infinite chance encounters for life-changing moments. But the best part about your bookstore, is your local booksellers! Below are some of our favorite April recommendations. Put them on your list for Saturday, April 25, and we’ll see you on Indie Bookstore Day!
“This Land is Your Land” by Beverly Gage. One of the nation’s most admired, Pulitzer Prize-winning historians goes on the ultimate road trip to explore 13 key moments in American history that explain our past and help us consider our future.
“Transcription” by Ben Lerner. A lightning flash of a novel that is at once a gripping emotional drama and a brilliant examination of the devices, digital and literary, we use to store, or to erase, our memories.
“On the Calculation of Volume (Book IV)” by Solvej Balle, Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell. If you haven’t started this series, you should.
“Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke. This debut finds a modern day social media trad wife suddenly in 1805 – and not fully prepared for what marriage, motherhood and domestic life is truly like.
“The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream of Boogie” by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time.
“London Falling: A Mysterious Death in the Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth” by Patrick Radden Keefe. From the author of “Say Nothing,” a spellbinding account of a family devastated by the sudden death of their 19-year-old son, only to discover that he had created a secret life which drew him into the dangerous criminal underworld that lies beneath London’s glittering surface.
“Year of the Mer” by L.D. Lewis. A dark, bloody epic fantasy reimagining of “The Little Mermaid” that goes far beyond the fairy tale to explore family legacy, war, and what we will sacrifice for vengeance—the perfect read for fans of “The Priory of the Orange Tree.”
“The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances” by Glenn Dixon. In a future where technology is sentient, a young Roomba vacuum sets out to save the humans in her house from a rising technological power.
“The Ending Writes Itself” by Evelyn Clarke. A propulsive locked room mystery with six authors, one private island, and seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.
What Cassie’s Reading: “Land” by Maggie O’Farrell
The award-winning, bestselling author of “Hamnet” and “The Marriage Portrait” returns with a soaring historical novel set in Ireland in the years before and after the Great Hunger. “Land” is a novel about separation and reunion, tragedy and recovery, colonization and rebellion. It is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away. As spellbinding and varied as the landscape that inspired it, “Land” is, above all, a story of survival, for our times and for all time.
This article appears in the Source April 23, 2026.
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