Overview

The author of It's Me They Follow chronicles the improbable true story of how she left an abusive past to build a bookshop that survived the Covid pandemic and become an international sensation. Jeannine Cook always thought she'd open a bookshop in her old age. Raised by a blind librarian, books were integral to her life, and she expected she would eventually write one as well. Instead, Jeannine found herself a burnt-out workaholic with three jobs and no time to read or write, feeling like she hadn't fulfilled her purpose. In her journal, Jeannine began an imaginary dialogue with Harriet Tubman, ""Q&As"" she dubbed Conversations with Harriett. Jeannine wondered how Harriet became a ""wade through waist-high water in the winter: type of woman--and how she could become one too. On February 1, 2020, Jeannine fulfilled her dream and opened a bookstore in Philadelphia which she named after her hero and inspiration, Harriet Tubman. Harriett's Bookshop would be a place to celebrate women authors, artists, and activists. While the name was ironic--Harriet could neither read nor write--it was also fitting. The City of Brotherly love was one of Harriet's first stops to freedom on the Underground Railroad. But in only six weeks, Jeannine would be forced to shut the shop's doors when Covid turned the world upside down--not knowing whether her dream would survive. Five years later, this small independent bookshop is thriving, with satellite stores in unconventional places, from movie theaters to horse trailers. Despite global death and destruction, book bans, the downward spiral in readership, the lack of physical customers, AI, and more, Jeannine's shops have survived. Shut Up & Read is her story--the story of the little bookseller who could, and of the woman who has been the driving force behind it all.

Full Product Details

9780063428232

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Heroines' journey: this book sends up a flare. Life and death are twins transcended when transgenerational wisdom inspires. Listen: leading on the bravest--ok, most dangerous--route of justice-making, freedom-taking, liberation now, that's the voice of Ms. Harriet. Shut Up and Read guides us along her Overground Underground Railroad. Knife at throat, gun muzzle, 3am death threat, sure. But love together pours, passionate; defiant courage makes impossible desires real. Ms. Harriet says, get in trouble, bust through hate and create that promised land. It's fun?! Shut up. Read."" - Andrew Laties, author, Rebel Bookseller, and, You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book? ...a role model for women everywhere as a business owner, author and supporter of women both past and present. She has contributed so much. She has brought a breath of fresh air and awareness to the communities she serves. Am I allowed to say I admire her? Because I do. - Yvonne Blake, Owner/Operator of Hakim's Bookstore, One of the Oldest Black-Owned Bookstores Shut Up and Read is an unguarded laying-open of the author's inner world, guided by ancestors and the spirit of Harriet Tubman as they navigate justice, love, grief, and the tender labor of evolution. It is both testimony and cartography--reminding us that troubled waters and ever-shifting landscapes move us toward a revolution of the spirit, a journey that demands courage, vision, and a refusal to turn away from ourselves. - Sannii Crespina-Flores, Founder of the Yram Collective and LO/URE Archive This triumphant tale will inspire book lovers of all stripes. - Publishers Weekly From pop up to bookshop Jeannine has become a living book full of stories and creativity. Shut up and Read tells her truth, her activism, her struggles, and her love for community. It reads like a living book that ages like wine and tastes better over time. The book reads like a timeless story merging the past and the present with historic icons of the past. - Malik Muhammad, Owner of Malik Books Jeannine A. Cook always felt that her girl­hood hero, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, didn't get enough attention or historical credit. Nor did Ida B. Wells or Josephine Baker. Cook's bookshops--Harriett's in Philadelphia, Ida's in Collingswood, New Jersey, and Josephine's in Paris--honor these icons, and she recounts her journey to build them in her mesmerizing Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett's Bookshop . . . Like Cook's life, her memoir has a loose structure and is prone to detours, but that's part of the fun. Whether hurrying home from Paris to buy her bookshop's building before the real estate deal collapses; rushing to a racial justice demonstration in the wake of George Floyd's and Breonna Taylor's killings; or collaborating with artists, celebrities and politicians, Cook's energy is almost palpable and surely inspiring, like the women she is determined to honor - Bookpage Following her successful fiction debut, It's Me They Follow (2025), Cook shares this generous memoir about opening and running her Philadelphia bookstore, writing her novel, and building community. . . . Cook's strength lies in her sheer determination and networking skill (her time in Paris is a testament to her connections), and this book reads as both memoir and guide for community organizing. Its conversational style plays fast and loose with chronology but remains engaging throughout. A testament to overcoming every blockade thrown your way. - Booklist Jeannine Cook is back with this inspirational memoir-manifesto detailing her founding of Harriet's Bookshop and how it survived the COVID pandemic to become the thriving ecosystem it is today. - Ms.Magazine

""Heroines' journey: this book sends up a flare. Life and death are twins transcended when transgenerational wisdom inspires. Listen: leading on the bravest--ok, most dangerous--route of justice-making, freedom-taking, liberation now, that's the voice of Ms. Harriet. Shut Up and Read guides us along her Overground Underground Railroad. Knife at throat, gun muzzle, 3am death threat, sure. But love together pours, passionate; defiant courage makes impossible desires real. Ms. Harriet says, get in trouble, bust through hate and create that promised land. It's fun?! Shut up. Read."" - Andrew Laties, author, Rebel Bookseller, and, You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?

Author Information

Jeannine A. Cook is the founder and owner of three avant-garde bookshop concepts, Harriett's in Philadelphia; Ida's in South Jersey; and Josephine's, a literary installation in Paris. She holds an MFA from Drexel University. She is the author of the novel It's Me They Follow.

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