Point Reyes Books

Steve Costa and Kate Levinson

Steve Costa and Kate Levinson didn't know much about operating a retail business when they bought an independent bookstore in rural Point Reyes Station in 2003. But they shared a vision for being part of a community and a desire to make a difference. They began to weave Point Reyes Books into the fabric of community life. Steve brought 40 years of community organizing to the bookstore, including as a Vista volunteer, an aide to Congressman Pete Stark, a program director for the Trust for Public Land, and executive director of the City of Oakland's strategic planning office. Steve serves on the boards of the Tomales Bay Library Association, Point Reyes National Seashore Association, and is founder and co-chair of "Think Local First West Marin," a campaign encouraging people to shop locally.

Kate holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Along with helping produce the readings, lectures, conferences, exhibitions the bookstore sponsors, Kate leads workshops on women and money. Her book Emotional Currency: Women Building a Healthy Relationship with Money will be published by Ten Speed Press/Random House in 2011. Kate serves on the board of the Northern California Independent Booksellers’ Association.

Lisa Doron

Lisa has worked at Point Reyes Books almost every Friday for six years. In the early years of Lisa's literary life, she found a small home on the prairie with Half Pint and traveled the high seas with Pippi and Captain Longstocking. She eventually jumped ship and found herself along side Wonapalei on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. As a young teenager, she sleuthed with Nancy Drew. Her world really took a turn when she found Scout Finch in Macon County. Lisa returned to LA, where she realized that even cowgirls get the blues. She eventually made her made her way north, landing in Inverness, where she teaches drama at West Marin School. When she’s not storytelling, painting, and puttering in her studio, she is reading, still.

Dawn Steiner

Dawn has worked in independent bookstores for most of her adult life, starting in Del Mar, California while raising her children.  After moving to Marin, Dawn worked at Cottage Bookshop and became the manager of Indian Valley Colleges Bookstore. Attending college while working full time, she eventually graduated with an English major from San Francisco State just months before her oldest son graduated high school. Dawn owned a stationery store before returning to the book world, with stints at Book Passage and Oliver's Books, both in Marin County. Working with Steve and Kate at Point Reyes Books, along with the sense of community she experiences in Point Reyes inspire her every day.

Helen Strodl

Helen has loved books since childhood. In the mid 80’s she decided that what really “fed her soul” was being around books. She opened and operated Cheshire Cat Books in Sausalito, California from 1989 to 1999, and worked for several independent booksellers ever since. She joined Point Reyes Books in 2006.