Baby Bookworms, unite! Bundle includes the three books below and an opportunity to participate in a monthly book club for each. Meet virtually for a “book club discussion” which really, let’s be honest, will just be an excuse for new parents to network and show off our cute babies. 

To participate, purchase the board book bundle here and a bookseller will contact you with links for the virtual meet ups!

-Monday, June 29th at 10 am - I Heart Pluto by Chris Ferrie and Helen Maynard-Casely illustrated by Lizzy Doyle 
There are three rules a planet must follow, and Pluto breaks them all. It just doesn't fit in! Pluto is sad to no longer be an official planet. But with the help of some friends, Pluto might find its place in space again!

With vibrant, joyful art, playful verse, and a fun die-cut shape, astronomers of all ages will love this celebration of our solar system's first minor planet in this delightfully fun, fact-filled planetary tale!

-Monday, July 27th at 10 am - Who Loves Books? by Lizi Boyd
An interactive instant classic for inquisitive young minds and budding book lovers.From the creator of the critically acclaimed Flip-Flap book,Hide and Sleep.Who loves books? Is it Rabbit? Is it Bird? Is it Butterfly? Flap and flap the sturdy pages of this playful book to find out.The buoyant colors, silly story, and interactive format will keep even fidgeting little readers engaged.

-Monday, August 31st at 10 am - You Are Light by Aaron Becker
Open this beautiful book to find a graphic yellow sun surrounded by a halo of bright die-cut circles. Now hold the page up to the light and enjoy the transformation as the colors in those circles glow. In an elegant, sparely narrated ode to the phenomenon of light, Aaron Becker follows as light reflects off the earth to warm our faces, draws up the sea to make the rain, feeds all the things that grow, and helps to create all the brilliant wonders of the world, including ourselves.
 

Our summer reading program for young readers between 6-9 years old. Book picks and meeting times below for these fun new graphic novels and early reader chapter books!

To participate, purchase the book bundle here and a bookseller will contact you with links to the virtual meet ups!

-Friday, June 26th at 3 pm - Bug Boys by Laura Knetzger 
Rhino-B is a brash, but sweet guy. Stag-B is a calm and scholarly adventurer. Together these two young beetles make up the Bug Boys, best friends who spend their time exploring the world of Bug Village and beyond, as well as their own - sometimes confusing and complicated - thoughts and feelings.

In their first adventure, the Bug Boys travel through spooky caves, work with a spider to found a library, save their town's popular honey supply from extinction, and even make friends with ferocious termites!

What challenges will these two earnest beetles face? Whatever it is, you can be sure that Rhino-B and Stag-B will face it together -- with the power of friendship behind them.

- Friday, July 24th at 3 PM- Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo 
Hedgehog lives on a teeny-tiny island with only her stuffed dog, Mutty, for company. When a great storm carries Mutty away, she embarks on a quest to find her friend. Following the trail of clues Mutty left behind, brave Hedgehog meets a wiggly Mole, a wordy Owl, a curmudgeonly Beaver, a scatterbrained Hen and Chicks, and a girl who's new to the neighborhood, Annika May. With bravery and teamwork, there's nothing that can stop these seven from finding Mutty, but along the way they discover something even more important: each other.

The first book in a new series from Caldecott Honor winner Lauren Castillo, Our Friend Hedgehog: The Story of Us has the feel of a timeless classic, introducing an unforgettable cast of characters who will star in many more adventures to come.

- Friday, August 28th at 3 PM - Baloney and Friends by Greg Pizzoli
Meet Baloney! He's the star of this book, along with his best buddies: empathetic Peanut the horse, sensible Bizz the bumblebee, and grumpy Krabbit -- he'd rather not be here, but what can you do?
 
In this graphic novel for newly independent readers, Baloney and friends step into the spotlight and embody all the charm of childhood in three short tales and three mini-comics that invite readers to join the fun! Giggle with Baloney as he performs some questionable magic, give him a boost when a case of the blues gets him down, cheer him on as he braves the swimming pool, and at the end, learn to draw all the characters with clear step-by-step instructions!
 

Our Summer reading program for kids ages 8-12. Book picks and meeting times below.

To participate, purchase the book bundle here and a bookseller will contact you with links for the virtual meet ups! 

