Rewriting Des Moines’s Reading Community

Linzi Murray, a smiling woman with a dark black to blonde wavy hair as she is dressed in a dark grey and brown cardigan open jacket plus dark grey jeans and colorful socks as well as sunglasses resting on her black sweatshirt underneath; She is sitting in a criss cross apple sauce position up against a wall nearby a wooden bookshelf full of things
How one Drake alum’s love of bookstores inspired her return to build a business.
It’s not uncommon for Drake grads to leave Des Moines after graduation, only to be drawn back to the beloved city later on.

For Kansas native and New York expat Linzi Murray, Des Moines wasn’t just a second home, but a place where she could fulfill her dream of building a business. Today, as the proud owner of Reading in Public Bookstore + Cafe, an independent bookstore in West Des Moines, Murray is shaping Central Iowa’s reading community, one good book at a time.

Murray’s love for the city began when searching for colleges. Although her parents wanted her to stay in Kansas, she was drawn to Drake for its proximity to home. She initially declared a painting major, but knew she wished to explore her interests, and the university offered that flexibility.

“I thought, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with this, but I know I’m in a place where I have that freedom to figure it out,’” said Murray. “And when I do eventually have more focus and an idea of what I want to be doing, I know that I won’t have to change schools.”

That freedom to explore helped Murray discover a passion for graphic design, which she added as a second major before graduating with her BA in 2017. Within a week of graduation, Murray moved to New York City with her Drake sweetheart, now husband, Ying Chyi Gooi, to chase their dreams. There, she worked as a graphic designer for a major design agency.

During her four years in NYC, Murray—a self-described bibliophile—thrived in its vibrant reading culture, where it seemed everyone had a book in hand and independent booksellers were abundant. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered many of her beloved bookshops, Murray felt as if she had lost an outlet that once rooted her so deeply to the city.

“A part of me just felt like it suddenly bottomed out,” said Murray. “I had this epiphany that I felt like I can’t live without access to bookstores.”

Out of that sense of loss came a spark of possibility. While Murray and her husband had always planned to return to Des Moines to build a family, the city also offered the chance to bring a taste of New York’s literary culture back with her.

Murray recalls that when she was a Drake student, there was only one local independent bookstore, and at the time, Des Moines didn’t seem to have the overt reading community she had come to love. However, upon returning to scout potential storefronts in Historic Valley Junction, Murray was met with a newly expanded reading community and great enthusiasm for her small business proposal.

“Since I’ve been back, I’ve learned that we have huge, voracious readers just so enthusiastic about reading,” she said. “We just didn’t have those outlets before.”

Now, three years into owning her business, Reading in Public is a staple of Valley Junction and the now-flourishing independent bookstore culture in Greater Des Moines. Rooted in community and collaboration, Murray regularly partners with other business owners, most recently Chef Cass Spence of Culinary Annex. In July, they launched their inaugural collaboration, in which Murray selects a cookbook, and Chef Cass chooses a recipe that attendees prepare. In addition, Murray provides two book “pairings” to accompany the meal’s theme.

Beyond fostering community collaboration, Murray’s identity as a transracially adopted Chinese-American woman deeply shapes the curation of titles on her store’s shelves, helping many customers see themselves represented. She describes her special touch as a bookseller as offering hidden gems and weaving unique stories into her curated selections for customers to discover.

“We get that comment a lot about how diverse our selection is, but to my mind, it’s just natural,” said Murray. “I’m intentionally getting these books, but also, there’s so much literature out there, especially by people of color and marginalized groups, that it’s just natural to happen to have them on our shelves.”

Beyond the joys of spotlighting stories that deserve to be read, Murray reflects that her greatest source of pride is creating a space people can enjoy. As more readers find community and comfort in her store, Murray’s Des Moines story is still being written, with many chapters yet to come.

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