Ever wondered how someone can transition from lawyering to managing an independent bookstore? Meet Jen Bird, the co-founder of Athena Books located in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. As a former lawyer, her unique journey to entrepreneurship promises not only to inspire but also to challenge your perception about career change. She shares how her passion for reading, primarily to her children, became the foundation for this incredible venture, with the bookstore's name and its meaning being an interesting twist to their story.
Athena Books isn't just a bookshop, it is a collaborative, women-focused space with a mission to advance reading culture and community engagement. Jen takes us through her strategic approach to book curation targeted at her community's needs and the pivotal role of organizations like the American Booksellers Association in her success story. Hear from her perspective the evolution of bookselling, the importance of creating an accessible and inclusive environment, and how Athena Books is navigating this dynamic industry.
Step into the world of Athena Books, a haven for diverse age groups and book genres. Find out what book genres are making the rounds in Old Greenwich and get a scoop on the attractions around for the perfect bookish getaway. If you're passionate about independent bookstores, community building, or you're just in for a good story, this episode is your ticket!
Athena Books
She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man’s World, Jennifer Palmieri
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, Michael Lewis
What You Are Looking For Is In The Library, Michiko Aoyama
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann
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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson Beverly and I'm a Bibliophile. Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast. Each week, I present interviews with independent bookshop owners from around the globe, authors and specialists in subjects dear to my heart the environment and social justice. To help the show reach more people, please share it with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review. Wherever you listen to this podcast. You're listening to Episode 226. Located in Old Greenwich, connecticut, athena Books is named after the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. The bookshop is intended to be a source of inspiration and a gathering place for members of the Greenwich community and beyond. They carry a wide selection of adult and children's books, as well as a thoughtful selection of curated gifts. They also host book clubs and author events, and have partnered with local schools to provide books for teachers and students, as well as host story time events for children. Hi, jen, and welcome to the show. It's lovely to have you here.
Speaker 2:Hi, thank you so much. It's great to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 1:My pleasure. Now let's begin with learning about you and your path from lawyer to entrepreneur to co-founding Athena Books with your husband, doctor and entrepreneur Odysseus Costas.
Speaker 2:So, yes, I did practice as a lawyer for a short time. I graduated from law school in 2004. I practiced for a couple of years. I quickly realized it probably wasn't the best fit. I did some soul searching, I actually took a little time off and I landed on recruiting, which is essentially connecting lawyers with jobs like being a headhunter. I enjoyed that to begin with and over time very much grew into it. So I did that for about 10 years, really enjoyed it and at the end of those 10 years formed my own company with four other partners. So that was my first experience as a business owner. That was also fantastic, like it was great having our own company. A huge learning curve, but learned a ton and that proved to be incredibly helpful when it came to the bookstore later. But then about two years into owning our own company, the pandemic hit. So luckily we were well established enough that I wasn't completely freaking out. Of course it was terrible in so many other ways but like everyone else, I was forced to kind of pause for a period of time and think about sort of what I wanted for my life, for my career, and I love recruiting. I knew I wanted to continue that, but I think I'd also been thinking about possibly wanting to contribute to the community in some way, having kind of gotten to a point where I feel like I have something to give and then also wanting maybe to do something a little bit of creative. So those ideas were percolating in my mind. And then my daughters I had two daughters at the time. They were four and six. The minute we heard they would be home from school I was ordering books. I was like what are we going to read? What are we going to do with these children? Luckily, my six year old is a big reader. She's very independent. She started reading things for anything related to Greek mythology. I was Googling anything and everything related to Greek mythology. There are actually these fantastic graphic novels she was reading and it was sort of like a hunt in that way. And my younger one I was reading to. I guess I was thinking what do I want to read? And so we went with the classics. We did everything by role doll, we did pibby longstocking, sort of anything I had enjoyed as a child. So that was a big part of our lives. And then when the library opened, we were ordering books directly from the library, sometimes stiff dear, more at a time and we know it was great. And then, as things started to open up a bit, we traveled to different small towns nearby, we went to Airbnb's and we found that there was very little to do. But one great activity was just going to the local bookstore and we'd kill some time there. My daughter would buy a book or two. We'd come home or we'd go back to our Airbnb and they'd read and that took a couple of afternoons. So that was fantastic and it was on our last trip like that. It was at the Hickory's Stick Bookshop near Bansum Lake in Connecticut, about an hour and a half away. Right turn to my husband and I was like, huh, maybe we should open up a bookstore like in our community. And my husband Well, so, right, so so that was coming from. It was just sort of in the moment, but again I had these ideas bubbling up and if you asked anybody in the