She Provides Celebs With Beach Reading

By Neal 

A reader tipped us off to a profile of Nantucket bookshop owner Mimi Beman at, of all places, Newsmax.com. Of course, it being Newsmax, Ronald Kessler has to start off with some theorizing about how a spike in local sales for a book called Lone Survivor is “a sign that Americans may be tiring of unremitting negative portrayals of their country.” There’s just one thing: It may well be the case that “Beman is known as a weather vane” for her ability to predict hits, as Kessler suggests, but somehow, I’m not convinced that managing to move multiple copies of a book that’s already #2 on the NYT hardcover nonfiction bestsellers list, and has been doing well for two months now, is the best proof of that.

After that, though, it’s a perfectly charming little profile of an independent bookseller on the eve of her retirement (though she’s been trying to get out for a while).