Claire Jia, author of Wanting

Porter Square Books&nbsp;and GrubStreet are excited to welcome Claire Jia&nbsp;to celebrate the release of her book&nbsp;<a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9781963108279">Wanting</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 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! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This event is co-sponsored by <a href="https://grubstreet.org/">GrubStreet</a>. ABOUT WANTING A searing debut novel of envy, longing, and regret across three lives and two countries that asks how far we’ll go for a friendship, a romance, a dream. Ye Lian is thriving in Beijing. She has a well-paid job, a nice boyfriend, and plans to marry and move into a luxury high-rise apartment. She’s wanting for nothing–until her childhood best friend, Luo Wenyu, comes whirling back into her life after a decade in California with seemingly everything–a successful career as an influencer, a millionaire American fiancé, and a bespoke mansion in the Beijing suburbs–throwing Lian’s own reliable choices into high relief. As the two women rekindle their friendship, Wenyu reveals a shocking secret about a past love that pushes Lian to question her own relationship. A few neighborhoods away, aging architect Song Chen is forced to confront his own past and the dissolution of his marriage as he’s tasked with building Wenyu’s dream home. And when the dark side of Wenyu’s enviable life emerges and threatens everything Lian and Wenyu have built for themselves, they must make a choice between the stable known and the frightening unknown that may have devastating and unexpected consequences. In girlhood memories and karaoke afternoons in Xidan Square, in aspirational YouTube channels and billboard ads, in private hotel rendezvous and secret WeChat messages, Claire Jia’s debut novel is a love letter to friendship; a powder keg of impossible, interwoven desires; a siren song that explores why, even as it destroys us, we always want more. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claire Jia is a writer from Illinois. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, The Rumpus, Reductress, and more. She writes for television and video games, including the 2024 Peabody Award-winning We Are OFK. She lives in Los Angeles with her friends. Wanting (Tin House) is her debut novel.&nbsp; 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;

Porter Square Books

Cambridge Silent Reading Party

The Silent Reading Party comes to Cambridge! 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!

PSB: Boston Edition Book Club

Please join us for the&nbsp;Porter Square Books: BOSTON EDITION Book Club! We'll be meeting on the second Wednesday of each month&nbsp;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!

Porter Square Books: Boston Edition

Paul Doiron, author of Skin and Bones, in conversation with Paula Munier

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Paul Doiron for&nbsp;his book <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9781250382122">Skin and Bones</a>.&nbsp;Paula Munier will join Doiron 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 SKIN AND BONES For the first time in print, Skin and Bones features a collection of eight gripping original short stories in the bestselling Mike Bowditch series—including one brand new, never-before-published story—from Edgar-award nominated author Paul Doiron. In THE BEAR TRAP, legendary Maine woodsman and bush pilot Charley Stevens tries to convince young Mike of the dangers awaiting rookie game wardens. RABID draws Mike into the story of a gruesome case involving a bat with rabies from his Charley Steven’s past (2019 Edgar award nominee for Best Short Story). When a visiting hunter goes missing in the middle of a snowstorm, a young Charley Stevens sets off to rescue him—but begins to suspect the man may not want to be found in BACKTRACK. In THE IMPOSTER, Mike is confronted with a baffling case of stolen identity when he discovers a dead body whose driver’s license claims he is none other than Mike Bowditch himself. Mike tracks down a sinister prowler who turns a couple's dream vacation home into a nightmare in THE CARETAKER. An investigation into the killing of a bald eagle in SKIN AND BONES unearths an old case of a missing young man whose physically abusive brother might have murdered him. In SNAKEBIT, Mike must hunt down a killer who uses the unlikeliest of murder weapons: rattlesnakes. (Brand New!) Mike suspects there’s more to a grisly murder-suicide than meets the eye in SHEEP’S CLOTHING. Critically acclaimed for his brilliant crime novels, Paul Doiron proves he is also the master of short story in Skin and Bones. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;SKIN AND BONES "Riveting... All the stories are clever, smooth, and even, and rich with the raw beauty of backwoods Maine and its magnificent wildlife. A few of the stories, especially the opener, 'Beartrap,' would make for entertaining campfire tales." —Booklist, starred review "Top shelf!... Evocative prose... and clever plotting... will delight existing Bowditch fans and newcomers alike.” —Publishers Weekly "Welcome to Maine. Make sure you’re locked and loaded." —Kirkus Reviews ABOUT THE AUTHORS A native of Maine, bestselling author Paul Doiron attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English. The Poacher’s Son, the first book in the Mike Bowditch series, won the Barry award, the Strand award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Down East magazine, and as an experienced outdoorsman and naturalist, he is skilled in fishing, hunting, canoeing, and wilderness survival, and knows the secrets of the Maine woods as well as his protagonist, Mike Bowditch. He lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, poet Kristen Lindquist. Visit his website at <a href="http://www.pauldoiron.com/">http://www.pauldoiron.com/</a>. Paula Munier is a literary agent and the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search was inspired by the real-life rescue of a little boy with autism. The Hiding Place debuted in March 2021. Paula credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs, and a love of New England, where she lives, as her series’ major influences. 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;

