You're making school happen (remote or hybrid), you're keeping the house afloat, you're doing your day job... are you doing anything "just for you" right now? Friday Fiction Book Club offers 1 hour of month to just sit and talk about a great book. Spend your Friday lunch break with us as we talk about Andrew Krivak's The Bear.

In an Edenic future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They possess a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches the girl how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can only learn to listen. A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature’s dominion.
 

Andrew Krivak is the author of two previous novels: The Signal Flame, a Chautauqua Prize finalist, and The Sojourn, a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He lives with his wife and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in the shadow of Mount Monadnock, which inspired much of the landscape in The Bear.

We're really looking forward to discussing this book! Come by the bookstore to pick it up and read it before our discussion! You can join us on November 6th by clicking on this link. 

Middle-Grade Book Club continues over Zoom! If you are looking for a positive new club for your young reader, this is perfect for you! 

About A Wish in the Dark: 


All light in Chattana is created by one man — the Governor, who appeared after the Great Fire to bring peace and order to the city. For Pong, who was born in Namwon Prison, the magical lights represent freedom, and he dreams of the day he will be able to walk among them. But when Pong escapes from prison, he realizes that the world outside is no fairer than the one behind bars. The wealthy dine and dance under bright orb light, while the poor toil away in darkness. Worst of all, Pong’s prison tattoo marks him as a fugitive who can never be truly free.

Nok, the prison warden’s perfect daughter, is bent on tracking Pong down and restoring her family’s good name. But as Nok hunts Pong through the alleys and canals of Chattana, she uncovers secrets that make her question the truths she has always held dear. Set in a Thai-inspired fantasy world, Christina Soontornvat’s twist on Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is a dazzling, fast-paced adventure that explores the difference between law and justice — and asks whether one child can shine a light in the dark.

Our Middle-Grade Book Club is hosted by Rebecca Caprara, local author of the fantastic book The Orchard of Melwick. She has a novel-in-verse coming out soon! This is a group that encourages young readers to discuss the novels they read and express themselves through stories of their own. For the safety of our young participants, we ask that you register for the event in advance so that we can have an accurate count of participants and keep everyone safe. 



 

History, Hollywood Magic, and Big, Big dreams come together in this beautiful picture book about Rita Moreno's talented life. Perfect for any young reader in your life with big dreams and a bright future! 

We're always happy to host Anika Aldamuy Denise! Her newest picture book, A Girl Named Rosita, is a biographical look at Puerto Rican trailblazing actress Rita Moreno's life.  It's gorgeously illustrated by Espinosa and features Spanish language throughout the book for a true and authentic telling of this inspiring story.

When Rosita moved from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States, she did not know what to expect. She did know that she loved to sing and dance. She had to work on overcoming a language barrier and bullying. She made her way to Hollywood with a dream to be star.
She fought to be heard and eventually reached the pinnacle of success, landing her iconic role in West Side Story and finally winning her groundbreaking Oscar.
 

Our Wednesday Afternoon Author Series is designed to connect your school-aged reader with authors who write with them in mind. This is a fantastic opportunity to supplement the remote-school day or the hybrid half-day off with an interactive introduction to a new favorite book and a new favorite author! This virtual event is a Zoom webinar--participants will only see and hear Anika. Follow this link to be part of the fun! 
 

We are thrilled to host the launch for Soledad Maura's debut novel Madrid Again. Maura's book will be the first adult novel we'll have the pleasure of hosting a launch event for, which is pretty exciting!


Set alternatively in a small New England town and metropolitan Madrid, the novel follows Odilia and her daughter Lola, as they strive to find their place in this world. It is a beautiful meditation on family, belonging and the haunting power of history. Maura herself lives both here in Williamstown, where she is a professor at Williams College, and Spain.

Praised as "subtle and shimmering," Madrid Again starts in 1960s Madrid. Odilia is a brilliant young student who seems to have it all until she is unexpectedly spirited away on an exciting journey across the Atlantic to the United States by a magnetic professor. But the professor disappears from Odilia’s life as mysteriously as he appeared. Left alone in a new country with a baby girl, Lola, Odilia must decide whether to strike out and raise her daughter alone, or return to her strict, upper-class Catholic family in Spain. Mother and daughter travel to Madrid as often as possible, but Odilia ultimately chooses a life of self-reliance in New England.

As Lola grows up, she feels torn between two countries, two cultures, and two languages. She becomes a historian and embarks on a quest to seek out the history of her origins. She wrestles with family secrets, as she struggles to answer questions about her own identity and future. How does she fit in to the United States, Spain, or anywhere else?

Set alternatively in a small New England town and metropolitan Madrid, the novel follows Odilia and her daughter Lola, as they strive to find their place in this world. It is a beautiful meditation on family, belonging and the haunting power of history. Maura herself lives both here in Williamstown, where she is a professor at Williams College, and Spain.

Soledad will be in conversation with Aaron Shulman, a journalist who has lived in and written about Spain, particularly in his book The Age of Disenchantments. 
 

Described as "absorbing and atmospheric," Aaron's  historical narrative, takes us deeply into the circumstances surrounding the Spanish Civil War through the lives, loves, and poetry of the Paneros, Spain’s most compelling and eccentric family, whose lives intersected memorably with many of the most storied figures in the art, literature, and politics of the time—from Neruda to Salvador Dalí, from Ava Gardner to Pablo Picasso to Roberto Bolaño.
 

 Aaron is a journalist whose work has appeared in publications including The Believer, The American Scholar, The New Republic, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A collaborative writer and editorial coach, he works with visionary scientists and thinkers to bring their research to a wide readership.

It is always interesting when writers from two different disciplines speak about the intersections and similarities of their work! We're really looking forward to this discussion and especially excited to launch Soledad's book! You do not want to miss this! Mark your calendar now! 

