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New York Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Beginning a New Chapter, Surrounded by Books
One of Erica Cerles and Sasha Tharani's first dates in March 2023 was at the Booksmith in San Francisco, their home city. The women, both avid readers, had intended to pick out books for each other but were too nervous to do so. 'There is something vulnerable about revealing what you imagine they might enjoy,' Ms. Cerles said. Less than two years later, in a bookstore on the opposite coast, the two became fiancées. On Feb. 28, Ms. Cerles, 37, arrived in New York on a redeye flight to surprise Ms. Tharani, 33, already in town for her nephew's birthday party, with a marriage proposal at McNally Jackson Books at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. For months leading up to the proposal, Ms. Cerles, a high school counselor in San Mateo, Calif., said she was 'in cahoots' with the bookseller team, which presented her with a private area in the history section to pop the question. 'Since we were about to begin writing our own history together, it felt symbolically perfect,' Ms. Cerles said. 'There's something deeply meaningful about standing among stories of the past while stepping into a new chapter of our own.' The bookstore had been one of Ms. Tharani's favorite haunts when she, a health care consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, had lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Across the country, many couples are weaving bookstores and books into their proposals or weddings. Judith Rosen, a contributing editor at Publishers Weekly, even wrote a book about it. 'Bookstores themselves are having a renaissance,' said Ms. Rosen, whose book, 'Bookstore Romance: Love Speaks Volumes,' published in February, and profiles 24 couples who got married or engaged at a bookstore. 'Independent bookstores have really shown that they have a place in the community,' Ms. Rosen added, noting a rise in the number of bookstores in recent years. In May 2024, the American Booksellers Association, a national trade association that supports independent bookstores, reported an 11 percent increase in membership from the previous year. 'Bookstores have long been a 'third place' outside home and work that people have turned to for community,' Ms. Rosen said. 'In the wake of Covid, many people sought those kinds of connections. Others were emboldened to follow their dream of having their own bookstore.' Lee Ramsay, the founder of Lee Ramsay Events in New York, has planned three weddings at the Housing Works Bookstore in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. Ms. Ramsay said bookstores are ideal for those looking to add a personal touch to their celebrations and she expects their popularity as wedding venues to keep growing. Plus, Ms. Ramsay said, bookstores offer a few added benefits: They come with plenty of built-in décor and are often located in charming neighborhoods. Books and bookstores are special to Jeremy Rodriguez, 33, and Kayla Kleinman, 34. On April 5, Mr. Rodriguez proposed to Ms. Kleinman after a morning-long, book-themed scavenger hunt that began in the couple's apartment in Manhattan's Greenwich Village and culminated on the rare books floor of the Strand Book Store in the East Village. 'Going to the Strand and just wandering around bookstores together is such a big part of our relationship and our weekends,' said Ms. Kleinman, a content creator whose focus includes books. (She previously served as the social media manager for an online book marketplace.) Following an enthusiastic 'yes' from Ms. Kleinman, Mr. Rodriguez, a high school history teacher, picked up a special token from the rare books room: a vintage advanced reader's copy of 'The Eye of the World,' part of 'The Wheel of Time' fantasy series, a genre staple. 'I visited the Strand so many times that week but hadn't been able to actually go book shopping,' Mr. Rodriguez said, explaining that he had been in constant contact with the retailer's events team and in-store staff. 'It was so frustrating.' Morgan Brewton-Johnson, 29, and Sam Hall, 30, of Cambridge, Mass., hosted a 21-person wedding at Beacon Hill Books & Cafe in Boston on Oct. 11, 2024. Before they landed on a location for their wedding, Ms. Brewton-Johnson, a consultant at Bain & Company, and Mr. Hall, a founder of a real estate technology startup and M.B.A. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, considered how they would typically spend a weekend in town with loved ones. 