Mary Jo Bang, translator of Paradiso, in conversation with Stephanie Burt

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome poet Mary Jo Bang for&nbsp;the release of her translation of Dante's <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9781644453452">Paradiso</a>.&nbsp;Poet Stephanie Burt will join Bang 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 PARADISO Mary Jo Bang’s translation of Paradiso completes her groundbreaking new version of Dante’s masterpiece, begun with Inferno and continued with Purgatorio. In Paradiso, Dante has been purified by his climb up the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory, and now, led by the luminous Beatrice, he begins his ascent through the nine celestial spheres of heaven toward the Empyrean, the mind of God. Along the way, we meet the souls of the blessed—those at various proximities to God, but all existing within the bliss of heaven’s perfect order. Philosophically rich, spiritually resonant, Paradiso is a reckoning with justice and morality from a time of ethical questioning and political division much like our own. Bang’s translation is a revelation in its artistry, readability, and faithfulness to Dante’s ambition for an epic poem that dares to employ language and references recognizable to its readers. In her lyric style and her illuminating and generous notes, Bang has made The Divine Comedy for the twenty-first century. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;PARADISO “Bang’s translation is uniquely here and now.”—Kevin Young, The New Yorker “Bang’s thrillingly contemporary translation . . . is indeed epic.”—Elisa Schappell, Vanity Fair “For as long as I’ve known to look for him, Dante has been far from me. To some extent, this is inevitable—to an American living in the twenty-first century, Dante’s fourteenth-century Florence is a strange world. English has seen beautiful translations of The Divine Comedy, but none can bring today’s reader closer to the poem than Mary Jo Bang’s. This is because Bang has recognized that the Comedy is a living poem, contemporaneous with all poetry that has followed it. Having translated it into a language alive to the very moment in which it is meant to be read, Bang has done the impossible: she has revitalized that which is eternal.”—Shane McCrae, author of The Gilded Auction Block ABOUT THE POETS Mary Jo Bang has published nine collections of poetry, including Elegy, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and translations of Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio. She teaches at Washington University in Saint Louis. Stephanie Burt is the author of five poetry collections, including Advice from the Lights and Belmont, and several works of criticism, including Don’t Read Poetry and Close Calls with Nonsense. She teaches at Harvard University. 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;

