About Us

This crazy venture into the world of books and candy selling was first initiated by husband John Deyo to his wife Lisa in November of 2015 as a “You’ve always wanted to do this and now there’s a store front available . . . why not?” Lisa quickly was embraced by friends Susan DeVries (artist and reader and expertise of all!) and Diane Sherman (the Candy Czar!) as accomplices in making the store happen. Crazy friends like the Smiths and P Keener continually offered building help, shopping help, etc. By June of 2016, the doors opened and people entered an eclectic 100 foot long store featuring John’s 30 foot long locomotive, shelves of nostalgic candies, a picturesque (literally speaking) bathroom, unique genre settings with trees and workbenches. July of 2016 brought the World’s Largest Collection of Berenstain Bears to the store – our own museum across the street from the world famous Spam Museum. Owner B Mariska was the feature of the podcast during the grand opening of the collection. August of 2016 brought more merchandise additions and the exciting additions of the 1040’s Lionel working train inside the big train and the loves-to-be-played upright piano, from Lisa’s cousins, the Lyles. Local author visits are the highlights of the bookstore – award winners to first time published. Many genres are featured – from the romances of Sherrie Hansen Decker or Gail Kittlesen to the award winning Auto-biographies of Hope Jahren or Peggy Keener to mysteries by Jeff Ollman or Harriet Niebuhr or Allen Eskens to youth / adult coloring books by Eileen Chao or Terri Andersen or John Wix. The community supports their expression and work. CoVid brought new highlights to Sweet Reads - more authors who did virtual "porch talks" or "Fireside Chats" and lots of home deliveries of books! The Berenstain Bears Museum was moved to the owner's new house in the Twin Cities and a new free museum came to Sweet Reads! The Sweet Collections Museum features a rotation of local collections - like Hot Wheel cars, Russian Art Boxes, Star Wars items, etc. We continue to grow and be part of a vibrant community.