'We would absolutely be taking them to Beacon Hill Books & Cafe,' Ms. Brewton-Johnson said. Bookstore owners are also excited to open their doors to couples and their guests. Darlene Okpo, the owner of Adanne Bookshop in Brooklyn, which features books written by authors of color, hosted a wedding in her store last September. 'When opening up the shop, I knew that I wanted a space beyond books,' she said, adding that offering community events, workshops and more was always a goal. Christina Pascucci-Ciampa, the owner of All She Wrote Books, a feminist and queer bookstore in Somerville, Mass., began offering wedding packages, which range from $350 to $900, in 2024. 'Having this safe space for the L.G.B.T.Q. community and the queer community is extremely important, whether that's through elopements or engagements celebrating love, or if that's community gathering,' she said. Hosting a larger-scale wedding that still contains a book element is feasible, too. The nonprofit Housing Works Bookstore hosts 30 to 40 private events annually, most of which are weddings, and can accommodate up to 150 guests, according to Erica Pratico, the bookstore's director. A five-hour event is included with the purchase of a $10,000 Visionary Membership, $9,145 of which is tax-deductible. For shorter or longer gatherings, custom rental packages are available at $1,000 to $2,000 per hour. Couples can hold a small ceremony for a couple of hours or host rehearsal dinners or welcome parties there. And a bar can also be added, with pricing ranging from $11 to $14 per guest, per hour. The Ripped Bodice, a romance bookstore with locations in Brooklyn and Culver City, Calif., hosts many in-store weddings and engagements, at an average cost of $2,000, but also facilitates 'book bars' at outside venues. These setups, which range in price from $660 to $1,700, allow guests to select a book from an assortment of titles to bring home with them to commemorate the evening, oftentimes in lieu of a traditional party favor, explained Leah Koch, an owner of Ripped Bodice. Couples often select books that are meaningful to their relationship, Ms. Koch said, noting that choices have ranged from Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' to Casey McQuiston's queer time-travel romance 'One Last Stop.' 'This is something that people can have on their shelves forever,' she said.
New York Times
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
In ‘Streetcar,' Patsy Ferran Gives Blanche a Nervy New Read
Patsy Ferran will not judge a book by its cover. But covers are important to her. 'See?' she said, palming a copy of a Barbara Kingsolver novel at a Brooklyn branch of McNally Jackson bookstore. 'Such a good cover. Aesthetics do matter.' Ferran, a London-based actress, is currently starring in Tennessee Williams's 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, just up the road from the store. A latecomer to reading for pleasure, Ferran picked up fiction, particularly American fiction, during the pandemic lockdowns and has yet to put it down. Currently working her way through Percival Everett's 'James,' with Samantha Harvey's 'Orbital' cued up next, she had promised herself that she wouldn't buy any more books. But the shelves were calling. 'I kind of explore cities via book shops,' she said. 'That and good coffee.' In the store, Ferran, lively, shrewd and lightly self-deprecating, ('I do my own glam,' she said wryly as she shook out her hair from a woolly hat) picked up and put down several recent paperbacks, enthusing about their feel. 'British paperbacks are so stiff, you have to crowbar them open, which I hate,' she said. Ferran decided that she might buy just one. Or two. Certainly not more than three. Ferran, 35, made her professional debut just after her graduation from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in a production of Noël Coward's 'Blithe Spirit.' More stage roles followed, including her first lead, as Alma in 'Summer and Smoke,' also by Williams, directed by Rebecca Frecknall. 'This young actor is a genuine marvel, as hilarious as she is heartbreaking,' one critic wrote of the performance. Soon she was recognized as one of the most talented stage actresses of her generation. Small and quick, with dark, curling hair, Ferran was an unusual choice for Blanche. A great American heroine, 'an aging Southern belle who lives in a state of perpetual panic about her fading beauty' in Williams's words, Blanche is typically played by willowy, languorous blondes. (Recent New York Blanches include Cate Blanchett and Gillian Anderson). Ferran knows this. She worried that audiences would dismiss her as the wrong cover for this particular book. 