Alan Weisman, author of Hope Dies Last

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Alan Weisman to celebrate the release of <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9781524746698">Hope Dies Last</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 HOPE DIES LAST One of Heatmap's 18 Climate Books to Read in 2025 The award-winning environmental journalist’s extraordinary, long-awaited portrait of hope and resilience as we face a fractured and uncertain future In this profoundly human and moving narrative, the bestselling author of The World Without Us returns with a book ten years in the making: a study of what it means to be a human on the front lines of our planet’s existential crisis. His new book, Hope Dies Last, is a literary evocation of our current predicament and the core resolve of our species against the most precarious odds we have ever faced. To write this book, Weisman traveled the globe, witnessing climate upheaval and other devastations, and meeting the people striving to mitigate and undo our past transgressions. From the flooding Marshall Islands to revived wetlands in Iraq, from the Netherlands and Bangladesh to the Korean DMZ and to cities and coastlines in the U.S. and around the world, he has encountered the best of humanity battling heat, hunger, rising tides, and imperiled nature. He profiles the innovations of big thinkers—engineers, scientists, conservationists, economists, architects, and artists—as they conjure wildly creative, imaginative responses to an uncertain, ominous future. At this unprecedented point in history, as our collective exploits on this planet may lead to our own undoing and we could be among the species marching toward extinction, they refuse to accept defeat. Hope Dies Last fills a crucial gap in the global conversation: Having reached a point of no return in our climate confrontation, how do we feel, behave, act, plan, and dream as we approach a future decidedly different from what we had expected? PRAISE FOR&nbsp;HOPE DIES LAST “Hope Dies Last is a book of heroism, courage, and selfless love. Every story is a way forward. This is one of the most exciting books I've ever read, full of innovation. Alan Weisman has written the exact book we need to fight for our place on Earth.” —Louise Erdrich, author of The Mighty Red and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Night Watchman "In Hope Dies Last, Alan Weisman takes us on a global journey to witness both humanity's impact on our planet and our extraordinary resilience in the face of environmental crisis. Through vivid portraits of flooding islands, revived wetlands, and imperiled coastlines, he introduces us to the engineers, scientists, and visionaries working to imagine creative solutions for an uncertain future. Weisman masterfully captures the human spirit as we confront perhaps our greatest challenge: how to adapt to and persist in a world fundamentally altered by climate change. This profound narrative offers not just a clear-eyed look at our predicament, but a testament to the remarkable human capacity for hope even in extraordinarily challenging times." —Neil Shubin, author of the national bestseller Your Inner Fish and Ends of the Earth "Consider this a non-fiction companion to Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future: Alan Weisman has traveled the world to find the people doing what they can to slow down the greatest tragedy in our history. You'll be inspired--maybe even to become one of these people yourself." —Bill McKibben, author of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alan Weisman is the best-selling author of The World Without Us (2007), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His writing has also appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, the Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. 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;

Diane Kiesel, author of When Charlie Met Joan, in conversation with Michael Greenburg

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Diane Kiesel for&nbsp;the release of her book <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9780472133581">When Charlie Met Joan: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law</a>.&nbsp;Writer and lawyer Michael Greenburg will join Kiesel 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 WHEN CHARLIE MET JOAN Charlie Chaplin, the silent screen’s “Little Tramp,” was beloved by millions of movie fans until he starred in a series of salacious, real-life federal courtroom dramas. The 1944 trial was described by ace New York Daily News reporter Florabel Muir as “the best show in town.” The leading lady was a woman under contract to his studio—red-haired ingénue Joan Barry, Chaplin’s protégée and former mistress. Although he beat the federal criminal trial, Chaplin lost a paternity case and had to pay child support despite blood type evidence that proved he was not the child’s father.&nbsp; A decade later during the Cold War, the U.S. government used the Barry trials as an excuse to bar the left-leaning, sexually adventurous, British-born comic from the country he had called home for forty years. Not only did these trials have a lasting impact on law; they also raise concerns about the power of celebrity, Cold War politics, the media frenzy surrounding high-profile court proceedings, and the sorry history of the casting couch. When Charlie Met Joan examines these trials from the perspective of both parties, asking whether Chaplin was unfairly persecuted by the government because of his left-leaning political beliefs, or if he should have been held more accountable for his cavalier treatment of Barry and other women in his life. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;WHEN CHARLIE MET JOAN "Kiesel’s account makes for entertaining and respectfully salacious reading–there is a lot of fooling around in the book–with astute assessments of the political, legal and culture milieus of the era." — William P. Barrett, New to Las Vegas "Kiesel’s fine-grained character portraits present Chaplin as a charming rake who hammed up his court testimony with fake tears, and Barry as a troubled wannabe starlet taken advantage of by a powerful man. A meticulous retelling of a choice bit of Tinseltown melodrama, this will change how readers see Chaplin." — Publishers Weekly "[M]ultiple wrongs don’t make a right, and today’s #MeToo movement would find much to sympathize with in Barry’s situation, as the author points out. Did any of it justify Chaplin being dragged repeatedly into court, smeared, and eventually deported? No. But it more than justifies When Charlie Met Joan, a terrific tale of Old Hollywood and a legal system gone awry." — Ken Ackerman, Washington Independent Review of Books ABOUT THE AUTHORS A frequent legal contributor to CNN and MSNBC, Diane Kiesel is a retired judge of the New York Supreme Court who spent nearly 25 years presiding over criminal cases. Her latest book, When Charlie Met Joan: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law, was published by University of Michigan in 2025. The dual biography is a deep dive into the series of trials involving silent film star Charlie Chaplin and a young actress that contributed to his being barred from the United States for 20 years. Kiesel began her professional life as a journalist, first on a series of newspapers in New Jersey where she covered local government, and then in Washington D.C., where she covered Congress, the Supreme Court, and various government agencies for a chain of California newspapers. For her reporting, she received the prestigious Worth Bingham Prize for distinguished investigative reporting for an article in The New Republic about how legislators misused campaign funds. Her first biography, She Can Bring Us Home: Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee; Civil Rights Pioneer, earned the 2015 Richard Slatten Award for Excellence in Virginia Biography and the 2016 Colonial Dames of America Book Award. She is also the author of several editions of a textbook, Domestic Violence: Law, Policy and Practice that is used in law school classrooms around the country. Michael Greenburg is a practicing attorney in suburban Boston. He is a graduate of Pepperdine University School of Law and was a member and editor of the Pepperdine Law Review. Michael is the author of the nonfiction books, Peaches and Daddy, A Story of the Roaring 20s, the Birth of Tabloid Media, and the Courtship that Captured the Heart and Imagination of the American Public; The Mad Bomber of New York, The Extraordinary True Story of the Manhunt that Paralyzed a City; The Court-Martial of Paul Revere, A Son of Liberty and America’s Forgotten Military Disaster; This Noble Woman, Myrtilla Miner and Her Fight to Establish a School for African American Girls in the Slaveholding South; and The Great Miscalculation, The Race to Save New York City’s Citicorp Tower. He has appeared as a guest on NPR Radio, The Bloomberg Network, The Smithsonian Channel, and The Travel Channel. He has spoken at the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library, the US Constitution Museum, and many other libraries, societies, and organizations. 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;

