All women-owned White Bear Lake bookstore celebrates 45th anniversary
(From left to right) Roberta Kiemele, Susie Fruncillo, Nancy Thysell and Faith Basten are the co-owners of Lake Country Booksellers in White Bear Lake., Minn.
Courtesy of Susie Fruncillo
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Forty-five years ago, five women opened a small bookstore in White Bear Lake, called Lake Country Booksellers.
Over the years, the store has seen the ups, downs and enormous changes in the book selling industry. It’s become one of the oldest women-owned bookstores in the state. One of those owners is Susie Fruncillo joined Minnesota Now to reflect on the store’s legacy.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: On this day 45 years ago, five women opened a small bookstore in White Bear Lake. It's called Lake Country Booksellers. And over the years, the store has seen the ups, downs, and enormous changes in the bookselling industry. It's become the oldest, all woman owned bookstore in the state.
And one of those owners is Susie Fruncillo. She's here now with us to reflect on the store's legacy. Hi, Susie. Thanks so much for being here.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Hi, Nina.
NINA MOINI: Wow. Huge congratulations. I mean, what does it even feel like to hear that introduction?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: It's really cool. We're so excited about it. We want to have a big party, but we want to wait till the weather is a little better. And so stay tuned. In the summer, we're going to have a party.
NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. So Susie, tell us a little bit, if you would, about the original five women who opened the store. What was going on there 45 years ago?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Oh, well, 45 years ago, these five women from North Oaks decided they wanted to follow their dream and open a bookstore. They had been friends for a long time and were empty-nesters. So they went to New York and attended a school on bookselling, came back, ordered a whole lot of books from the Bookmen in Minneapolis, which is now the Bookmen Lofts.
And their sons and daughters helped them put the store together, built the shelves. Their husbands bought the building, two of the husbands. And then they said, you better get down there and get a book quickly, because they'll be out of business in a couple of months.
[LAUGHTER]
That was the husbands.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
Proved them wrong, didn't you? Yeah.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: When we had our 25th anniversary, we invited those guys and said, well, here we are more than a few months later.
[LAUGHTER]
NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. And then, so fast forward bought you bought in as a co-owner back in the late '90s. What was your life like at the time? What led you there?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: It was real serendipitous. I had a job, a full-time job, good salary, good benefits. And I was walking my dog one day and met Susie Hudson, who was one of the owners of the bookstore. And she told me that, "Oh, I'm going to be selling my share of the bookstore." And I didn't hear another thing she said after that.
[LAUGHTER]
I knew this was what I wanted to do. And so my daughter Gina bought in with me. And Gina then started having a lot of babies. And so she was out in a few years, but I'm still there 27 years later.
NINA MOINI: Wow. And have you always been a book lover? I mean, what made you kind of in that conversation have a change of life [LAUGHS] there?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Well, my mom, who raised seven kids, was a huge reader. And she would take us to the library and tell us not to bother her. We could all pick out three books. So all of us, all of us are readers. And my only regret here is that mom didn't live to see us buy into the bookstore, because one of my sisters is one of the owners.
NINA MOINI: Oh, that's a beautiful story. I think so many people can relate to reading with their parents or what certain books and stories mean to them. Over the years, has people's connections to reading changed that you've observed? Or is it still the same at the core? What do you think?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: I think it has changed. I think, well, one of the original owners, Alta Johnson, told me when I was trying to figure out what was the big deal about Harry Potter, and she-- all that. And she said, "Well, people really used to read fairy tales, and they loved them. And then fairy tales went away."
She said, "Your generation got rid of them. They didn't like them." And she said, "so I think kids really resonate with this." And she was right.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. So different types of books at the store, I mean, how do you choose? What's that process like?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Oh, it's really fun. So we listen to MPR,s and so do our customers. So we listen to Kerri Miller. We listen to PBS NewsHour. We read the New York Times.
We read the Star Tribune. We read the Pioneer Press. And we get a lot of suggestions from our customers
NINA MOINI: Oh, cool. And so what is that-- so you don't have one provider. You go out and sort of seek them out?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: We do order from-- I order from publishers. And then we have a company, Ingram, that we order from. The business has changed. There used to be three or four big book distributors, and now there's just one. And it's Ingram.
And everything's digital now. We used to get paper catalogs. And that was so fun. But I guess it was bad for the trees.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: But so it's really fun. We know our customers, Nina. And so we know what they want. And so when we're doing our ordering, we've got them in mind. And we can see them when we're ordering.