This event is a Zoom Webinar format for the safety of the guests as well as the audience. Don't worry though: Participants will be able to ask questions of Soledad and Aaron! This is a free event, but still requires registration to receive the webinar link. You can register for the event by clicking here.   

We're thrilled to once again welcome back the amazing Gregory Maguire, to talk about his new book, A Wild Winter Swan, a Christmas tale set in 1960's New York! 
 

Following her brother's death and her mother's emotional breakdown, Laura now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a lonely townhouse she shares with her old-world, strict, often querulous grandparents. But the arrangement may be temporary. The quiet, awkward teenager has been getting into trouble at home and has been expelled from her high school for throwing a record album at a popular girl who bullied her. When Christmas is over and the new year begins, Laura may find herself at boarding school in Montreal.
 

Nearly unmoored from reality through her panic and submerged grief, Laura is startled when a handsome swan boy with only one wing lands on her roof. Hiding him from her ever-bickering grandparents, Laura tries to build the swan boy a wing so he can fly home. But the task is too difficult to accomplish herself. Little does Laura know that her struggle to find help for her new friend parallels that of her grandparents, who are desperate for a distant relative’s financial aid to save the family store.
 

As he explores themes of class, isolation, family, and the dangerous yearning to be saved by a power greater than ourselves, Gregory Maguire conjures a haunting, beautiful tale of magical realism that illuminates one young woman’s heartbreak and hope as she begins the inevitable journey to adulthood.

This is a beautiful book that you have time to pick up and read before our event on December 2nd! Come to the bookstore to pick it up TODAY! And don't forget to come to the webinar with your questions! We'll be asking them and getting answers! 

This is a Zoom Webinar event for the safety of both panelists and guests. Register for this free event by clicking on this link. Zoom will automatically sent you a link just before the event! 

We are beyond thrilled to welcome Deesha Philyaw and Megha Majumdar for a virtual event. Their books, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and A Burning, were two of the 10 books longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award in fiction, and Philyaw's is one of the five finalists!

Their books are on everyone's must-read lists and now they are spending a virtual evening with us! You need to stop by the bookstore today to pick up Deesha Philyaw's The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and Megha Majumdar's A Burning so you can read them before this special author event! 

Deesha Philyaw’s writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, the Rumpus, Brevity, Apogee Journal, Barrelhouse, Baltimore Review, Cheat River Review, Electric Literature, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, she currently lives in Pittsburgh with her daughters.  
 

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions. There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher’s wife.

At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta’s “same time next year” arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.
 

With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

Megha Majumdar was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She moved to the United States to attend college at Harvard University, followed by graduate school in social anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She works as an editor at Catapult, and lives in New York City.

Here is more about A Burning: 

Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor--has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.

Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed it can be read in a single sitting


This event is a Zoom webinar for the safety of our authors and for our viewers. Don't worry! There will be opportunity to ask questions of Deesha and Megha during the event! This is a free event, but still requires registration to receive the webinar link. Please click here to register for the event. 

Are you excited about the Dune movie coming out in December? So are we! A lot of folk are re-reading the book in anticipation of the movie because we haven't read it since high school. If that's you, join us for the re-read and then a panel discussion with 3 speculative-fiction specialists! 

It's an icon in the sci-fi canon, one of those books that every fan of the genre read at some point. There are people who loved it, people who hated it, and a bunch of people who are fuzzy on the finer details. If you saw the trailer and got goosebumps, but thought to yourself, "maybe I should read it again before I watch..." consider this your opportunity! We're reading the book and talking about it with 3 speculative writers and teachers from right here in Massachusetts! 



Sara Daniele Rivera is a Cuban/Peruvian artist, writer, translator, and educator from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her poetry and speculative fiction have appeared in the Loft Anthology, The Green Mountains Review, Embark Literary Journal, The Portal Prize Anthology (Easy Street Mag),The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of a 2017 St. Botolph Club Emerging Artist Award and the winner of the 2018 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry from Solstice Literary Magazine. Her collection of translated poems by the Peruvian poet Blanca Varela (The Blinding Star: Selected Poems of Blanca Varela) will be released in 2021 by Tolsun Books. A lover of desert ecologies, Sara is working on her own desert-based science fantasy novel, and has had a longstanding interest in the legacy of Dune. You can find her work in the upcoming anthology, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, which you can back on Kickstarter right now! 

Peter Medeiros teaches writing and Kung Fu--though never at the same time. His teaching in and around Boston remains a major inspiration for much of his fiction. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. He been publishing fiction since 2013, and was most recently featured in the February 2020 issue of Red Planet Magazine. He is currently represented by JABerwocky Literary Agency. If you are a writer, consider taking Peter's upcoming Grub Street class, SFF Remix, which you can take remotely over Zoom. 
 

Marcella Haddad is an MFA candidate at UMass Amherst, where she also teaches college writing. She's a creative writing instructor at Grubstreet and the Director's Assistant for the Juniper Institute. Her work has appeared in Apparition Lit, Moonchild Magazine, Rag Queen Periodical, Everyday Fiction, and others. She loves nutella, armadillos, and eldritch trees. You can find her on twitter @marcie_via or at marcellaphaddad.com


Yes, this is as cool as it sounds. Yes, you want to come to the bookstore and pick up a new copy of Dune. Yes, you have time to read it before December 10th. Yes, this will be a great distraction from the crazy world. YES, you want to come join us for this cool event! We're too psyched about it! Too psyched! 

We're doing this as a Zoom webinar for the safety of the panelists and participants alike, BUT there WILL be opportunity for questions and discussion, carefully moderated for safety, so please join! You can find the link to the webinar here.