Moon Palace Books

A fabulous independent, queer friendly bookstore in an equally fabulous neighborhood. Not everyone’s going to understand and appreciate what it’s like to have spaces like this in cities like this, and that’s all good, bc they don’t deserve it. A mask requirement only separates the jerks from the group! Masks are provided so I don’t get the complication. Somehow this place has the cutest dragon plushies in the universe! Aside from a diverse selection of books there are also tons of collectables, games, pens, notebooks, magnets, etc. Lots of cool stuff in this neighborhood to check out while you’re over here!

It's a nice bookstore. I wouldn't go back because masks are still required, and it's overpriced. There is local artwork on the wall, but it's not for sale. The neighborhood seems crappy. The plus is that The Hook and Ladder Theater and Lounge is nearby if you're headed to a show that night. Magers & Quinn is a similar and long-time staple that's in uptown, so it's near to many other cool places to check out. The staff didn't seem to want to interact with customers and kept to themselves.

Loved looking through all the books, tons I’ve never heard of. Friendly staff but they still make you wear a mask upon entry. Excited to read this book I got about the toxic dyes we have in our clothes. Cute figurines and bags too!

The atmosphere was great and the employee provided and asked us to put in masks when entering. During cold and flu season I really appreciated this practice. The book selection was great from kids to adults, and all the fun book knick knacks were great!!!

I recently had reason to source fiction books that take place in New Zealand. Some of the books on my list were published only in New Zealand (or other non-U.S. countries). I reached out to Moon Palace Books to see if they could help me source the books. Greta replied to my inquiry promptly and with such helpful guidance! I was able to source some of the books on my list from other indie bookshops in the U.S. Even though my sale didn't go to Moon Palace Books this time because of my unique targets, Greta helped so graciously anyway; I am so grateful to Greta for the help I received. Thank you!

It is a cute bookstore with many different sections for different topics. The bookstore definitely has a heavy liberal lean, if that matters. However, I would return due to the masking requirement that was still in place when I last visited. It is honestly ridiculous (and I say this as someone who religiously masked all while required and as someone who still masks when sick in public). There are other bookstores to choose from, go there!

Friendly bookstore with a balanced selection. We spent an hour or two digging into the kid's section, but it will be fun to wander around next time. Love that they're still masking up, keeping the community safe!

As a bookstore lover, this store stresses me out a tad. The only genre separation is between YA, Children, Manga, and then everything else is lumped together. Makes it hard when you don’t know what you want, but you want a specific genre. Example: if you’re looking for scifi- you have to know an author or a book you’re looking for. Otherwise you have to look through hundreds of books to find a scifi book. Really difficult if you’re a looker, not someone with a specific list.

What a cute store! It's very kitschy and there are lots if great gift ideas. The bookstore isn't huge, but they have a solid collection of things. The staff was friendly as well. Prices were fair and it's always good to shop local! This store requires masks, which they provide as needed, so that's good to note if you're coming here.

I was visiting from out of town and tried to enter this store. Although I saw a sign that says masks are required I just figured it must be left up from earlier times. Nope-masks are still required!! And the angry employees are downright mean and nasty about it-I was so shocked and embarrassed as they literally reprimanded me. After quickly walking out I did some research online; apparently it used to be a real community place with story time for kids and live music, even a cafe. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hang out there now!! I've never seen such hostile and rude employees in my life. I'm still shocked and this is days later. STAY AWAY FROM THIS BUSINESS!!

This is a great bookstore, they have a great selection of books and the employees are so helpful, whether you're looking for a specific book or need help selecting something that you will like, they are there for you! They also sell cute little gifts, stickers, art supplies, some clothes, and more. It's easy to browse and everything is well organized but I don't think they sell anything at discounted prices. Ever since covid they require masks inside which are provided at the door.

