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Store Hours
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Mon - Fri 9:30 - 6:00
Sat 9:30 - 5:00
Sun Noon - 5:00
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Upcoming Events
2/9 (Thursday) 2pm-
Visit with Theodora Goss, author of the unique and beautifully formatted The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story
2/12 (Sunday) 3pm -
We welcome Toby Lester with his newest book, Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image
2/19 (Sunday) 3pm -
We welcome Sarah McCoy with The Baker's Daughter
2/26 (Sunday) 3pm -
Award-winning author Margot Livesey presents The Flight of Gemma Hardy
3/11 (Sunday) 3pm -
Kate Flora returns to the Bookshop with her latest novel, Redemption
3/18 (Sunday) 3pm -
We welcome Madeline Miller with Song of Achilles
3/22 (Thursday) 7pm-
Howard Frank Mosher returns to the Bookshop with The Great Northern Express
3/25 (Sunday) 3pm -
Natalie Dykstra presents Clover Adams
4/1 (Sunday) 3pm -
Two authors present their non-fiction books: Deborah Kops with The Great Molasses Flood, and Heather Lang with Queen of the Track
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Greetings!
Our next event is Thursday, February 9, when we'll visit with Theodora Goss and The Thorn and the Blossom. See below for photos of this unique novel, a lovely and thoughtful Valentine's gift.
On the afternoon of Sunday, February 12, Toby Lester will present a talk and slide presentation about his most recent work of non-fiction, Da Vinci's Ghost.
The left sidebar of this note contains our complete events calendar; you can also check details on our website and/or rsvp on our Facebook page.
If you're unable to attend an event, but would like a signed copy of the book, simply call us to pre-order. We'll ask the author to inscribe it to your specifications, then hold it for pick up or arrange to have it shipped.
We have three additions to our signed books gallery - a biography of the "feisty" Margaret Fuller, and two novels - one set in North Korea, the other set in the heavens.
This week we feature a new novel from the IndieNext list; be sure to check out our display of these books the next time you're in the bookshop. The monthly list is comprised of recommendations from independent booksellers across the country. 
We also feature several favorite novels which are recently out in paperback, and a new collection of short stories.
Love is in the air! Countdown to Valentine's Day with our book suggestions (free gift wrapping!) and a card. We have a lovely selection of cards for all occasions, including those from local artist Robin Litwin.
Our community window highlights ideas for mid-winter escapes, be they vacation getaways or fun "staycations" closer to home.
As always, we look forward to chatting with you in the Bookshop! When you come in to take a closer look at an item mentioned here, please tell us "I saw it in the newsletter!"
Comments are always welcome via email to
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Our next event - Thursday,
February 9 at 2pm
Theodora Goss presents
The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story
Please join us at the Bookshop Thursday, February 9th at 2pm for a "meet and greet" with Thoedora Goss and her novel(s)The Thorn and the Blossom.
A novel about lovers who meet in a bookstore - how fabulous! This uniquely-bound book is packaged in a slipcase and printed on accordion-folded paper - start at one end to read Evelyn's story; when you reach the end, turn it over to read Brendan's story.
If you're unable to attend the event,
please call to pre-order a personally inscribed volume ... The Thorn and the Blossom is a lovely Valentine's Day gift.
Ms. Goss is also a writer of poems, short stories, and essays. She teaches literature and writing at Boston University.
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Upcoming event
with the award-winning author of
The Fourth Part of the World
Toby Lester and
Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image
Please join us at the Bookshop Sunday, February 12 at 3pm when Toby Lester reads from and signs Da Vinci's Ghost.
Highly visual and interactive in nature, Da Vinci's Ghost contains an eye-opening variety of little-known medieval and Renaissance images, all of which in some way or another are precedents of Da Vinci's famous drawing. These images don't just adorn the book, but more importantly they form a core part of the story, and will fundamentally change the way readers will look at Da Vinci's image.
Because the book tells such a visual story, and since Da Vinci himself was such a visual thinker, the author will accompany his presentation with a slideshow.
In Da Vinci's Ghost, Toby Lester brings the Vitruvian Man to life. Populated by a colorful cast of characters, including Brunelleschi of the famous Dome, Da Vinci's Ghost opens up a surprising window onto the artist and philosopher himself and the tumultuous intellectual and cultural transformations he bridged. Constructed as a vivid historical narrative that sweeps across centuries, Da Vinci's Ghost reveals the ancient and medieval origins of the image, and surveys the cultural forces that converged in 1490 to bring it into being.
By weaving together stories from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance in a way that has never been done before, Lester shows that Da Vinci understood the image as a sort of idealized self-portrait: a mirror into which he could look and study the world as he pursued the ancient injunction Know thyself. With sparkling prose and a rich variety of illustrations, Lester captures the brief but momentous time in the history of western thought when the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, art and science and philosophy converged as one, and all seemed to hold out the promise that a single human mind, if properly harnessed, could grasp the nature of everything.
Toby Lester is a contributing editor to and has written extensively for The Atlantic. His work has also been featured on the radio show This American Life. A former Peace Corps volunteer and United Nations observer, he lives in the Boston area with his wife and three daughters. He is an invited research scholar at Brown University's John Carter Brown Library. His previous book, The Fourth Part of the World, was critically acclaimed.
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New in our signed books gallery
The Lives of Margaret Fuller: A Biography by John Matteson
John Matteson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Biography for Eden's Outcasts, returned to the bookshop to present his new work, The Lives of Margaret Fuller.
