Mandy Genge, one of the co-founders of New Book Joy, said the idea for the shop, which sells curated book boxes or personalized book recommendations alongside paired goodies like candles, stationery and wine, came from a love of education that she shares with her cousin-in-law and co-owner, Connie Obrochta.
“We’re both in the education field. I’m a high school English teacher. She was a reading specialist for little kids in Evanston. At family parties, we would talk about what we loved and didn’t love about education, and it was our favorite conversation to have together,” Genge told the Landmark.
But the “booktique” — book boutique — wasn’t born until about 2020, when the two went on vacation together.
“We were talking about it again, and she asked me if I would go into business with her and have this idea of having conversations through books for all types of readers, all ages. We wanted to make it very approachable,” she said. “We wanted to almost have a celebration or party when it came to reading as a whole and the idea of curating. I love book matchmaking for my students, so the idea of, you come in, say what you want, and we will curate and book matchmake for you.”
New Book Joy is one of six shops coming to the Brookfield Shops at Progress Park when the retail incubator opens for its first half-year in June. The village announced the cohort of vendors Monday, March 10.
While Genge, Obrochta and third co-owner Therese Tanski already have a storefront for New Book Joy in Chicago’s Edgebrook neighborhood, Genge said the trio had two reasons to seek a spot in the Brookfield Shops.
“I’m a teacher in Cicero, so I’ve been here forever, and I have so many friends in the Brookfield, LaGrange, Riverside, Oak Park, Forest Park area. I’ve been hanging out in Brookfield for the past 25 years because it’s very easy to go out after school in the area,” she said. “I love the vibe of Brookfield and all the surrounding suburbs, and it actually was in our business model; Connie and I always wanted to open up a handful of our ‘booktiques’ around the Chicagoland area to share this joy and this idea of curating, and we’re always looking for places that don’t have a bookstore within a 15- to 20-minute drive.”
While many of the curated book boxes are designed for children of all reading levels, Genge said the shop has book boxes for all kinds of life stages or events, like baby boxes, comfort boxes, honeymoon boxes, birthday boxes and more. She said the business also looks to draw in adults with bookish, boozy events.
“We started with book clubs and pairing events that relate to the books,” she said. “We were doing wine tastings, and we were working with one of our favorite wineries in Michigan, and they’d ship out wine to people, [and with] In Fine Spirits in Andersonville. We did a whiskey tasting with an Irish book.”
In fact, Genge said she knows there’s an audience for those kinds of events in Brookfield.
“We did a boozy book fair at Imperial Oak [Brewing] in Brookfield last year, and we had people drive from 20-25 minutes [away] in all directions to get some beer and get books from a small, independent business,” she said. “We knew that we’d love to have Brookfield as an epicenter.”
When it came time earlier this month for the owners to make their case before Brookfield’s selection of jurors for a spot in the retail incubator, Genge said her and Obrochta’s education background came in handy.
“There was a little bit of jitters, a little bit of excitement — well, a lot of excitement. I think the one good thing about Connie and myself is the fact that we are teachers, so at least we weren’t concerned about presenting because we’re always used to having people’s eyes on us,” she said. “I think, once we got back to the village and were able to set up and start presenting, we just are passionate and love our business so, so much … Once we started talking, I just remember exploding with excitement, and I could not wait to share what we do and what we would love to do hopefully in Brookfield down the road.”
She said she and the other owners are already thinking about how they’ll lay their new shop out so they can sell all kinds of wares without it feeling too cluttered; she said one of the store’s strengths is that books are segmented by age, “so people know exactly where to go.”
“I think the long-term goal is to see if we are sustainable in Brookfield,” Genge said. “I’m hoping in all honesty that other people come from various neighborhoods, and in turn, it also helps Brookfield … What I love about this opportunity to be in this incubation program is, we’ll get the perfect snapshot to see if we could go big and be permanent.”
