Tasty finds at the Iris BookCafe

If the possibility exists that we can find some good books and get some good food at the same place, we're there. Such was the case Friday at Iris BookCafe in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

We're not food reviewers, so we'll just keep it short and say that we didn't eat any better anywhere in Cincinnati than we did at Iris, even if all we had were two sandwiches and two cups of coffee. But everything was fresh and delicious, and the seating out back was really, really nice. A real garden oasis in the city.

As for books, the book store is moderately sized, and there is a sort of companion book/record store next door. For us, the fiction section was kind of in the middle of the layout, two decent-sized bookcases full of various works.

Given the number of books we had to choose from, we did well at Iris, walking out with seven new additions. First, a replacement copy of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina published in 1946 that is not only a significant upgrade from our much more modern version, but which also has illustrations done by Fritz Eichenberg, the same wood engraver/illustrator we'd been collecting. These are color illustrations, not engravings, and are very cool.

We also added a collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories (1989) that is similar to a Hemingway collection we currently own; The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow from 1964; a Modern Library edition of Sinclair Lewis' Arrowsmith, for which he won the Pulitzer, published in 1946; a 1922 copy of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome: and a first-edition, third printing of John Steinbeck's The Moon is Down from 1942.

Last, but certainly not least even though it's true crime and not fiction, I had to get a "new" copy of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, a first printing "Book-of-the-Month Club" selection from 1966, the year after the story first started appearing in The New Yorker. I picked up that book one night in college and didn't put it down until it was done, but had loaned my copy only to never see it again... so I had to have this one, which is much better anyway.

All in all, Iris BookCafe was a real find, and a great way to start our book hunting on a Friday in Cincinnati.

Books added: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg); The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck; The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow; Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton; Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis; The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli; In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Publishers (in same order): Doubleday & Company; The Viking Press; The Viking Press; Charles Scribner's Sons; Random House, Modern Library; Charles Scribner's Sons; Random House

Years: 1946; 1942; 1964; 1922; 1946; 1989; 1966

Where obtained: Iris BookCafe, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Price: $30 for the seven