-Friday, June 26th at 4:30 pm - Pages & Co.: The Bookwanderers by Anna James and Paola Escobar
Since her mother's disappearance, eleven-year-old Tilly Pages has found comfort in the stories at Pages & Co., her grandparents' bookshop. But when her favorite characters, Anne of Green Gables and Alice from Wonderland, start showing up at the shop,Tilly's adventures become very real. Not only can she follow Anne and Alice into their books, she discovers she can bookwander into any story she chooses. Tilly's new ability leads her to fun and exciting adventures, but danger may be lurking on the very next page...

When new secrets are uncovered, it's up to Tilly to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago. From debut author Anna James comes a charming and exciting adventure about a bookish young heroine, a mysterious librarian, and a magical bookshop that will delight book lovers everywhere.

-Friday, July 24th at 4:30 pm - Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley
Jen is used to not getting what she wants. So suddenly moving the country and getting new stepsisters shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Jen did not want to leave the city. She did not want to move to a farm with her mom and her mom's new boyfriend, Walter. She did not want to leave her friends and her dad.

Most of all, Jen did not want to get new "sisters," Andy and Reese.

As if learning new chores on Peapod Farm wasn't hard enough, having to deal with perfect-at-everything Andy might be the last straw for Jen. Besides cleaning the chicken coop, trying to keep up with the customers at the local farmers' market, and missing her old life, Jen has to deal with her own insecurities about this new family . . . and where she fits in.

New York Times bestselling author Lucy Knisley brings to life a story inspired from her own childhood in an amazing journey of unlikely friends, sisters, and home.

-Friday, August 28th at 4:30 pm - City Spies by James Ponti
Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI6 agency.

Operating out of a base in Scotland, the City Spies are five kids from various parts of the world. When they’re not attending the local boarding school, they’re honing their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.

Before she knows what she’s doing, Sarah is heading to Paris for an international youth summit, hacking into a rival school’s computer to prevent them from winning a million euros, dangling thirty feet off the side of a building, and trying to stop a villain…all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team.

No one said saving the world was easy…
 

Our Summer reading program for teens 13 years and older! Book picks and meeting times below. 

To participate, purchase the bundle here and a bookseller will contact you with the links for the virtual meet ups!


-Sunday, July 12th at 7PM - Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed in conversation with the author Laurie Halse Anderson
Princess Diana of Themyscira believes that her 16th birthday will be one of new beginnings--namely, acceptance into the
warrior tribe of the Amazons. But her birthday celebrations are cut short when rafts carrying refugees break through the
barrier that separates her island home from the outside world. When Diana defies the Amazons to try to bring the outsiders to safety, she finds herself swept away by the stormy sea.

Cut off from everything she's ever known, Diana herself becomes a refugee in an unfamiliar land. Now Diana must survive in the world beyond Themyscira for the first time--a world that is filled with danger and injustice unlike anything she's ever experienced. With new battles to be fought and new friends to be made, she must redefine what it means to belong, to be an Amazon, and to make a difference.

Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed is a story about growing into your strength, fighting for justice, and finding home.

-Saturday, July 27th at 12 pm - Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo 
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

-Saturday, August 29 at 12 pm - Camp by L C Rosen
Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It's where he met his best friends. It's where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it's where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim -- who's only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists.
 
This year, though, it's going to be different. Randy has reinvented himself as 'Del' -- buff, masculine, and on the market. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish, and his unicorn bedsheets, he's determined to get Hudson to fall for him.
 
But as he and Hudson grow closer, Randy has to ask himself: How much is he willing to change for love? And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn't know who he truly is?
 

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Old Town Books True Story! Book Club is free and open to the public; RSVP is appreciated. While buying the book at OTB is not required to attend, we greatly appreciate it - it helps keep our free literary programming sustainable! This book club will be hosted by DC bookstagrammer: @caseythereader
 

About the Book:

Fairest is a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a "sun child" from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America. Coping with the strain of parental neglect and the elusive promise of U.S. citizenship, Talusan found childhood comfort from her devoted grandmother, a grounding force as she was treated by others with special preference or public curiosity. As an immigrant to the United States, Talusan came to be perceived as white. An academic scholarship to Harvard provided access to elite circles of privilege but required Talusan to navigate through the complex spheres of race, class, sexuality, and her place within the gay community. She emerged as an artist and an activist questioning the boundaries of gender. Talusan realized she did not want to be confined to a prescribed role as a man, and transitioned to become a woman, despite the risk of losing a man she deeply loved. 
 