NINA MOINI: Wow. And that connection small businesses and businesses that have been around so long, not happening quite as much as it used to, not to say that it's not. How does it feel to of be that spot in a community?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: It's really neat lately, especially. It always has been. But lately when things are so bad on the political front and so many people are being threatened, media people and bookstores, too, I guess it's a safe place for the community to come to.
And it feels like that. They tell us that. And some people come in to buy books to escape from what's going on. Some people come in to buy books to tell them what's going on.
And we deal with a lot of book clubs. And we do a lot of recommending to book clubs. So we are seeing all those people, and sometimes it's just a book club in the bookstore.
It's so great when somebody's standing in front of me at the counter and telling me about a book they just read. And then somebody who's backed by the mystery section will come over and say, oh, I want to talk about that. And then all of a sudden, we're having a book club. [LAUGHS]
NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. And so, Susie, still all woman owned, is that on purpose? Have any men tried to get in there? Or [LAUGHS] is that kind of the plan forever?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: I don't think that it was the plan, but it just happened that way. And so we haven't-- we have our token male who's Lance who works for us part time. And he's wonderful. He's been there more than 20 years.
NINA MOINI: Wow.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: And now we have a new gal, Kia. And she's Nancy's daughter. And she's working part time.
But the rest of us, the four of us, we work the hours at the store. And I'm almost 80 years old. I shouldn't be doing this anymore, but I can't imagine not doing it. [LAUGHS]
NINA MOINI: No, it sounds like a wonderful job. And while we have, we wanted to make sure to ask you, as a bookstore owner, what is on your reading list right now, Susie?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Well, I just finished book club last night, and we read Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. Now, this is a memoir. And she was a food critic.
She worked for the New York Times. And she was the editor of Gourmet Magazine. So this is a story about her as a food critic going undercover to restaurants in New York. And she went undercover because she would get special treatment if they knew who she was. So that was-- that's really fun.
I can tell you a new one. It's Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. And it's a really-- it's a thriller kind of. But it's-- well, it's deep.
It's set in Scotland, in an island. And I really enjoyed it. The ones that I recommend constantly are Small Things Like These and Foster by Claire Keegan. Those are small Irish ones.
NINA MOINI: OK, wonderful. Well, Susie, listen, we'll take the recommendations. You're an expert at this-- we have this business going for 45 years. So we really appreciate you stopping by Minnesota Now.
Congratulations to you and your co-owners and wishing you another 45 years of success at Lake Country Booksellers.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: [LAUGHS] Thank you so much. This was a pleasure.
NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Susie Fruncillo and owner, one of the women owners of Lake Country Booksellers in White Bear Lake.
And one of those owners is Susie Fruncillo. She's here now with us to reflect on the store's legacy. Hi, Susie. Thanks so much for being here.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Hi, Nina.
NINA MOINI: Wow. Huge congratulations. I mean, what does it even feel like to hear that introduction?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: It's really cool. We're so excited about it. We want to have a big party, but we want to wait till the weather is a little better. And so stay tuned. In the summer, we're going to have a party.
NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. So Susie, tell us a little bit, if you would, about the original five women who opened the store. What was going on there 45 years ago?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Oh, well, 45 years ago, these five women from North Oaks decided they wanted to follow their dream and open a bookstore. They had been friends for a long time and were empty-nesters. So they went to New York and attended a school on bookselling, came back, ordered a whole lot of books from the Bookmen in Minneapolis, which is now the Bookmen Lofts.
And their sons and daughters helped them put the store together, built the shelves. Their husbands bought the building, two of the husbands. And then they said, you better get down there and get a book quickly, because they'll be out of business in a couple of months.
[LAUGHTER]
That was the husbands.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
Proved them wrong, didn't you? Yeah.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: When we had our 25th anniversary, we invited those guys and said, well, here we are more than a few months later.
[LAUGHTER]
NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. And then, so fast forward bought you bought in as a co-owner back in the late '90s. What was your life like at the time? What led you there?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: It was real serendipitous. I had a job, a full-time job, good salary, good benefits. And I was walking my dog one day and met Susie Hudson, who was one of the owners of the bookstore. And she told me that, "Oh, I'm going to be selling my share of the bookstore." And I didn't hear another thing she said after that.
[LAUGHTER]
I knew this was what I wanted to do. And so my daughter Gina bought in with me. And Gina then started having a lot of babies. And so she was out in a few years, but I'm still there 27 years later.
