Following its debut as a pop-up bookstore, the Crooked Nook will open a bricks-and-mortar store in Laingsburg, Mich., next month, the Argus-Press reported.
Located at 260 E. Grand River Rd., the Crooked Nook will carry general-interest titles for all ages, with an emphasis on local and independent authors. Owners and married couple Eric and Corley Wall will host events at the new store while continuing to do occasional pop-up events.
The bricks-and-mortar will celebrate its grand opening the weekend before Thanksgiving. On November 21, romance author Lyssa Kay Adams will appear for a signing, and on November 22, children's author Modestina Golnick will be on hand for a reading, with fantasy and science fiction author Thom Dettman stopping by later to sign books. Beginning November 23, the store will be open seven days per week.
"That's a big part of what we want to do with our independent bookstore," Eric Wall told the Argus-Press. "I know that a lot of Michigan authors have a hard time getting into the bigger bookstores if the bookstore doesn’t feel like they can make money as a sure thing from their books."
The first iteration of the Crooked Nook began in early 2025, when Wall and his sister Angela started selling children's books at pop-up events. After Corley Wall moved to Laingsburg later the same year, they started offering adult book fairs. They took the book fair across Michigan, usually doing four to six events per month.
Eric Wall recalled: "Corley started reaching out to different bars and breweries and wineries, trying to bring that nostalgia from when we were kids with the Scholastic Book Fair to grown-ups--who can now have a drink and go back to the book fair."
Once Corley and Eric Wall learned they were matched with a boy for adoption, they decided to focus less on travel and open a permanent location.
"This is my chance to create something in my hometown that I would have loved to have growing up," Eric Wall said.