Hidden Gems: Meet Tara Cool of The Bookhouse

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Cool

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in a loving two-parent home with three sisters. I grew up moving a lot. Approximately every 1 to 2 years my dad was transferred for his work, so we lived in New York, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Connecticut. This started my love of meeting new people because I was blessed to get to know all different kinds of people in our travels. I came to North Carolina for my undergraduate degree in Elementary Education at Appalachian State University. Shortly after I moved to Boone, NC, my parents relocated to the Winston-Salem area.

I completed my bachelor’s degree and married someone I knew from childhood. He was in the military as an infantryman and deployed to Afghanistan, so I stayed in the Boone area and taught for a year in Ashe County North Carolina while he was deployed. When he returned home from deployment and finished his contract, we moved to New York, where we are both originally from. This was a difficult time as he suffered from severe PTSD, and reacclimating to civilian life was extremely challenging. I completed my master’s degree in special education as you must have a master’s degree to teach there. While we lived there, I taught in a private school while going to school full-time for my master’s degree. After two years in New York trying to navigate getting settled into our lives post-war, we ended up moving back to North Carolina. I wanted to be closer to family for support, and we felt that there were better treatment opportunities for him down here as where we lived in New York was extremely remote. We ended up in the Winston-Salem area and began to build a life here. I continued teaching elementary school for a few more years, but ultimately, I ended up working as a paralegal after getting discouraged with the school system and the lack of ability to serve our students well within the given parameters. During this time, I was my ex-husband’s caretaker as well. He worked, but things were tumultuous to say the least. We went through this for about eight years, and finally, after a lot of treatment and hard work, things seemed to be looking up. We decided to start a family. When I was eight months pregnant, my ex-husband left. I ultimately attribute this to his struggle with his mental illness and always looking for the next thing to bring him healing. He looked for solace in alcohol, drugs, women, etc. Much of this was revealed to me when he decided to leave. At the time, I was heartbroken because my family was not going to look anything like I had planned it to. This all sounds so trite, as these words do not even begin to describe the devastation of that time. He immediately began dating other people, and I felt that my daughter and I had been abandoned before she even got here.
We decided to sell our house, and thankfully the housing market was in our favor for that.
I spent some time feeling very angry with God for allowing these things to happen, but when I look back, I feel like I had been freed from a terrible situation. This was really the mercy of God. I began to move forward and take steps to put a life together for me and my daughter. We have a very strong support system between my family and our community. They all came alongside us and held us up while I tried to get my feet under me. I was determined to rebuild my life in a way that my daughter would be proud of. At the time, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that, or what that would look like, but I prayed and leaned into the support system we had in place.
One day I received a text message from my sister with a picture of a “for lease” sign in the window of this adorable storefront in Reynolda Village Winston-Salem. We had always dreamed of opening a bookstore together, but never thought we would actually get to do it. I was very familiar with the space as I had gotten to know the owner of the shop that was leaving the space, and I knew that it would be the perfect location for our dream. On a whim, we decided to call and just ask a few questions. Before we knew it, we were registering a business with the state, and looking at what it would look like to actually bring this dream to fruition. I decided to use the money I received from selling my house to invest in our future and used that as my portion to open The Bookhouse. Without having sold my house, this store most likely wouldn’t exist. We are an independent bookstore with coffee, tea, beer, wine, workstations, and community events. I get to go to work where I play every day. The ten years I spent in my previous marriage seem like a distant memory. I am proud of the life we have built, and I hope to continue to show my daughter that our circumstances do not have to define us. We pray and persevere. The Lord has been so good to us, and I have experienced so much healing. Three years ago, I could not have imagined my life as it is now, and I am incredibly grateful for it as it has turned out so much better than I could have dreamed. It is still difficult, but it is a different kind of difficult. Being a single mom is hard, owning a business is not for wimps, and also working a part-time job along with all of that makes logistics a nightmare sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade how things worked out for anything. I am proud of what we continue to build. I love being involved in the community, meeting new people, and sharing my story when appropriate to come alongside others.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Before getting to the point of opening our store, I would definitely say that being married to someone with PTSD and substance abuse issues was a large challenge as caretaking did not leave time or stability for much else. Since we opened the store, other challenges arose. Neither my sister or I have ever owned a business, so we had so much to learn. Financing at the beginning was stressful as we are self-funded, and trying to fill the store with inventory was a challenge. We have grown our inventory exponentially over the last year, but we had to reinvest most of what we brought in to make that happen. It is also difficult learning how to be a business partner with someone who doesn’t always agree with you. Thankfully, as sisters you tend to have practice with disagreeing and repairing.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Bookhouse?
The Bookhouse is a small, independent bookstore in Reynolda Village Winston-Salem. We sell new books, but we also have a bar in the store. The bar serves coffee, tea, beer, wine, and other refreshments. We are set up as a space that people can shop, work in, grab a cup of coffee with a friend, or attend events such as live music or author talks.

I am most proud of the community that has been built here. We have gotten to know many of our regular customers, and people come to our store to relax, unwind, and find respite.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
This is a difficult question to answer. I guess I would have to say that I am stubborn and a risk-taker. Sometimes these are not great qualities, but those are also the things that pushed me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thebookhousews.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebookhousews/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebookhousews

Image Credits
Brooke White Photography
Hayley Wick Photography