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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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“
Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills
us
.
”
– Virginia Woolf
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In my teens and early twenties, I was a camp counselor at camps throughout Washington State. Of all the things I had to do as part of being a camp counselor, I think bedtime was the worst. How do you effectively and consistently get a dozen or so pre-pubescent boys to fall asleep without begging, yelling, or becoming a crying huddled mess in the corner? Seriously, it’s freaking hard work. And mind you, I did this for nearly 10 years! I tried telling stories, reading stories, yelling, begging, bribing, and yes, that crying huddled mess may or may not have been based on real events.
I think I was about five years in the job that I finally – finally! – came upon a solution that actually worked. Surprisingly, it was simple. And maybe not so surprisingly, I found my answer in a bookstore.
It was – and this is no joke – the
US Army Survival Manual
. I know, right?! I bought it for myself out of the discount books bin almost as an afterthought. Maybe it’d be a gag gift for a friend. I dunno. But one summer night when I was at my wit’s end, I pulled this book off my reading pile and asked the cabin of twelve-year-old boys if they wanted to learn how to catch a squirrel and prepare it for eating. I have never seen a group of kids more eager than then to learn a new skill.
So yes, I read from “The
Manual
.” What I immediately discovered is that these kids were listening to every word. And if I were honest with myself, the words were actually kind of boring. So when I finished the section on “procuring food,” the kids were out like a light. My gawd, could this work again?! The next night, I read from the section on how to build a lean-to. And when I finished that section, again, the kids were out like a light. I found it: bedtime kryptonite.
“Eureka!”
I scream-whispered.
Here’s what I discovered—the
US Army Survival Manual
to kids was fascinating enough that they wanted to hear every morbid, survival-or-else detail, but in the end, it’s a still a freaking manual. I had accidentally found that sweet spot between capturing their interest and lulling them to sleep—like moths being drawn into the bug zapper (you know, if the moths were just falling asleep).
Why do I bring this up now while we’re in the midst of a pandemic?
I don’t know about you, but I think a lot of us are feeling like we’re at the end of our rope. Like we’re going blue in the face begging and pleading our neighbors to just stay home and practice social distancing. The growing rise of “the curve” is scary as hell—how high will it go before it begins to flatten? What will we have when this is over? Who and
what
of us will be left?
I don’t know the answer. Of course I don’t. But I do know that I’ll be turning to my bookstore for hope. For solace. For community. And for my next read.
Which section of the
US Army Survival Manual
would you like to hear tonight? I’m here.
If you’d like a copy of the
US Army Survival Manual
for yourself, you can find it
here.
Carter @PSB
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Look: Fiction
As a very online bookstore, we were very excited to see Zan Romanoff present her new novel
Look.
Look
is about what you present vs. who you really are, about real intimacy and manufactured intimacy and the blurring of that line. It's a deceptively glamorous, feminist, emotionally complex, utterly compelling, queer coming-of-age novel about falling in love and taking ownership of your own self--your whole self--in the age of social media.
For fans of Nina LaCour and Mary H. K. Choi comes "a gorgeous exploration of Los Angeles, love, and how a girl can be torn down and put herself back together, one image at a time." --Robin Benway, National Book Award-winning author of
Far From the Tree
"An incisive, tantalizing exploration into the minds of teen girls through the reality-distortion-field of social media.
Look
is smart, quick, and startlingly tender. I loved this book." --Mary H. K. Choi,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Emergency Contact
Zan Romanoff
was born in Los Angeles and raised in its private schools. She is the author of the novels
A Song to Take the World Apart
and
Grace and the Fever
. Her nonfiction has appeared in Buzzfeed,
Elle
,
GQ
, LitHub,
The Los Angeles Times
,
The New Republic
, and
The Washington Post
, among others. Zan lives, writes, and watches a lot of reality television in LA.
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Featured Staff Pick for Adults
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Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer
Trying to start that new sci-fi/fantasy novel during quarantine? Just looking for some inspiration to keep your spirits up? Do you enjoy reading snippets about storytelling from some of your favorite authors? How about creative and zany illustrations? This book's for you!
~ Stacey
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Yesterday (and today) we gave out a lot of book recommendations. Most of the time, we just looked at the person's profile and made our recommendation, but one request caught our eye.
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I know it's kinda silly, but the galley auntie in me kicked in big time and suddenly it was important, vital even, that we find a book for this book club. (
And it looks like we did!)
You can see the whole exchange
here
. Maybe it will help your book club pick out its next read.
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Which Porter Square Books Libromancer Are You?
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Finally, the ONLY personality quiz for the true book lover! Are you Josh, Stacey, Caleb, Robin? Perhaps, Dale? Maybe you've always known you were a Kate and just needed to hear it from an expert to really own it. Answer a series of precisely calibrated question to find out which PSB Libromancer you are. Share your results and tag us on Twitter or Instagram. We'll pick one lucky respondent at 7PM tomorrow to win a big old stack of galleys.