Moon Palace is a true literary palace! The store is filled with books, toys, gifts, journals, etc. The moment I stepped into the store, I got the same excitement that I did back when I was a kid going to my first book fair. The store was less busy when we came in at 5pm on a Wednesday so we had ample space to walk around and take our time appreciating looking through the books. Moon Palace has quirky, bright decor and is filled with a variety of books that fit a broad audience from classics to fiction, from memoirs to fantasy, and everything in between. I really appreciated their intentional highlight of books written by minority writers up front, and how clean as well as organized the store was. While the store isn't huge, they maximize what space they do have and provide a wide selection. This place would undoubtably be a spot that I visited again and again during breaks, on days off, or for a sweet escape on weekends when I want to unplug if I lived in Minneapolis. I highly recommend checking this *independent* book store out...who knows, you may even discover the next book that you just can't seem to put down after visiting.

Such an incredible bookstore! I could unfortunately not stay for very long, but the overall store was everything I could ever have hoped for: a) they had so many comics and graphic novels, a whole section in fact. since most bookstores skip over this incredibly important genre, I was ecstatic to see those books here. b) they had an amazing cafe! there was very good coffee and assorted snacks to choose from: and since I have a weak spot for eating and reading at the same time, I was so happy to see that kind of space here. It was so incredibly cozy, too. Unfortunately, I had one of their cookies and immediately felt nauseous: I later threw up after a long drive home. I had eaten the cookie on an empty stomach, but when i go back (note the lack of an 'if') i'm definitely not taking any chances. c) the rest of the store was an interesting mix of literature, YA, and assorted knickknacks and stickers. It's very liberal and forward-thinking, as such bookstores are meant to be, and their choice in decoration reflects that: you can buy stickers with various feminist messages, as well as portraits of Lizzo. All in all, I'd rank this bookstore as one of my favorites in Minnesota, along with Birchbark Books and Wild Rumpus. I would definitely go back and urge you to pay it a visit as well.

Moon Palace Books is bright and inviting! They have all of the titles you've just heard of and were thinking about purchasing! My friend and I loitered around the first table right inside the door for the longest time because of all of the wonderfully displayed choices! This was a bad thing only because it was our second stop for Independent Book Store day! (Thankfully I still made it to 11 of the 19 book stores!) Because it was a busy day AND a friend suggested their pizza in the Geek Love Cafe I am trying to plan a day to get back to enjoy this amazing space in a more leisurely fashion. Upstairs they have a great used book spot! Thanks to the kind stranger for pointing out the staircase so I could find my way up there to look around. They also had the best and most hilarious note cards for sale. My friends and I stood there and literally laughed out loud at so many of the witty card selections as well. I was super impressed for the part of town that they are in that they have their own parking lot! This suburban princess appreciated that so much! I am the worst at parallel parking so this spot will be a repeat place to shop and eat!

By virtue of my personality, I'm inclined to rank any bookstore highly. That being said I had the most fun I've had at a bookstore here! They just have a selection of things I hadn't seen anywhere else! I went in there wanting to maybe get one book and ended up on a book/card binge! All the staff is all very helpful and nice. Well... Helpful and nice means they help you get more and more and more books! So many books! I wish I could time travel to read them alllllll!!!!

What a lovely bookstore! I enjoyed perusing the shelves while I was in town. There is even a cafe inside with pizza and other delicious things to eat! FYI: The new books are all downstairs while the used books are located upstairs. I do like when they're all mixed in together, but this set up made sense for the store's layout. The staff is super friendly and even had some more book recommendations for me when I was checking out--every bookworm's dream! Oh, you're buying this book; I bet you'd like this one, too!

Moon Palace is a great local bookstore. The space is large and inviting with lots of seating and having Geek Love Cafe inside is definitely a huge bonus. Pre-Covid the staff was extremely welcoming to folks sitting in the space - I even had book club in the bookstore one or two times. There is a decent selection of used books on the second floor, when the bookstore was open, customers could browse both new and used books. Online orders during Covid have been easy and Moon Palace has an outdoor window on the side of the building that makes pickup a breeze. My only complaint is that I wish the bookstore carried a larger selection of children's books, specifically Spanish children's book. I've found other stores to have better options within this genre.

