City: Kansas City, MO

Category: Shopping

Telephone: (913) 384-3126

Address: 2706 W. 53rd St.

Description: Vivien Jennings and Roger Doeren somehow manage to convince top authors that they can’t sell a single book unless they appear in Kansas City. Since 1975 Rainy Day has hosted thousands of book signings—several a month—for authors including Ray Bradbury, Anne Rice, John Grisham, Martha Stewart, Garrison Keillor, and Nigella Lawson. This corner store in Fairway near the Country Club Plaza is all that a bookseller can hope to be: a friendly place where there’s someone on the staff who can recommend a book whether the subject is murder, cooking, home repair, romance, or coping with a baby sister. Rainy Day also sponsors writers’ seminars throughout the year to encourage local authors to keep those bookshelves filled. And Vivien writes a regular column, “Book Ends,” in a weekly society magazine, the Independent. Heavens, if she can find time to read, anyone can.