Sci-fi/Fantasy Book Club

Please join us for our newest book club: Sci-fi/Fantasy Book Club! Meetings with be led by bookseller Connor. We'll meet on the third Monday of every month at 7pm at Porter Square Books in Cambridge (1815 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140). For details on this month's book, <a href="https://live-portersq1741858883.pantheonsite.io/porter-square-books-book-clubs">please visit this page</a>!

Porter Square Books

Alexis Soloski, author of Flashout, in conversation with Sarah Weinman

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Alexis Soloski for&nbsp;her lastest novel, <a href="https://portersquarebooks.com/book/9781250883643">Flashout</a>.&nbsp;Author Sarah Weinman will join Soloski in conversation.&nbsp; This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT FLASHOUT A thrill-seeking young woman joins a radical theater troupe in this taut, suspenseful novel of art, seduction, and the deadly limits of liberation. New York, 1972. A cloistered college student slips out of the dorms to attend a performance by a legendary experimental performance troupe. Within months, she has left campus life behind and joined the company, infatuated by its charismatic leader and his promises of absolute freedom. California, 1997. A theater teacher at an exclusive private school receives an unsettling letter. With her job at risk and her past clawing at her carefully constructed present, what will she do to protect the life she has made? Riveting and atmospheric, Flashout is a coruscating coming-of-age story and an immersive thriller exploring the enchantments and perils of art. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Alexis Soloski is a prize-winning New York Times culture reporter and a former lead theater critic at The Village Voice. She has taught at Barnard College and at Columbia University, where she earned her PhD in theater. She lives in Brooklyn with her family. Here in the Dark is her first novel. Sarah Weinman is the author of The Real Lolita, Scoundrel, and Without Consent, forthcoming from Ecco/HarperCollins on November 11, 2025, as well as the editor of several anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. She writes the Crime &amp; Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review and her work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. Weinman also writes the “Crime Lady” newsletter, covering crime fiction, true crime, and all points in between. PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.

PSB: Boston Edition Silent Reading Party

The Silent Reading Party continues! You can either BYOB (bring your own book) or buy a book here! We’ll be sitting and reading quietly for an hour, followed by some discussion about what we read. Or not, if you don’t feel like talking! Snacks, refreshments, and excellent book recommendations will be provided.

Porter Square Books: Boston Edition

Marguerite Holloway, author of Take to the Trees, in conversation with Amy Johnson

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Marguerite Holloway for&nbsp;her book <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9781324036449">Take to the Trees</a>.&nbsp;Amy Johnson will join Holloway in conversation.&nbsp; This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT TAKE TO THE TREES One of Heatmap's Climate Books to Read in 2025 An empowering journey into the overstory with the arborists and forest experts safeguarding our iconic trees. Journalist Marguerite Holloway arrives at the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop as a climbing novice, but with a passion for trees and a deep concern about their future. Run by twin sister tree doctors Bear LeVangie and Melissa LeVangie Ingersoll, the workshop helps people—from everyday tree lovers to women arborists working in a largely male industry—develop impressive technical skills and ascend into the canopy. As Holloway tackles unfamiliar equipment and dizzying heights, she learns about the science of trees and tells the stories of charismatic species, including hemlock, aspen, Atlantic white cedar, oak, and beech. She spotlights experts who are chronicling the great dying that is underway in forests around the world as trees face simultaneous and accelerating threats from drought, heat, floods, disease, and other disruptions. As she climbs, Holloway also comes to understand the profound significance of trees in her relationship with her late mother and brother. The book’s rousing final chapter offers something new: a grander environmental and arboreal optimism, in which the story of trees and their resilience meshes with that of people working to steward the forests of the future, and of community found among fellow tree climbers. A lyrical work of memoir and reportage, Take to the Trees sounds the alarm about rapid arboreal decline while also offering hope about how we might care for our forests and ourselves. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;TAKE TO THE TREES Like the trees that it centers, this wonder of a book soars, oxygenates, roots, connects, and awes. It’s a paean to all things arboreal, a memoir about loss and community, and a call to engage in acts of caretaking for our trees and for each other. To do any one of these things well would have made for a good book; to do them all beautifully is a true gift. — Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of I Contain Multitudes and Immense Worlds Take to the Trees invites us to contemplate pushing past our own limits up into the treetops, as well as respecting the guidance of trees. I learned much from this wise book, and can only hope that many readers follow this writer up into the highest branches, to gain an understanding of where we are planted on this earth. Holloway’s insights are urgent and necessary. — Sarah Ruhl, MacArthur fellow, playwright, and author of Smile In her powerful and affecting book, Marguerite Holloway makes a case for how caretaking trees is really caretaking ourselves, and each other. — Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix ABOUT THE AUTHORS Marguerite Holloway is a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and has written for the New York Times and the New Yorker, among other publications. She is the author of The Measure of Manhattan, and she lives in New York. Amy Johnson’s short fiction and poetry have been published in Diabolical Plots, Escape Pod, Fantasy Magazine, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, and Small Wonders. Her short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won NESFA’s Short Story Contest, and she was a City of Somerville Fellow in Literature in 2022. An author, anthologist, and scholar, she edited the Drones &amp; Dreams (2019), Imagining a Democratic Future: Speculative Fiction (2023), and Stories from (Un)Identified Worlds (2023) anthologies and regularly runs workshops using speculative fiction techniques to explore the societal impacts of technology and social change. She’s currently working on a speculative suspense novel. PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.&nbsp;