NINA MOINI: Wow. And have you always been a book lover? I mean, what made you kind of in that conversation have a change of life [LAUGHS] there?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Well, my mom, who raised seven kids, was a huge reader. And she would take us to the library and tell us not to bother her. We could all pick out three books. So all of us, all of us are readers. And my only regret here is that mom didn't live to see us buy into the bookstore, because one of my sisters is one of the owners.
NINA MOINI: Oh, that's a beautiful story. I think so many people can relate to reading with their parents or what certain books and stories mean to them. Over the years, has people's connections to reading changed that you've observed? Or is it still the same at the core? What do you think?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: I think it has changed. I think, well, one of the original owners, Alta Johnson, told me when I was trying to figure out what was the big deal about Harry Potter, and she-- all that. And she said, "Well, people really used to read fairy tales, and they loved them. And then fairy tales went away."
She said, "Your generation got rid of them. They didn't like them." And she said, "so I think kids really resonate with this." And she was right.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. So different types of books at the store, I mean, how do you choose? What's that process like?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Oh, it's really fun. So we listen to MPR,s and so do our customers. So we listen to Kerri Miller. We listen to PBS NewsHour. We read the New York Times.
We read the Star Tribune. We read the Pioneer Press. And we get a lot of suggestions from our customers
NINA MOINI: Oh, cool. And so what is that-- so you don't have one provider. You go out and sort of seek them out?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: We do order from-- I order from publishers. And then we have a company, Ingram, that we order from. The business has changed. There used to be three or four big book distributors, and now there's just one. And it's Ingram.
And everything's digital now. We used to get paper catalogs. And that was so fun. But I guess it was bad for the trees.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: But so it's really fun. We know our customers, Nina. And so we know what they want. And so when we're doing our ordering, we've got them in mind. And we can see them when we're ordering.
NINA MOINI: Wow. And that connection small businesses and businesses that have been around so long, not happening quite as much as it used to, not to say that it's not. How does it feel to of be that spot in a community?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: It's really neat lately, especially. It always has been. But lately when things are so bad on the political front and so many people are being threatened, media people and bookstores, too, I guess it's a safe place for the community to come to.
And it feels like that. They tell us that. And some people come in to buy books to escape from what's going on. Some people come in to buy books to tell them what's going on.
And we deal with a lot of book clubs. And we do a lot of recommending to book clubs. So we are seeing all those people, and sometimes it's just a book club in the bookstore.
It's so great when somebody's standing in front of me at the counter and telling me about a book they just read. And then somebody who's backed by the mystery section will come over and say, oh, I want to talk about that. And then all of a sudden, we're having a book club. [LAUGHS]
NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. And so, Susie, still all woman owned, is that on purpose? Have any men tried to get in there? Or [LAUGHS] is that kind of the plan forever?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: I don't think that it was the plan, but it just happened that way. And so we haven't-- we have our token male who's Lance who works for us part time. And he's wonderful. He's been there more than 20 years.
NINA MOINI: Wow.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: And now we have a new gal, Kia. And she's Nancy's daughter. And she's working part time.
But the rest of us, the four of us, we work the hours at the store. And I'm almost 80 years old. I shouldn't be doing this anymore, but I can't imagine not doing it. [LAUGHS]
NINA MOINI: No, it sounds like a wonderful job. And while we have, we wanted to make sure to ask you, as a bookstore owner, what is on your reading list right now, Susie?
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: Well, I just finished book club last night, and we read Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. Now, this is a memoir. And she was a food critic.
She worked for the New York Times. And she was the editor of Gourmet Magazine. So this is a story about her as a food critic going undercover to restaurants in New York. And she went undercover because she would get special treatment if they knew who she was. So that was-- that's really fun.
I can tell you a new one. It's Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. And it's a really-- it's a thriller kind of. But it's-- well, it's deep.
It's set in Scotland, in an island. And I really enjoyed it. The ones that I recommend constantly are Small Things Like These and Foster by Claire Keegan. Those are small Irish ones.
NINA MOINI: OK, wonderful. Well, Susie, listen, we'll take the recommendations. You're an expert at this-- we have this business going for 45 years. So we really appreciate you stopping by Minnesota Now.
Congratulations to you and your co-owners and wishing you another 45 years of success at Lake Country Booksellers.
SUSIE FRUNCILLO: [LAUGHS] Thank you so much. This was a pleasure.
NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Susie Fruncillo and owner, one of the women owners of Lake Country Booksellers in White Bear Lake.
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