Is that a bookstore back in the mall? Aventura retail goes retro, with a new twist

For the past decade, Aventura has been book desert.

“When I was a teenager,” said Romina Garber, a bestselling author who grew up in the area, “we had a Borders and a Barnes and Noble.”

But the Borders folded, along with its parent company, in 2011. And in 2014, a nearby Barnes and Noble closed.

For years, Aventura readers had to journey to Pembroke Pines or Coral Gables to buy a book in person or hear an author.

But that has changed.

From Argentina to Miami

Quade Books, an independent bookstore based in Argentina, opened its first U.S. location in the Aventura Mall in July. The store fits right into bilingual Miami, offering a robust selection of adult and children’s books both in English and in Spanish.

Quade books opened its first store in Cordoba, Argentina, in 2007. The company expanded over the years, opening three more locations in Argentina.

The Aventura store is the first location in the United States, “but not the last,” said Evangelina Montiel, who co-owns Quade Books with her husband, Jorge Caparelli.

“To be in the book-selling business, you have to be a little crazy,” Caparelli said in Spanish. “This is not business. This is culture.”

What the bookstore looks like

Quade Books is tucked into a corner of the Aventura Mall, right next to the Apple store. A wide, floor-to-ceiling opening beckons customers into the shop.

The store is small but spacious, brightly lit, with high ceilings and an open-floor plan. The walls and tables look papered with books, their multi-colored covers facing out, giving the store a candy-shop-like vibrancy.

“I keep coming back because it’s so pretty,” Jennifer Valdes said as she browsed the shelves.

Valdes, who lives in Aventura, was so excited about the new store that she visited just days after it opened, and has continued to come back. On a recent visit, she took home a limited edition of the Jane Austen classic “Emma,” with a bright pink cover.

Quade’s stock

Montiel and Caparelli work hard to curate a bilingual collection specifically for their new store. They try to focus on supplying books that are difficult to find in the United States, Montiel said.

But the couple clearly aren’t afraid to stock popular works.

Two sets of the Harry Potter series sit atop one another on the shelves, one in English and one in Spanish. A few shelves down is a Spanish Karl Marx translation, entitled “El Capital.”

Avril Rodriguez, who has worked at Quade Books since it opened, says she’s been selling lots of romance novels, such as “It Ends With Us,” in both English and Spanish. She also says the store gets parents hoping to raise bilingual children.

The entire left side of the store is dedicated to children’s books, many of them designed to teach Spanish or English language skills.

“It’s important to have a big children’s section in all our stores,” said Montiel, who has three children with Caparelli. A tote bag hanging on the wall has the phrase, “Reading, all the cool kids are doing it.”

Montiel says she and her husband have been visiting Miami for a long time, and began to consider opening a bookstore here about three years ago. They wanted to open a shop that was similar to their locations in Argentina, but “adapted to the profile of this city, where cultural diversity and bilingualism are the norms,” Montiel said in an email to the Miami Herald.

Advantage of Aventura Mall

The couple chose Aventura Mall, Northeast 195th Street and Biscayne Boulevard, for their first U.S. location because of “its high foot traffic, convenient location, and appreciation for culture,” she said.

The Aventura Mall did not comment to the Miami Herald about the new bookstore.

When the mall opened in 1983, the mall featured two bookstores that remained for years: B Dalton Bookseller and Waldenbooks. But like record stores and video game arcades, those disappeared to make way for boutiques.

Montiel says that the most common thing she hears from her Aventura customers, after years without a local bookstore, is “thank you.”

“It’s really serving the needs of the community,” said Garber, the author who can now see her books stocked on shelves in her hometown.

Garber says her family used to have to wait to order Spanish translations of her latest novels, but now she can just send everyone to Quade Books. “That’s such a treat,” she said.

Garber has already supplied the shop with some signed copies of her newest book, “Castle of the Cursed.” And she’ll be signing books at an event at Quade Books at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18.

This story was originally published August 13, 2024 at 5:00 AM.