Story Time with Michelle Cusolito, author of In the World of Whales

Porter Square Books&nbsp;is delighted to welcome author Michelle Cusolito&nbsp;for a story time featuring her picture book <a href="https://portersquarebooks.com/book/9780823453429">In the World of Whales</a>! The author will lead a drawing activity following the story read aloud.&nbsp; This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT IN THE WORLD OF WHALES Plunge deep into the awe-inspiring true story of a freediver’s encounter with a newborn sperm whale and its family. When a freediver (one who dives without the benefit of oxygen) slips underwater, he encounters a pod of sperm whales so close he can almost touch them. When he sees blood in the water, he wonders if there's been an injury. When he comes even closer, what he finds instead is a moments-old calf, skin wrinkly and tail fluke still folded from the womb.&nbsp; The calf’s family nudges it up to breathe; nudges it toward each member of the pod, by way of introduction; and then it happens—the mother nudges her child toward the diver, inviting him, too, to share in the family moment.&nbsp; Told from the vantage point of Belgian freediver Fred Buyle, who with his diving partner Kurt Amsler are the only people known to be present at the birth of a sperm whale, In the World of Whales features lyrical-yet-precise text by Michelle Cusolito and dreamlike illustrations by Jessica Lanan, creator of the Sibert Honor book Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider. Any child who dreams of speaking to animals will adore this proof of humanity’s bond with the wild world. At the end of the story, find more information about freediving and whales. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;IN THE WORLD OF WHALES "This breath-by-breath glimpse offers a magnificent snapshot of an otherwise hidden moment that conveys with deep emotional impact the parallels of creaturely life." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "If ever the description of a rare natural encounter will leave readers filled with wonder, look to these spare, luminous observations of a sperm-whale pod clustering about a just-born calf."—Booklist (starred review) "It is refreshing to have a book celebrating awhale birth. . . .The text incorporates effervescent onomatopoeia with whooshing exhales and pfff-ing bubbles. . . . Lanan’s depiction of the ocean is masterful. . . . A masterpiece of illustration, this book is essential for all collections."—School Library Journal (starred) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michelle Cusolito is the author of Flying Deep: Climb Inside Deep-Sea Submersible Alvin, winner of the PEN-NE Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award; Diving Deep: Using Machines to Explore the Ocean, and Window into the Ocean Twilight Zone: Twenty Four Days of Science at Sea. A marine biology major before pivoting to education, she has always found chances to pursue science, such as a summer spent tagging butterflies as a research assistant in Ecuador. She lives with her family in Southeastern Massachusetts. PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; On your way out, scan your ticket at one of the kiosks located in the building and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.