About the Author:

Meredith Talusan is an award-winning journalist and author. They have written features, essays, and opinion pieces for many publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, VICE, Matter, Backchannel, The Nation, and the American Prospect. She has contributed to several books including the New York Times Bestselling Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay. Her memoir, Fairest, is forthcoming from Viking / Penguin Random House.

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Join us in kicking off Laurie Halse Anderson's virtual tour with an author discussion of Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed. Event is also part of our YA Camp Bookworm series, but participation in Camp Bookworm is not required to attend this event. We will have signed bookplates on a first-come, first-serve basis if you order the book and let us know in the comment section you're joining the event!
 

About the Book

Princess Diana of Themyscira believes that her 16th birthday will be one of new beginnings--namely, acceptance into the warrior tribe of the Amazons. But her birthday celebrations are cut short when rafts carrying refugees break through the barrier that separates her island home from the outside world. When Diana defies the Amazons to try to bring the outsiders to safety, she finds herself swept away by the stormy sea.
 

Cut off from everything she's ever known, Diana herself becomes a refugee in an unfamiliar land. Now Diana must survive in the world beyond Themyscira for the first time--a world that is filled with danger and injustice unlike anything she's ever experienced. With new battles to be fought and new friends to be made, she must redefine what it means to belong, to be an Amazon, and to make a difference.

Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed is a story about growing into your strength, fighting for justice, and finding home.
 

About the Author

LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON is a New York Times-bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists, and Chains was also short-listed for the United Kingdom's Carnegie medal. She was selected by the American Library Association for the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant contribution to young adult literature. Laurie has also been honored for her battles for intellectual freedom by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English. She is a member of RAINN's National Leadership Council and frequently speaks about sexual violence.

At our Summer Preview Romance Retreat, meet Erin Galloway, Deputy Director of Publicity for Berkley, and hear her picks for summer’s hottest romance! Meet other book lovers and leave with at least one Advanced Reader Copy of a forthcoming book.

Erin Galloway is the Deputy Director of Publicity for Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House. She's run publicity campaigns for many bestselling authors, including Christine Feehan, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kristan Higgins, Janye Ann Krentz, Nalini Singh and Nora Roberts. Ering holds a master of publishing degree from Pace University and has been in the publishing industry for 13 years. 


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Join the Bad Romance Book Club in a virtual discussion of By the Book by Amanda Sellet. Purchase your book here today & mention BRBC in the comments to get added to the event!
 

About the Book

In this clever YA rom-com debut perfect for fans of Kasie West and Ashley Poston, a teen obsessed with nineteenth-century literature tries to cull advice on life and love from her favorite classic heroines to disastrous results—especially when she falls for the school’s resident Lothario.
 

Mary Porter-Malcolm has prepared for high school in the one way she knows how: an extensive review of classic literature to help navigate the friendships, romantic liaisons, and overall drama she has come to expect from such an “esteemed” institution. When some new friends seem in danger of falling for the same tricks employed since the days of Austen and Tolstoy, Mary swoops in to create the Scoundrel Survival Guide, using archetypes of literature’s debonair bad boys to signal red flags. But despite her best efforts, she soon finds herself unable to listen to her own good advice and falling for a supposed cad—the same one she warned her friends away from. Without a convenient rain-swept moor to flee to, Mary is forced to admit that real life doesn’t follow the same rules as fiction and that if she wants a happy ending, she’s going to have to write it herself. 
 

About the Author

Amanda Sellet (pronounced Sell-ay) is a former journalist who has written book reviews for The Washington Post, personal essays for NPR, and music and movie coverage for VH1. She has an M.A. in Cinema Studies from NYU. After a mostly coastal childhood, she now lives in Kansas with her husband, daughter, and cats.

Old Town Books Cooks is our book club for culinary lovers, novice and experts alike. Join us as we discuss our July pick, Everything Is Under Control: A Memoir with Recipes, with the author, Phyllis Grant.
 

Ticket price includes a copy of the book for contactless pickup or shipping.

