|
|
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!
|
|
“You can't buy happiness, but you can buy books and that's kind of the same thing.” –
Anonymous
|
|
Right when everything was beginning to shut down, when I could see the writing on the wall but didn't have to be locked in my house just yet, I finally did what I'd been meaning to do since I moved to my new apartment and got a cat.
|
|
I named her Mira, after my favorite author
Mira Grant
(aka Seanan McGuire). She's especially known for her stories about viruses, and I have enough of a sense of humor to give my quarantine kitty a virus writer's name.
|
|
I am so glad I adopted her. She's brought joy to my life at a time when things feel so dismal. She loves looking at the window, batting at strings, and turning my lap into biscuits.
|
|
Her favorite place to hang out is the top shelf of the closet, which involves a complicated jump and twist that I'm still surprised she makes every time. Getting out is easier, it just involves an insanely long jump from the closet to my bed.
And like so many cats, it's hard to get any reading, writing, knitting, or anything else that isn't petting her done when she's in the mood. Audiobooks, at least, tend to be safe. And watching stuff, provided it's not on something with a keyboard for her to walk over. I've been trying to get started on the upcoming novel
Red Dust by Yoss
, but she keeps getting in my way!
|
|
Still, she makes me smile every day, and I hope all these pictures of her made you smile too. Stay well, and if you have a furry (or scaled, or feathered, or any other textured) friend in your life, make sure and give them some extra love from me!
Shana and Mira
|
|
Don't miss our next virtual event!
|
|
Jennifer Finney Boylan
with Jodi Picoult
|
Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs: Memoir
We are so excited to present our event for Jennifer Finney Boylan's new memoir
Good Boy
in
virtual form
,
taking place on
Friday, April 24th at 7pm, right on your computer screen.
And Jennifer will be joined in conversation by no less than
Jodi Picoult!!
From bestselling author of
She’s Not There
,
New York Times
opinion columnist, and human rights activist Jennifer Finney Boylan,
Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs
, is a memoir of the transformative power of loving dogs.
Good Boy
is a universal account of a remarkable story: showing how a young boy became a middle-aged woman—accompanied at seven crucial moments of growth and transformation by seven memorable dogs. “Everything I know about love,” she writes, “I learned from dogs.” Their love enables us to pull off what seem like impossible feats: to find our way home when we are lost, to live our lives with humor and courage, and above all, to best become our true selves.
Professor
Jennifer Finney Boylan,
author of more than a dozen books, is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her column “Men & Women” appears on the op/ed page of the
New York Times
on alternate Wednesdays. She serves on the Board of Trustees of PEN America. From 2011 to 2018 she served on the Board of Directors of GLAAD and also provided counsel for the TV series
Transparent
and
I Am Cait
. Her 2003 memoir,
She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders
was the first bestselling work by a transgender American. A novelist, memoirist, and short story writer, she is also a nationally known advocate for human rights. She lives in New York City, and in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, with her wife, Deedie. They have a son, Sean and a daughter, Zai.
Jodi Picoult
is the #1 bestselling author of twenty-five novels including
My Sister's Keeper
,
Nineteen Minutes
,
The Storyteller
,
Leaving Time
, the acclaimed #1 bestseller,
Small Great Things
, which explored the issues of power, privilege and race, and has sold more than 1.5 million copies. Picoult's most recent novel,
A SPARK OF LIGHT
., published on October 2, 2018, was her tenth consecutive instant #1 New York Times bestseller, and was praised as “Picoult at her fearless best” by the
Washington Post.
This event is free (although if you love us and want to support more virtual programming, you can contribute a few dollars!) and hosted on Crowdcast. Register at the link below!
|
Today, we would have hosted Keith Law in conversation with Alex Speier about Law's new book
The Inside Game
. (Of course, today we also would have still been shaking our heads at the Betts trade.)
In the groundbreaking
The Inside Game,
Keith Law, baseball writer for The Athletic and author of the acclaimed
Smart Baseball,
offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball, explaining what motivated them, what can be learned from them, and how their legacy has shaped the game. For years, Daniel Kahneman’s iconic work of behavioral science
Thinking Fast and Slow
has been required reading in front offices across Major League Baseball. In this smart, incisive, and eye-opening book, Keith Law applies Kahneman’s ideas about decision making to the game itself.
Keith Law
is a senior baseball writer at The Athletic, and before joining The Athletic, he was a senior baseball writer for ESPN Insider. Previously he was also special assistant to the general manager for the Toronto Blue Jays, handling all statistical analysis, and he wrote for Baseball Prospectus. He lives in Delaware.
|
Featured Staff Pick for Adults
|
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Frances Cha's debut is completely transporting. Featuring four women who live in the same building in Seoul, it's a glimpse into four very different lives intertwining as each faces the challenges and expectations of social and economic hierarchy in modern Korean culture. Fascinating and vivid.
