UPCHURCH-BROWN BOOKSELLERS

Few can say that Oct. 19, 1987--the day of the stock market crash on Wall Street--was a day of promise and fresh starts. But that day also marked the opening of Upchurch-Brown Booksellers in Laguna Beach. Publishers are watching sales carefully, co-owner Robert Brown says, as they monitor book activity in what they view as “the largest independent bookstore to open this side of the East Coast in the last 25 years.”

Tucked away upstairs in the shopping complex at 384 Forest Ave., the so-called Lumberyard Mall, this three-room bookstore with second-level lofts serves well as a general bookstore, with classical literature as the store’s mainstay. Benches offer respite for some quiet reading.

Readings by local authors or authors on tour, organized by Brown and co-owner Mary Upchurch, bring crowds of anywhere from 25 to 120 people. The biggest draws this year have been the Hemingway weekend, which included discussions both academic and entertaining and a slide show by Noel Riley Fitch, author of “Hemingway’s Paris”; as well as an event featuring readings from banned books or books on censorship in celebration of Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses.”

To entice mystery buffs, Upchurch-Brown sponsors a Mystery Dinner Theater (launched on April 1). The mystery play begins at the bookstore as six actors re-create, over champagne and hors d’oeuvres, the last two hours of a purported murder investigation. The “crime”? A Laguna land baron has been slain during a book signing. Clues may be found at local art galleries or over dinner at Le Petit Gourmet. Bring a healthy appetite--and your walking shoes.

Address: 384 Forest Ave., 15, Laguna Beach

Telephone: (714) 497-8373

Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Closed Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

Miscellaneous information: Parking entrance to the Lumberyard Mall is on Ocean Avenue and parking is free with validation. Upchurch-Brown is located on the Ocean Avenue side of the complex above Coffee Pub. Cost for the Mystery Dinner Theater is $48; eight performances are held per month each with no more than 50 people in the audience; reservations are required.