The Story:
For over 20 years, A Great Good Place for Books has been nestled in the heart of Montclair Village in the Oakland hills — a place where kids discovered their first favorite series, where neighbors lingered over recommendations, where first-time authors launched books, where teens found a safe place, and readers found community. The store's name comes from Ray Oldenburg's The Great Good Place — his vision of a third place between home and work where community truly lives.
Kathleen Caldwell has embodied that vision every single day.
Kathleen inherited the store in 2005 when the original owner, Debi Echlin, passed away, leaving it to her employee and friend. She didn't just keep the lights on — she kept the heart beating. Despite her own serious health battles with cancer, sepsis, post-sepsis syndrome, and kidney failure, she kept the store running. She personally delivered books to neighbors during the pandemic. She championed local authors, hand sold thousands of books, and made GGP a place people called a family tradition.
Now, after a debilitating fall resulting in chronic pain last year, a slow holiday season and an untenable start to 2026, Kathleen has made the painful decision to close. "It's heartbreaking. This has been my entire life for over 20 years," she said. "I don't consider this giving up. I consider this going out gracefully."
Here's where we need your help.
Kathleen has poured her life savings into the store. Like many struggling small business owners who strive to keep their dream alive, she will be exclusively relying on social security income for her retirement. Kathleen has applied for Social Security retirement and disability benefits — but approval and first payments take time. She's facing a gap of roughly 6 to 10 months between closing the store and when those benefits hopefully will begin. During that window, she needs help covering basic living expenses for her modest lifestyle.
We're asking the community she gave so much to — the readers, the authors, the parents, the neighbors — to help her land safely.
Every dollar goes directly to Kathleen's living expenses during this transition (Go Fund Me is a non-profit that charges 3% for each donation). There are no overhead costs, no staff, no storefront to support. Just a woman who spent two decades making Montclair a little more human, hoping for a softer landing to address her health and recover some energy to imagine what this next chapter can be.
"Our kids have been here, our grandkids have been here, it's been a family tradition," said one longtime customer. Now it's our turn to show up for Kathleen the way she showed up for all of us.
Please give what you can. Share this widely. And if you've ever left GGP with a book you loved, consider this your chance to say thank you.
A note from her sister:
I'm Kathleen's sister, and I'm the one writing this — because she never would.
For as long as I can remember, Kathleen has been the person who gives, recommends, and shows up for her friends and her community. Over the years, she has been my personal book whisperer; she ensured that my son became the avid reader he is, now passing this love of reading on to his own daughter. Kathleen has that rare gift of knowing exactly what a person needs to read — and she's spent over two decades sharing that gift with this entire community.
Watching her pour everything she had into that store — through illness, through a pandemic, through every challenge the world threw at her — has been inspiring. She just kept showing up for her customers, her beloved book “kids”, her authors, her teachers, and her neighborhood.
Now it's our turn to show up for her.
If you've ever walked out of GGP with a book you loved, if she ever remembered your name or your kid's favorite series, if you've ever felt like that little store in Montclair Village was a place that truly saw you — please consider giving. No amount is too small. And please share this with anyone who knows and loves her as well as other champions of independent booksellers everywhere.
Kathleen has always believed in the power of stories to connect us. This is our chance to write a good next chapter with her.
With love and gratitude,
Bonnie and Scott Wentworth