town of Old Greenwich what it needs, that probably everyone would have said to you like, oh, it needs a bookstore and in fact it did have a bookstore about 12 years ago that had closed down. So that was there. That was in my mind. So I said that to my husband and he said I've always wanted to work at a bookstore. Immediately I was like, oh, we're gonna open a bookstore and obviously there's like so much more to opening a bookstore than just having an idea. But that sort of was the Genesis. And then it really was then kind of connecting with this. But you know, I immediately went online to see what spaces were available and I'll and I'll can describe more about the town of Old Greenwich. But long story short, we saw two spaces, one of which is our current space. As soon as we saw, it Really spoke to the both of us. My husband, luckily, had also had experience as an entrepreneur. He was a physician, but then he and he had his own medical practice. Now he's in finance, so he was comfortable with the concept. But it was when we saw the current space that we thought, oh yes, we should open a bookstore here. And then I kind of unfolded from there.
Speaker 1:It is, but it's a good story and a couple of things that really piqued my interest. It always makes me feel good when I hear of parents reading to their children. It brings a warmth to the family While keeping children curious and encouraging them to ask questions. Absolutely a striking part of Athena books is the interior layout, which looks absolutely beautiful. Did you design this layout or was it part of the original design?
Speaker 2:It's sort of a mix, the the original design did have that circle in the middle, that striking circle. That's sort of what inspired us and my husband and I thought like, oh gosh, this could be a gathering place. And as we thought more about it, we thought why don't we try to turn this into a living room? So the circle had been there, we filled in the bookshelves. And then we have the vision and we've worked with the designer, we've worked with friends to kind of come up with that. You know interior, but it was really designed to be like your living room so that you could come Spend up, you know, spend some time with your kids reading During the day, and in the evenings we host book clubs, we have events. It was meant to feel like a warm, cozy environment for the community, a gathering space.
Speaker 1:Something that jumped out at me from your website is that community members can rent out that space in the bookshop in the evenings for book clubs, and I think that's a wonderful idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I love book clubs. You know I find that I have a lot of trouble hosting a book club at my house because I have children who run up, and so I thought like, oh great, I could have my own book club here and others should be able to use the space as well, and that way we can be building, you know, make it easier for people and also be building a community of readers. And so that's been really fun.
Speaker 1:I'm a big believer in communities, about building relationships, and this is what you're doing within Athena Books. Yeah, as I mentioned in your introduction, athena Books is named after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, and your employees are primarily a gathering of women. Can you talk about this feminine dynamic, and was it intentional?
Speaker 2:Sure, yes, I would say so. I mean the Greek aspect is my husband. His name's Odysseus, right? So his family is Greek. Greek mythology, greek culture, is very much a part of our lives. I do have two daughters, who you know, so I'm particularly interested in sort of like women, empowerment and things like that. And Athena was chosen because she is like a female Well, first of all, the goddess of wisdom, appropriate for books, but also a figure of female empowerment. And in my professional life as a recruiter, I've helped a number of women you know make that move. That's led them, taken them to another level. And I enjoy working with men too. But women are close to my heart and one of the books it's funny when I think about sort of yeah, how did it come to be all women? One of the books I read one of the first I read for myself during the pandemic was a book called she Proclaims Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World by Jennifer Palmieri. I highly recommend this book. Jennifer was the communications director for Hillary Clinton's campaign. She'd also worked for President Obama. She'd written also another book called Dear Madame President, after Hillary had lost. But essentially what she says in this book is you know, the traditional corporate models were built by men for men and, like no offense, it works really well for men, as it should. If you built it, it should work well for you. And she was saying in her experience, in the experience of others it doesn't work as well for women, just the way it's all structured. And so that was very much in the back of my mind. I knew I had structured my recruiting firm in a way that was much more conducive to my personal success and other success of people. In the business. There are men and women who are partners and in the bookstore I very much wanted to create an environment where not just women, but anybody, could be successful, but particularly women. And most of the women in the store are women who you know had been in the workforce at one time but maybe had dipped out a bit to take care of their kids. And other kids are older and so pretty much everybody is part time and we have, you know, adult employees. We also have teenagers, you know, who are at the local high school, but everybody is part time. We do the schedule month to month. We work about every. We work around everybody's commitments, vacation schedules. It's incredibly collaborative, a really positive atmosphere, and everyone is so great about chipping in to help each other. So if someone can't make a shift, someone else slots in. And that's been incredible and I've been really grateful. There are so many talented women in this community who've contributed their skills, who came to me before the store even opened to say how could I help. So I'm super grateful and I've really had the benefit of that and we try to kind of be collaborative in that way. But it's open to men too. It just happens to work really well for women.