Be the Change Workshop with Rachel Hands: Leading in Times of Crisis

A workshop for people finding themselves in positions of leadership in times of crisis (i.e., now).&nbsp; It’s easy to feel stuck, even when you have a "leader" title: Often, no one tells you what your focus should be, or what kind of authority you really have, and it’s hard to know what to do. There's a real fear of causing harm to the people around you, and no one teaches you to use your power responsibly, or gives you the time it takes to figure out how do that. But we don't have time for people in positions of power to be immobilized, so this workshop is designed to help participants thoughtfully define their own focus, figure out what they can do to use their power while minimizing harm, and do it.&nbsp; The workshop consists of a preamble to situate folks to the project at hand, a lot of reflection time with guided questions, and time at the end to commit to specific next actions. It reflects the crisis approach Rachel Hands has developed alongside many brilliant colleagues, while leading teams and supporting developing leaders for over a decade (a time that of course included all the negative impacts of Trump 1.0, racist and transphobic violence, COVID, and so. many. layoffs).&nbsp; Porter Square Books will be donating 20% of sales from 5PM-7PM on July 27 to Community Action Agency of Somerville. Learn more about them <a href="https://www.caasomerville.org/">here</a>! This workshop will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT RACHEL HANDS Rachel Hands is a writer, PSB regular, and music-major-turned-manager committed to building more equitable, effective, sustainable teams. When she’s not working or writing, she can usually be found hyping experimental music/art/books to her cat and friends in Somerville.&nbsp;

Cambridge Edition Book Club

Please join us for our PSB Cambridge Edition Book Club, led by bookseller Wendy! We'll meet on the fourth Monday of every month at 7pm at Porter Square Books in Cambridge (1815 Mass Ave Cambridge, MA 02140). For details on this month's book pick, <a href="https://live-portersq1741858883.pantheonsite.io/porter-square-books-book-clubs">visit this page</a>, and to participate in an ongoing online discussion and see what other members have to say, <a href="https://padlet.com/wwunderblum/9cc49smddlajzua4">visit this page</a>!

Gloria Chao, author of The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club, in conversation with Jilly Gagnon

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Gloria Chao for&nbsp;the release of <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9780778387213">The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club</a>. Jilly Gagnon will join Chao in conversation.&nbsp; This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT THE EX-GIRLFRIEND MURDER CLUB In this laugh-out-loud murder mystery, three women dating the same man band together to get revenge, but when they discover his body, they'll need to solve his murder before they go down for it. The body in the closet was going to be a problem. Kathryn Hu knew it. Yes, Tucker Jones was a cheating scumbag, and yes, she'd agreed to meet Olivia and Elle--Tucker's other girlfriends--to exact revenge for all he'd put them through... But then they found him. Dead. Do they look guilty? Yes. Do they feel guilty for having wished him dead just hours before? Maybe a little. But--solid motive and a crime scene covered in their DNA aside--they're innocent. They swear. To clear their names, Kat, Olivia, and Elle team up to find the real killer. But as they go undercover and lie to everyone, including the hot detective working the case, they realize that every person in their ex's life had a reason to want him dead. Will they uncover the truth before they go down for a murder they didn't commit? Filled with humor and shenanigans, The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club is a romp of an adventure by award-winning author Gloria Chao, perfect for fans of Dial A for Aunties, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It and John Tucker Must Die. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Gloria Chao is an author and screenwriter. Her award-winning novels include The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club, Ex Marks the Spot, When You Wish Upon a Lantern, Rent a Boyfriend, Our Wayward Fate, and American Panda. She graduated from MIT, then became a dentist before realizing she’d rather spend her days in fictional characters’ heads instead of real people’s mouths. When she’s not writing, you can find her on the curling ice, where she and her husband are world-ranked in mixed doubles. Visit her tea-and-book-filled world at GloriaChao.wordpress.com and find her on Instagram and X @GloriacChao. Jilly Gagnon is currently based in Salem, Massachusetts, but is originally from Minnesota, a fact she’ll likely inform you of within minutes of meeting you. She is the author of What If It's You?; Love You, Mean It; Scenes of the Crime; All Dressed Up; and #famous (a young adult novel). PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.&nbsp;

