Everyone knows that running a brick-and-mortar bookstore is risky, but I believed people would value the human curation — and it turns out, that’s been true.

Stepping into the unknown is often terrifying. Sometimes, the outcome is worth that fear. Taking a chance on opening a brick-and-mortar bookstore at a time when Amazon can deliver almost anything to someone’s doorstep is one of those unknown journeys. But there is one thing Amazon cannot deliver when it comes to books — human curation. 

What has spawned from that terrifying experience of taking a chance with a brick-and-mortar bookstore for one small business owner, Jai-Lee Egna, is human connection, driven by the neighbors who have stepped through the front door over the last three months. They clearly needed and wanted the same connection with their community that Egna was hoping to attain by opening the store.  

“When I travel, the first thing I do is find a bookstore and get a coffee,” Egna said of her desire to open a bookstore of her own. “Books naturally bring people together,” she added. This was the entire premise for opening her brick-and-mortar business. 

In 2018, Egna moved to Tiverton with her husband, Vinney Cavallo. She was pleased with the beauty of the area but felt something was missing. She explained, “We moved here in 2018, and it was just missing something.” According to Egna, in the six years she lived in Tiverton prior to opening the bookstore, she had barely met any of her neighbors. “We live about a mile down the road from Four Corners, and we never met anyone in town, but now we’ve met all of them through the store; it’s been amazing.” 

The store opening 
The dream for Egna, since moving to Tiverton, has been to open a bookstore at Four Corners. “I wanted to have a bookstore in Four Corners for a while, as a space that brings the community together with books, events, and as a way to meet the neighbors.” 

She acknowledged, “Everyone knows that running a brick-and-mortar bookstore is risky, but I believed people would value the human curation — and it turns out, that’s been true.”

According to Egna, the process was not easy. “It has been pretty wild, nonstop, really, since the summer, getting the store ready and not knowing when to pull the Band-Aid off.” The store officially opened just before the holidays in December of 2024, right around small business Saturday. Egna said, “With holiday shopping, it was a natural time to open it.” 

The opening was a success, according to Egna. With gratitude in her voice, she remarked, “We met so many of our neighbors.” It wasn’t necessarily about the number of books sold, but about the Yellow House being a place where people could meet. 

The dream for the store to become a community space is gaining more momentum as Egna has begun adding events at the Yellow House for people to meet in person. The first event was a mending workshop, which turned out to be a huge success in Egna’s view. She shared, “People who came out exchanged numbers, emails, and even began an email thread; it was so gratifying to watch this unfold.” This has been her dream for the brick-and-mortar store. Egna just held her second event, which was an author reading, and she plans to host many more events where people can meet and greet in a place that has books — a place that might someday have coffee, too.

The Yellow House will be holding a second printmaking session on Mar. 30 and several auto readings are planned for the coming months. All events will be  posted on the Yellow House Rhode Island website.

Egna acknowledged that Four Corners has a lot to offer, with the Arts Center and Sculpture Park being one incredible place to visit there along with other places and other new businesses that just opened. She is grateful that the Yellow House has become a part of Four Corners — a “magical” place in the neighborhood.

The Yellow house was built in 1840 and known to have housed a library for some time in the 19th century. For more information on the history of the house, go to the Axis GIS part of the Tiverton Rhode Island website.