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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 May 4. Other options: try
Indiebound.org
or
Bookshop.org
- keep it indie!
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“A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”
–
Areopagitica
, John Milton
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Hello friends,
There is no right way to do this. There is no to-do list that you absolutely have to get done now that you have more time (do you have more time?! I don't feel like I do), no books you have no excuse not to read or shows you can't possibly put off watching any longer. Whatever you are doing to get through shelter-in-place, that is absolutely enough.
All of which is to say, I don't feel like I have any more time than I used to, but I am determinedly wading through my mysteriously ever-growing to-be-read pile, because immersing myself in stories is one of the ways I'm getting through this. My to-be-read pile is not a pile, exactly, but rather the bottom two shelves of one of my bookcases. At this point I've gone through enough of it that it's not even double- or triple-stacked anymore! There have been a few that I discarded partway through, because there are too many great books in the world for me to spend more time than I have to on the ones that don't grab me, but there have been a lot more that I've read to completion and enjoyed thoroughly.
So far, in the last month-and-a-bit, I have read:
+ a story about a young queer bard contending with challenges like his complicated feelings about his terrible mentor, a fantasy version of the Dutch tulip craze, and another narrator arguing with him in the footnotes (
A Choir of Lies
by Alexandra Rowland)
+ many cool facts about how language has changed and evolved in new and fascinating ways online (
Because Internet
by Gretchen McCulloch)
+ a beautiful and often queer collection of fairytale retellings (
Kissing the Witch
by Emma Donoghue)
+ the harrowing and bizarre tale of a biologist and her team exploring a truly surreal landscape -- and if you enjoyed the film, this book will still surprise you (
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer)
+ a delightful throwback to my childhood in the new graphic novel adventures of Karen Brewer, Kristy the baby-sitter's little sister, who in this story needs to save her neighborhood from the scary witch next door (
Karen's Witch
by Katy Farina, adapted from Ann M Martin)
I hope that, however you're getting through this, however many books in your own to be read pile you've tackled, you're also discovering new stories, and enjoying them without any pressure, external or internal. We've got this.
Yours in books,
Ari @ PSB
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Join our next virtual event!
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Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
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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
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Featured Staff Pick for Adults
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The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida
After finishing this book weeks ago, I'm still thinking of Miwako Sumida and friends. This story is dark and sometimes feels too real, but you can't look away.
--Sinny
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Cafe Zing Fresh Rolls are Back!
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Introducing FRESH ROLL TUESDAYS at Cafe Zing!
We've missed you! And we're guessing that you've missed us, or at least our Vietnamese Fresh Rolls.
Available in packs of 10 with 6 peanut sauces.
We will take orders ahead through Eventbrite, and you can pick them up at Cafe Zing on Friday between 11am and 2pm. Once you arrive call us 617-497-9464, tell us your last name and we will bring them out to you curbside!
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Digital Audio Books:
A terrific way to support local indies!
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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!
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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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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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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!
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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.
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Make your shopping easy by buying bundles, handpicked by our expert booksellers. We'll be adding more of these so stay tuned.
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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!
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Old Hollywood: From Page to Screen
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Despite the world at war, the 1940’s in Hollywood were an extremely productive time: hundreds of feature films were made, including many in the Film Noir genre. Film Noir is described as stylish, black and white crime dramas often with a hardboiled detective and a femme fatale as main characters. Some books adapted into Film Noir include: Dashiell Hammett’s
The Maltese Falcon
(1941) and
The Glass Key
(1942); Graham Greene’s
This Gun for Hire
(1942);
Murder My Sweet
(1944) and
The Big Sleep
(1946) novels by Raymond Chandler.
Scarlett Street
(1945) based on
La Chienne
by Georges de La Fouchardiere and directed by Fritz Lang.
Author James M. Cain’s novels were the source of three popular Film Noirs:
Double Indemnity
(1944),
The Postman Always Rings Twice
, (1946) and
Mildred Pierce
(1945) with Oscar-winner Joan Crawford.
There was also an abundance of literary adaptations in the 1940’s including: Alfred Hitchcock’s
Rebecca
(1940) story by Daphne du Maurier;
The Letter
(1940), based on the play by W. Somerset Maugham and starring Bette Davis; Jane Austen’s 1813 novel,
Pride and Prejudice
(1940) with Greer Garson.
How Green Was My Valley
(1941) book by Richard Llewellyn – winner of the Oscar for Best Picture;
Mrs. Miniver
(1942) based on the novel by Jan Struther.