Take the quiz here
.
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Sacha Lamb Recommends Animal Books
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Whether it’s their cute velvety noses or the fact that they’re totally oblivious to the global situation, animals bring us a lot of comfort in times like these. I don’t have pets in my own house, so I’ve been watching the neighborhood cats, birds, squirrels and chipmunks (and once an astonishingly fat and sleek raccoon!) with extra attention in the past few weeks. I’ve also been returning to some favorite books about animals.
Being partial to farm animals, I of course went first for the classic memoirs of Scottish veterinarian
James Herriot
. His humor makes even the most disgusting animal tales a joy to read, and the rural Yorkshire setting is particularly escapist in a time when the farthest outdoors I get is halfway down the block, studiously avoiding my neighbors all the way. After James Herriot, you might move over to the Lake District with James Rebanks’s
THE SHEPHERD’S LIFE
, or, if you like mystery novels, why not try Leonie Swann’s
THREE BAGS FULL
, a murder mystery in which the detectives are a flock of philosophical rare-breed sheep?
If the British Isles are too cold, Gerald Durrell’s laugh-out-loud memoir of his childhood in Greece,
MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS
, is another comforting old favorite. And for a touch of fantasy, Nahoko Uehashi’s
THE BEAST PLAYER
and Tamora Pierce’s
WILD MAGIC
both feature teenage girls whose magic is in their close attention to the needs of the animals they befriend.
Stay healthy, breathe some fresh air if you can, and give your pets an extra kiss from me.
Sacha
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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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Don't forget to tune into our first virtual event on Thursday, April 9th at 7pm!
Join us to spend some time with familiar bookseller faces as we read you a sampling of our favorite poems, including:
And more!
See you there. Pajamas welcome!
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Like many of us, my cooking priorities have changed recently. I’m cooking more at home and focusing much more on what I can make from what I already have. I want to share some of my current cooking inspirations with you so that hopefully you can find inspiration too! First up is Half Baked Harvest. I have her
Half Baked Harvest Super Simple
cookbook, which I’m loving right now because it focuses on comfort foods made simple—including pared-down ingredient lists. Tieghan also has a “Pantry Recipes” highlight on her
Instagram
, and I’ve made about half the recipes in the highlight in the last few weeks. Tonight, I’m making her “
best super easy penne…with a lot of garlic
” for dinner because I have all the ingredients already (and I bet you do too if you omit the sausage) and because it calls for dried herbs which is much more convenient right now than buying fresh.
I’m also loving Hummingbird High, both her
Weeknight Baking
book and her
Instagram
. I’m especially loving her small-batch recipes that she’s putting up on her Instagram, because she takes recipes I love from her book and makes them more appropriate for smaller households. I made the scaled-down version of her Supernatural Brownies last week and it was perfect for two of us (see her Insta story highlights for the recipe).
One final recommendation—for weekly food inspiration with a semi-literary twist, sign up for romance author Jasmine Guillory’s
newsletter
. Every week she includes a recipe she’s loving right now, including some that appear in her books!
Happy cooking,
April
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Last night Shana read from long time favorite
Good Omens
by Neil Gamain and Terry Pratchett
.
If you've only ever seen the movie, check out the book!
In a lot of ways, Neil is a big reason why we've put so much time and energy into our website and social media over the years. Thanks, in large part to Cafe Zing's soft rolls, we were able to do a signed preorder campaign with him and had to learn how to handle around 5,000 copies of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. We used that experience to continue improving our online presence. Of course, nothing beats being in the store and Neil visited us a few times over the years. I know I haven't met every single human being, but it's hard to imagine anyone being as gracious as he is.
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Meet us over at our Instagram story at 8:45pm for tonight's live reading with Stacey!
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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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The Deceivers by Kristen Simmons
Private academy for teenage con artists! What's not to love? Fast-paced, fun, diverting, and there's a sequel once you've finished this one!
--Rebecca
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We want to hear from you!
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*Send your entry by Thursday!*
For some reason, we've been thinking about the apocalypse lately, (insert joke about moving dystopian fiction into current affairs) which, of course, got us thinking about the Apocalypse Team game. The rules are simple and presented here in their bookish version. Build a team with three realistically human or animal characters from literature. So no picking characters with magic or super powers or anything like that. Once everyone in your group has assembled their team, each person makes the argument for why their team will survive the longest. Debate until a winner is chosen or you get sick of debating. Rinse and repeat with whatever other rules you want to add.
Respond to this email with your Literary Apocalypse Team and your argument for why you'll survive.
We'll pick a favorite and share the winner in next Thursday's shelf.
The winner will get a stack o' galleys sent to them via media mail!
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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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