Books have a habit of transporting us. Whether to distant lands, bygone eras, imagined futures or thrilling adventures, books allow us to cross continents, make new friends and see the world through a different lens. Now, it’s time for you to take your book on an adventure of its own. Choose your own adventure, with a bookstore, genre and nearby reading location designed to keep you from just adding another unread book to your ever-growing stack that you’re “getting to.” Rove the shelves of these local bookstores to find your next read.
Wonderland Bookshop
Genre: Children’s Fairy Tales & Fantasy
Reading Location: Atwater Beach
This hidden gem might be a bit tucked away, but you hardly have to go down the rabbit hole to find it. Located in the North Shore neighborhood of Shorewood, Wonderland Bookshop caters to kids of all ages, even the young at heart, with a selection of titles for adults as well. With lights that look like clouds, and clever nods to its namesake fairytale, like checkered floors and little rabbits between rooms, the corner store sparks kids’ imaginations, taking them into a land of fantasy and make-believe.
After you find your tales of faraway lands, head just a few blocks east to the sands of Atwater Beach. You can sprawl out in the grassy park on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan or bring a beach towel and flick through the pages to the rhythm of the crashing waves. Maybe we’re not all quite so mad here after all.
Boswell Book Company
Genre: The Classics
Reading Location: Stone Creek Coffee – East Side
It’s one of Milwaukee’s most popular local bookstores, and for good reason. For more than 17 years, Boswell Book Company has been serving the community in a neatly organized, easy-to-navigate shop that moves you from fiction (sometimes labeled “Untrue Stories”) to mysteries to crime to social commentary. They even have an entire section dedicated to Staff Picks, so you don’t have to judge a book by its cover. In the way of bookstores, it’s a classic, and that’s just what you should pick up while you’re there. Whether it’s something by Hemingway, Plath, Steinbeck, Angelou, Dostoyevsky or another great writer, crack open one of these timeless works to see what all the buzz is about. Oh, and maybe pick up Milwaukee Flavor: The Cookbook while you still can.
Once you’ve checked out, take your newest addition of an old edition with you down the road to Stone Creek’s East Side location. Cozy coffee shop inside, bright, sunny patio outside, this is where you come to a fork in the road. Are you ordering a hot cup of joe? Maybe stay indoors and page through your book under the soft ambient lighting. Iced or nitro cold brew? Take it to the patio and show off your intellect to the world.
Niche Book Bar
Genre: Non-Fiction
Reading Location: Niche Book Bar
A great place to, well, find your niche, Niche Book Bar opened in 2025, specializing in Black literature from just about every genre. Located along Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. in the Bronzeville neighborhood, the recent brick-and-mortar addition boasts an intimate, highly curated collection of works from Black authors.
Pick your next read, then stay exactly where you are to revel in your lit pick with a glass of wine, tea or a cup of coffee. There’s a reason why this shop refers to itself as a “book bar,” and you’re about to discover why. Serving select Style Pop Café coffees, local wines and hosting events throughout the month, this bookstore doubles as a café, where you can relax, read and sip the day away.
The Well Red Damsel
Genre: Romance
Reading Location: Vennture Brew Co.
No matter the weather outside, it’s always steamy inside this Wauwatosa bookstore. Your pulse races as you search the shop for the one, the book that will keep you glued to the page and hanging on every word as enemies become lovers and star-crossed couples meet. It’s all romance all the time at Well Red Damsel, and their neatly lined, high-curated shelves have the hottest titles and the books that all your friends will be raving about in a month’s time.
Around 10 minutes down the road, you’ll find Vennture Brewing, a bright and bustling setting to dig into all the drama and tension that comes with the territory. The book, not the brewery. They serve both coffee and beer, creating a love triangle that you weren’t expecting. On bright, sunny days, Vennture’s garage doors open to let in some fresh air to help you cool off from that spicy read.
Urban Milwaukee & Historic Milwaukee
Genre: Milwaukee History
Location: Veterans Park
These two local staples are less bookstores than they are novelty and souvenir shops. They’re places that you can find local gifts for your friends and family, a cool artistically-inspired print of the city’s neighborhoods or a fridge magnet that doubles as a bottle opener. However, as you roam the shelves, you’ll also find books that tell a different type of story entirely: Milwaukee’s story. These are books about the city’s history, its architecture, its 191 neighborhoods and the many communities that call Milwaukee home.
Sweeping views of the lapping waves along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, panoramic views of the skyline, with its many architectural styles and a living piece of Milwaukee history to keep you company as you dig into the stories and communities that make Milwaukee, well, Milwaukee.
Rainbow Booksellers
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Reading Location: Washington Park
You won’t have to look hard to find this palace of pages in West Allis. It’ll jump out at you, and this time, you should definitely judge a book by its cover. A massive mural adorns the outside of Rainbow Booksellers, fittingly of shelves loaded with novels and kids' books. While many of the titles on the exterior are made-up, rest assured, inside this bookstore has plenty of real literature for all ages to explore. The store itself is tightly packed, catering mostly to kids and young adult readers, with a few titles sure to entice the young art heart, too.