Technicolor came into its own in the 1940’s with such films as: the swashbuckler
The Black Swan
(1942) by Rafael Sabatini starring Tyrone Power; Enid Bagnold’s
National Velvet
(1944) with a young Elizabeth Taylor; the beloved musical,
Meet Me In St. Louis
(1944) starring Judy Garland and based on a series of short stories by Sally Benson and Louisa May Alcott’s enduring classic,
Little Women
(1949).
Interesting trivia: Two of the most celebrated films of the 1940’s –
Casablanca
with a star turn by Humphrey Bogart and Orson Welles’s
Citizen Kane
were not adapted from novels or short stories, but were original screenplays.
The performance of Dame Olivia de Havilland, (about to turn 104 in July), in 1949’s
The Heiress
is considered by many as the finest film acting ever; she deservedly won her second Oscar. Based on the graceful 1880 novel,
Washington Square
, by Henry James, this film adaptation underscores how books can brilliantly be turned into films. Interesting trivia: Henry James is buried in Cambridge, MA in the James family plot.
Some sites to check out:
~ Nathan @ PSB
Nathan's next up: Authors in Tinseltown
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Recently, I've been cooking more homecooked meals than ever before. Recipes that I never had time to make are all of sudden making their way into my kitchen. Kare raisu which directly translates to curry rice in Japanese is a staple in my home. You can make the curry from scratch, but I use the roux curry packages because they are so good. Although I make kare raisu often, I rarely ever make tonkatsu (pork cutlet) because previously, I worked three jobs and attended college full time (I'm a graduate now yay). Who has the time to make tonkatsu??? It turns out, thanks to the quarantine, we all (okay not all of us, but some of us) have the time to make tonkatsu.
Tonkatsu curry (pork cutlet Japanese curry) recipe!
I just follow the instructions on the roux box, I get the Vermont curry (hot) brand, but they're all very similar. The ingredients on the Vermont curry package is:
- 1 box House Vermont Curry Sauce Mix
- 1.1lb Meat (of your choice or you can omit the meat for a vegetarian curry)
- 4 Onions (I actually just use one big yellow or sweet onion)
- 3 Potatoes (I use Korean sweet potatoes but russet potatoes go well with this)
- 1 Carrot
- 2tbsp Oil
- 6 Cups of water (or 5 1/2 cups of water if cooking in a covered pot)
Instructions:
- Cut the meat and vegetables into bite-size pieces, pre-heat oil in pot, and cook well (about 8 mins)
- Add water and bring to boil, simmer over low to medium heat until ingredients become soft (about 15 mins)
- Remove from heat, break curry sauce into pot and blend
- Cook over low heat until curry thickens (about 10 mins), serve over rice
Fun note: "Vermont Curry is the number-one selling brand of Japanese curry roux. It was first introduced in 1963 in Japan...The origin of "Vermont" in Vermont Curry dates back to a book entitled "Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health." The book sparked a health fad that included drinking a mixture of apple cider vinegar and honey. This eventually found its way to Japan, sparking a health fad there that came to be known as the "
Vermont Health System
."
For the tonkatsu part of the meal, I used
this recipe
and it turned out successfully! The best place to purchase all ingredients in these recipes is HMart in Cambridge (or Burlington). HMart offers delivery through Instacart and they have online ordering available as well. Or Ebisuya Market in Medford, MA - local Japanese market that is very quiet and easy to shop at right now. If you end up making Tonkatsu Curry, please let me know how your dish turns out! Good luck cooking!
-
Sinny
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We had this one here last night, but Meaghan is just so great at these. Here she is again reading from Coraline if you didn't finish watching last night.
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And of course, don't forget to meet us over at our Instagram story at 8:45pm for tonight's live bedtime reading!
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Support Cafe Zing baristas!
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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?
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Featured Staff Pick For Kids
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Brown Girl Ghosted
by Mintie Das
Violet Choudbury sees dead people, and in particular the recently murdered queen bee of her cheerleading squad.
For one of a handful of brown girls in a small Illinois town, who wants only to blend in, this is not working well. I thoroughly enjoyed this original, fun, and fast-paced story.
-- Robin
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From the beginning until the end. Like a normal person.
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Start at the beginning, then check the end, then double back to the middle.
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Random. It's chaos. Just like me.
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I read all books in one sitting. That's the important bit.
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I mostly listen to books, so as the speaker reads it.
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I listen to all my books at 2x speed.
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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.
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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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