Hey Southampton, you’re getting your bookstore back!
Finley’s Fiction, the sweet little Shelter Island book shop that’s been keeping the Island in page turners, author talks and a sold-out book club for nearly a decade is coming to the Hamptons, with its grand opening this Thursday, May 21, right in time for Memorial Day Weekend book worms.
The new shop on Jobs Lane, which will feature best sellers, current non-fiction, children’s books, cards and other small gifts, is a collaboration between Finley Shaw, founder and owner of Finley’s Fiction on Shelter Island, and Southampton resident Pippa Gerard, whose stepdaughter Shaw met and befriended during their college years.
“I’ve know [Gerard] 30 years. Her stepdaughter was my college roommate and one of my best friends,” says Shaw, who says the idea came about when she bumped into Gerard at a lunch event last winter. “She said, ‘listen, I want to talk to you! We have no bookstore in Southampton and I had now idea how much I’d miss not having and independent book shop.'” For Gerard, who has nine grandchildren, the former store on Hampton Road — originally an outpost of BookHampton and briefly owned by Sag Harbor Books — was a beloved book nook for her family.
“We met for coffee and decided: Yeah, let’s do it!” says Shaw.
This second space for Finley’s Fiction offers more for Shaw, too — at 450 square feet, it’s larger than the seasonal Shelter Island Heights spot, offers an outdoor sitting area for the warmer months and will be open year-round.
At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Southampton Mayor Bill Manger will be on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to usher in this new era of good reading for the village. “While we are blessed with one of the finest libraries on Long Island, a small book shop where visitors and residents can pick up a book to enjoy at the beach is a terrific addition to the community,” said Manger in a statement to the press. “I’ve known Pippa my whole life and I’m thrilled that she and Finley will be bringing a bookstore to Southampton Village.”
One great addition for Finley’s Fiction fans, new and old, is an idea of Gerard’s, born of all those weekends with the grandkids at the old Southampton Books: Every Saturday morning, there will be kids’ story time. “We want to encourage grandparents and parents to bring a grandchild or child,” says Shaw, who has a stellar line-up of author-readers already, including Angelina Ballerina series author Katharine Holabird and Montauk Mike series author Nina Ross.
Finley’s Fiction opened in Shelter Island during the summer of 2018 in a small, sunny annex to the Chequit Inn. A few months into the pandemic, Shaw moved to a slightly larger, more visible space down the road on the corner of Grand Avenue and Bridge Street in April 2020, and is the island’s only source for new fiction and non-fiction.
Finley’s Fiction Southampton (43a Jobs Lane, 203-650-7616) will be open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6 p.m.