Speaker 1:Men are also welcome. I love everything you've said and I definitely need to pick up a copy of Sheeper Claims because I haven't read it yet. It's so good. Jen, when you and Odisseus were in the early stages of birthing Athena books, how much did you rely on organizations such as the American Booksellers Association, particularly about the book business and curation?
Speaker 2:So it's funny. When we had this idea I immediately googled how to open an independent bookstore. It did lead me to the ABA and there's literally a book, or like a pamphlet, called how to Open a Bookstore and I think it was written by a consultant but the ABA posted it. I downloaded that. I read everything in that book. That book then directed me to the important resources like we use Ingram as our distributor and it directed me to the people who built out our bookshelves. And that was key that I didn't otherwise talk to a lot of people at ABA, but that was enough to get me going. And then, as far as curation, ingram is great and that they provide you with, you tell them kind of generally what you're thinking. They give you an initial store list like a grid, and you can go through the books. And that's where I also have the benefit of other women In the community who did have book selling expertise. We all went over the list together and sort of came up with we thought would be a good initial order when you say ingram does the distributing, are you publishing books as well? No, so ingram. We buy books directly from the publishers, but ingram is sort of this wholesale distributor. They get all the books from the publishers and we just buy directly from ingram. So we do a mix.
Speaker 1:I see and do you find you are curating specifically for your community?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. We always have a community in mind when we're buying books. And now we're about two years in. At first it was hard to know, but now, two years in, I get a sense of what are people like and then always just try to find interesting one off. So I think we'll kind of spark a little joy or excitement but yeah, we have a much better sense now.
Speaker 1:I'm guessing because the variation of ages of the booksellers working at Athena books means they are reading across the board as far as nonfiction and genres of fiction.
Speaker 2:Yes, luckily everyone in the store kind of has their areas of expertise and we benefit from that too including one of my both of my daughters, who are big readers. I'm constantly asking my daughters what did you like? Put those on display.
Speaker 1:And my husband and what does he like to read?
Speaker 2:Mix. He likes literary fiction and some nonfiction. He loves demon copperhead. I think we all love demon copperhead.
Speaker 1:That was a favorite of the year and in regards to sales in your area of Connecticut. Is there a particular genre that is popular?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I would say fiction generally and we do tend to track sort of whatever the major bestsellers are at the time. So, for example, like Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo was huge in our first year, then lessons in chemistry and demon copperhead, I would say our community tends to like the best. You know what people might consider the best books the Pulitzer prize winners, and then there are a lot of. There's certain nonfiction books that also stand out, like the wagers been incredibly popular by David Grand and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keeps. But I would say it's really kind of what you might universally consider the most. You know anticipated or highly regarded books and a lot of kids books, kids books.
Speaker 1:Yes, on your website the children's section looks gorgeous and your website is Athena books. Ogcom is the OG for old Greenwich.
Speaker 2:It's funny because most people think it stands for original gangster. It's actually the complete opposite. Which is old Greenwich, all Greenwich, is the original gang but anyway.
