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Open for Shipped Orders!
Our physical store is closed, but you can still get many books shipped to you directly from our warehouse. Here's how:
1. Only order titles with an inventory status of "Available at the Warehouse"
2. Select the "
UPS/USPS Ground Shipping"
option
3. Pay with a credit card
We are happy to fulfill other orders, but will not be able to process them until at least May 4. Other options: try
Indiebound.org
or
Bookshop.org
- keep it indie!
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“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.”
–
Lorraine Hansberry from
A Raisin in the Sun
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March 1993. I was 26 and had just said my final goodbye to my still young and alert father. We were all in the ICU; they were turning off machines and removing the ventilator. The bone marrow transplant had failed. I was wild with grief and dread and started repeating the beginning of Reinhold Neibuhr's serenity prayer.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change
… Something touched the top of my head and a stark and strange, physical feeling moved slowly, like a rolling pin, down my entire body. I was instantly calm, comforted and happy in a completely otherworldly way. The peace which passeth all understanding had been granted. I was astonished by and grateful for what I was experiencing, and it lasted for the hours needed to take care of my shattered family. To get us safely home. The experience was unforgettable, transformative and sustains me to this day.
Today is Good Friday before Easter and part of a very holy time encompassing Passover and Ramadan. A time for God - especially as we are facing anxiety and death worldwide. I hope you have books and prayers and experiences that confirm that you are not alone. That you are loved and heard and do not need to live in fear.
I've been recalling books that helped me find what feels true about a loving creator and assured me of reunions with loved ones in life after death. Books that affirm that those who have died still have ways of connecting with us on earth. Books that have eased my fears. Here are a few:
Embraced By the Light
by Betty J. Eadie.
Opening Heaven's Door
by Patricia Pearson.
Proof of Heaven
by Eben Alexander.
The Book of Joy
by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. I am reading the gospels from
The New Oxford Annotated Bible
. And when tired of looking for the divine in a book written by too many humans, I turn to the
The Lost Gospel of Q
, Markus Borg Editor (currently out of print, unfortunately).
I'm not looking to convert, rather to offer solace. The wonderful AA saying comes to mind. Take what you need and leave the rest.
Peace, Molly @ PSB
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An Event You Don't Have to Miss
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Last night we hosted our first virtual event: Poetry Karaoke! A few of our booksellers chose a few of their favorite poems to perform for you all.
A few highlights:
-Caleb valiantly performing some fantastic poets like Natalie Diaz despite the technology conspiracy seeking to oust him
-Kate bringing the
Ocean Vuong
factor and sending us out with full hearts & Ross Gay
If you missed it - there's good news! 1) You can watch the full replay at the link below. And 2) we'll be bringing back Poetry Karaoke - live, like
in person live
- for Independent Bookstore Day at the end of the summer. Only this time, it'll be you the audience performing your favorite poems!
And of course the best news is that you can have these collections shipped to you right now (so you can practice for *your* poetry karaoke debut). Browse all these collections at our event page!
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Featured Staff Pick for Adults
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The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre
Imagine keeping a secret when everyone could be an informant, and every room could be bugged. A page turner and a nail-biter if there ever was one.
--John
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It's true, we've come to that point where we miss being surrounded by the many store shelves so much, that we're seeing book covers everywhere! Hence: book cover recreations with found objects! (What week of quarantine is it, again?)
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(Who knew that diorama projects are ... actually highly educational???)
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We cannot get over how these stone animal figurines perfectly capture the cover and feel of
The Night Circus:
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Check out the full thread here
! Thanks to Ari for lending their recreation skills for this. We highly suggest you try your hand at it - and send us the pics!
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Digital Audio Books:
A terrific way to support local indies!
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For all the latest on events, new books, reviews, and more for young and young-at-heart readers.
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Virtual Bookseller
Looking to get some good book recommendations, personalized
just for you?
Check out our Virtual Bookseller! Just fill out the form with your likes and dislikes, genres and favorites, and we'll crowdsource a bunch of great picks for you with our crack team of
real life
booksellers. Give it a whirl!
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Preorders are a great way to support PSB while we're not able to actually be at the store for two reasons:
- They bring in income now while the store is closed.
- We can deal with them later!
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You can see all of the books from the future we're excited about here.
But you can preorder more than just what we're excited for. Any book with an inventory status (who knew you'd have to get to know our online inventory statuses so well) of "Coming Soon--Available for Pre-Order Now" or "On the Horizon--Available for Pre-Order Now," is, uh, available for preorder now.
