Mother-daughter duo fulfill dream in Anna Maria with new bookstore, Paradise Found

The bright blue door to Paradise Found was open on a recent evening, revealing many books inside. The wide-ranging assortment – everything from poetry to home and garden – was on wooden shelves, propped up on small tables and stacked neatly on top of each other. Art and plants were hung throughout the space, and murals radiated off walls in a section for books for children.

Paradise Found AMI, a new bookstore located at 505 Pine Avenue in the city of Anna Maria, is a longtime dream fulfilled by Kate Brenner and her mother, Genie Ford.

“I’ve always had this dream,” Ford said as she sat on a chair in the store. “I’m a reader. I’ve been a reader my whole life. Like Kate, I read way ahead of my age all my life and I make my living as a writer, too, so there’s that part of it. It just seemed like the thing to do. It’s a way to express my love of books. It’s a way to interact with people and share that love of books with people.”

Brenner, 34, smiled proudly as her mother spoke about their mutual passion for books. The mother-daughter duo will celebrate the grand opening of Paradise Found AMI with a Black Friday sale on books, plants and original art. New hardcover books will be available with a 10 percent discount, and paperbacks will be 5 percent off. Plants and art will be on sale at a 10 percent discount as well.

“As mother-daughter, we’re a really good team. We have really good chemistry and creativity together,” Brenner said, adding that it was she who suggested to her mother that they should open the bookstore on Anna Maria Island. “It couldn’t be anywhere else but the island. We like the small village feel. We’re trying to get away from the big Amazon and the big Books-A-Million and get back to more of an intimate sort of family experience, where you come in and you’re not one of 1,000 shoppers and you get a personal experience and it feels like you’re at home.”

Paradise Found AMI is almost like a hybrid of their passions for books and plants, which Brenner said she and her mother visualize as a “garden of reading.” Brenner is a master gardener.

“Something that mixes in literature with the nature feel of the island,” she added.

Joan Voyles, a resident of Anna Maria, stopped by for a bit on night last week. Before browsing and picking up a new book, the 77-year-old said she had been to Paradise Found AMI before when Brenner and Ford were setting up.

“I wanted them to feel welcome to Anna Maria Island. They add a nice cultural addition to our community,” said Voyles, who is the president of Cultural Connections, a nonprofit established in 2008 to promote, support and act as an advocate for art and culture on the island and provide guidance and counsel to cultural-related businesses and organizations.

“For one thing is that we have so many people on vacation and let’s expose them so they can pick up a good book and have a choice of some good literature.”

Voyles told Ford she reads Donna Leon very seriously.

“Oh, yeah!” Ford replied.

The women began to speak excitedly about different writers.

“Wow, you guys are a match made in heaven,” Brenner said, a playful smile widening on her face.

Ford said the bookstore allows her to share her enthusiasm for books.

“I love to read so much that I want the world to love to read,” she said. “And I think, if we read more and have a bigger view of the world, we learn things, it makes us better people.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2016 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Mother-daughter duo fulfill dream in Anna Maria with new bookstore, Paradise Found."