Linzi Murray, owner of Reading in Public Bookstore and Cafe, lifted her pants leg, pointing to a tattoo on her left ankle. Although her dad, Keith, died of lung cancer 10 years ago, “he still jokes with me,” she said with a chuckle. They had a special bond, despite his drinking, her trauma as an adoptee and her own bouts of depression. He said to her, “As long as you follow joy, you’ll never go wrong in your life.”
“Follow joy” became her first tattoo. Two inches long, it’s a small but consistent reminder of what matters most as Murray enters her 30s, and her bookstore turns three years old.
Murray was adopted by her American parents as a 7-month-old in China in 1996. She was raised in Kansas City, and got used to navigating spaces in which she was the only Asian and/or Chinese adoptee. She decided to attend Drake University in Des Moines for college, graduating with a BA in graphic design and painting…