Author’s note: This post was first published in 2011. I’m revisiting it after learning that Gee Gee Rosell, the owner of Buxton Village Books, has passed away. She left a lasting impression on me then—and in the years since, through her continued support of my work and her quiet devotion to stories.
When the Weather Sends You Inside
A rainy day at the beach is an invitation. The surf goes gray, the sky lowers, and suddenly the best plan is to be indoors with a good book. On one such day on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, thunder cracking, my daughter and I grabbed umbrellas and made a dash to Buxton Village Books.
A Literary Anchor on Hatteras Island
Of course, the little shop was packed. Buxton Village Books is the only bookstore on Hatteras Island. It has been holding that ground since 1984. That’s one year before my own family began what became an annual summer migration from the Midwest south on Highway 12 to Hatteras.
In an era when independent bookstores have been squeezed by retailers and one online giant, Buxton Village Books has not only survived—it has become part of the island’s identity and backbone.
A Bookshop Built by Hand, Layered with History
The building itself began as a modest summer cottage originally built in 1860. Gee Gee Rosell, the store’s owner, once told me—proudly—that she built the additions herself, wiring and all. Many of the exposed ceiling beams were salvaged from shipwrecks.
The result is a living, breathing bookstore: multiple rooms connected by doorways and step-downs, creaky floors, hand-lettered signs, and hanging lights that make you want to linger.
Every room offers something different—new releases, used paperbacks, children’s books, coastal fiction and nonfiction, and handcrafted art by local makers.
Gee Gee — a true gem on the Outer Banks
“Most people think of a woman-owned business as being a hobby,” she said to me years ago. “For me, this is a serious literary endeavor.”
Years ago, Gee Gee declined having her photo taken. She told me she didn’t want her identity to define the bookstore. That philosophy showed in everything Gee Gee did, from the careful curation of titles to the way she knew exactly what to recommend, and to whom.
The news that Gee Gee has passed away stopped me short. She was a delight to talk to, one of those rare booksellers who could listen for a moment and then place the right book into your hands.
Since 2020, she ordered wholesale copies of my children’s book, Gordy and the Ghost Crab—at least three times a year if not more. It meant everything to me. Often, I’d get a succinct email asking for the play kits I sell packaged with a signed book, little windup crab and net:
Subject: hello from Gee Gee
I need kits!! Ship? Or are you headed this way?
Gee Gee
If we weren’t headed to the Outer Banks, I’d ship them to her. She paid the postage.
She believed in local stories, children’s stories, island stories, and the people who wrote them. When I told her about my novel set on the Outer Banks, she shared in my excitement, too.
A Book, a Dedication, a Quiet Legacy
That rainy day in 2011, I bought a hardcover copy of Outer Banks by Anne Rivers Siddons. Only later did I realize it was a first edition, dedicated to Gee Gee.
Just last year, my grown daughter realized she’d never known the actual name of the bookshop until she looked at the receipt when we left. To her, it was just “Gee Gee’s.”
Some places are more than shops. They are shelters from the storm. Anchors. Legacies. And Buxton Village Books carried Gee Gee’s fingerprints on every shelf.
In 2024 I created this video of the inside of the store where you can see it in all its charm.
Thank you for visiting!
Linda K. Sienkiewicz writes fiction, poetry and essays. Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026 from Regal House Publishing: When an anxious overthinker finds discarded love letters, her fixation on a stranger pulls her straight into chaos, heartbreak, and the unraveling of her carefully constructed life.
Sign up for Linda’s newsletter Notes on Life.