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. Five or fewer books per order if possible.

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: May 1
“Everything in the world exists in order to end up in a book. ” – Stephen Mallarme
Through our formal education, we learn a, what’s the phrase, "particular set of skills" for reading. These skills will get you through school, of course, and also through most books great and small. But not every book. Some books don’t really use characters, aren’t concerned with plot, push against what it means to tell a story, and even what it means to make sense. The usual techniques of understanding and making meaning from characters, plot, and theme don’t apply, and sometimes even the mechanics of metaphor and imagery don’t actually work. Just like trying any new skill, (I did once try to learn to knit. It did not go well.) books like this can be frustrating to read, but, just like learning a new skill they can also be rewarding.

In my experience, books like this include their own “reading instructions,” essentially teaching you how to read themselves. Renee Gladman’s Event Factory comes to mind (in part because I’m always thinking about it.). The narrator is a “linguistic-traveler” visiting a foreign city who speaks the language but is explicitly an outsider to the culture. She can understand the words everyone says, at a literacy level, but can’t actually grasp what they’re trying to communicate. She just does her best to respect the locals, while trying to discover the central malady afflicting the city. Or, to describe her situation another way, she is reading a book in English that doesn’t follow the conventions she is familiar with, doing her best to respect those foreign conventions while still searching for a “center” from which she can understand the whole. Often, you are expected to identify with the narrator, and in this case, you’re actually supposed to emulate the narrator, reading Event Factory the same way as she explores Ravicka. In some ways, "Event Factory," the story, is about how to read Event Factory , the book.     

Gerald Murnane’s The Plains (which I think reads very well with Event Factory ) gives you the keys right at the beginning, even if you don’t yet know what door those keys unlock.
I’ll say one thing (leaving the rest for you to discover) about this opening passage and how it teaches the reading technique for the book: notice how the narrator undercuts himself with the word “seemed.”

I love books that teach you how to read them, in part, because I enjoy that particular path of discovery, I like to wrestle with books, I like to be adrift, I like to feel as though something is out of reach, I like to say things like “This book is amazing. I have no idea what it’s about,” and also, because they demonstrate the endless possibility of storytelling. They are proof that there is no limit to how we write or how we read.

Josh @PSB
Join our next virtual event!
Tell-All Boston with Maya Lang

Porter Square Books is pleased to bring you Tell-All Boston--virtually! With special guest Maya Lang and featuring readings from Susan McGee Bailey, Alicia Googins, Shirley Jones-Luke, and Linda K. Wertheimer. To attend, register here .

In caring for her aging mother and her own young daughter, writer Maya Shanbhag Lang—“a new voice of the highest caliber” (Rebecca Makkai)—confronts the legacy of family myths and how the stories shared between parents and children reverberate through generations: a deeply moving memoir about immigrants and their native-born children, the complicated love between mothers and daughters, and the discovery of strength.

Maya Shanbhag Lang grew up idolizing her brilliant mother, an accomplished physician who immigrated to the United States from India and completed her residency, all while raising her children and keeping a traditional Indian home. She had always been a source of support—until Maya became a mother herself. Then, the parent who had once been so capable and attentive turned unavailable and distant. Struggling to understand this abrupt change while raising her own young child, Maya searches for answers and soon learns that her mother is living with Alzheimer’s.
When Maya steps in to care for her, she comes to realize that despite their closeness, she never really knew her mother. Were her cherished stories—about life in India, about what it means to be an immigrant, about motherhood itself—even true? Affecting, raw, and poetic,  What We Carry  is the story of a daughter and her mother, of lies and truths, of receiving and giving care—and how we cannot grow up until we fully understand the people who raised us.

Our goal is to foster a community of honesty and discovery, through the power of memoir.

Join us!
Featured Staff Pick for Adults
Sansei & Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita

Yamashita continues to make her case as one of our of greatest living writers with this collection of stories, narratives, and imaginative engagements with Jane Austen. Yamashita's intelligence, sense of humor, and mastery over multiple prose styles cracks open our notions of identity, culture, and community creating space for new ways of reading about and thinking about how we become who we are.  -- Josh
Prize-Winning Video
All of the finalists for the Publishers Weekly 2020 Bookstore of the Year had to submit an application. The requirements were pretty wide open but since we had a connection with a great local videographer (Julian, who recorded our Stephen King and Joe Hill event for us) we decided to make a short video. In our video application, we followed "A Book" by "Local Author" as it made its way through all of the things PSB does. We also submitted "annotations" to give the committee more specific information. We really had a lot of fun making it and are proud of how it came out, so, here it is! (Sans annotations.) We hope you enjoy it.
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.