A brilliant writer and a fiery social critic, Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was perhaps the most famous American woman of her generation. Outspoken and quick-witted, idealistic and adventurous, she became the leading female figure in the transcendentalist movement, wrote a celebrated column of literary and social commentary for Horace Greeley's newspaper, and served as the first foreign correspondent for an American newspaper.
We have signed copies of Matteson' account of the "Susan Sontag" of nineteenth-century America on our shelves.
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Mr. g: A Novel About the Creation by Alan Lightman
Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams and other works of fiction and non-fiction, returned to the bookshop to present his most recent novel, Mr. g: A Novel About the Creation.
Combining science, theology, moral philosophy, and literature, Mr g is an imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale.
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 The Orphan Master's Son
by Adam Johnson
"Mr. Johnson has written a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice."
- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother-a singer "stolen" to Pyongyang-and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.
Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master's Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love.
We were delighted that Adam Johnson signed copies of The Orphan Master's Son when he was in town.
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Short fiction collection from lauded novelist and short-story author
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories
by Nathan Englander
"Englander's new collection of stories tells the tangled truth of life in prose that, as ever, surprises the reader with its gnarled beauty . . . Certifiable masterpieces of contemporary short-story art."
-Michael Chabon
These eight new stories display a gifted young author grappling with the great questions of modern life, with a command of language and the imagination that place Englander at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction.
Nathan Englander's short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and numerous anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. Englander is the author of the novel The Ministry of Special Cases and the story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, which earned him a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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From the IndieNext list
Heft by Liz Moore
A heartwarming novel about larger-than-life characters and second chances.
Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career - if he can untangle himself from his family drama.
The link between this unlikely pair is Kel's mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur's. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene's unexpected phone call to Arthur - a plea for help - that jostles them into action.
Through Arthur and Kel's own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives.
In this month's IndieNext brochure, Dawn says "Heft is a novel both heartbreaking and hopeful, with characters who navigate the waters of love and family as if afraid of drowning. Arthur Opp, initially larger-than-life only in the physical sense, emerges as an intelligent and caring man, who the reader eagerly cheers on in his attempts to trust himself and others. Moore's writing hums as she gives voice to those we've chosen not to hear and illuminates those we've chosen not to see."
Liz Moore is a writer and musician. Her debut novel, The Words of Every Song, was published in 2007, and she recently released her album Backyards. She is a professor at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, where she lives.
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Shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction - now in paperback
Snowdrops by A. D. Miller
"Compelling narrative voice....Andrew Miller shines in his depiction of Russian life....[and] deserves full credit for being able to transfer his knowledge to the page. He makes you see and feel the glitz, squalor, and violence of Moscow...[with] bleak beauty of his writing"
--Boston Globe
Nick Platt is a British lawyer working in Moscow in the early 2000s - a culture where corruption, decadence, violence, and betrayal define everyday life. Nick doesn't ask too many questions about the shady deals he works on - he's too busy enjoying the exotic, surreally sinful nightlife Moscow has to offer.
One day in the subway, he rescues two willowy sisters, Masha and Katya, from a would-be purse snatcher. Soon Nick, the seductive Masha, and long-limbed Katya are cruising the seamy glamour spots of the city. Nick begins to feel something for Masha that he is pleased to think is love. Then the sisters ask Nick to help their aged aunt, Tatiana, find a new apartment.
Of course, nothing is as it seems. The twists in the story take it far beyond its noirish frame - the sordid and vivid portrayal of Moscow serves as a backdrop for a book that examines the irresistible allure of sin, featuring characters whose hearts are as cold as the Russian winter.
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Top psychological thriller -
now in paperback
Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson
"[summer 2011's] single most suspenseful plot belongs to Before I Go to Sleep. . . . pure page-turner."
-New York Times
Before I Go to Sleep is a compelling, fast-paced psychological thriller, reminiscent of Shutter Island and Memento, in which an amnesiac who, following a mysterious accident, cannot remember her past or form new memories, desperately tries to uncover the truth about who she is - and who she can trust.
The novel has been called "haunting and hypnotic" and "suspenseful and satisfying." Auhor Dennis Lehane (Moonlight Mile) calls it "an exceptional thriller. It left my nerves jangling for hours after I finished the last page."
Cue the music from The Twilight Zone and pick up a copy today!
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Best-selling novel now in paperback
Three Stages of Amazement by Carol Edgarian
"... deep insight into human behavior, coupled with the right language to describe it... Beautifully written and deeply engaging."
-Alan Cheuse, NPR's All Things Considered
Many love stories end in marriage; rare is the love story that begins with one - already promised, already worn.
Set in San Francisco during the early part of Obama's presidency, this beautifully drawn novel charts the daily struggles and triumphs of a marriage. Touched by tragedy and by ordinary hopes that have not come true, Lena Rusch and her husband Charlie Pepper must face, for the first time in their lives, real limitation. The compromises and silent promises Lena and Charlie have made are familiar: If we can have one more healthy baby, we'll be done. If he can just earn that much money, we'll remake our life. If I can just get through this, I promise I'll become the person I know I should be.
Three Stages of Amazement is a riveting story about confronting adversity, gaining wisdom, and finding great love.
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In our window
Mid-winter escape!
Does your mid-winter escape involve getting on a plane and flying to a sunnier destination?
Or perhaps you're planning a ski trip?
Or something nearby - day outings or at-home fun?
Whether you've got a vacation or a stay-cation on the calendar, we can help you with an antidote for the mid-winter blues:
- Pack a paperback, a "beach read," or a hot bestseller
- Pick up a jigsaw puzzle to tinker with
- Check out our selection of kids' activity books and crafts - our new Chat Packs will help you survive several rounds of "Are we there yet?!"
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