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About the book:

Phyllis Grant’s Everything Is Under Control is a memoir about appetite as it comes, goes, and refocuses its object of desire. Grant’s story follows the sometimes smooth, sometimes jagged, always revealing contours of her life: from her days as a dancer struggling to find her place at Julliard, to her experiences in and out of four-star kitchens in New York City, to falling in love with her future husband and leaving the city after 9/11 for California, where her children are born. All the while, a sense of longing pulses in each stage as she moves through the headspace of a young woman longing to be sustained by a city into that of a mother now sustaining a family herself.Written with the transparency of a diarist, Everything Is Under Control is an unputdownable series of vignettes followed by tried-and-true recipes from Grant’s table—a heartrending yet unsentimental portrait of the highs and lows of young adulthood, motherhood, and a life in the kitchen.
 

About the author:

Phyllis Grant is an IACP finalist for Personal Essays/Memoir Writing and a three-time Saveur Food Blog Award finalist for her blog, Dash and Bella. She has cooked in world-renowned restaurants, including Nobu, Michael’s, and Bouley. Her essays and recipes have been published in a dozen anthologies and cookbooks, including Best Food Writing in both 2015 and 2016. Her work has been featured in Esquire, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, Real Simple, Saveur, HuffPost, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Food52, and Salon. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and two children.

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Join us for a talk with author Heather Lende about her new book, Of Bears and Ballots. With an entertaining cast of offbeat but relatable characters, Of Bears and Ballots is an inspirational tale about what living in a community really means, and what we owe one another. Come join us and be inspired together by Lende's story! This event is part of our 2020 voter outreach series. 

Order your copy today!
 

About the Book

Heather Lende was one of the thousands of women inspired to take a more active role in politics during the past few years. Though her entire campaign for assembly member in Haines, Alaska, cost less than $1,000, she won! But tiny, breathtakingly beautiful Haines—a place accessible from the nearest city, Juneau, only by boat or plane—isn’t the sleepy town that it appears to be: from a bitter debate about the expansion of the fishing boat harbor to the matter of how to stop bears from rifling through garbage on Main Street to the recall campaign that targeted three assembly members, including Lende, we witness the nitty-gritty of passing legislation, the lofty ideals of our republic, and how the polarizing national politics of our era play out in one small town.
 

About the Author:

Heather Lende has contributed essays and commentary to NPR, the New York Times, and National Geographic Traveler, among other newspapers and magazines, and is a former contributing editor at Woman’s Day. A columnist for the Alaska Dispatch News, she is the obituary writer for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines and the recipient of the Suzan Nightingale McKay Best Columnist Award from the Alaska Press Club. Her previous bestselling books are Find the Good, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs, and If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name. Lende was voted Citizen of the Year, Haines Chamber of Commerce, in 2004. Her website is heatherlende.com.

About the Event:

Old Town's Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club is free and open to the public, but RSVP is encouraged. Purchasing the book at our store is not required to attend, but it is much appreciated to help sustain our free literary arts programming.

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About the Book:

Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.
 

About the Author:

An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, when she first made her way through The Lord of the Rings, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular interest in the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O’Brian and Jane Austen. She studied English literature at Brown University, and did graduate work in computer science at Columbia University before leaving to participate in the design and development of the computer game Neverwinter Nights: Shadow of Undrentide. Over the course of a brief winter sojourn spent working on the game in Edmonton, Canada (accompanied by a truly alarming coat that now lives brooding in the depths of her closet), she realized she preferred writing to programming, and on returning to New York, decided to try her hand at novels.
 

Naomi lives in New York City with her husband and six computers. Her website is at naominovik.com

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Join us for this month's fiction book club selection - True Love  by Sarah Gerard. Old Town Book(s) Club is free and open to the public; RSVP is appreciated. While buying the book at OTB is not required to attend, we greatly appreciate it - it helps keep our free literary programming sustainable! The author will be joining us for this discussion. 
 

About the Book:

Nina is a struggling writer, a college drop-out, a liar, and a cheater. More than anything she wants love. She deserves it. From the burned-out suburbs of Florida to the anonymous squalor of New York City, she eats through an incestuous cast of characters in search of it: her mother, a narcissistic lesbian living in a nudist polycule; Odessa, a single mom with even worse taste in men than Nina; Seth, an artist whose latest show is comprised of three Tupperware containers full of trash; Brian, whose roller-coaster affair with Nina is the most stable “relationship” in his life; and Aaron, an aspiring filmmaker living at home with his parents, with whom Nina begins to write her magnum opus.
 

