SAVE THE DATE
 
Friday, February 7
at 7 p.m. 
Ela Przybylo
Author Reading

Sunday, February 9 
at 4 p.m.
hosted by 
Chicago Therapy Collective
Public Workshop

Wednesday, February 12 at 7 p.m. 
Suzanne Walker 
Author Reading and Book Signing

Thursday, February 13
at 7 p.m. 
Rachel Kramer Bussel, Lauren Emily, Jayne Renault, Sierra Simone & Suleikha Snyder
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Vol. 5
Anthology Reading & Valentine's Party

Wednesday, February 19 at 7 p.m. 
Jenn Shapland
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir 
Author Reading

Thursday, February 20 
at 7 p.m. 
Katherine Alford &
Kathy Gunst
Rage Baking:The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women's Voices
Author Reading 
(with treats!) 

Friday, February 21
at 7 p.m. 
Gregory Michie and contributors
Holler If You Hear Me: The Comic Edition
Author Reading

Tuesday, February 25
at 6:30 p.m. 
Nikki McClure 
What Will These Hands Make?
Author Reading &
Book-signing

Wednesday, February 26 at 7 p.m. 
Mikki Kendall in conversation with
Jamie Nesbitt Golden
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot
Book Launch Party


* * *
 
 

Book Group
Sunday, January 5 
at 2 p.m.
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars
by Kai Cheng Thom

Feminist Book Group: The Climate Change edition
Sunday, January 12 
at 4 p.m.
The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

Teens First Book Group
Sunday, January 12 
at 5 p.m.
The Sun Is Also a Star  
by Nicola Yoon

Women's Book Group
Tuesday, January 15 
at 7:30 p.m.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Classics of Women's Literature
Monday, January 20 
at 7:15 p.m.
The Book of the City of Ladies 
by Christine de Pisan

Women Aging with Wisdom & Grace Discussion & Potluck
Sunday, January 26
10 a.m. to noon
Recommended reading: My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor 

Well-Read Black Girl Book Group  is  on hiatus. Check back in February 2020!  

The Social Justice Book Group is  on a
3-month hiatus. Check back in February 2020!
  
Pre-order 
Announcements

By ordering a forthcoming book through your local independent bookstore, you can get access to exclusive offers, special giveaways, and signed copies! Below, explore the books we are most excited about and any associated promotions


* * *



by Adam Silvera
Publishing
January 14, 2020


* * *

by Danez Smith
Publishing
January 21, 2020




by Jeanine Cummins
Publishing
January 21, 2020
Signed pre-order books -- limited quantity!



by Ransom Riggs
Publishing
January 14, 2020
Free "Stay Peculiar" popsocket with pre-order -- limited quantity!




by Isabel Allende
Publishing
January 21, 2020
Free magnet with pre-order -- limited quantity!




by Louise Erdrich
Publishing
March 3, 2020
Signed pre-order books -- limited quantity!




by Hilary Mantel
Publishing
March 10, 2020
Signed pre-order books -- limited quantity!



________________

 Check out our exclusive 40th Anniversary 
tote designed by Molly Costello! 
BUY NOW  
Dear Friends of Women & Children First, 

 

Happy new year to all of you! Thank you for a record-breaking holiday season! Sales through our our online store were up more than 100%, and on December 21st we had our biggest sales day in the history of the bookstore! Year after year, our community gives us our best gift--hope for a feminist future. 

 

We have big plans for 2020! This year, we hope to dig into our fundamentals. A lot of that work will be done internally among our incredible staff, but to make sure that we keep you in the loop, we will be launching a second e-newsletter (in addition to this events calendar) that will feature store news, staff book recommendations, and information about forthcoming books we're excited about reading! 

 

Check out THIS VIDEO for a final wave of congrats to sign off our 40th year! 

As always, thank you for supporting Chicago's only feminist bookstore! And, stay tuned... w e will have ticket announcements about two big events very soon! 