If you can survive the allure of Record Head, next door, you and your teen, tween or in-between can make your way down the road to Washington Park for an afternoon of reading. There are park benches to post up in, tons of green space to splay out a picnic blanket or even the bandshell’s amphitheater and make a dent in your new read. Pro tip: A receipt makes a handy bookmark.
Voyageur Book Shop
Genre: Adventure
Reading Location: Vendetta Coffee – Bay View
Voyage your way over to KK in Bay View for a second-hand store that’s more than meets the eye. From the outside, Voyageur Book Shop looks like an intimate, highly curated used book store, with a smattering of selections spanning genres. Once you’re inside, though, you’ll discover that they’ve taken their collection to a whole other level. I’m talking about the basement. Wander the stores, explore the shelves and pick up a few finds before discovering that the real treasure was the spirit of adventure inside you all along. If you’re very lucky, you may just spot their shop cat, too.
The best adventures don’t just happen on their own. Without impetus, a hero’s journey would finish before it starts. Sometimes, the Odyssey begins with a vendetta, other times, it ends with a Vendetta Coffee. This coffee shop in Bay View crafts your favorite caffeinated beverages just how you like to pair with their fresh imported Italian pastries. They also serve craft cocktails if you’re looking to add a little ABV to your adventure.
Downtown Books
Genre: Poetry
Reading Location: Lakeshore State Park
Books line the shelves from floor to ceiling here in a seemingly endless arrangement that just keeps on going. You could lose yourself at Downtown Books, and you probably will lose your browsing buddy, but along the way, you’re bound to find some pretty special selections that seem to leap off the shelves at you, as if by fate. But, if you’re looking for a quick find and a little extra magic in the everyday, you’ll find the poetry section near the door. There are well-loved tomes of works by world-renowned poets and collections from others you’ve never heard of before. Pick one up that speaks to you.
Poetry is often best read surrounded by the splendor of nature that’s so often described in the stanzas. The gentle sway of a tree in the wind, the sound of lapping water, even the laughter of a couple passing by. Lakeshore State Park is a perfect nearby setting for it, too, with views of the inland lagoon, the shifting colors of the lake throughout the day, birds fluttering overhead and the cityscape in the background. What more can you ask for, really?
Tabletop Bookshelf
Genre: Fantasy
Reading Location: Discourse Coffee
Part tabletop game store, part bookstore, Tabletop Bookshelf is in a world of its own. Opened earlier this year, the formerly online retailer has made a home in the Walker’s Point neighborhood, planting a flag as the home base of nearby lovers of RPG and strategy games. But beyond the games, guides and groups competing inside the shop, the shop also has a curated collection of local indie zines, along with fiction, fantasy and more to add to your collection. Peruse the titles and find a fantastic fantasy book that’ll keep you entertained until your next Dungeons & Dragons game.
Imagination this powerful needs a reading nook so overflowing with creativity that you can feel it from the moment you walk in. Welcome to Discourse Coffee. The Walker’s Point café is home to some of the most adventurous and thoughtfully concocted caffeinated beverages and cocktails. Their tables double as terrariums, with plants growing in shadowboxes below, and they also double (or triple) as a small record shop, too. The building itself is the headquarters for local radio station 88Nine, which wafts through the huge space’s speakers.
Tabletop Bookshelf
Genre: Fantasy
Reading Location: Discourse Coffee
Part tabletop game store, part bookstore, Tabletop Bookshelf is in a world of its own. Opened earlier this year, the formerly online retailer has made a home in the Walker’s Point neighborhood, planting a flag as the home base of nearby lovers of RPG and strategy games. But beyond the games, guides and groups competing inside the shop, the shop also has a curated collection of local indie zines, along with fiction, fantasy and more to add to your collection. Peruse the titles and find a fantastic fantasy book that’ll keep you entertained until your next Dungeons & Dragons game.
Imagination this powerful needs a reading nook so overflowing with creativity that you can feel it from the moment you walk in. Welcome to Discourse Coffee. The Walker’s Point café is home to some of the most adventurous and thoughtfully concocted caffeinated beverages and cocktails. Their tables double as terrariums, with plants growing in shadowboxes below, and they also double (or triple) as a small record shop, too. The building itself is the headquarters for local radio station 88Nine, which wafts through the huge space’s speakers.
Renaissance Books
Genre: Travel
Reading Location: Your Gate
Arrivals, planes and the bustle of everyday air travel surround this bookstore. Located inside Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, it’s a far cry from the Hudson News stands and little collections of today’s hot paperbacks lining the walls next to magazine racks. In fact, Renaissance Booksellers regularly registers on national media lists for some of the nation’s top and most unique bookstores. It’s a hidden paradise of pages, where you never really know exactly what you’ll find. They’ve got rare editions, classics and reads you can cruise through on a domestic flight, and it’s a must-stop before you roll through TSA.
Whether you’re going solo or traveling with the whole fam, you now have some portable entertainment. While the flight attendants ask passengers up and down the rows to stow their laptops for takeoff, you can relax and turn the page with confidence, knowing that your flight is going to fly by. And when you’re at your gate ahead of schedule, you can knock out a chapter or two, too.
Find your next chapter! Uncover Milwaukee’s bookstores, write your own story and book your stay today.