Wow. I've bicycled by here many times, meaning to stop some rainy day and I needed a good book. A bookstore with a coffee/pizza place in the back. Don't forget to check out the used books upstairs!

Anyone questioning that Minneapolis is a hip (in a cool indie nerd way) city needs to look no further than Moon Palace Books. During my last vintage shopping trip in the Minnehaha Mile area, I stopped by Moon Palace because why not? As soon as I walked in and saw they sell a tote bag with authors as goth cartoon characters, I was sold. [Maybe that tells you more about me than the store...hehe] The rest of the gifts and stationery section at the front of the store has many equally charming/funny/kitschy goods for the bibliophiles in your life. More importantly, the book selection is really awesome. Even though the physical space is relatively small, probably closer to the size of an airport book store than the size of many (boring) big chains, I feel like they have books to appease most audiences, including kids and young adults. Among your standard NYT bestsellers displayed on the tables in the center of the store and displayed along the windows, there were also indie-type new releases, some classics, some local authors, and zines. I could definitely tell the employees put a lot of thought into the displays and recommendations. The used book area is relatively small, but also seemed well-curated and I found some reasonably priced, good condition books to take home without needing to do a lot of filtering, too. Service was very polite and friendly. As I was walking out, I was charmed to hear the employee at the register attentively listening to a child's very specific request for books about her favorite animals and offering some thoughtful suggestions and assistance in finding them. You can tell so much about people (and places!) by how they treat kids. :) I would 100% recommend Moon Palace!

This is seriously not only an awesome bookstore, it's just generally one of my favorite places to hang out in the Twin Cities. Let me start with the books: When you walk in, you're greeted with a carefully curated selection of new books. A lot of bookstores seem to have this, but at the end of the day it's less curated and more a collection of trending and/or bestselling books. At Moon Palace, it seems like people actually thought about what should be put out here, and they've included books by smaller presses, books by authors in marginalized groups, books from a wide range of genres. I really feel like I can walk in, grab a book from one of the first few tables and get something that is going to have an impact. And that's awesome. That's how bookstores get their personalities. Oh and beyond the books, there's a cafe with lots of hangout space, great tea and great pizza. They have a back room where they do readings, shows, dance nights. And all the people who work here are rad.

This place is an adorable cafe in an even more adorable bookstore. The first time I came I had this amazing skillet with ham! The service was oddly slow and took forever with lots of "oh we're not serving soup for 20 mins or oh we're out of granola" but the food was so good and the place is so quaint that I didn't care. I've since come back THREE TIMES with various friends who I convinced had to try this delicious brunch only to be told they weren't serving or had run out of the thing I wanted. The first time I learned that they stop serving brunch at noon (even if you were in line to order behind a 3 year old having a tantrum well in advance of noon). Ok fine, weird to stop on the weekends at noon but now that I know I'll be better prepared. The second time I was told they didn't have the one I wanted. Bummer! But today was the last straw for me with this place. I get to the front of the line and am told they're not serving skillets today. What? And the pizza I had as a replacement was so tasteless with congealed old eggs on top. So the short of it is that this place is super inconsistent and unable to deliver their full menu on any given day. I think they'd be better off doing a few things really well all the time.

Moon Palace is a wonderful book store! It had been a while since I last visited the shop, but my recent venture there was just as fulfilling as my previous trips were. The shop's stock is a little smaller than before (thanks Covid), but that didn't mean I left empty handed. Staff are super helpful and pointed me in the direction of the titles I was looking for. I would highly recommend Moon Palace to fans of indie bookstores or anyone looking for a unique book buying experience

I live in Los Ángeles and saw reports that you supported the protests for George Floyd by refusing to allow the police to use your parking lot. I also read that the community then tagged your boarded up windows with "Don't Burn". If this is true I would love to support your store. Do you do online orders? We need business leaders like you who stand with the struggle for justice.

