Books Along the Teche was recently nominated for a national award recognizing independent bookstores across the country.

Since the early 1990s, Lorraine Kingston and her husband Howard have provided quality service to Teche Area book lovers.

Through the years, the Kingstons have seen the ups and downs of being independent bookstore owners, but that hasn’t stopped them from doing what they love. The couple recently found out that they had been nominated for the James Patterson Independent Bookstore Award.

“It’s an award and they’ve taken all the stores across the country into consideration,” Lorraine said. “We were told we’ve been nominated.”

According to Lorraine, she said that a couple from California came to their store recently and spoke to them about their shop, and it was those two who nominated them for the James Patterson award. The Books Along the Teche owners said they were surprised and flattered to be considered.

“We’ve seen it all in 32 years,” Lorraine said. “Grateful they believed in us to do this.”

Patterson is a bestselling author who has given over three million books to schoolkids and servicemen and women, donated more than $70 million to support education, and endowed over five thousand college scholarships for teachers, according to his website.

Patterson’s love for books and giving back go hand-in-hand, as he has given over $7.25 million to school and classroom libraries throughout the U.S., including $2.1 million to independent bookstores.

Howard has credited Books Along the Teche customers for helping their business stay strong for over three decades.

“We were always able to get good service,” Howard said.

Some years may have been leaner than others, but that hasn’t stopped them from providing to the community for years, he said, and from the very start, they have had good, loyal customers.

And now, for them, it’s generational.

“We’ve had customers come in when we just opened with their children and now we have their children come in with their children,” Howard said. “We go back almost three generations now, and I’ve gotten a good reception.”

Like other independent bookstore owners who have been nominated for the James Patterson award, Howard and his wife are grateful and excited for Books Along the Teche.

“It’s quite an honor, and we hadn’t even thought about it because we are in a small market,” he said. “It’s an honor for our community and it speaks a lot for our community.”