Virtual Events with Elizabeth Wetmore, Alix E. Harrow, Sonali Dev & more!
May 2020
Curbside Pickup, Virtual Events & MORE Gratitude
Dear Friends of Women & Children First,
We hope you're staying healthy and safe as we prepare for a very different spring ahead!
On April 25, our Independent Bookstore Day did not bring the usual hustle and bustle into the bookstore, but we did receive our 20,000th online order. We are deeply grateful for every order, every email that urges us to "hang in there," and every photo posted on Instagram of your most recent #BookMail from @wcfbook! Be sure to save the date: Saturday, Aug. 29 is the rescheduled date for IRL Indie Bookstore Day!
When we first heard the governor’s announcement that curbside pickup could begin for retail businesses, we were excited about lowering shipping costs for you--(and us!)--and getting our local customers their books faster! But then we began to wrestle with concerns about health, safety, and logistics. The reality is that even contactless curbside pickup will increase potential for human contact and, in turn, increase the health risks for Lynn, Sarah, and Jamie and their loved ones. With that in mind, we ask that you please read and follow these guidelines to keep curbside pickup as safe as possible! This is a bit of a test run for us. If we don’t feel it’s working, we’ll reassess and let you know.
For those of you spending a lot more time on our website, we hope you've enjoyed the new book lists under the RECOMMENDATIONS tab on the homepage! We've seen more and more orders rolling in from lists like Romance We Love and Comfort Reads for Anxious Times. Thanks to our awesome booksellers who are working remotely to collaborate on these great lists!
Speaking of our amazing staff, we hope these pics of how we are spending our days bring you a little joy! We miss you!
With love & thanks,
W&CF
Jamie fulfilling a mountain of online orders!
Lynn getting all the books properly sorted and ready to ship!
Sarah shipping books to everywhere from Andersonville to Alaska!
H. Melt took a break from updating our website to complete the Little Feminists puzzle and read an advanced copy of World of Wonders!
Karlee's new pup, Hazel, is a big fan of romance and middle grade novels!
Gwen likes to keep Kaylie company when she's responding to customer emails!
It's nice to see one another's faces--even if it's just on Zoom!
Join us as we celebrate the paperback release of Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. For this event, Harrow will read from the book and answer audience questions—plus, you’ll get a sneak peak of her upcoming novel, The Once and Future Witches, to be published in October 2020.
Saturday, May 16 at 3 p.m. CST
Queer Story Hour with Lindz Amer!
VIRTUAL KIDS EVENT
Raise your rainbow flag and sing along! Lindz Amer, creator of the LGBTQ+ webseries
Queer Kid Stuff and the new family podcast
Activist, You! hosts this music and story hour for kids of all ages (especially little ones ages 3–7)! RSVP on Facebook to gain access to this virtual event.
“Fierce and complex, Valentine is a novel of moral urgency and breathtaking prose. This is the very definition of a stunning debut.”
— Ann Patchett
Join us for a virtual author reading and conversation in honor of Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore--now a New York Times bestseller! We're sorry to have to move this event to virtual space but thrilled to help celebrate this local author and her acclaimed debut!
Chef Ashna Raje desperately needs a new strategy. How else can she save her beloved restaurant and prove to her estranged, overachieving mother that she isn’t a complete screw up? When she’s asked to join the cast of Cooking with the Stars, the latest hit reality show teaming chefs with celebrities, it seems like just the leap of faith she needs to put her restaurant back on the map. She’s a chef, what’s the worst that could happen?
In this extended lyric essay, a poet mines her lifelong experience with migraine to deliver a marvelously idiosyncratic cultural history of pain--how we experience, express, treat, and mistreat it. Her sources range from the trial of Joan of Arc to the essays of Virginia Woolf and Elaine Scarry to Hugh Laurie's portrayal of Gregory House on House M.D.
When Paul Lisicky arrived in Provincetown in the early 1990s, he was leaving behind a history of family trauma to live in a place outside of time, known for its values of inclusion, acceptance, and art. In this idyllic haven, Lisicky searches for love and connection and comes into his own as he finds a sense of belonging.
Please join us for a virtual event with Carter Sickels for a conversation with Rebecca Makkai about Sickels' new novel, The Prettiest Star. This event will be held on Facebook Live! Join us on Women & Children First's Facebook page.
Small-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he's chosen to return to die.
Raechel Anne Jolie's early life in a working-class Cleveland exurb was full of race cars, Budweiser-drinking men covered in car grease, and the women who loved them. After her father came home from his third-shift job, took the garbage out to the curb and was hit by a drunk driver, her life changed.
