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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 April 7. Other options: try
Indiebound.org
or
Bookshop.org
- keep it indie!
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“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world
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– Jeanette Winterson
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Hello readers,
As you likely have heard, yesterday Governor Baker called for all non-essential businesses to close to employees. This was a tough moment for us. On one hand, it's truly, truly been our pleasure to continue serving our community by delivering your books, answering your phone calls, shipping out stacks even we envy. You've been so kind, so supportive, so generous every step of the way. Books are a crucial connector, and especially in these isolating times, we need them more than ever. It's hard (really hard) to lock the doors of our store and walk away for the time being. But it's also the right thing to do to take care of ourselves and our community.
If you've been following our updates, though, you'll already know this piece:
we are still able to ship you books.
Our warehouse is still operating and is able to send you books directly so you won't have to wait until April 7th to have your order processed. I've put instructions above, but to recap:
-> visit us at portersquarebooks.com!
-> choose delightful books of your heart's desire that have a status of "Available At Our Warehouse"!
-> Select "UPS/USPS Shipping" at check out!
-> Pay with a credit card!
Orders that fall outside this criteria will be processed as soon as we get the all clear to return to work. If you need to look elsewhere while we're closed, we strongly encourage you to keep your dollars in indie bookstores!! Tr
y
Indiebound.org
to look for stores that are still open, or order through
bookshop.org
,
and keep local businesses healthy in this uncertain time.
Truly, we just can't wait to be able to welcome you back into the store.
Stay connected, stay well, and keep reading.
all the best, Leila @ PSB
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Lewis Wallace with Ramona Martinez
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The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity: Nonfiction, Journalism
We were really excited to host author and podcaster Lewis Raven Wallace tonight, where he would've been joined in conversation with Ramona Martinez, his podcast producer.
#MeToo. #BlackLivesMatter. #NeverAgain. #WontBeErased. Though both the right- and left-wing media claim “objectivity” in their reporting of these and other contentious issues, the American public has become increasingly cynical about truth, fact, and reality. In
The View from Somewhere
, Lewis Raven Wallace dives deep into the history of “objectivity” in journalism and how its been used to gatekeep and silence marginalized writers as far back as Ida B. Wells.
At its core, this is a book about fierce journalists who have pursued truth and transparency and sometimes been punished for it—not just by tyrannical governments but by journalistic institutions themselves. Wallace also shares his own experiences as a midwestern transgender journalist and activist who was fired from his job as a national reporter for public radio for speaking out against “objectivity” in coverage of Trump and white supremacy.
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Featured Staff Pick for Adults
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Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote by Craig Fehrman
Author in Chief is for every American history aficionado. Imagine spending 10 years to collect the facts and details behind many presidential publications which Craig Fehrman has done. He recounts untold stories and fits them into a fascinating retelling of presidential lives and publications.
-Megan
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Hello from our Writers in Residence!
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Our Writers in Residence are part of the Porter Square Books family, and we've been missing seeing them typing away in our back office, cruising our galley shelves, and keeping well-fortified in our cafe. Of course, we're keeping in touch.
Our Writer in Residence writing for young readers, Sacha Lamb, shared their
mascot lamb Cambyses visiting with Bear last week, and this week practicing responsible social distance at home:
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And Justin Chen, our Writer in Residence writing for adults, shares his thoughts on reading from home during this crisis:
"For me, the main sense of normalcy that I’ve preserved is reading before bed."
We can't wait to welcome you back to your writing home-away-from-home, Sacha and Justin!
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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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Digital Audio Books:
A terrific way to support local indies!
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What have we been up to on social media?
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We're sowing seeds for future plans:
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We're discovering art reflects life:
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We're soliciting pet pictures:
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(And you all are delivering!!!)
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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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OK, if you're anything like us, you've been pretty much posted in the kitchen for much of the day. The experience of eating is such an incredible one: not only are you tasting flavors and techniques, but memories, ideas, dreams all seem to bubble forth as you're stirring that stew your mother always made or seasoning the spiciest dish you can find from a country you've never visited. Cooking is nurturing and comforting and in equal measures, transporting and inspiring. We had some of our foodie-inclined staff come up with a whole pile of cookbooks to get you going!
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Go on, try a recipe - and let us know what you've been quarancooking! (We just might share our own results...)
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Planning to read Proust while you quarantine? Nice! Here's Josh on how the very beginning of the very first book gives you some keys to reading the whole thing:
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Shelf Stable Exquisite Corpse
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An "exquisite corpse" is a group writing exercise in which a story is built one line at a time. Someone kicks it off by writing one sentence on a piece of paper and handing it to the someone else. That person writes the next line, folds the paper so that only their sentence is visible, and passes it to someone else. This goes on until everyone in the room has added their line and then the "story" is read. With social distancing we ain't passing anything to anybody. So we'll do our exquisite corpse online. Here's your jumping off point:
The surprises were apparently just beginning, though, because what I saw through that open door was something I had been fearing since it had been driven out of town, some twenty years ago...
Respond to this email with your next sentence. We'll pick our favorite and put it in the next newsletter. Rinse and repeat. Eventually, we'll publish the entire story on our blog.
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Featured Staff Pick For Kids
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Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker, illustrated by Junyi Wu
Follow a pair of clever fox kits through the spooky underbelly of the forest in this beautifully-woven tale, reminiscent of Watership Down by way of the Brothers Grimm. The dangers the foxes face will make you want to keep the light on and the door shut tight--but, as the wise old storyteller counsels, if you can make it to the end of the tale, you'll find a happy ending waiting there.
--Kate
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We want to hear from you! What kind of reads are you into these days?
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New releases are keeping it exciting.
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New-to-me books - I'm finally getting to that stack!
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I am a glutton and only want apocalyptic books right now.
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Re-reading favorites is keeping me sane!
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Taking this time to dive into a nonfiction read on a topic I know nothing about.
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Oh, I've been....over here working on this 1,000 piece puzzle.
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Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
"
Oona Out of Order
is a work of fiction that genuinely encouraged me to reflect upon my own mortality and the trajectory of my life. Oona wakes up on her birthday every year in a different part of her life. The difficulty this imposes is fascinating. Pop culture and music is ever-present, as Oona is a musician and chapter titles are taken from song titles or lyrics. What would it be to live your life out of order? To instinctively want to second guess and redo what you saw as failures? At the heart,
Oona Out of Order
is about mastering the art of living in the moment and it is a terribly fun romp."
-Rachel, Avid Bookshop
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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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