Welcome to Susan’s!
Used Bookstore & Puzzles
25 years growing an independent Nebraska bookstore (2001-2026)
Books. Puzzles. Toys. Friendship. Lollipops. Coffee. Magic.
Welcome to our bookstore and toy store on the downtown square in Aurora, Nebraska. We opened in 2001, and for 25 years have grown thanks to the support of so many of you. In 2025, over 40,000 books were given away throughout Nebraska because of your donations and support.
Our greatest hope is that when you walk through our door, you enter a new world — a small portal where there is quiet, joy, friendship, laughter, and play.
We hope that when you leave, your life has been given a few moments of rest in its song. Life’s music plays so fast. Within the walls of our store, our wish is that you will find a short rest that makes your song more beautiful.
Along the walls of our bookstore you will find the words “Life is Beautiful” written in languages from around the world. These words come from one of my favorite Thursday Notes about how life is often a mixture of sadness and beauty. The writing is called “It’s Okay,” about how life can still be beautiful even when it hurts, and you can find it here: It’s Okay.
How we started ~ 25 years ago
I grew up in Aurora where my parents farmed while also placing books in over forty gas stations along the interstate. They often said that if someone purchased a book during the day, the words might change their life when read at midnight.
Before opening the store, I taught for ten years in southwest Arkansas, inner-city Minneapolis, and southern California. My husband, Stu, now teaches Biology at Central Community College in Grand Island, and together we wanted to continue making books accessible in rural America.
We strongly believe in the importance of the liberal arts and in how important a brick-and-mortar bookstore can be for a community and for a rural state.
Stepping into our world ~
When you enter our store, you first step into our puzzle room, which holds our vintage dishes along its walls. From there you move into our book room, our toy room, and our LEGO play room.
We invite you into our beautiful store — to enter each room, cup of coffee in hand, finding friendship and books whose words may change your life.
Our Puzzle Room
We love our new puzzle room!
From 18-piece puzzles for young children to 18,000-piece puzzles for those who are a little crazy!
We researched the highest quality puzzle lines and now carry Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, New York Puzzle Company, Heritage Puzzles, Madd Capp, Puzzle Twist, Djeco, Juratoys, and SunsOut Puzzles.
Arriving soon are puzzles from Eurographics and Cavallini.
Our Book Room
Today every book in our bookstore is donated by readers across the state of Nebraska.
Because of these generous donations, we are able to give away over 4,000 books every month across the state. In 2025 alone, more than 40,000 books were shared throughout Nebraska.
Public school teachers whose students need books, jails, pastors who give books to those in need, hospice workers, CASA volunteers, and retirement homes are all welcome to receive books at no cost when they are able to come to the store.
Thank you for your donations. This bookstore is here because of all of you who believe in it with us.
Many of the books donated to us are in wonderful condition, and many look almost new. In earlier years our books were priced very low. As the need for more books to give away has grown — and as the expenses of keeping a small brick-and-mortar bookstore open have increased — we now price the books closer to their value to help us keep our store. Thank you for your donations and being part of this. It is humbling to daily see you all come in with your books, encouraging all of us to keep unpacking, sorting, tagging, scanning, and selling. Enabling the ability to give so many away behind the scenes.
When you are able to come into the store you get our bag sale! For $50, you can fill one of our grocery-sized bags with as many books as you can fit inside. You are able to walk out with stacks of books worth far more than that. Our record stands now at at bag stuffed with $267 worth of books!
Our Toy Room
Our toy store carries the same kinds of toys I once chose when I was both a teacher and a mother — science kits, crafts, art projects, quality stuffed animals and dolls, puzzles, unicorns, dinosaurs, STEM experiments, Crystal Art, and fidgets.
We also have a LEGO play room — a wall where our young builders can create and have fun designing, a table where even younger children can build with LEGOs, a dollhouse for pretend play, and a train table for our little engineers.
We have recently added a YouTube channel where I read to the plush animals throughout our store. These animals read when they are alone at night, and after we caught them once when coming in late, I realized they wanted a reading time.
Whenever I can, I add a different book to this site where your young children can listen to me reading the book their bookstore friends have chosen. This is so much fun for me, and I hope to continue adding many more books for your children to enjoy.
Our Vintage Gifts
We have also added a beautiful vintage section of donated china, teacups, teapots, and carnival glass.
These items help support our used bookstore and allow us to continue giving away thousands of books across Nebraska. They also bring such beauty into the store.
If you have beautiful vintage dishes you would like to find a home for, we would be honored to receive your treasures and grateful for your gift.
Why Our Bookstore Matters
One reason we chose to continue our bookstore after COVID — and even through tariffs — was something I had read about the loneliness of small-town America. In many small towns, stores close early and people stay home. There are fewer places where people can simply gather, talk, and be encouraged.
We believe places like bookstores still matter.
We decided to continue — to find volunteers, to keep books in rural Nebraska, and to create a place where people can meet, talk, and discover something that might change their lives.
As we look toward the future, we will continue searching for quality gifts, educational games, and special items that are worth a drive to Aurora. Our goal is to offer things that are thoughtful, affordable, and not easily found elsewhere.
Most of all, we will continue trying to create a place of joy for everyone who walks through the door.
And finally (smile) …
One of my favorite quotes that I read each morning is this:
“Every morning lean thine eyes upon the window-sill of heaven and gaze upon Thy Lord; then, with the vision in thine heart, turn strong to meet thy day.”
— William Blake
I hope you are able to visit our store someday for a cup of coffee and perhaps find a book that might change your life.
And if you are only able to visit us here online, I hope you still find words that lift you and help you see the small gifts that remind us life is beautiful.
We truly believe the one book you reach for may hold the one paragraph with the one sentence with the one thought that could change your life.
— Susan