John Hanson Mitchell, author of The Garden at the End of Time

Porter Square Books&nbsp;is excited to welcome John Hanson Mitchell&nbsp;to celebrate the release of his book&nbsp;<a href="https://portersquarebooks.com/book/9781625348708">The Garden at the End of Time.</a> This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT THE GARDEN AT THE END OF TIME John Hanson Mitchell has long written about his garden outside of Boston, and about the plants and animals with whom he shares this land. In 2022, the United Nations and others started reporting the true severity of the climate crisis as the Earth passed a point of no return. All across the globe it was the worst year on record for climate-related disasters, including extinctions, deadly floods, massive fires, and dramatic droughts, all of which have worsened since that year. Mitchell, like so many, felt overwhelmed. He looked to the story of Voltaire’s Candide, and settled on the famous aphorism from that book: “We must cultivate our garden.” The Garden at the End of Time features Mitchell’s trademark blend of science, literature, and anecdote as he processes both the information he is reading from various sources and what it prompts him to do in his own small corner of the world. The story that unfolds is one of Mitchell diversifying his plantings; fighting what he sees as unnecessary local development; walking through and observing changes in the wild lands nearby; continuing to read the news from around the world; and meditating on other moments, real and imagined, when people sought refuge even as they did their part to improve a personally and collectively stressful situation. Readers discover the impossibility of separating gardening from global warming, while also seeing the solace that exposure to plants can offer, in addition to their contribution to carbon consumption. With gravitas, kindness, and wit, Mitchell offers a model for maintaining a connection to nature even as it reels from manmade threats.&nbsp; &nbsp; ABOUT THE AUTHOR Along with his nonfiction work, John Hanson Mitchell was the founder and editor of the award winning journal, Sanctuary, published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. In 2001 he won a Vogelstein grant for Following the Sun. He was awarded an honorary PhD from Fitchburg State University for his work on the book Ceremonial Time and was given three different grants for his work on Looking for Mr. Gilbert. He is also winner of the John Burroughs Essay Award for his Sanctuary piece, "Of Time and the River". In 2000, he was given the New England Booksellers' Award for the body of his work.&nbsp; Ceremonial Time was Editor's Choice at the NYT'S Book Review; most of his other works were favorably reviewed in the Times, the Boston Globe, Washington Post, L.A. Times, London Times Literary Supplement, etc.&nbsp;Six books based on the square mile of land featured in Ceremonial Time have been republished by the University of New England Press, collected together as "The Scratch Flat Chronicles". Stray Leaves, a collection of his Sanctuary essays, was published in 2015.&nbsp; Mitchell attended the Sorbonne and is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in comparative literature. A former journalist, he has had assignments in Kerala in southern India and also the South China Sea and has written extensively about Western Europe. He was editor of The Curious Naturalist, and a co-author, with Chris Leahy and Tom Conuel, of the coffee table edition of The Nature of Massachusetts (1998), illustrated by the internationally-recognized Swedish painter Lars Jonsson. PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.&nbsp;

Reading Romance Boston - Book Club

Join the local book club Reading Romance Boston, which meets at Porter Square Books: Boston Edition (50 Liberty Dr. Boston, MA 02210). All are welcome! For details on this month's book pick, <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/porter-square-books-book-clubs">visit this page</a>.

