By Katie Stein, news correspondent
Yooree Losordo learned firsthand that starting a business has its challenges. After several months of working through business logistics, Losordo has successfully opened On the Dot Books, which is joining the Dot2Dot Café in Dorchester. Te restaurant and the bookstore share a venue at 1739 Dorchester Ave.
“My idea to start the bookstore came in March,” Losordo said at the store’s grand opening on Sept. 11. “By the time June rolled around, I was selling at the farmer’s market. The overwhelming support from the community is what made this all possible.”
Losordo’s former business school peer, Felicia Tshitenge, explained that one of their shared class projects was to create an imaginary business. Losordo, an avid reader, chose to base her project on a bookstore. Her idea garnered support from her peers, who commented that there really ought to be more businesses based on community like the one she described. Ever since then, Losordo has worked tirelessly to make her idea into a reality.
“I would definitely want to spend time here,” Tshitenge said at the store’s grand opening. “The café element makes it more home-felt than the average bookstore.”
Despite its comfortable atmosphere, the business also offers a glimpse into high culture in the form of after-hours performances and events. After the café closes, the building often transforms into a theatre, a dark and cozy venue that serves as a prime spot for local acting groups to stage plays and musicals.
Because space is limited, Losordo is very selective with her inventory. She currently uses the New England Best Seller list as a guide for what to sell, but she does not intend to keep it that way.
“Once the business takes off, I will definitely expand,” Losordo said. “I can order any book in print, so if you have any suggestions or requests, please email me.”
Also joining Losordo’s grand opening was painter, sculptor and author Annie Weatherwax, who read from her debut novel, “All We Had.” Weatherwax, a graduate from Rhode Island School of Design, began her career as a sculptor of superheroes and cartoon characters for DC Comics, Nickelodeon, Warner Brothers and Pixar. After her brother was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s, her career path changed from sculpting to writing. Since then, she has won the Robert Olen Butler Prize for Fiction in 2009 and has been an editor’s pick in Oprah’s Book Club.
“Writing is just another visual art, because you’re painting a picture in the reader’s mind,” Weatherwax said. “I didn’t know I could do it with such success.”
Her novel, “All We Had,” follows the lives of a young, single mother and daughter struggling through a recession.
“The emotional truths and relationships are autobiographical, but the circumstances are fiction,” Weatherwax said on her inspiration for the book.
“All We Had” has a 4.3/5 star rating on Amazon, and Simon & Schuster called the novel “stunning.” It also received praise from the Washington Post.
“The most profound insights in ‘All We Had’ have to do with… an erosion of empathy, an insistence on maintaining the same hierarchical code that bars upward mobility for others, and a willingness to abandon one’s identity,” according to Stacia L. Brown of the Washington Post. “There’s much to recommend in this lovely debut novel, but the best of its virtues are these truths.”
The book’s rave reviews have contributed to an initiative to adapt “All We Had” into a film. Katie Holmes plans to direct and star in a new drama based on Weatherwax’s novel.
To purchase “All We Had,” browse through bestselling novels and enjoy café food in a cozy, community atmosphere, visit On the Dot Books. Every sale boosts business, bringing Losordo one step closer to achieving her goal of having a full-fledged bookstore in the future.
Losordo can be reached at [email protected].
Photo courtesy Creative Commons
