A Bookstore Grows in the North Hills

Riverstone Books is no big-box warehouse of words.

photo by renee rabenold
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You can buy nearly everything along sprawling, retail-soaked McKnight Road. But since the erstwhile global chain Borders went out of business in 2011, those looking to buy books have had few options.

Riverstone Books (riverstonebookstore.com) opened in October to fill that void — but Riverstone is no big-box warehouse of words.

“It’s definitely not an algorithm kind of list that we’ve got here,” says owner Barbara Jeremiah, a Pittsburgh native who also operates a bookstore in the Virgin Islands.

“We personally picked all the books.”

In addition to its carefully curated collection, the independent Riverstone boasts a sizable children’s section and has begun hosting book club events; Jeremiah reports that business has been booming, as customers still covet the experience of selecting and buying books within their own communities, she says.

“People will go out of their way to find a bookstore.”