With love & thanks,

W&CF
AUTHOR READING
Martin McLean, Middle School Queen 
Alyssa Zaczek
Thursday, January 9 at 7 p.m.
*This kid-friendly event is great for ages 8 & up!*

Seventh-grader Martin McLean is surrounded by people who can express themselves--his mother is an artist, his colorful Tio Billy works in theater, and his best friends Carmen and Pickle don't care what other people think. But Martin can only find the right words when he's answering a problem at a Mathletes competition--until his tio introduces him to the world of drag. In a swirl of sequins and stilettos, Martin creates his fabulous drag queen alter ego, Lottie Leon.
AUTHOR CONVERSATION
Boys & Sex 
Peggy Orenstein 
in conversation with Heidi Stevens
Tuesday, January 14 at 7 p.m.

Orenstein's previous book  Girls & Sex broke ground, shattered taboos, and launched conversations about young women's right to pleasure and agency in sexual encounters. But she soon realized that talking about girls is only half the conversation. In Boys & Sex , Peggy Orenstein dives back into the lives of young people, revealing how young men understand and negotiate the new rules of physical and emotional intimacy.
AUTHOR CONVERSATION
The Magical Language of Others 
E. J. Koh 
in conversation with Nina Li Coomes
Wednesday, January 15 at 7 p.m.

After living in America for more than a decade, Eun Ji Koh's parents return to South Korea for work, leaving fifteen-year-old Eun Ji and her brother behind in California. Overnight, Eun Ji finds herself abandoned and adrift in a world made strange by her mother's absence. Over the years her mother writes letters, in Korean, seeking forgiveness and love--letters Eun Ji cannot fully understand until she finds them years later hidden in a box.
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY
When the Stars Lead to You 
Ronni Davis
in conversation with Rena Barron
Thursday, January 16 at 7 p.m.

When Ashton breaks Devon's heart at the end of the most romantic and magical summer ever, she thinks her heart will never heal again. But over the course of the following year, Devon finds herself slowly putting the broken pieces back together.
AUTHOR READING
The Seep 
Chana Porter
Saturday, January 18 at 6 p.m.

Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle--but nonetheless world-changing--invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible. Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep's utopian influence--until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life.
COMMUNITY EVENT
Queer Soup Night
Sunday, January 19 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Queer Soup Night is a Brooklyn-born queer party with soup at its center. Each event raises money for a community organization, highlights the talent of queer chefs, and nourishes the community. Now in its third year, QSN communities have spread across the country, and the Chicago chapter will be kicking off 2020 at Women & Children First. Donations for this event will benefit Affinity, a social justice organization that focuses on health and wellness, leadership development, and community building within the LGBTQ and Black communities in Chicago!
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY
Fishhead: Republic of Want
Ignatius Valentine Aloysius
in conversation with Sarah Connell
Thursday, January 23 at 7 p.m.

Amidst the teeming tenements of 1970s Bombay (Mumbai), a hungry teenage boy struggles through life in a poverty-stricken family ruled by a domineering alcoholic father, when suddenly he faces another challenge: the affections of an upper middle class girl.
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY
Camp Cutlery
Robin Carnilius 
Friday, January 24 at 7 p.m.

Peanut (they/them) is an outspoken transgender social justice warrior. When getting revenge on a bully causes the school to explode, Peanut is sentenced to a youth correctional facility, Camp Cutlery. Here, girls must wear skirts, boys must wear pants, and there is no such thing as being trans. Peanut's release date is in three months. "All" they have to do to survive is hide their gender and keep their mouth shut. But all of that is small potatoes to what's really going on at Camp Cutlery.
STORY TIME
I've Got Peace in My Fingers
Susan Salidor 
Saturday, January 25 at 3 p.m.

Susan Salidor's first book for young children is based on her song "I've Got Peace In My Fingers." The joyous, evocative pictures illustrate how even the youngest among us can be makers and messengers of peace.  
AUTHOR CONVERSATION
The Third Rainbow Girl
Emily Copley Eisenberg
in conversation with Megan Stielstra
Thursday, January 30 at 7 p.m.

In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived; they traveled with a third woman who lived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders," though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents, who were depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward. 
AUTHOR CONVERSATION
Taking Sexy Back
Dr. Alexandra Solomon
All the F*cking Mistakes
Gigi Engle
Friday, February 6 at 7 p.m.

In All the F*cking Mistakes, Gigi Engle offers bite-sized lessons that incorporate Gigi's own special brand of no-nonsense advice to provide clarity and guidance on everything from learning how to take back your confidence in a world full of slut shaming, to discovering and owning your sexual empowerment through masturbation, to demanding the love you really deserve.

Women & Children First


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