September at WORD: cream puffs, magicians, and dead rock stars

The perfect life, now displayed in the WORD window.

We'll tell you what's going on at WORD. More events than you can shake a stick at! Go on, shake that stick all you want. The events will still be there. Scroll on down to take a peek: we're having a cream puff contest and a clothing swap, we're talking about dead rock stars and the genitalia of famous people, we're hosting awesome authors like Lev Grossman and Frank Portman. And more.

We're loving this great video about the environmental impact of different types of book buying made by our pals at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC. Think again, chum!

We're stacking up boxes and boxes of books intended for the Brooklyn Book Festival because we'll be there all day on Sunday, September 13. We'll be at booth #30, which should be somewhere near the International Stage. The events for the day are breathtakingly good. Check them out here and plan to stop by and say hello to us!

Another thing we're up to: preparing for a crazily good line-up of new books this month! Here's some of the highlights: Homer & Langley by E. L. Doctorow (out today!). A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore (out today! did you see that incredible review in the NYTBR?). Where Men Win Glory, by Jon Krakauer (the 15th). Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters (the 15th). The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood (the 22nd). Nocturnes, by Kazuo Ishiguro (the 22nd). Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger (the 29th). Yeah, it's unreal. And yes, you can still get 10% when you pre-order and pre-pay for any of these books more than a week before their release!

Our basketball league is taking a quick breather this week before launching into the playoffs. Would you like to check out some nerd basketball before the season ends? Of course you would. Make room on your calendar: the two semifinal games will be Sunday, October 20 at 10am and 11am, and the final is Sunday, October 27 at noon. All games are played on American Playground, right across the street from the store. C'mon, you haven't truly lived until you hear a player holler out, "I've got the semicolon!" (The white team, The Elements of Style, identifies themselves by punctuation on the back of their shirts, rather than numbers.)

The e-newsletter is getting a new feature starting this month: THE LAST WORD. Read alllllllllllllllllllll the way to the bottom for special discounts and offers for you lovely and much-appreciated regular readers and customers.

Finally: keep an eye out for a special extra email in the middle of the month in which we unveil our new website! It'll be prettier, easier-to-use, and most importantly, you'll be able to place orders for delivery and in-store pickup directly on the site. You'll also be able to browse for books, make a wishlist for your family, and see our staff picks from your couch. There's so much to say about the new features that we'll need another email to hold it all! So when it goes live, you'll be the first people we tell. Aren't you excited? We're excited! Can't you tell by all the exclamation points?!