PSB: Boston Edition Silent Reading Party

The Silent Reading Party continues!&nbsp;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.

Lawrence Millman, author of Drinks with God

Porter Square Books welcomes Lawrence Millman for the release of his latest novel <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9798891553019">Drinks with God</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 DRINKS WITH GOD Drinks With God is what you might get if you blended the wit of George Carlin, the satire of Jonathan Swift, and the quirky imagination of Kurt Vonnegut. In this irreverent and humorous narrative, the Supreme Being himself confesses to being a celestial klutz, making cosmic blunders from the dawn of time to the present day. From accidentally creating an upright squirrel in a jockstrap in his attempt to make the first human, to sending a swarm of hummingbirds instead of locusts to plague the Egyptians, this God is far from the omnipotent figure we know from the Bible. Within the pages of Drinks With God, the reader is treated to an unconventional take on familiar biblical figures. From his 'weirdo' son Jesus, the amorous Holy Ghost, and the entrepreneurial Noah, to the not-so-virginal Virgin Mary, a sassy Judas Iscariot, and a chef Satan who has a flair for spicy cuisine - these characters are reimagined in a way you've never seen before. And where does God divulge these surprising insights? Not in a heavenly realm, but in the more earthly locales of New York City's bars, coffee houses, and parks, revealing a deity who enjoys a good drink. Reading Drinks With God might not sway your religious beliefs, but it's guaranteed to leave you in stitches. Prepare for a hilarious, blasphemous, and utterly unique exploration of divinity like no other. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Writer-mycologist-Arctic explorer Lawrence Millman is the author of 22 books, including such titles as Our Like Will Not Be There Again, Last Places, An Evening Among Headhunters, Lost in the Arctic, Hiking to Siberia, At the End of the World, Fascinating Fungi of New England, Fungipedia, and Goodbye Ice as well as Outsider. He has a fungus named after him and will soon have an onychophoran (velvet worm) named after him. When not on the road, he lives in Cambridge. 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!

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>!

