Asia In Seattle: Mam's Books
Bookstore pilgrimages are my favorite activities and I never feel I’ve truly visited a place until I’ve explored its bookstores. Yesterday I set off to find one in my own city, set in a neighborhood that once was mine.
Maynard Avenue begins in what once was Nihonmachi and runs the length of the Chinatown-International District, ending not far from the old Immigration Center that serves as the border between the C-ID and the industrial area that’s now called SoDo. I lived on Maynard for years, in an old brick hotel that had been turned into efficiency apartments and for days on end, never had to leave my neighborhood. It held everything I needed and wanted--except for a bookstore. Although a branch of Kinokuniya Books was only several blocks away, it had gradually become a gift shop where Totoro and Pokemon had crowded out the books. Finding something to read there was like a scavenger hunt and I began to avoid the place to keep attacks of apoplexy at bay.
When a friend told me that a bookstore was opening on Maynard Avenue, one that was focused on Asian American literature, I was afraid to hope. Bookstores have almost vanished from downtown Seattle, a place that once had close to a dozen, and the handful that remained sold used books, with one holdout that was devoted to books on architecture. Even the established bookstores in other neighborhoods had resorted to selling socks and board games to boost their profit margins. What was I going to find in my favorite part of the city?
I walked into the shop and immediately lost my heart. It was filled with light and the walls were lined with bookshelves. In the center, a smiling young man stood behind a small desk and behind him, a beautiful older woman sat on a sofa. There were stools in bright primary colors, a display of packaged snacks behind the little sales desk and a cooler with soft drinks. A counter at the back of the store had a sign above it that offered a menu of coffees and teas.But what gave me a jolt of life that I hadn’t felt in a long time were the books.
They were beautifully displayed and carefully chosen. There were books I’ve read and loved, along with books I’d never seen before. I wandered the perimeter of the shop, reaching out to favorites and delighting in the surprises.
A good bookstore is predicated on surprise and Mam’s Books is full of them. Children’s bilingual board books, picture books that gleamed like jewels, graphic novels, cookbooks, novels and memoirs, all had selections that dazzled and tempted me. Best of all, books I had to hunt for in larger bookstores were here--on tables, faced-out on shelves, gloriously visible.
Sokha Danh had a goal and he’s already achieved it. He wanted a bookstore that would be a community center, with books that speak to the Asian American neighborhood that’s long been ignored by the city that surrounds it. He’s made a magnet for booklovers that’s welcoming and enticing and he makes everyone who walks through his doors feel at home immediately.
The beautiful lady on the sofa is his mother and her radiant kindness pervades the shop, which her son named after his father. She and Sokha make this place one to return to again and again, for conversations, discoveries, and book buying.
Mam’s Books is open on Friday evenings and on weekends at 608 Maynard Avenue. Go. I’ll see you there.~Janet Brown