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| Julie Barnard | |
Julie Barnard, a longtime bookseller and book group leader at Rakestraw Books in Danville, Calif., died on November 15 after a long illness. She was a passionate reader, handseller, and a favorite with customers, writers, and publishers alike.
A lifelong reader, Julie joined her son, Michael Barnard, at the bookstore following her retirement from Pacific Bell. She deeply loved her second career as a bookseller. Customers loved not only her recommendations--from classics to debut writers--but also her kindness. Among her favorites to share with customers were novels by Wallace Stegner, Alice Hoffman, and Anne Tyler, thrillers by Chris Bohjalian, and essays by Anne Lamott.
In 2007, Julie started a book group to read the new Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace. The six months it took made the group into a tightly knit community. Julie led this group until her health failed in September. In 2010, Julie and fellow bookseller Cheryl McKeon started Rakestraw's Book Group Festival. The lively and thoughtful event was an immediate hit with customers.
Julie's reputation as an early reader of new work was recognized when she joined a buzz group of booksellers put together by publisher Pam Dorman, whom she had met at a publisher lunch.
Author Chris Bohjalian said, "Julie was a treasure as book person, of course, but she was also the sort of human being you cherished because she was honest and kind. Some of my books I'm most proud of are the ones Julie respected, because they were, in her opinion, authentic and raw and not easy to categorize. Once when I was at the store, I watched her suggest books to readers, and it was evident that she really understood these individuals and wanted to share the books that, on some level, they needed."