'My gremlin in my brain was going, They're going to hate you,' she said. 'Because you are a very unconventional Blanche.' Ferran leaped onto the London 'Streetcar' at the last minute. Another actor, Lydia Wilson, had been cast opposite Paul Mescal's Stanley. But when Wilson had to withdraw days before previews began, Frecknall, the revival's director, thought of her former colleague and friend. Ferran was at the bank when she received Frecknall's text asking her to join the production. Briefly, she resisted. She wondered how it would look to replace another actress and the run would mean postponing her honeymoon. Besides, she didn't see herself as Blanche. 'No way, José,' Ferran, who is fond of old-timey epithets, said. 'Blanche has this flighty, coquettish, airy energy.' Ferran, who was cast in boys' parts all through school and typically favors an androgynous look, felt far away from all that. 'I'm not a naturally feminine woman,' she said. But her husband convinced her that if she turned down the role, she would regret it. Besides, she is a people pleaser. 'I was like, 'She needs me,'' Ferran said. So she called Frecknall back and said she had one more day of shooting on 'Mickey 17,' the latest Bong Joon Ho film, but then yes, she would do it. That night, studying the script and realizing the number of lines she would have to memorize, Ferran panicked. She called her agent and attempted to back out. It was too late; a news release had already been sent. The next day at rehearsal she saw Frecknall, and the two women burst out laughing. 'I was like, Oh, we're going to be OK, because we all know how mad this is,' Ferran said. She slept very little those first weeks and acquired many more gray hairs. But everyone welcomed her, and in Mescal, her co-star, she found a real theater animal. (She hadn't realized how famous he was until the show was up and running. 'Like, oh my God, people really love him,' she said.) In the past, Ferran had always had the luxury of time to prepare. Now she had to go on instinct alone. She couldn't worry that she wasn't a typical Blanche or change herself to become more Blanche-like. Instead she brought Blanche to her, creating a Blanche who was nervous, nervy, achingly vulnerable, smarter than the other characters assume. 'Because I had no time, I only had myself as a filter,' Ferran said. It is, she believes, the best acting of her career. The Times critic Matt Wolf agreed, writing that he had rarely seen 'the anger that coexists with Blanche's fragility conveyed as clearly as it is here.' She has tried to apply some of these lessons to her film and television acting — in addition to 'Mickey 17,' she also has a major role in an episode of the new season of 'Black Mirror' and plays Jane Austen in 'Miss Austen,' the PBS Masterpiece series that premieres on May 4. 'Onscreen, you have to be as unprecious and free and relaxed as possible,' she said. 'So you learn to just go with the flow.' But flow doesn't always come easily to Ferran. After the London run ended, in February 2023, Ferran had something approaching a Blanche-adjacent nervous collapse. 'My body reached breaking point and I wasn't very well for a couple of months,' she said. The prospect of returning to the role, first for a West End reprise in February and then for the Brooklyn performance frightened her. Certain lines in the play, like Blanche's declaration that her nerves had broken, felt too close. She worried she wasn't mentally strong enough to play the part in New York City. But she describes this more recent rehearsal period as being akin to exposure therapy. 'The more you do it, the more your body just gets used to it,' she said. 'It actually has helped me massively deal with my own [expletive],' she said. And she's been moved by the enthusiasm of Brooklyn audiences. 'Holy moly,' she said. 'The joy and generous open vocal responses that we're getting, we never got in London. I love this city so much.' The demands of the show and her preparations for an upcoming Charlie Kaufman movie mean that Ferran only has between two and three waking hours to herself each day. She likes to spend them reading. Blanche, a former English teacher, would approve. At the bookstore she decided on a copy of Charles Portis's 'True Grit' and two recent novels by American women. She hefted the shopping bag proudly. It's not likely to be her last purchase. 'I'm thinking, do I buy a third suitcase to take them all back to London?' she mused.
