E. W. Scripps and the Business of Newspapers Book

This one is hard to rate. There were some things that I loved about this book -- I loved the author's personal story: how she struggled with her bookstore, the people she met, the lessons she learned, the people whose lives she affected. What I didn't love were the long side trips that would take me away from the story -- sometimes it was telling about a book or author or sometimes it was going off on a tangent about anything from environmental issues to religious fundamentalism. I wasn't annoyed that she included these, just how LONG she spent on some of these topics or describing in great detail the plot of this author or that author's book (again, I liked being introduced to authors, but I didn't need a 3 paragraphs book review of the author's latest book and the 2 books before that). I kept thinking....get me back to the story! I also would have loved for the narrative to move more chronological instead of by topic. A personal choice, but it bugged me when she was telling this anecdote or that, I often had no idea what decade we were in. Now another thing I did love about this book was being introduced to lots of new authors and books. I couldn't help but start a list of books that sounded interesting to me. I also enjoyed learning about the issues of independent booksellers -- something I have NEVER thought of before.
We read this book for book club and are going on our annual Book Club Retreat next week to visit this bookstore (among other things). I am really excited to see the store and hopefully meet the author.