Speaker 1:That's funny. Okay, so on your website is this great section nearby attractions and with that in mind, alice is a global and enjoy hearing about the areas where indie book shops are located. For anyone with a few days in old Greenwich, what sites would you suggest they visit? Hikes, vegan restaurants, coffee shops and places to take young children?
Speaker 2:Old Greenwich is absolutely delightful, I will say, and it's funny because until the pandemic I was working in the city, so we were about a 45 minute commute from New York City. And so I wasn't spending as much time there. But now, during the pandemic, I was spending a lot more time going to the coffee shop and now I spent all my time it is. It is this beautiful, quaint little street. I'll contrast it with Main downtown Greenwich, which is also gorgeous. That's a mile long Avenue with with very high-end stores, and it feels a little bit more like you're in the city. So you know regular Greenwich. Downtown Greenwich is a great place to visit. We are about 10 minutes from downtown Greenwich and in the small it's more. It's much more of a quaint street like a quaint New England town. It's got. You know, we're right in the middle of the bookstore. We've got a fantastic bake shop and spot for lunch, a coffee shop, clothing store, shoe store, ice cream shop. They're opening up a yoga studio. So as far as like just spending an afternoon going to different shops, that'll that'll take you an afternoon. It's. It's literally. It's about a 45 minute Drive from New York, easy to get to, and then also 45 minutes on the train and the train stop is literally a two minute walk to the Store. So it's sort of just like an easy spot to get to from the city and then nearby parks. There's Biny Park, which is this beautiful park, literally again two minute walk, with a lot of beautiful greenery, and then Todd's point is the major Attraction. That's this beautiful beach, it's more. That's more about a mile away. You could walk it or take an Uber. It's this beautiful park with a beautiful beach that you can walk around and absolutely spend an afternoon there. And then also you know other cute nearby towns, depending on how much time you have. But old, old Greenwich, I think, is really special and it's just, it's very quaint and it's all mom and pop. You know all local businesses. It's really wonderful.
Speaker 1:Are they independent businesses all?
Speaker 2:indie stores Yep, every single one.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love to hear that and tell me what drew you to the area.
Speaker 2:So my husband actually grew up in this community. He grew up I live in Riverside, which is right next to old Greenwich. He grew up here so I actually have his mother to thank. I think his mother chose this town when she moved to Connecticut with her family. So we actually lived just a couple blocks from where my husband grew up. So when we had started dating he was living in Greenwich already and then, you know, we chose where we are now and and old Greenwich really, mainly because I love it. I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1:I'd love to look around Connecticut because I have not been there yet, so it's definitely on my bucket list. Jan, as an entrepreneur, what changes do you see approaching in the bookselling world and how do you feel publishers can support readers needs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's an interesting question. I mean, I think you know, because books are such a low-margin business which I'm sure you've heard from others you have to both sell a high volume. So you know we're lucky we're in a community that supports that, that tries to buy their books at our store. We also have been coming up with other like creative weight. You know we do a lot of gifts, curation for birthday parties, holiday is. We spend a lot of time thinking about that, how to kind of generate other revenue streams. We hold events for that reason as well. But I think to really one interesting development has been how bookshoporg Came about during the pandemic, which basically allows online bookseller you know In any bookstores like myself to sell books online in a very easy way. That's competitive with other major online providers and you get the benefit of that. So that's huge. And then Libro FM Similarly provides audiobooks, so we can encourage our customers to sign up with Libra FM and we get a. You know we get a portion of the proceeds, so that helps us. Those are two additional revenue streams. I'm researching now a good e-reader that would be competitive as well, but those are very helpful because it allows us to compete. I think the publishers are good about realizing the role that we play in Sort of promoting their books and and there is a lot of hand-selling and there are books that are popular in our store that aren't necessarily national bestsellers because they're a local author. So I have fun the publishers to be supportive in that way and part of what I've enjoyed about being an entrepreneur, both in recruiting in the bookstore I'm not sure yet what else will develop right, like I think there, you know, things may develop in ways that are unexpected. We tend to try out lots of different types of you know Things to sell in the store in different events and sort of see what works and over time things kind of develop in unexpected ways. So I'm sort of sort of excited to see where all of this might lead. Um I, but so far I would say that online selling has been helpful. Having other independent organizations who facilitate that has been very helpful.
