For months, Kathleen Caldwell had been waking at 3am to check her bank balance. That’s when the nightly business deposit arrived and indicated if she’d be able to retain her home, health and greatest happiness as the owner of A Great Good Place for Books.
Having inherited the independent bookstore in 2005 from the original owner, Debi Echlin, Caldwell devoted every ounce of energy and most of her money to the shop. Located in Montclair Village in the Oakland Hills, the snug, intimate store was beloved by the community and attracted local, national and international authors for in-person appearances.
In May of 2026, the anxiety of living so precariously became overwhelming, causing Caldwell to announce the store would close in mid-June. Despite shepherding A Great Good Place for 21 years through all kinds of storms—economic downturns, the advent of Amazon, a turn to mail-ordering during the pandemic and more—in an interview Caldwell says conversations she held and her own heart and mind signaled it was time to exit.
“I called my brother-in-law, Scott Wentworth, and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” says Caldwell. “He’s been with my sister so long, it’s like he’s my big brother, and I trust him. He said to follow my heart.”
Following her heart is what got Caldwell into the book business, and powered her reading preferences and love for sharing good books with others. The store’s name references sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s 1989 book, The Great Good Place. Like the public spaces he wrote about as vital community centers, Caldwell’s shop was a gathering place, knitting together writers and readers who had a devotion to literature in common.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Caldwell says. “It’s been challenging, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s been an amazing life. I love working for myself. It’s everything I never knew I wanted. I was never a big planner in my personal life, which seems kind of wacky. I inherited the store, so it wasn’t planned, but it was the perfect fit. I love authors, community, introducing people to vibrant books that make their hearts sing.”
Less loved are the recently shuttered businesses and foot traffic reduced to near zero that plague the commercial center of Montclair Village. “We lost the bank on the corner and Rite Aid. Those were huge. People would do their banking, get their prescriptions, and walk to the stores,” Caldwell notes. “Since last July, it’s changed. There’s no foot traffic.”
Multiple thefts and a late night break-in at nearby jewelry stores didn’t help. “We’ve had some high-profile crime,” says Caldwell. “We had a guy killed for his laptop at the Starbucks. I’ve never been robbed, but the jewelry shop next door has been. I feel we were in a little bubble way up here in the Oakland Hills, and now, not so much.”
Caldwell’s natural can-do orientation has her turning most often to gratitude and joy. It’s impossible to reduce her favorite author appearances to one best example, she protests.
“There are so many. Steven Rowley, who wrote The Guncle, was my birthday present. He brought me flowers, and we had a cake. We had Taylor Jenkins Reid for Daisy Jones and The Six. I kept bugging the publisher until they finally gave me the author just to shut me up,” she recalls. “Getting to meet Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut—I remembered the day I was four, standing outside, looking up at the moon and trying to see the man on the moon. The store did his book party on the USS Hornet for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.”
A visit from former Golden State Warriors champion Andre Iguodala caused a line of people that ran out the door, around the corner and down the next block. Caldwell offered him a free book of his choice when he finished the appearance. “I asked what book he wanted. He pulled out his phone and said, ‘Let me look at my list.’ I loved that he was a book dork,” she says.
As a woman in business, Caldwell’s philosophies and practices are wise, timeless and mostly low-tech common sense. She hires “quirky people who think in the gray areas,” not the black-and-white binary of others. She always wants to learn customers’ names, why they shop in the store, what books they love. Says Caldwell, “I like to know their stories.”
Two former, influential bosses taught her to push herself and believe in her vision. Her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is no surprise. “It’s cliché to repeat it, but I say, follow your heart,” notes Caldwell.
A GoFundMe campaign will help cover Caldwell’s living expenses and health concerns while she transitions to Social Security and disability payments. To date, it stands at $55,168, with a $65,000 goal. A closing party will celebrate the shop’s history and the community’s support.
“I met some of my best friends through the store. How lucky am I? I’m so grateful to the community,” she says.
And after the festivities are over, Caldwell says she might “play with Substack” and perhaps follow her heart and write her debut novel.
Closing mid-June through July 1: A Great Good Place for Books, 6120 La Salle Ave., Oakland, 510.339.8210; ggpbooks.com. To contribute to Caldwell’s GoFundMe, visit gofundme.com/f/help-kathleen-bridge-to-retirement-after-20-yrs-at-ggp-books.