Carolyn Marie Wilkins author of Murder at the Wham Bam Club, in conversation with Laura West

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Carolyn Marie Wilkins for&nbsp;her novel <a href="https://portersquarebooks.com/book/9781496754714">Murder at the Wham Bam Club</a>.&nbsp;Laura West will join Wilkins in conversation.&nbsp; This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT MURDER AT THE WHAM BAM CLUB As Prohibition era speakeasies and Jazz Age excitement reign supreme throughout a deeply divided country at the height of the Roaring 20s, a young psychic in small town Illinois helps the Black community fight crime and corruption in this thrilling historical mystery written by a real-life psychic medium and jazz pianist. After the death of her brave Harlem Hellfighter husband during the First World War, young widow Nola Ann Jackson returned to her hometown of Agate, Illinois, to live with her Aunt Sarah, a known local psychic. Under her aunt’s care and tutelage, Nola has been learning how to tap into her own intuitive gifts and communicate with the spirits. And she will rely on their insightful guidance when she’s asked to help investigate a woman’s disappearance. Lilly Davidson, the missing woman, was living at the Phyllis Wheatley Institute for Colored Girls where young ladies are educated and prepared to follow bright futures. But she vanished after a night at the Wham Bam Club where jazz music swings, prohibition is defied, and other vices are encouraged. Lilly was seen fraternizing with Eddie Smooth, trumpeter and leader of the St. Louis Stompers—and a notorious pimp. Nola finds Lilly at the club alive and well, supposedly engaged to Eddie. That same night, the Wham Bam is set afire and Eddie is killed by gunfire, leaving Lilly on the run, a suspected murderer. Eddie Smooth had shady dealings with Agate’s wealthy elite, Black and white, making plenty of enemies with motives for wanting him dead. He was also a notorious womanizer who left several broken hearts in his wake. To prove Lilly’s innocence, Nola must listen to her spiritual instincts to unravel political schemes and personal vendettas to find a killer desperate to cover up a scandalous conspiracy . . . PRAISE FOR&nbsp;MURDER AT THE WHAM BAM CLUB "Murder at the Wham Bam Club is a well-plotted mystery that will introduce mystery lovers to a dynamic new sleuth, Nola Jackson. Culturally rich and full of period detail, this mystery has everything including good food, music, and a paranormal touch.” —Valerie Burns, author of A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death “In Murder at the Wham Bam Club, psychic Nola Ann Jackson uses her abilities to help her community fight against crime. Set amidst the high times and corruption during the Roaring Twenties Jazz Age, Nola must use psychic arts to save a young woman who goes missing from Wham Bam Club. Fast-paced, scandalous— Nola is a detective to watch.” —Vanessa Riley, award-winning author of Island Queen and The Lady Worthing Mysteries “Murder at the Wham Bam Club is a powerful, impressive, and entertaining debut with well-developed, diverse, and unforgettable characters.&nbsp;The plotline, descriptions of the characters, and dialogue are so real, it's hard to believe that this is a work of fiction. If you only read a few books a year, make this one of them.” —Mary Monroe, New York Times bestselling author ABOUT THE AUTHORS Carolyn Marie Wilkins is a practicing psychic medium, a Santeria priestess, and a professor at Berklee College of Music Online. An accomplished jazz pianist and vocalist, she has toured South America as a Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department. She is a member of Crime Writers of Color and Sisters in Crime New England. When she is not writing, performing, or offering Reiki to students at Berklee, Carolyn maintains a private practice in healing and mediumship. She lives in the Boston area. Laura West is a Master Teacher of Japanese Reiki, Herbalist and Spiritual Counselor who has been “Bringing Eastern Health to the West” since 2009 through her work involving intuitive development, meditations, herbalism (via essential oils) and Reiki. She helps people discover their innate wisdom and their own healing capacity. Laura has been featured on the radio, on TV and in magazines and blogs. This includes the Gaiam TV blog, Carolyn Wilkins' TV Show - Carolyn's Psychic Playroom, The Herbal Academy blog, Boston Voyager Magazine, Achieve Radio’s Walking the Path Radio Show, All Business Media's Radio Show and meditations featured in the Insight Meditation community, just to name a few. She has also made various guest appearances and collaborations with colleagues in the health and wellness field. Laura has also supported the work of the Celebration of Reiki, Inc., a Massachusetts non-profit organization dedicated to Reiki education and outreach, serving many roles including conference panelist, conference planner, solo lecturer, and Board of Directors member. In addition to her holistic healing practice, Laura holds a Master of Education degree and has worked in the field of early childhood education since 1999. PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.