Nicky Gonzalez, author of Mayra, in conversation with Claire Luchette

Porter Square Books is thrilled to welcome Nicky Gonzalez to celebrate the release of her debut novel <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9780593731550">Mayra</a>! Writer Claire Luchette will join Gonzalez 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 MAYRA An eerie, hypnotic debut about friendship, desire, and memory set against the sultry backdrop of Florida’s swamplands. “A mesmerizing, hallucinatory adrenaline rush of a novel.”—Claire Luchette, author of Agatha of Little Neon It’s been years since Ingrid has heard from her childhood best friend, Mayra, a fearless rebel who fled their hometown of Hialeah, a Cuban neighborhood just west of Miami, for college in the Northeast. But when Mayra calls out of the blue to invite Ingrid to a weekend getaway at a house in the Everglades, she impulsively accepts. From the moment Ingrid sets out, danger looms: The directions are difficult, she’s out of reach of cell service, and as she drives deeper into the Everglades, the wet maw of the swamp threatens to swallow her whole. But once Ingrid arrives, Mayra is, in many ways, just as she remembers—with her sharp tongue and effortless, seductive beauty, still thumbing her nose at the world. Before they can fully settle into the familiar intimacy of each other’s company, their reunion is spoiled by the reemergence of past disagreements and the unexpected presence of Mayra’s new boyfriend, Benji. The trio spend their hours eating lavish meals and exploring the labyrinthine house, which holds as much mystery as the swamp itself. Indoors and on the grounds, time itself seems to expand, and Ingrid begins to lose a sense of the outside world, and herself. Against this disquieting setting, where lizards dart in and out of porches and alligators peek from dark waters, Gonzalez weaves a surreal, unforgettable story about the dizzying power of early friendship and the lengths we’ll go to earn love and acceptance—even at the risk of losing ourselves entirely. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;MAYRA “Nicky Gonzalez channels Shirley Jackson (something I do not say lightly) in this disquieting, mesmerizing twenty-first-century Southern Gothic. In Mayra, the hazy borders of friendship and identity are blurred, made uncanny and dangerous, and I was hooked from paragraph one.”—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts “In prose as luscious as the ribs at our beloved Flanigan’s, the story that unfolds between Mayra and Ingrid lovingly embodies the vibrant beauty of Hialeah and the Florida Everglades. Mayra is a haunting testament to the literal terror of being consumed by the very thing you’re trying to escape.”—Jennine Capó Crucet, author of Say Hello to My Little Friend “Eerie, haunting, and gorgeously written, Mayra is a powerful story of memory, home, and the friendships that make us. I was entranced by its luscious dreamworld of secret doors, traps, wonders, and the uncanny. Gonzalez is a master of tension, tenuous lines, and complicated love.”—Ananda Lima, author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil “Gorgeous and hypnotic, surreal and unsettling, Mayra is part coming-of-age story, part Twilight Zone episode, part thoughtful meditation on all of the ways that memory is itself a haunted house. I loved this book.”—Karen Thompson Walker, New York Times bestselling author of The Strange Case of Jane O. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Nicky Gonzalez is a writer from Hialeah, Florida. Her fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, BOMB Magazine, Kenyon Review Online, Taco Bell Quarterly, and other publications. She has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Granum Foundation, Millay Arts, Lighthouse Works, and the Hambidge Center. She lives in Massachusetts. Claire Luchette is the author of the novel Agatha of Little Neon (FSG, 2021) and the recipient of a Whiting Award. Their second novel, Swans, and a story collection, Big Whoop, are forthcoming from FSG. Claire was a 2024-25 Radcliffe Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. They've also received grants and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Yaddo, the James Merrill House, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Millay Colony, and Lighthouse Works, among others. A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, Claire's fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, VQR, Ploughshares, The New York Times, Granta, Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, and other publications. They teach in the creative writing program at Binghamton University. 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;

