Bringing the Community Together One Book at a Time

Education alum, Rachel Sease ’14 is making a meaningful contribution to the Canton, North Carolina community as the recent owner of Blue Moon Books. Sease bought the used bookstore in November 2023 after working part-time at both Blue Moon Books (Canton, NC) and Wall Street Books (Waynesville, NC). She met the owners, Bonnie and Greg Owens when she taught their son, a fourth grader in her class at Bethel Elementary. Five years later, she ran into them at the grocery store where they mentioned that they were hiring. Given her love of reading, Rachel found herself thinking about the opportunity and decided to work part time.

 

Rachel recalls how her eyes were opened to the magic of reading in Dr. Katie Kelly’s literacy methods courses at Furman. She loves the freedom reading brings to learning and how it offers a way for every different type of person to engage in some form of exploration of the world through story and information. “My relationship with books and I hope customers’ relationships with books is purely based on enjoyment and reading for pleasure and interest.”

 

When the owners opened the second location in Canton and decided to sell, Rachel jumped at the chance to share the gift of reading for enjoyment with others. According to Sease, “I’m living a lot of people’s dreams. It never occurred to me as a possibility. I don’t come from a family of business owners and never saw myself as a business owner. But I feel like I’m living a dream to own and work there.”

 

Thankfully Blue Moon Books was spared from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 and was not affected by floodwaters. However, the local community has seen many challenges including flooding from Tropical Storm Fred in 2021, devastating effects from the closure of a local paper mill in 2023, and Hurricane Helene most recently in 2024. The small town of Canton, NC has experienced adversity but is resilient according to Sease. “It feels meaningful to recirculate books about town’s history and make connections between people in the community through sharing of books.”