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Miss one of our bedtime stories? Or one of the tours of our libraries in the epic YouTube series PSB: Cribs? Good news! We've made playlists on YouTube so you can catch up on all of them.
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Are you missing out on our recommendations, pining for our Staff Pick display?? Our April crop of staff picks is now live on our website! We'll feature titles throughout the month, but you can browse the full list at the link below. As ever, all staff picks are 20% off - so go crazy!
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We all know these hills are alive with the sound of turkey gobbles and coyote calls as they reclaim their rightful territory, but also with birdsong.
As I’ve been sitting inside, I’ve been listening to the calls of the birds in the branches around my house. By sight, I can identify a few; a red-breasted robin is always easy to spot. But I can’t identify a single bird call. (Aside from those gobbles, of course.) It’s the same with plants; I know my daffodils and crocuses, but there are so many new blooms and unfurled leaves that I can’t put a name to. It’s tough to get to a trail when you can’t leave your house, but who says you can’t start birding or identifying plants (Planting? Flowering? Stamen-seeking? Green stuff hunting?) where you are?
Break out some old field guides or check out
Mass Audubon's website
and figure out what grows next to your stoop or squawks from your power lines.
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Aha! Treasure from the vaults -- we were able to recover video of Strega Meaghanonna reading from Calvino's
Italian Folktales!
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Meet us over at our Instagram story at 8:45pm for tonight's live reading with Shana!
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Support Cafe Zing baristas!
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Although Cafe Zing is its own business separate from ours, we really don't see it that way: Zing workers are part of the Porter Square Books family. They keep us well supplied - very well supplied - with caffeine, kindness, and some great tunes. Sometimes they give us staff picks; sometimes we give them exact change because we've bought the same, perfect, comforting, delicious beverage twice a day five days a week for how long, now?
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Featured Staff Pick For Kids
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Sunny by Celia Krampien
A colorful, silly story about a girl who makes the best of everything. A good story for looking on the bright side of things.
--Stacey
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Thanks for your Literary Apocalypse Team submissions! And the winner is...
Brandy's team!
"Julie, of
Code Name Verity
Remains calm and controlled in extraordinary circumstances. Excellent at misdirecting rival groups to protect her own. Decisive. Very, very good at making the enemy underestimate her. Her skill at information warfare will keep other groups from tangling with us unnecessarily.
The Man, of
The Road
The Man has nothing but perseverance and faith that he will find a better life for his son. He may make some questionable decisions (like choosing the most dangerous route to travel), but he is skilled in foraging for supplies and shelter. He understands that the world is irreparably changed, but also knows that that doesn't mean the world is over. At a day-to-day level he'll be a downer, but his single-minded devotion to moving forward will be our model of strength in the face of adversity.
Mark Watney, of
The Martian
This guy understands resource management in a deeply visceral way. His botany background allows him to grow crops from relatively nothing. He can MacGyver a solution to nearly any problem--mechanical, botanical, logistical. Watney's inclusion in our Apocalypse Compound renders the rest of us useless and irrelevant, and he knows it better than any of us, but he maintains that he couldn't bear the loneliness if we weren't around. It's a polite fiction, but we choose to believe it anyway.
Brandy, you impressed the heck out of us with this one! Our people will be in touch with your people concerning your ~winnings~.
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Deacon King Kong by James McBride
“Deacon King Kong is a quintessential New York story. Set in the Brooklyn projects in 1969, a perpetually inebriated deacon called Sportcoat aims a gun at the neighborhood’s main drug dealer in the public plaza and pulls the trigger. Incredibly well-constructed and hilarious at times, McBride’s story entwines a number of storylines that are kickstarted by this central event. The local Italian gangster, the veteran cop, the meddling churchgoers, and the drug pushers all have their own agendas, hopes, and dreams that are affected. And though Sportcoat doesn’t remember his actions and is always under the influence of gut-rot moonshine, I couldn’t help but root for him as I was reading this. His delightful ineptitude and absence of clarity made this book impossible for me to put down. If you’ve never read McBride before, this is a great introduction.”
--Stuart McCommon, Novel.
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See you next time here at Shelf Stable!
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We'll get out our next issue as soon as we can. In the meantime, don't forget about all the other places you can catch up with us from afar, on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
:
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25 White St. Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-2220
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