One of the quiet thrills of being an author isn’t necessarily seeing your latest book in a store—although of course, that never gets old. It’s seeing your last book—or the one before that—still holding its own, maybe even sitting beside the newer one.

I had that experience recently at a few Barnes & Noble stores, where Such Good Friends: A Novel of Truman Capote & Lee Radziwill and The Last American Heiresses were side by side, each with a few copies on display.

Now, publishers don’t share sales figures with authors, so I don’t always know how things are going numerically. But a physical shelf presence—especially for a book that’s been out a while—usually means reorders have happened, and readers are still finding their way in. That matters to me.

If you’ve picked up either book—or passed one along to a friend—thank you. If you happen to spot them in your own bookstore travels, I’d love to know. And if you’re just discovering these stories now: welcome. I hope they take you somewhere rich and unexpected.