We returned to West Baden Springs Hotel for my husband’s birthday, and this time we never left the property. Three nights of reading in the atrium’s famously comfy lounge chairs, wandering the gardens, hunting acorns, and eating ice cream every evening made for the most relaxing getaway yet.

Seventh September in Sedona, and the desert finally took rain. We walked the mesa in daylight, carried a gifted book back to Jerome, and came home with a saguaro and a few volumes that still smell like the shops where we found them.

Barnes & Noble just relocated to a stunning new store inside Lexington’s Fayette Mall. After two years in a smaller mall-white space, the new location finally feels like a real bookstore—and it may be my favorite B&N yet.