I think 6 might be longest one, so you've got some time. If you need another brilliant brick Ducks, Newburyport portersquarebooks.com/book/9781771... if you want to go in a completely different direction Worthy of the Event portersquarebooks.com/book/9781964...

How about a different take on the "crime family?" portersquarebooks.com/book/9780063...

How about What is Queer Food? portersquarebooks.com/book/9781324...

Landscapes is my favorite climate fiction book! portersquarebooks.com/book/9781953...

A classic! Maybe The Afterlife Project portersquarebooks.com/book/9781039...

Upright Women Wanted! portersquarebooks.com/book/9781250...

Hmmm, let's go with The Spear That Cuts Through Water portersquarebooks.com/book/9780593...

I JUST handed Passing Through a Prairie Country to someone carrying Never Whistle at Night portersquarebooks.com/book/9781640...

This looks cool! Makes me think of Tentacle by Rita Indiana portersquarebooks.com/book/9781911...

Before the Coffee Gets Cold! (don't know if it's exactly "light and fluffy" but definite "warm & fuzzy") portersquarebooks.com/book/9781335...

Cosby is SO good but, yeah, SO hard. Bads Dione is still tough but in a different way & also SO good portersquarebooks.com/book/9780593... Mill House Murders is classic locked room & might be nice palate cleanser portersquarebooks.com/book/9781782...

You could definitely describe Micaiah Johnson as an heir to Butler. Start with The Space Between Worlds portersquarebooks.com/book/9780593...

I'll give you 2! 1. Another take on the Dies Every Day Until You Figure It Out, which is a genre I guess portersquarebooks.com/book/9781805... 2. For something a little different go with The Lavender House portersquarebooks.com/book/9781250...

The Cat Who Saved Books! portersquarebooks.com/book/9780063...

The tone is VERY different but Comrade Papa explores similar ideas of identity & colonialism. portersquarebooks.com/book/9781771...

At first I was a little hesitant about this one, but the more I think about it (esp all the ways we can think of "magic") the more I like Crocosmia is a great fit. Style is intentionally academic, which I dig! portersquarebooks.com/book/9781643...

Greg Grandin's Pulitzer Prize winning The End of Myth is another reckoning with ways the story we tell ourselves about American diverges from the actual history of it. portersquarebooks.com/book/9781250...

Hmmmm, can't remember if I talked with you about this before, but we're going to jump to a different continent with A Girl is a Body of Water portersquarebooks.com/book/9781951...

Wrapping it up for tonight, BUT we'll do some more tomorrow morning! See you then!

Set My Heart on Fire by Izumi Suzuki portersquarebooks.com/book/9781804...

... ....no? BUT I think Strange & Perfect Account from the Permafrost will feed you similar sustenance if you know what I mean. portersquarebooks.com/book/9789533...

Get thee to The Sapling Cage! portersquarebooks.com/book/9781558...

A Beginner's Guide to Dying might be a good additional perspective! portersquarebooks.com/book/9798217...

Something like Germanic Tribes (portersquarebooks.com/book/9781637...) is probably closest to the content you want, but a quick plug for Germania that I think ask more interesting questions about the idea of "Germany." portersquarebooks.com/book/9780312...

Oh no! Another adventure novel & I've already recommended The Long Ships! How about one that plays with all of those tropes? A High Wind in Jamaica! portersquarebooks.com/book/9780940...

Gef sounds like a character from Welcome to Night Vale! portersquarebooks.com/book/9780062...

Dig deeper with Carceral Capitalism: portersquarebooks.com/book/9781635... or step back to liberalism more broadly with One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This portersquarebooks.com/book/9780593...

If you need more historical adventure you can't be The Long Ships. I think it's one of the all time great adventure novels portersquarebooks.com/book/9781590...

Going to shift you into nonfiction, because well Emily is a friend of the store, but more importantly Horror for Weenies will also an entrance point for exploring the genre even more for you! portersquarebooks.com/book/9781683...

Recommend Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments all the time, but it is one of the great books about the fact that history is a story told through choices portersquarebooks.com/book/9780393...

We'll go from First Time, Long Time (since it's 1st) and recommend current staff pick Hot Girls with Balls portersquarebooks.com/book/9781646...

Let's switch gears then! Did you know there are birding themed mysteries? Well now you do! portersquarebooks.com/book/9780861...

Soooo, bad decisions that eventually lead to a just about impossible situation that keeps getting more and more dangerous? Guns & Almond Milk: portersquarebooks.com/book/9781623...

Hmmmm, maybe an exploration of translation itself by one of our contemporary masters of the art portersquarebooks.com/book/9780300...

You might dig Gone Viking! Another perspective on the British Isles portersquarebooks.com/book/9781771...

Inventing the Renaissance! Ada Palmer is more known as a sci fi author but this is one of those "Change Your Worldview" books. portersquarebooks.com/book/9780226...

It's Friday night. We're a bookstore who gives recommendations. You're a reader who is going to finish a book at some point. Tell us what you're reading now & we'll recommend what to read next!

Tomorrow is the 1st meeting of our new Decolonize Your Reading book club! 11AM. What a cool way to start off your weekend. RSVPs appreciated! portersquarebooks.com/event/2025-0...

Was thinking of posting something on of our own, but then remember our friends @ebbooksellers.bsky.social (& their rec in the thread) really said it about as well as you can

YAY

Thank you to Kathryn, @kellylink.bsky.social, the presenters, & everyone who attended. This was the kind of event that sustains you, if you know what I mean. We'll post a link with the recording & essays next weekish! We also announced the subject of next year's symposium, so we can tell you too...

After a swerve into horror, friend of the store Kylie Lee Baker swerves back with a warm time-travel romance! I'll Find You Where the Timeline Ends is out on November 18, but you can preorder it now!

We've told #BookSky about this before, but an event with Shonda Rhimes is the kind of thing you want to brag about a few times. As part of the Boston Book Festival! Tickets & info here!

Almost can't believe this is tonight. In some ways, I see this Symposium Series as about the purest form of my work as a bookseller, introducing readers to authors they would not have otherwise encountered while inspiring conversation. It's fucking great & we're gonna do it every year.

I'm in Boston getting reading for tonight's Kathryn Davis Symposium & have time for some recommendations! Let me know what you're into & I'll try to find a great but under-read book for you!

With the success of I Who Have Never Known Men, more of Jacqueline Harpman's works are becoming available, like her novel Orlanda. 1 part Virginia Woolf's Orlando (obv), 1 part the psychology of Fight Club (..less obv), 1 part Harpman's brilliant insights. Out on 9/30

The @freedomreadproject.bsky.social has created a free guide to advocacy drawn from the experience of parents who had to fend off a coordinated attack on the right to read. Download it here: Turning the Page - Freedom to Read Project

I know we shouldn't make everything about the current crises going on but I do believe these symposiums are great examples of the kind of deep engagement with art the world desperately needs more of.

Hello #BookSky Tomorrow is now today!!! Can't make it into Boston? Good news, because we're broadcasting it on that series of tubes known as The Internet. Register for our crowdcast below!

Imagine if I picked out an 8 or 12 book sequence for you. (Not you @rachelhands.com, we already have a set up)