We’re About The Books!
And About you and me and our right to read.
Our story
When word got around that Martha and I planned on opening a bookshop, in High Falls, NY, the response was often, that’s great! but books and what? Beer? Wine? Coffee? Ice cream? Fresh flowers? Pizza? We were like, nah, just books. We’re not saying we won’t be popping out, from behind the vintage Putnam & Co. library ladder and the beautiful shelves, with a glass of rosé once in a while or a cup of tea once winter hits, but we really want the shop to be about the books, and about the exchange of ideas at our literary events. We’re looking forward to sharing with you in the discovery of literature new and old, by our local, regional, and international authors, that may have been overlooked or considered obscure, and to learning from you about your reading pleasures, habits, and ideas.
Like our namesake the blue heron, a wading bird that is also capable of flourishing in deeper waters, Blue Heron Books is committed to the larger conversations dedicated to our right to read, think and inquire. Our goal is to provide a safe and inclusive space where customers can engage with literature that challenges and informs their perspectives, inspires creativity, increases empathy, and stimulates critical thinking. Through our speakers’ series, community events, writing workshops, book clubs, and children’s story hours, which we’ll be offering both on our own and in partnership with local businesses and organizations, we hope to foster a sense of belonging, social responsibility, and civic engagement, that comes from the sheer joy of reading a book, in all of its glorious formats.
Please stop in to check us out, at 1209 NYS Route 213, if you’re in the neighborhood or High Falls area. If not, we hope you’ll order your books from us online, via bookshop.org or, if you prefer, your audiobooks, through our site, via libro.fm.
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Reading is a Right,
Jean and Martha
Chosen with care
Filling an entire shop with your (and our) favorite books should be simple, but alas there just isn’t enough space in the whole of High Falls to accommodate the need. Luckily, we offer several ways to get your hands on what your mind craves. Ship to the store, or your door - we even partner with Libro.fm to get you listening when your hands are tied. Please consider using these services on our behalf to help support Blue Heron and all the small town successes we admire.
About Us
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Jean Mills
Jean Mills is a Virginia Woolf and Peace Studies scholar and author, who had over fifteen years of experience in publishing and free-lance writing and editing, before returning to academia to pursue her doctorate in English Literature. In addition to launching Blue Heron Books, she is Chair of the English Department at John Jay College, and the author of Virginia Woolf, Jane Ellen Harrison and the Spirit of Modernist Classicism. Other publications include essays on Gertrude Stein and rap, Virginia Woolf and pacifism, and women’s literature of the 1920’s and 1930’s. She is currently at work on her next book, Literary Approaches to Peace, which she’s hoping to finish in the back office of Blue Heron Books.
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Martha Haag
Martha Haag is the former owner of Larkspur Designs and Krumville Kits, wholesale and customized high-end floral designs for NYC hotels and restaurants and leading commercial clients, such as Neiman-Marcus and Sundance Catalog. Transforming her ability to create visually appealing spaces into the more tactile arena of healthcare, Martha is currently the Director of Surgical Services in a community hospital and was a front-line worker during the pandemic. Martha provides the aesthetic and creative signature to the overall look of Blue Heron Books. Her dried floral arrangements can be found throughout the shop and are available for sale.
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind”
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, September 1929