Joe Pan, author of Florida Palms, in conversation with Allison Adair

Porter Square Books&nbsp;is excited to welcome Joe Pan&nbsp;to celebrate the release of his debut novel <a href="https://portersquarebooks.com/book/9781668052181">Florida Palms</a>. Writer Allison Adair will join Pan in conversation. This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT FLORIDA PALMS The Outsiders meet Sons of Anarchy in this gripping debut about a group of young men dragged into a drug-running operation. It’s 2009, the height of the Great Recession. Best friends Eddy, Cueball, and Jesse are fresh out of high school and wild at heart, but the economy is in the dumps. With jobs scarce along Florida’s Space Coast, they join a furniture-moving company run by Cueball’s father, a gruff ex-con biker who’s supposedly retired from the fast life. But when a mysterious old boss arrives in town, the payload is switched out, and the young men are coerced into shipping a new designer drug up the East Coast. What is advertised as a bastion of brotherhood and respect quickly spirals into back-alley deals, bloodshed, and an all-out turf war that will test the bounds of love and friendship. Enticed by larger paychecks, and fueled by burgeoning drug habits, the young friends find themselves trapped between rank opportunists, warring gangsters, meth zombies, crazed bikers, and a blowgun-wielding hitman, all vying for a shot at the big time. Soaring, ambitious, and deeply humane, Florida Palms is a gritty coming-of-age story with enormous heart and an unflinching vision of the violence and inequities facing forgotten communities. In a relentless race against desperate circumstances, the young friends must fully embrace the crime life or abandon their loyalties and risk ending up face down in the muck of the unforgiving swamps. PRAISE FOR FLORIDA PALMS "Transfixing...A must-read. Pan’s intense drama has a&nbsp;Sons of Anarchy&nbsp;vibe but with a greater pathos."—Library Journal (starred) "If Florida is purgatory with a sun,&nbsp;Florida Palms&nbsp;exposes what happens to the young men who grow up in the shadows—a tightly plotted page-turner filled with gangsters, brotherhood, and betrayal. Joe Pan is an extraordinarily skilled writer, but his genius is his empathy, understanding that good people sometimes do bad things. What if you turned eighteen in the wrong neighborhood and found yourself surrounded by drug dealers, bikers, and eccentric hitmen? These are characters no reader will forget."&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;—Alexander Boldizar, author of&nbsp;The Man Who Saw Seconds ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joe Pan's debut novel, Florida Palms, is now available from Simon &amp; Schuster, and has been optioned for a TV series by HBO. Author of five poetry collections, Pan’s work has appeared in such publications as the Boston Review, Hyperallergic, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Review of Books, and Poets &amp; Writers, and has been profiled in the New York Post, Publishers Weekly, the Rumpus, and the Wall Street Journal. Joe is the founding publisher and editor-in-chief of Brooklyn Arts Press, a small press honored with a National Book Award in Poetry, and is publisher of Augury Books, honored with a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. With his wife he co-founded Brooklyn Artists Helping (BAH), which serves unhoused populations with sleeping bags, backpacks, and goods. He lives in Hollywood, California. Allison Adair’s The Clearing (Milkweed) was named a 2020 New York Times "New and Noteworthy" book, and her work has appeared in the Best American Poetry and Pushcart anthologies. Originally from central Pennsylvania, Allison lives in Boston and teaches at Boston College. PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; On your way out, scan your ticket at one of the kiosks located in the building and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.