Nina’s quest for fulfillment is at once darkly comedic, acerbically acute, and painfully human—a scathing critique of contemporary society, and a tender examination of our anguished yearning for connection in an era defined by detachment.
 

About the Author: 

Sarah Gerard’s essay collection Sunshine State (Harper Perennial, 2017) was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, and was longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Her novel Binary Star (Two Dollar Radio, 2015) was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and was a best-book-of-the-year at NPR, Vanity Fair, and Buzzfeed. Her novel True Love is forthcoming from Harper Books in 2020.

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Join us for a discussion of A.H. Kim's debut novel, A Good Family, in conversation with Miracle Creek author, Angie Kim. Order your copy here, and let us know you're attending the event for signed bookplates on a first come, first serve basis!
 

About the Book

Keep your family close and your enemies closer. Beth is the darling of God Halsa, a pharmaceutical giant, and she’s got the outrageous salary and lifestyle to prove it. Until she lands in white-collar women’s prison, thanks to a high-profile whistleblower suit.
 

Sam, Beth’s husband, used to be the town’s most eligible bachelor, and he’s never had to do anything for himself. Until his wife goes to jail, and he’s left to raise two daughters on his own.
 

Lise, the au pair, is the whistleblower. But is she? Everyone knows she’s not clever enough to have done it alone.
 

Hannah, Sam’s sister, is devoted to her family. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for them.
 

Eva, Beth’s sister, is the smart one. (Read: not the pretty one.) Her life seems perfect on the surface, but sibling rivalry runs deep.
 

Martin, Beth’s brother, is the firstborn, the former golden boy turned inside-the Beltway businessman. But what is he hiding? 
 

Someone knows something. Someone betrayed Beth. This is the story of the Min-Lindstroms. This is the story of the all-American family as it implodes under the weight of secrets, lies and the unchecked desire for wealth and power.
 

About the Author

A.H. Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. as a young child. She was educated at Harvard College and Berkeley Law School, where she was an editor of the California Law Review. She is a practicing attorney and has served as chief of staff to the CEO and head of investor relations at a Fortune 200 company.

A.H. Kim is the proud mother of two sons, a longtime cancer survivor, community volunteer, and member of the Writers Grotto. She and her husband live in San Francisco.

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About the Event

Old Town Book(s) Club is free and open to the public; RSVP is appreciated. While buying the book at OTB is not required to attend, we greatly appreciate it - it helps keep our free literary programming sustainable! This book club will be joined by author Nikita Stewart and the inspiration of Troop 6000,  Giselle Burgess!

About the Book

Giselle Burgess was a young mother of five trying to provide for her family. Though she had a full-time job, the demands of ever-increasing rent and mounting bills forced her to fall behind, and eviction soon followed. Giselle and her kids were thrown into New York City’s overburdened shelter system, which housed nearly 60,000 people each day. They soon found themselves living at a Sleep Inn in Queens, provided by the city as temporary shelter; for nearly a year, all six lived in a single room with two beds and one bathroom. With curfews and lack of amenities, it felt more like a prison than a home, and Giselle, at the mercy of a broken system, grew fearful about her family’s future. She knew that her daughters and the other girls living at the shelter needed to be a part of something where they didn’t feel the shame or stigma of being homeless, and could develop skills and a community they could be proud of. Giselle had worked for the Girl Scouts and had the idea to establish a troop in the shelter, and with the support of a group of dedicated parents, advocates, and remarkable girls, Troop 6000 was born.
 

About the Author:

Nikita Stewart is a reporter covering social services for The New York Times. The Newswomen’s Club of New York recognized Stewart in 2018 for her coverage of homelessness, mental health, and poverty. She has been a finalist for the Livingston Award and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. She joined The New York Times in 2014 after working at The Washington Post.

Join the Bad Romance Book Club in discussing Meryl Wilsner's Something to Talk About in August! Purchase the book here and mention BRBC in the special instructions section at checkout to get added to the virtual event.

About the book:
A showrunner and her assistant give the world something to talk about when they accidentally fuel a ridiculous rumor in this debut romance.

Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple. The so-called scandal couldn't come at a worse time—threatening Emma's promotion and Jo's new movie.

As the gossip spreads, it starts to affect all areas of their lives. Paparazzi are following them outside the office, coworkers are treating them differently, and a “source” is feeding information to the media. But their only comment is “no comment”.

