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!
Shelf Stable: April 29
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snicket
I want to talk about the most amazing book I've ever found.

Okay, by amazing, in this case, I kind of mean terrible. Meet the Little Prince is a bilingual board book and it's… really not good. The (real) Little Prince is an imaginative and unique book. This is just simple sentences repeated in French and English. There's not a story, just some vocab and illustrations from the original. It's not great.

Except that last page. 

I mean, who doesn't want to quitte la planète every now and again, especially right now? Without the context of the rest of the story, it's just a boy flying away from from a planet with a bunch of birds. 

Unfortunately, I don't know have a flock of interstellar birds, so I can't quitte ma planète. I can, at least, read books about leaving the planet, which is almost as good. Check out The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal for some alternate history about traveling to space in the fifties. Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente is what happens when aliens decide to give humans a chance to join the intergalactic community… but only if they can survive a battle of the bands. Yes, literally. All Systems Red by Martha Wells because I can never pass up a chance to rec my favorite Murderbot and its struggles with feelings. Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone for that Star Wars feeling but gayer. And Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott if you've already read everything and need to preorder. It's out in July! 

And, of course, there's always rereading The Little Prince. I suggest the real and unabridged version , though. Or the original French .

Shana @PSB
Join our next virtual event!
Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home: Fiction

Porter Square Books is pleased to bring you a *virtual event* with Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, brilliant co-creators of Welcome to Night Vale and authors of  The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home ! This event takes place on Thursday, April 30th at 7pm from the comfort of your own home (the secret faceless old woman who lives there is also invited). To join this event via Crowdcast, register at the link below.

From the New York Times bestselling authors of  Welcome to Night Vale  and  It Devours!  and the creators of the hit podcast, comes a new novel set in the world of Night Vale and beyond.

In the town of Night Vale, there’s a faceless old woman who secretly lives in everyone’s home, but no one knows how she got there or where she came from...until now. Told in a series of eerie flashbacks, the story of The Faceless Old Woman goes back centuries to reveal an initially blissful and then tragic childhood on a Mediterranean Estate in the early nineteenth century, her rise in the criminal underworld of Europe, a nautical adventure with a mysterious organization of smugglers, her plot for revenge on the ones who betrayed her, and ultimately her death and its aftermath, as her spirit travels the world for decades until settling in modern-day Night Vale.

Interspersed throughout is a present-day story in Night Vale, as The Faceless Old Woman guides, haunts, and sabotages a man named Craig. In the end, her current day dealings with Craig and her swashbuckling history in nineteenth century Europe will come together in the most unexpected and horrifying way.

Part  The Haunting of Hill House , part  The Count of Monte Cristo , and 100% about a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home.

Joseph Fink  created the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn’t Dead podcasts. He lives with his wife in the Hudson River Valley and Los Angeles. He is the author of the novel  Alice Isn’t Dead .  Jeffrey Cranor  co-writes the Welcome to Night Vale and Within the Wires podcasts. He also co-creates theater and dance pieces with choreographer/wife Jillian Sweeney. They live in New York.  Together, they are the authors of the New York Times best-selling novels  Welcome to Night Vale, It Devours! , and four Welcome to Night Vale episode script books: Mostly Void, Partially Stars, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe, The Buying of Lot 37, and Who’s a Good Boy?   In 2016, Fink and Cranor announced their podcast network  “Night Vale Presents”  which has produced 14 original fiction and non-fiction podcasts. For more on Welcome to Night Vale, upcoming events, and the books, visit:  www.welcometonightvale.com
Featured Staff Pick for Adults
Wicked Enchantment by Wanda Coleman

Wanda Coleman, a poet laureate of anger and honesty, lived resistance and shouted rebellion, has always been the poet America needed, though sometimes it seemed like she was the only one who knew that. With this new book of poems selected and introduced by Terrance Hayes, perhaps America will finally know it too. -- Josh
Shana's Day of Deliveries
Yesterday, Shana packed up their convertible Mini and hit the road to deliver books all over Cambridge and Somerville. Here are some highlights from their day.
Digital Audio Books:
A terrific way to support local indies!
Events Newsletter
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!
Kids' 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!
The Power of Preorders!
Preorders are a great way to support PSB while we're not able to actually be at the store for two reasons:
  1. They bring in income now while the store is closed.
  2. 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.
PSB Bundles
Make your shopping easy by buying bundles, handpicked by our expert booksellers. We'll be adding more of these so stay tuned.



April Staff Picks
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!
Working from Home with Homemade Vietnamese Coffee
I've lost track of days and nights, but one consistent thing has been coffee. Like all of you, I dream of Cafe Zing lattes, but alas, I don't have a barista living in my home. So, I've been making Vietnamese coffee at home and I wanted to share the recipe I use from Nguyen Coffee Supply. Phin is a Vietnamese slow drip brew style. It is the most common and beloved brew style in Vietnam. 

Recommended coffee: Loyalty or Grit (for stronger coffee)

The robusta beans in this signature blend are indicative of Vietnamese coffee culture.

Ratio:
  • 4 oz of boiling water, 195-205 degrees 
  • 2 tablespoons of ground coffee
Steps:
  • Bring water temp to 205°F
  • Add 2 tablespoons (or 14 grams) of ground coffee
  • Even out grinds, gently drop inside topper 
  • Place entire set up on a scale, zero out (optional)
  • Pour 0.8 oz water (or cover filter press w/ half inch of water) to bloom for 30-40 seconds
  • Pour up to 3.2 oz of water (or fill water to the top)
  • First drip should drop before 2 minutes
  • Finish around 5 min - 5 min 30 seconds
  • Enjoy with sweetened condensed milk, sugar, milk, or black
  • Optional: Enjoy with ice, or hot water 

Note: I'm lactose intolerant so I use this dairy-free condensed milk. You can purchase the phin kit here.  "Nguyen Coffee Supply is the first ever Vietnamese-American-owned importer, supplier, and roaster of green coffee beans from Vietnam in New York."

-Sinny
Need some inspiration?
In second grade, my class read Flat Stanley . We then made our own Flat Stanleys and mailed them to friends or relatives, who took photos and mailed them back to us with letters of the Flat Stanley's adventures. 

I make characters who trave l , and I send a lot of mail. With the USPS in crisis, the need for social distancing, doldrums all around, and epic post office lines, I've returned to the Flat Stanley model to send some letter-sized characters to friends. These were inspired by the flowers I’ve seen on my walks. 

If you make a version of yourself, this is a great way to safely "visit" your friends and loved ones. At PSB, all of us but Stacey have been missing Bear, so I decided to mail Bear a friend!

It's important to use one piece of paper and make sure you can easily fold it to fit into your envelope. If you use thicker paper or a larger envelope, add an additional stamp to ensure your letter arrives!

Marika @PSB
Bedtime Stories
If you had yesterday in your "Day Meaghan Would Have to Recycle a Costume" office pool, congratulations! Jane Austen returns to read from Pride & Prejudice.
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?

They're our family, and they could use a hand. If you are able, please considering donating to the Cafe Zing GoFundMe; 100% of proceeds go to baristas. What might you have spent at Zing over the past weeks if it we were in normal times? If that $10 is still in your wallet, consider putting it in their tip jar. We love you, Zing!
Featured Staff Pick For Kids
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
We Want to Hear From You!
You can change the ending of one and only one book. Do you?
Save a character's life.
Kill a character. (And nunnathat MCU-style dead either, really dead.)
She doesn't marry him.
He doesn't marry her.
Different people get married.
Nobody gets married & everyone lives together on a goat farm in Vermont
Audio Book Of The Month
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
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25 White St. Cambridge, MA 02140
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