This is a really cute neighborhood book store with a good selection of books by locals authors. Right next to the Hub bike shop and the coming-soon Arbiter brewery. They just added a little cafe in back too, that serves coffee / snacks and pizza. They organize books by topic (vs author) so it's a little bit of an adventure to find things sometimes, but the ambiance is so cute and fun!

I live in Seattle so I have not actually been to this shop, but I placed an online order and the customer service was awesome and the books arrived in great shape, even though they are flooded with orders right now. I am happy to be able to support this awesome store and hope to be able to visit it next time I'm in the area!

Best bookstore around. I especially loved their selection of kids' books and graphic novels. They have some used books upstairs as well. Plus they have an awesome little cafe where you can get cookies and beer to go with your new book! It's a great place to hang out and get your read on in the winter.

Very nice book store. Bright and well organized. Be careful, though. You walk in planning to buy one book and will walk out with ten. Everywhere I looked was another book I'd been wanting to get. Could make a book lover go bankrupt! Lovely Cafe in the back.

Best locally owned bookstore. Lots of books from local authors, the latest books from SFF to social justice-y nonfiction to bestsellers. Cafe space with coffee and pizza and kombucha and a nice venue in the back. Not a lot of space to sit and read, but great for browsing and picking up something for yourself or as a gift. Used books upstairs too.

What a great book store. And coffee shop. They also sell beer, cider and wine and pastries along with a marvellously eclectic collection of books. It's in decent bike range of the Greenway on Minnehaha Ave. Parking (I drove tonight) seems to be on-street (It was dark--I couldn't tell) but that's all the more reason to bike it. A very cool store in a non-formulaic sort of way and good-sized so you don't feel like you're in someone's way if you dawdle over your mocha. And I bought _The Dharma of the Princess Bride_ without a moment's hesitation. Minnehaha Ave is is also very cool in a non-formulaic way, especially with the new bike paths. I gave it 5 stars even though I didn't make it upstairs for the used books. Saving that for next time.

Bookstore is ok it's the eating place in back that I did not like. I ordered a spinach beet salad which was way overpriced and boring and tasteless. Basically what it is is someone emptied a bag of spinach on a plate threw on a few nuts, beets and cheese and dressing. It's like 99% spinach and 1% everything else. Not worth the price.

There are times in my adult life when I have a free evening, and catch myself thinking, "I should do the laundry!" or "I could tidy up the living room and then watch Star Trek!" Discovering when you're 28 that you've turned into your parents at 45 is not super heartening. This evening I remembered what I actually like to do- BUY BOOKS- and took off on my bike before my adult self realized what was happening. Moon Palace has been on my checklist of places to scope out for awhile- it's right next door to Peace Coffee, and I've biked past their tent sign on the sidewalk ("Books! Here! Seriously right here!") with regret on multiple occasions when I've been too busy to swing past. As you can see from the photo, the second you turn the corner it's obviously a tiny haven of awesome in the midst of this neighborhood. The shop is perfect. It has a wonderful mix of books: the best new releases (Paul Harding, Junot Diaz, Margaret Atwood), a well-curated collection of great fiction, graphic novels, solid nonfiction (with a sizable section of urban farming/canning/food justice) and then an entire half of the shop dedicated to used books. There's also a really nice and unique selection of hand-made/local/artistic cards. I went in looking for a specific book and actually FOUND it, half-priced. This is obviously used bookstore magic and can't be counted on to happen regularly, but it was still a simple pleasure to find exactly what I was looking for. Plus, the owner was there and she's awesome. She's obviously a voracious reader, and was able to suggest great reads and steer me away from others. Woman-owned bookstore! SHAZAM!