Nalini Jones, author of The Unbroken Coast, in conversation with Jim Shepard

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Nalini Jones for&nbsp;her novel <a href="https://portersquarebooks.com/book/9781400042777">The Unbroken Coast</a>.&nbsp; This event will take place at our CAMBRIDGE store. We offer validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below. RSVP <a href="https://portersquarebooks.com/event/2025-09-03/nalini-jones-author-unbroken-coast-conversation-jim-shepard">here </a>to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!* *Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add <a href="mailto:events@portersquarebooks.com">events@portersquarebooks.com</a> to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam! ABOUT THE UNBROKEN COAST A stunning debut novel set in and around a Mumbai fishing village that follows the friendship between a young girl struggling to find her place in the world, and an aging historian reckoning with his past. ​On the night his granddaughter is born in America, Professor Francis Almeida rides a bicycle through his quiet Catholic neighborhood in a suburb of Mumbai. It is 1978. He has recently retired, his grown children are scattered across the globe, and for the first time in decades, he is not sure what he should do next. A few streets from his home, in the heart of a Koli fishing village, he encounters a young mother praying for her baby daughter, ill with dengue fever, at the shrine of Our Lady of Navigators. He hopes the child will live. Nearly a decade later, Francis meets the child again. She is Celia, daughter of a fisherman who is running from a debt collector. When an accident brings their families together, both Celia and Francis find themselves with unexpected new allies. Spanning the turbulent years when Bombay became Mumbai, at time when environmental and economic pressures are just beginning to change the fortunes of indigenous fisherfolk, The Unbroken Coast is a lyrical novel that explores memory, faith, storytelling, and the nature of home. PRAISE FOR THE UNBROKEN COAST “What a beautifully formed novel. With its changing portraits of two families in a Catholic fishing village outside Mumbai, The Unbroken Coast does what the best fiction does—it is utterly particular and utterly large. And I could not put it down.” —Joan Silber, author of Improvement and Mercy “The Unbroken Coast is a beguiling epic about a Catholic community in Mumbai grappling with the treacheries of progress and the inexorable march of time. Illness devastates the novel’s humble, endearing protagonist, who bravely crosses class boundaries in her enthralling search for peace. Readers will find a home in Jones’s razor-sharp portraits of family life.” —Hirsh Sawhney, author of South Haven ABOUT THE AUTHORS Nalini Jones is the author of a story collection, What You Call Winter. Her writing has appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, Guernica, Elle India, Scroll, and numerous other publications in the U.S. and India. She has been awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Literature Fellowship, among other honors, and her short story “Tiger” was selected for O. Henry and Pushcart prizes. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, daughters, and dogs, and teaches at Fairfield University. Jim Shepard has written eight novels, including&nbsp;The Book of Aron, which won the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish Literature, the PEN/New England Award for Fiction, and the Clark Fiction Prize, and six story collections, including&nbsp;Like You’d Understand, Anyway, a finalist for the National Book Award and Story Prize winner, and&nbsp;The Queen of Bad Influences, forthcoming in Fall 2026.&nbsp;&nbsp;Eight of his stories have been chosen for the&nbsp;Best American Short Stories, two for the&nbsp;PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and three for Pushcart Prizes.&nbsp;He teaches at Williams College. PARKING Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket. When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.&nbsp; Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.&nbsp;

Book Swap at PSB: Boston Edition

Do you have a bunch of books hanging out that you know you're not going to read again? Trade them with other readers for new books! Come by Porter Square Books: Boston Edition with up to three books and leave with the same number. How the swap works: Each attendee will be able to given one number per book they bring, and then each person will get to pick a book from the table in the front. Please note: you must leave with the same number of books you arrived with! You cannot leave unwanted books at the store! This event started out as part of our Winter Event Series and was so popular that we're continuing it into the spring and summer. Snacks and beverages will be available for purchase at Travelmug Cafe!

PSB: Boston Edition Book Club

Please join us for the Porter Square Books: BOSTON EDITION Book Club! We'll be meeting on the second Wednesday of each month at 6pm at Porter Square Books: Boston Edition (50 Liberty Dr. Boston, MA 02210). For details on this month's book pick, <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/porter-square-books-book-clubs">visit this page</a>. Please RSVP to let us know you're coming!

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

Community recs 💬

S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S17: interest based

Your guide to everything free in and around Boston. From events, to fairs, to festivals, to outdoors. Joyraft has all the free events happening near you.

100+ free things to do in Boston and beyond

Free things to do in Boston

Free things to do

S19: interest based

Kid-friendly events in Boston

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.

Where

psb_events

Experiences