May Staff Picks
Are you missing out on our recommendations, pining for our Staff Pick display?? Our May 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!
Plantagenet Fangirl
I’m a bit of a Plantagenet fangirl, and it’s Josephine Tey’s fault. (Okay, it’s also Ian McKellan’s fault. Setting Richard III in the 1930s with an amazing cast was a brilliant decision.)

I spent my teen years extremely into the Tudors. But Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time – in which a temporarily bedridden policeman solves the mystery of who killed the princes in the Tower of London – got me hooked on the earlier generations. The Plantagenets are ridiculous and dramatic and ambitious, and it’s no surprise that there are 98090584 books about them, more or less.

Right now I’m reading two of them (plus a dozen others, because let’s be real) that are coming out soon: Thomas Penn’s The Brothers York (that would be Richard, plus his older brothers Edward IV and George, who was good at betraying people) and Nicola Tallis’ The Uncrowned Queen (Margaret Beaufort, grandmother of Henry VIII).

They’re meaty history books, the kind where you look up and realize that somehow you’ve just spent an hour on one thing, not alt-tabbing between websites and spreadsheets and inventory systems. (Come on, I know it’s not just me.)

And they’re also upcoming releases, with June and July publication dates – so reading these books means thinking about sharing them with all of you, and how we might be connecting over new books this summer, and what the store is going to look like in another month or two. Here’s to history books that leave us thinking about the future!
Need Some Inspiration?
While so many of us are away from our families next weekend, something more than your quick “Happy Mother’s Day!” card may be in order.

There’s something special about homemade cards, even if the giver is not particularly an artist. Some of the best birthday and anniversary cards I’ve received have been made in Microsoft Word or written in ballpoint pen on a piece of folded over paper, because it’s the sentiment inside that truly matters. Not to say you can’t go further than that; I made a couple cards using washi tape, markers and colored pencils. You can use whatever you have around the house, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.

You might try illustrating or describing the day you wish you could have with your mom, or the first thing you want to do together when you see each other again. Maybe you’d rather reminisce about a favorite memory, or thank your mom for the ways she’s helped you become a great parent yourself.

Kids who are at home with mom can draw or describe the best part about spending so much time together, or a favorite activity the family has done while stuck inside.

Holidays are a particularly tough time to be separated from loved ones or cooped up inside, but we can still create moments of connection. Consider sending mom some extra love this Mother’s Day.

--Katie
Bedtime Stories
If one must begin, one should at least begin badly. Shana reads from A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning. Check it out on PSB's YouTube!
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
The Mermaid, the Witch, & the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

This sweeping fantasy adventure delves deeply into questions of identity, sacrifice, and freedom. So queer, so artful, so delicate, so exceptional. I love this book fiercely , and you will too.
--Rebecca
A Porter Square Books Choose Your Own Adventure!
You notice an odd book on your bookshelf. You don't remember seeing it there before, but, well, you've bought so many books it wouldn't be the first time you found a surprise on your own shelves. The spine is a nice green leather with no title or author, just an odd little symbol that looks like a duck in one of those old timey carnival shooting ranges. You take the book down and suddenly, a hidden door opens in the wall.
Do you...
Barge right through, carpe-ing the heck outta some diem
Linger at the doorway all Hamletty and such
Look at the book itself before cautiously entering
Pull the door closed, put the book back, and call your landlord
Audio Book Of The Month
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

“Fatima is a concubine of the sultan of the last emirate in the Iberian Peninsula to submit to the Spanish Inquisition. When her dearest friend, Hassan, a mapmaker who can map places he has never seen (and that do not always exist), is singled out by the Inquisition, she flees with him and a jinn, following the trail of the elusive and mythical Bird King, who may or may not be able to grant them sanctuary. Wilson’s latest novel is rich with the historical detail, lush description, and fantastical elements that we have come to know and love from her. A story of resistance, freedom, seeking, and strength, and a true fable for our times. ”
--Anna Elkund, University Bookstore
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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