Kate Russo, author of Until Alison, in conversation with Richard Russo

Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Kate Russo to celebrate the release of her novel <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9780593850688">Until Alison</a>! Writer Richard Russo will join Kate 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 UNTIL ALISON The night Alison was murdered, Rachel could have stopped it. When Rachel Nardelli finds out Alison Petrucci—her childhood rival—is found dead in Pleasant Pond, the same place the two girls had first said goodbye to each other back in eighth grade, the town of Waterbury is outraged by the fear of losing one of their own—the heir to Maine’s largest construction company. But it’s a little more complicated for Rachel. She saw Alison the night she died. Callous, she said something she shouldn’t have. She stirred up the past. The next morning, Alison was gone.&nbsp;&nbsp; Plagued by the complicated memories around Alison, Rachel joins her journalism crew to investigate the murder. But as she revisits their fraught relationship, she falls into a web of cruelties that threaten to undo everything she understood about her past. An explosive literary thriller from the acclaimed Kate Russo, Until Alison is a brilliantly incisive and resonant novel that is at once about class, gender, and the arbitrary nature of violence. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;UNTIL ALISON "Until Alison so vibrantly captures a particular time and place in life—with its nostalgia, its tension, its fine-tuned depiction of class. Kate Russo is a deft and compulsively readable storyteller." —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was "Kate Russo reminds us, both perfectly and painfully, of the angst, jealousy, and self-doubt of youth. The strength of Until Alison lies in her ability to bring fury and compassion to both the bullied and the bullies." —Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Tom Lake "Until Alison is a powerful and wrenching mystery that claws through the polite facade of the traditional campus novel. Kate Russo has delivered a fierce and furious story about the cruelty of youth that is empowering, heartbreaking, and thrilling in equal measure." —Ivy Pochoda, award-winning author of Sing Her Down and Ecstasy ABOUT THE AUTHORS Kate Russo, author of Super Host, grew up in Maine but now divides her time between Maine and the UK. She has an MFA in painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, and while living in London, she worked with the theatre group, Love Bites, who presented two of her short plays (“The Blind” and “Bernie's Night Off”) at the Calder Bookshop Theatre.&nbsp;She exhibits widely in the United States and England. Learn more at <a href="https://katerusso.com/">KateRusso.com</a> and connect on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/russokate">@RussoKate</a>. Richard Russo is the author of nine novels, most recently Somebody's Fool, Chances Are…, Everybody’s Fool, and That Old Cape Magic; two collections of stories; and the memoir Elsewhere. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody’s Fool, won multiple awards for its screen adaptation, and in 2023 his novel Straight Man was adapted into the television series Lucky Hank. In 2017 he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. He lives in Port­land, ME. 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;

Under the Radar with Callie Crossley featuring Allison King, author of The Phoenix Pencil Company

Porter Square Books is thrilled to partner with GBH to bring an in-person event featuring Under the Radar with Callie Crossley. The show's guest is Allison King, author of <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9780063446236">The Phoenix Pencil Company</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 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 PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic—of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life—holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother, and to mend long-lost connections across time and space. Monica Tsai spends&nbsp;most&nbsp;days&nbsp;on&nbsp;her&nbsp;computer,&nbsp;journaling the details&nbsp;of her&nbsp;ordinary&nbsp;life and&nbsp;coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers&nbsp;online.&nbsp;A&nbsp;self-proclaimed recluse, she's always&nbsp;struggled to make friends and, as a&nbsp;college freshman,&nbsp;finds herself escaping into&nbsp;a&nbsp;digital world, counting&nbsp;the days until she can return home&nbsp;to&nbsp;her beloved grandparents.&nbsp;They are now in their nineties,&nbsp;and Monica worries about&nbsp;them&nbsp;constantly—especially her grandmother,&nbsp;Yun, who&nbsp;survived&nbsp;two wars in&nbsp;China&nbsp;before&nbsp;coming&nbsp;to the&nbsp;States, and whose memory has begun to fade. Though&nbsp;Yun rarely speaks&nbsp;of&nbsp;her past,&nbsp;Monica&nbsp;is determined&nbsp;to&nbsp;find&nbsp;the&nbsp;long-lost&nbsp;cousin she was&nbsp;separated from&nbsp;years ago.&nbsp;One day, the&nbsp;very&nbsp;program&nbsp;Monica is&nbsp;helping to build&nbsp;connects her to a young woman,&nbsp;whose&nbsp;gift of a single pencil&nbsp;holds a surprising clue.&nbsp;Monica’s discovery&nbsp;of a&nbsp;hidden family history is exquisitely braided with&nbsp;Yun’s own&nbsp;memories&nbsp;as she writes of her&nbsp;years&nbsp;in Shanghai,&nbsp;working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As&nbsp;WWII rages&nbsp;outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn&nbsp;of&nbsp;a&nbsp;special&nbsp;power&nbsp;the women&nbsp;in&nbsp;their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words.&nbsp;But&nbsp;when&nbsp;the government&nbsp;uncovers&nbsp;their secret, they are&nbsp;forced into a life of&nbsp;espionage, betraying other people’s stories&nbsp;to survive. Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of&nbsp;A Tale for the Time Being&nbsp;with the uplifting, emotional magic of&nbsp;The Midnight Library,&nbsp;Allison&nbsp;King’s stunning debut novel asks:&nbsp;who owns and inherits our&nbsp;stories?&nbsp;The answers and&nbsp;secrets that surface on the page&nbsp;may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy.&nbsp; PRAISE FOR&nbsp;THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY "I loved this wildly inventive novel and its exploration of how technology and humanity can intersect in deeply meaningful ways. Allison King is a talent to watch." — Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The God of the Woods&nbsp; “China, America, generations, and stories connect with literal magic in this suspenseful debut. Marvelous!” — Gish Jen, award-winning author of The Resisters “The Phoenix Pencil Company is a masterful blending of history, fantasy, and romance that sank into my heart the way the magic of its pencils sinks into veins. King has written a stunning debut that pulses with love and loss, regret and forgiveness, and above all, the undeniable, painful, joyful pull of human connection. This book had me smiling through my tears.” — Fonda Lee, author of the Green Bone Saga ABOUT UNDER THE RADAR WITH CALLIE CROSSLEY Under the Radar with Callie Crossley looks to alternative presses and community news for stories that are often overlooked by big media outlets. In our roundtable conversation, we aim to examine the small stories before they become the big headlines with contributors in Boston and New England.&nbsp; <img src="https://portersquarebooks.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/2025-06/gbhnewsrgbblack.png?itok=GMmrNTP1"> ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Allison King is an Asian American writer and software engineer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In technology, her work has ranged from semiconductors to platforms for community conversations to data privacy. Her short stories have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Diabolical Plots, and LeVar Burton Reads, among others. She is a 2023 Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellow. The Phoenix Pencil Company is her first novel. Callie Crossley hosts the radio show and podcast Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and shares radio essays Mondays on GBH’s Morning Edition. She is a co-host of GBH’s radio program, The Culture Show which focuses on local and national cultural trends and perspectives. She formerly hosted GBH’s Basic Black, and continues to offer cultural commentary on GBH’s midday talk show Boston Public Radio. Crossley has been a substitute host for the national podcast Our Body Politic and is a frequent commentator on local and national television and radio programs.&nbsp; 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 Mk Smith Despres, author of There's That Sun Again