With the launch of Jo’s film project fast approaching, the two women begin to spend even more time together, getting along famously. Emma seems to have a sixth sense for knowing what Jo needs. And Jo, known for being aloof and outwardly cold, opens up to Emma in a way neither of them expects. They begin to realize the rumor might not be so off base after all…but is acting on the spark between them worth fanning the gossip flames?

About the author:
Meryl Wilsner writes stories about queer women falling in love. Born in Michigan, Meryl lived in Portland, Oregon and Jackson, Mississippi before recently returning to the Mitten State. Some of Meryl’s favorite things include: all four seasons, button down shirts, the way giraffes run, and their wife.

Stop by the shop on Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16 from 10am-3pm for our annual sidewalk sale! You'll have a chance to:

• Snag some deals on slightly damaged books
• Pick up a blind-date-with-a-book
• Browse merchandise that isn't available on our webstore

Cashless transactions only. Booksellers will be wearing masks and gloves and we encourage customers to do the same. 
 

Old Town Books Cooks! is our book club for culinary lovers, novice and experts alike. Join us as we discuss our August pick, Chicano Eats  by Esteban Castillo. 

Purchase the book here and mention the cookbook club in the special instructions section to get added to the event.

About the book:
The creator of the popular Chicano Eats blog and winner of the Saveur Best New Voice People’s Choice Award takes us on a delicious tour through the diverse flavors and foods of Chicano cuisine—Mexican food with an immigrant sensibility that weaves seamlessly between Mexican and American genres and cultures.

Esteban Castillo grew up in Santa Ana, California, where more than three-quarters of the population is Latino. Because Mexican food was the foundation of his childhood, he was surprised to see recipes for dishes on popular food blogs that were anything but the traditional meals he grew up eating. He was inspired to create the blog, Chicano Eats, to showcase his love for design, cooking, and culture and provide a space for authentic Latino voices, recipes, and stories to be heard.

About the author:
Esteban Castillo is a PR/Digital Marketing professional and the creator of Chicano Eats, a blog that showcases fun and exciting dishes that take influences and ingredients of traditional Mexican food combined with concepts and flavors from his life in California. He is the Reader’s Choice winner of the 2017 Saveur Blog Awards for Best New Voice, and Chicano Eats has been featured in Food52, NPR’s the Salt, Instagram, Remezcla, and We Are Mitú, among others.

Old Town Book(s) Club is free and open to the public. While buying the book at OTB is not required to attend, we would greatly appreciate it to help keep our free literary programming sustainable!
 

Free RSVP here!
 

About the book:

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE!

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.

Like Roberto Bolano’s2666Â or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.
 

About the author:

Fernanda Melchor, born in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1982, is widely recognized as one of the most exciting new voices of Mexican literature. Her collection This Is Not Miami is also forthcoming from New Directions. Sophie Hughes has translated such Spanish-language writers as Ivan Repila, Laia Jufresa, Rodrigo Hasbun, Jose Revueltas, Giuseppe Caputo, Enrique Vila-Matas, and Alia Trabucco Zeran. Sophie Hughes has translated such Spanish-language writers as Ivan Repila, Laia Jufresa, Rodrigo Hasbun, Jose Revueltas, Giuseppe Caputo, Enrique Vila-Matas, and Alia Trabucco Zeran.

Old Town Books True Story! Nonfiction Book Club is free and open to the public. While buying the book at OTB is not required to attend, we would greatly appreciate it to help keep our free literary programming sustainable!

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About the book:

Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she’d tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer’s phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own.
 

Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented—and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects.
 

In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited into the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami, we enter the ubiquitous botanicas, which offer medicinal herbs and potions to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for state ID in order to receive life-saving clean water. In Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, finds family in two teenage girls whose father is in sanctuary. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival.
 

In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American.
 

About the author:

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio has written about immigration, music, beauty, and mental illness for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Glamour, Elle, Vogue, n+1, and The New Inquiry, among others. She lives in New Haven with her partner and their dog.
 

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is a writer whose work, which focuses on race, culture, and immigration, has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vogue, Elle, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, n+1, The New Inquiry, and Interview magazine. Born in Ecuador, she later became one of the first undocumented students admitted to Harvard University. She is a fellow at Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective and is currently a doctoral candidate in the American Studies program at Yale University.