After being closed since late September due to a fire, the longstanding East Cobb independent bookstore Bookmiser is close to reopening.
That was the message this week from owner Annell Gerson in a message to store customers.
She said in an e-mail newsletter that the store at 3822 Roswell Road will reopen its doors “sometime during the week of February 21” but a specific date hasn’t been announced.
Gerson said that to celebrate the reopening, Bookmiser will have a book author session with Dick Harpootlian, a noted South Carolina attorney and political figure whose recently published book, “Dig Me A Grave,” recounts the life of a serial killer known as “The Redneck Charles Manson.”
The Bookmiser event with Harpootlian will be led by Adam Beam, an editor for the Politically Georgia newsletter published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It will take place on Saturday, Feb. 28, from 4-5:30 p.m. at Bookmiser, and is free to the public, but registration is requested.
In November, Bookmiser and other tenants at the Village East strip center had to vacate the premises for remediation after the fire broke out at Owl Repair, a computer repair store, adjacent to the bookstore.
Cobb Fire investigators said the bookstore sustained extensive soot and smoke damage, and Gerson held special sales before the closure and referred customers to online ordering options.
Most of the other businesses have reopened, including the Chopsticks China Bistro restaurant.
In her message this week, Gerson said that “nothing says ‘welcome back’ better than the story of a serial killer who seduced the South. Join us for some refreshments, an intriguing story, and an opportunity to see the new space.”
“Dig Me A Grave” examines the life, crimes, trial and execution of “Pee Wee” Gaskins, a serial rapist and killer who claimed to have murdered more than 100 people.
The book is being dubbed as “the definitive true ‘Southern Gothic’ account” of a charismatic lifelong criminal and “written by the prosecutor who brought him to justice.”
Gaskins was on South Carolina’s death row when he went on trial for killing another inmate. Harpootlian was the prosecutor in a case in which Gaskins received a second death sentence, resulting in his execution in 1991.
Harpootlian served as a state senator in South Carolina and also was the state Democratic Party chairman. As a defense attorney, he has represented Alex Murdaugh, a South Carolina lawyer convicted in 2021 of killing his wife and son. That conviction is being appealed.
Bookmiser is also partnering with the Cobb Library Foundation for a book author event with novelist Patti Callahan Henry at the North Cobb Regional Library on March 2 from 5-7:30 p.m.
Her most recent book is “The Story She Left Behind.” Attendees who purchase the ticket and book option will receive a signed/personalized copy of the book, a photo taken with the author, and preferential seating.
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