Porter Square Books&nbsp;is delighted to welcome picture book author Mk Smith Despres&nbsp;for a story time featuring their book <a href="https://www.portersquarebooks.com/book/9780823456413">There's That Sun Again</a>! Mk will lead a craft 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 THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN For graduation,&nbsp;for Mother's Day, for Valentine's Day, for every day: a resonant celebration of the joys and challenges of growing up . . . and life itself. There’s That Sun Again&nbsp;is a beginner’s guide to the rhythm of life. Follow two children through one extraordinary, ordinary school day. They swing from sunbeams, bathe in crashing waves of noise and tide pools of quiet, fall down, get up, and walk home on air, band aids on elbows, ready for rest in loving family’s arms. Each high—the beautiful sun—meets with a low—its unbearable heat—which is followed by something else entirely different—rain!—that makes each piece of the day feel like an important part of the same puzzle. Across the course of the book, these two children will find each other, and rescue each other, again and again.&nbsp; Being a child can feel like being buffeted along by a huge force out of your control. At any moment, something incredible could happen—but so could something scary, or sad, or hard—and everything is always changing. Learning to cope means learning the cycles, the things you can depend on. This book illuminates that cycle, showing that every day has its ups and downs and back agains—and empowers readers to meet this emotional turbulence with strength, self-knowledge, and wonder.&nbsp; Mk Smith Despres’s effortlessly poetic text soars and dips, capturing bliss, sorrow, calm and uncertainty with a crystal-clear lens. Julie Benbassat’s artwork is nothing short of unforgettable.&nbsp;There’s That Sun Again&nbsp;is cut from the best cloth of fantasy: the kind whose magic reflects the world exactly as it feels. PRAISE FOR&nbsp;THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN "Imaginative musings on the world, ideal for young wonderers."—Kirkus Reviews ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mk Smith Despres writes, teaches, and reads lots of books with their family in western Massachusetts. They are the author of Night Song, illustrated by Hyewon Yum. 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;

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