MILWAUKEE — Let’s get a little weird, yeah? There’s a shop in Milwaukee where the whole point is to push your boundaries, expose yourself to something you’re not familiar with, and just read something new. Oh, and they have some pretty strange or cool artifacts, depending on who you ask.
Welcome inside Melon Books in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood. It opened in December 2025. The shop specializes in things like alternative comics, manga, zines, poetry, spirituality, art books, and philosophy.
“The biggest compliment is people are always like, I have never heard of the majority of the books that are in this store," Jackie Valadez, the owner of Melon Books, said.
She has spent years working at libraries and wanted to fill the gap libraries and other larger bookstores left. Valadez said those types of places only work with bigger publishers. She wants Melon Books to be a place where new authors or indie publishing houses can showcase their newest works.
“With my own store, I can reach out directly to artists, directly to those smaller publishers that aren’t getting the recognition of those larger institutions," Valadez said.
There’s a lot of contemporary art books here the average person would likely never see unless they were tapped into that specific art scene. Luckily for us, Valadez is part of that community.
"Curate a selection that is a little wilder, a little more out of the norm," Valadez said.
The niche book market ecosystem in Milwaukee is actually pretty strong. I've covered multiple stories on it. Niche Book Bar focuses on Black authors. The Well Red Damsel only sells romance books. Barby the Book Fairy donates books in Spanish or by Latino Authors. Stores like these prove there is a need and desire for stores that specifically cater to people's wide array of interests.
“That’s the greatest joy, to introduce people to subjects, people, visual objects that they never would have encountered otherwise," Valadez said.
It’s not just the books or the zines that are for sale. Almost all the furniture you can take home, too. The tables the books sit on are for sale.
Alec Dolter owns Bughouse, which shares a space with Melon Books. He resells and builds furniture. He also curates artifacts like statues, figurines, or animal helmets. If it's in the store, it's likely for sale.
“I just am a compulsive collector and seeker of interesting things," he said.
Everything about this space was carefully designed to celebrate different forms of art, give small authors or publishers a place to sell their work, and get people exposed to something new.
So embrace the weird, embrace the strange. It’s good for ya, I promise. Find more info about Melon Books here and Bughouse here.
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