Speaker 1:Yes, bookshoporg is doing a fabulous job of supporting independent bookshops.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk books. What are you currently reading?
Speaker 2:So I just finished Michael Lewis' book Going Infinite, which was fantastic. It was about. You know, michael Lewis is one of the best at kind of just telling a nonfiction story but making it feel like a thriller. And it was the story of kind of what happened with Sam Bankman-Freed and FTX and obviously very timely because the trial is going on now. But I thought it was a fantastic read for literally anybody and that'll be something we sort of probably promote during the holidays. Also loved Deep Copperhead. Tom Lake was beautiful, oh, and one other that I just finished and loved what you were looking for is in the library. It's by a Japanese author. It's five stories but they're intertwined and it's basically about a librarian who recommends books to each of the five characters at sort of crossroads in their lives and how these books sort of change the character's lives, the trajectory, in obviously a positive way. And for me it's been so true, right, like books do have a significant impact. And when I think about sort of what I've done as a recruiter I'm matchmaking people and jobs and as a bookseller we try to matchmake people and books and I've been so enriched by all the books. I've always been a big reader, but now I read probably 10 times as much, but I've been very enriched by everything I've read, and so I love this book because it kind of just shows you like, yes, these books can sort of like shift things for you a little bit. It's not everything, but they really kind of make a difference, and so I found that to be inspirational.
Speaker 1:And do you have a favorite book to hand sell?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, and the ones that I just mentioned, for sure. I also really. I mean, I love the Wager by David Gran. It's about a shipwreck that took place in like England in the 16th century, and normally that is not a topic that I find particularly interesting. However, he came, david Gran came to the store and spoke about the book and he made it sound so interesting and I was like, oh, I'll give this a try. I read a couple pages Like, wow, it was easy, it's incredibly well written. You start to feel like it was a bit of a thriller. So, yeah, I mean that's an excellent one. I really enjoyed that and I can hand sell that one and some other nonfiction ones too that read like thrillers.
Speaker 1:You've raised an interesting point. The Bookshop podcast is now going into its fourth year, and for the past 13 months I've researched and booked authors for the Lunch with an Author program at Ellen Canto, a Belmont hotel in Santa Barbara, california, and what I love about the work I do, apart from talking about books and writing to people all over the world, is that it has expanded my reading platform, and that's something I'm truly grateful for. A good example of this is that at the beginning of the pandemic, I kind of froze for a while and then one day, when I was walking, I noticed a couple of crime fiction books in the little free library right around the corner from us. So I picked one out and that was it. I was hooked. You made me a little thrill. Yes, exactly, it took me into a different world and away from the fear that I was experiencing at that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can see that though.
Speaker 1:Okay, I have one last question. Is there anything that you have learned about yourself since opening Athena books?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, a couple of things. I think just sort of managing, just sort of managing a whole you know. You look at it and you think, oh, managing should be easy. And then you're like you're doing and you're like, oh, it's not so easy. So I think just sort of like that's an area of learning for me generally. I've learned so much about the book industry. It's such an opportunity to kind of keep growing and that's the part I love about it. Like I don't see an end to kind of the growth potential there. But yeah, it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1:Jen, thank you so much for being a guest on the Bookshop podcast. It's been great chatting with you. You have such a vibrant personality. I think you're perfectly suited as an indie bookshop owner and bookseller. Connecticut is lucky to have you, thank you.
Speaker 2:This came out of the blue, but it's fantastic. It's like what a great thing you're doing as far as like featuring all these bookstores. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to my conversation with Jen Bird, owner of Athena Books, located in Old Greenwich, connecticut. To find out more about the Bookshop podcast, go to thebookshoppodcastcom and make sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to the show. You can also follow me at Mandy Jackson Beverly on X, Instagram and Facebook and on YouTube at the Bookshop podcast. If you have a favorite indie bookshop that you'd like to suggest we have on the podcast, I'd love to hear from you via the contact form at thebookshoppodcastcom. The Bookshop podcast is written and produced by me, mandy Jackson Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly, executive assistant to Mandy, adrienne Otterhan and graphic design by Francis Barala. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.
