The Town Book Store

Welcome to The Town Book Store

The Town Book Store has been serving Westfield and neighboring communities since 1934. We are one of the last independent bookstores located in Union County, New Jersey. In today’s rapidly changing retail environment, The Town Book Store remains one constant where shoppers can find a first-rate literary selection with friendly, personalized service in an attractive, convenient setting. Whether you are reading for escape, for comfort, to gain knowledge, for pure pleasure or as a source of lively conversation, visit or call us at The Town Book Store and we can match you up with the right book.

Anne Laird

Owner, The Town Book Store

THE TOWN BOOK STORE

~ Satisfying Book Lovers Since 1934 ~

Anne's Pick of the Month

City of Girls

by Elizabeth Gilbert

$28.00

Making our top 10 list for 2019, beloved author

Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love

story set in the New York City theater world during the

1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love.

In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves - and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it. It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest.

Now eighty-nine years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life - and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it. "At some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time," she muses. "After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is." Written with a powerful wisdom about human desire and connection, City of Girls is a love story like no other.

{See All

Staff Picks}