--Leila
|
A number of other stores have done some really cool things with book bundles and people have ask us to put some together, so here are the first two. (We've got more planned)
Need to refresh the reading supply for the kids? Order one of these bundles. Your kiddos all set for books for now? You can also donate a bundle! We've partnered with Shape Up Somerville, who will deliver the bundles when they drop off free meals for students in Somerville.
Stay tuned as we have more of these on the way.
|
|
Digital Audio Books:
A terrific way to support local indies!
|
Events are back, baby! Want to stay up to date on the full upcoming line up of virtual happenings? Make sure you're signed up for our events newsletter!
|
For all the latest on events, new books, reviews, and more for young and young-at-heart readers.
|
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!
|
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!
|
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.
|
Make your shopping easy by buying bundles, handpicked by our expert booksellers. We'll be adding more of these so stay tuned.
|
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!
|
|
Recommendations for Theater Lovers
|
|
Anybody miss spending a night at the theater? Whether it's your community troupe, a regional company, or a Broadway show, there's something special about experiencing a live performance. Kate shared some recommendations based on your favorite shows.
|
|
We know that was a good one, because a certain SOMEONE liked the tweet.
|
|
Caleb's Quarantine Writing Prompts
|
|
1. OK, so to get a better understanding of your Main Character (MC), let's take a look at their lives through the lens of a six-part Netflix series. Tiger King is already taken, but what is your character King/Queen of? Write the pitch for this series, extra points if I want to binge it.
|
|
2. Quarantine is over! (Not really, but for the sake of this exercise). What does your first day back out in the real world look like? Or, what would this look like for your MC after a long time inside? Go crazy, write Blast From the Past fic if you have to.
|
|
3. Let's live in hyperbole for a minute or two. The self-isolating can feel like prison so WRITE YOUR WAY OOOOOUT and give me your best prison break scenes.
|
|
4. Some people (not me, I suck) are using this time to pivot to new habits. What kind of #skills would your MC come up with during all this isolation?
|
|
5. IF I LAY HERE! IF I JUST LAAAAAY HERE!!!!!! WOULD YOU LIE WIIIIIIITH ME AND JUST FORGET THE WORLD??? Oh, that's not a prompt? YOU'RE not a prompt.
|
|
Stay sane out there, folks. What's my name again?
*checks notes*
-
Caleb
|
|
I'm currently teaching a kids' comics/storytelling/drawing class (I basically alter it to suit the students, so it evolves as their interests do) so I've been thinking of activities and exercises for writing and storytelling. Here are a few to keep you occupied.
Anytime I eat salmon, I think about the Random Salmon. The Random Salmon is one of those experiences that was strange and wonderful and became one of those stories that I tell probably a dozen times a year. We all have them...we can probably even tell each family member's favorite stories. Here's a writing prompt that utilizes these stories as a way of developing voice.
Repeatedly Told
Think of a story someone you know has told over and over again. Write it down. Try to focus on the words the person telling it uses, and how they speak when they tell it. Oral storytelling uses different syntax and word choice than writing, so you may find more sentence fragments than usual.
Do you have a list of words that sound great but you rarely use? Persnickety is one of mine. I also like spindidly from
A Snicker of Magic
, a spectacular book in which the protagonist collects words. Here's a chance to use these interesting words.
Favorite Words
Write down a list of at least 15 words you like the sound of (for example: persnickety). Then, try to use all these words in a story.
Essay: The things that happen when nothing is happening
This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately (as have many people). Sit down in a quiet space. What is happening right now? What do you notice in the quiet stillness?
Sometimes I think my water bottle has seen everything. As it sits next to me, I wonder just what it thinks of our adventures...especially since it's been dropped more than a number of times. Here's a chance to figure that out!
Interview an inanimate object
There is an entire
podcast
of these, and it's a phenomenal idea. First, write a series of questions to ask inanimate objects. Then, respond to the questions as the object. You can also swap with someone, where they ask and you respond as the object.
--Marika
|
|
And of course, don't forget to meet us over at our Instagram story at 8:45pm for tonight's live bedtime reading!
|
|
Support Cafe Zing baristas!
|
|
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?
|
|
Featured Staff Pick For Kids
|
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
|
|
We Want to Hear from You!
|
|
|
What other bookish goodness would you like to see in Shelf Stable?
|
|
Written Book Recommendations
|
|
|
|
|
Video Book Recommendations
|
|
|
|
|
Deeper Dives into reading
|
|
|
|
|
You libromancers do other things than read, right? Tell us about that stuff!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
See you next time here at Shelf Stable!
|
|
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
:
|
|
25 White St. Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-2220
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
