There's a new spot to show off your smarts: Biscayne Books, the newest arrival to the Upper East Side strip of bistros and boutiques. The small but fully stocked shop is filled with hundreds of new and used volumes that the owner, Susan Hanna, purchases at auctions around town. Biscayne Books offers shoppers fairly priced used titles -- that you actually want to read -- organized in a much more logical sequence than you will find at the thrift store or garage sale.
The shop is a gold mine for cooks and food enthusiasts who, like us, are always on the lookout for cookbooks to adorn our kitchen shelves and coffee tables. The best part: even though it's the only book store around, Biscayne Books keeps their prices low, and we were able to take home Best of Baking for just $4.
Like everything in Miami, Biscayne Books is banking on food and happy hour to keep the doors open. It has teamed up with Balans on Biscayne to offer Book Clubs geared toward the intellectuals and good-timers alike. The two will work together to set up tables and reservations for groups that want to get together and discuss literature--over tea, drinks and bites sold by Balans. The restaurant will even work with Book Club groups to coordinate special menus so you'll feel right at home with your new friends--minus the pressure of having strangers in your house, and a mess to clean up afterwards.
This month's book clubs include a church group for brunch as well as a group of sports fans reading Dream Team who will meet for brews and book reviews. "I see it as the intellectual center of the Upper East Side" says Hanna, "the equivalent of the campus bar where you met up to talk about everything--sports, philosophy, relationships-- everything".
The book clubs are coordinated by Biscayne Books and will work to promote and form a book club with whatever book you'd like. So if there's something you'd been dying to read, but all your girlfriends still have their nose in Fifty Shades of Grey, head over to Biscayne Books to create your own club -- who's down for The Mockingjay?
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