RACHAEL OSTROM
Owner and founder
Average books read in a year: 65-80
Favorite genre: Historical fiction. I’m a historical fiction fanatic. I love learning about new places, times and stories and almost always from a perspective different from mine.
All-time favorite book: I can’t choose just one, so here are 15:
Doctor Zhivago, Moon and the Mars, Cutting for Stone, The Mountains Sing, State of Wonder, Wild Dark Shore, The Snow Child, Autobiography of Malcom X, The Bluest Eye, Sense and Sensibility, Kindred, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, The Good Earth, The Warmth of Other Suns, My Brilliant Friend.
My best read of the year:
2019: A Woman is No Man
2020: The Mountains Sing
2021: The Death of Vivek Oji
2022: Severance (this was a re-read but after Covid it was even more impactful)
2023: Dust Child
2024: Moon and the Mars
2025: Wild Dark Shore
First book I loved: I love to ask readers the book that made them a reader, which is usually the first book they truly loved. Even if you only read one book a year, most of us can remember the first book we loved.
The first book I LOVED was Little Women. The summer after third grade, I spent hours at the local library in my small hometown reading Little Women and then every single word Louisa May Alcott ever wrote and every single word anyone had ever written about Louisa May Alcott. I was obsessed. After that it was Gone with the Wind, Roots, The Color Purple, Autobiography of Malcolm X, everything written by Alexandre Dumas; I was obsessed with The Count of Monte Cristo. When I was a kid I couldn’t just read a book, I had to read all of them and then I had to know every single thing about the author. And this was before the internet, so it definitely took more research. That card catalog was my best friend, which is why I had to have a vintage card catalog in our store!
Favorite Audio Books: Finding Me, A Memoir by Viola Davis narrative by Viola and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett narrated by Meryl Streep
Book I recommend to everyone: If anyone says they don’t like sci-fi or historical fiction, I always recommend Kindred by Octavia Butler. No-one is ever disappointed by Kindred. Octavia Butler was an absolute genius.
Things I love (besides books): My family. My husband is a true feminist, always supporting my dreams and our girls' dreams. Plus he does the cooking and dishes, and honestly what is better than that :)
Our girls, Darah and Tyler, are both in college on the east coast at Uconn and Northeastern. They are both D1 divers and incredibly busy, but never too busy to call their mom. Most importantly, they are amazing humans and my best friends.
Travel. I’m obsessed with planning our 2-week family vacations in the summer. There is nothing better than getting your family out of the normal routine and in a new place.
My friends. Puzzles. Yoga. Hiking. Nature. Trees. Our dogs, Tiger and Bear.
Why Acorn Bookshop: My niece and I like to take Saturday trips to visit as many independent bookstores as we can, and we’d spend the day planning the bookstore I’d open some day. I recently left my 25-year career as a marketing executive at Aveda and last fall I decided I’d just open my bookstore, but I told myself it had to be a location I loved. My only acceptable location was in Milton Square where the beloved Micawber’s Books used to be. The very next day I walked by and it was up for lease. I emailed as I was standing there and here we are!
As for the name, I love trees. When we bought our house, I instantly fell in love with the oak trees on our property. The oak tree in our front yard is over 200 years old, stretches beyond the edges of our property, and to be honest, some days it’s my favorite member of our family. Oak trees and acorns represent strength and growth. Bookstores, throughout time, have been beacons for democracy and protectors of freedom of speech. They are places where we grow and strengthen communities. This is a time where we need community more than ever, as well as the strength of women's voices and the ability to drive change. My hope is for Acorn Bookshop to amplify voices and drive the change we need.