I visited this bookstore when I was in Saint Paul on vacation. The used book selection was not really large, but there were a couple of gems. The new collection is modest but well curated. Their front display with the staff recommended books led me to pick two really great reads that I otherwise would not have. One of my favorite parts of the visit was the cafe where the super nice baristas made me a hot chai with oat milk.

They have new and used books and are well organized. The owner seems very knowledgeable. Went in looking for some gifts - each section we looked many great titles we had never heard of. (I left with a list of things I want to read!) As a teacher and parent I was really excited about the great titles in their kid/youth section that I had never heard of. Yay local independent bookstore.

This is the best bookstore I've been to in YEARS! The owners are amazing, thoughtful and organized with their spectacular SELECTION of books!! After randomly walking to Moon Palace Books after getting some delicious coffee at Peace Coffee several of my friends and I stepped into this clean and unique bookshop! After asking one of the owners questions like ... "Do you know of a funny fiction book that is newish?"... and "Do you have any Kate Dicamillo books?" .... She was able to answer every question I asked offering suggestions (that I took) and finding all of the books I needed. I was able to get some personal books (which I have been looking for months!), some gifts for my mom (totally cute and appropriate) and some sassy quirky books (full of swear words) for my friends! My friends and I will be back for more Christmas, Birthday and ANY holiday shopping! GO GO GO to this great shop! You won't be disappointed! :)

Wow. GREAT selection - I mean, books I've never even *heard* of, but want to read; small but friendly kids' play area; humor - like smart sassy humor from signage to book placement; helpful, mellow owner; local business/not a chain; and free parking. Dude, I'm sold. Used and new books, too. And it doesn't smell bad, like many used bookstores do. I so want this shop to succeed, so I have "my bookstore" around for years.

Moon Palace Books sits right behind Peace Coffee on Minnehaha Ave in South Minneapolis and - honestly - you couldn't ask for a more appropriate location. The marriage of these two businesses, both of which serve to bolster the area's spirit as well as its economy - is like the meeting of two minds. Peace Coffee feeds your body, Moon Palace feeds your brain. A modestly sized storefront, Moon Palace boasts a far greater selection than one might think on a casual glance. The "used to new" ratio seems right on target and the employees are helpful without being crowding. I never felt like I had to search for someone to help me, but I also never felt like anyone was looking over my shoulder. Moon Palace also partners with Kobo eBooks, so you can purchase digital books without feeling like you're taking business away from a brick and mortar. Moon Palace has a modest selection of fiction and non-fiction; you may not be able to find every book you want on your list, but you probably won't leave empty-handed. And, you can enjoy a cup next door while absorbing your latest find. RECOMMENDED

All time favorite bookstore. Especially since the move. Great selection of cookbooks and the pizza is so good. I like that tip is included in the menu. This place is everything I could dream a bookstore could be. Just need some couches for me to lounge after I eat all the pizza and read the books I just bought.

Extremely well curated selection! Quite simply: my favorite bookstore. Love the new location & with the addition of food/coffee/beer, will see no reason to ever leave.

Just visited for the first time, and I'm very impressed. It's a welcoming spot, with a very queer-friendly vibe. The kind of bookstore where I assume Alison Bechdel either has done a signing in the past, or will in the future. They have the kind of thoughtful selection across genres that you only see in smaller bookstores, where someone is consciously choosing the content they carry. Most of the stock is new books, but there is also a sizable used selection on the upper level, which is slightly on the pricey side for used books- yet very reasonable considering that they're actually organized. The cafe, Geek Love, boasts baked goods some of which are vegan and/or gluten free, as well as fantastic soup, decent pizza, and they also serve beer! The staff in both the bookstore and cafe were nice and helpful, and if I lived in the area I would definitely plan to come back often. And finally, they have all-gender restrooms! Killin it!

Love this place! I always find something I like, whether I go in knowing what I'm looking for or not. The staff is book-smart and there's a great little kids corner to keep my daughter occupied while I'm browsing. Nice decor. It's a happy place to walk into.