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Boston Globe
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Where to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day in Greater Boston
So if you're wondering where to begin celebrating this tight-knit community, here is a guide to Independent Bookstore Day celebrations happening in Greater Boston. Lovestruck Books Advertisement Shelves of books at Lovestruck Books. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Lovestruck Books, the romance bookstore and café-and-wine bar in Harvard Squard, will spend Indie Bookstore Day inaugurating its outdoor patio. The store 44 Brattle St., Cambridge. Papercuts Bookshop Papercuts Bookshop owner Kate Layte, stands outside the Jamaica Plain locale. Issac Fitz At Papercuts Bookshop, the IBD celebration will be extra sweet with free slices of gluten-free coconut-pineapple cake courtesy of residential bakery 60 South St., Jamaica Plain. Advertisement Side Quest Books & Games Side Quest Books & Games is an indie fantasy bookstore in Bow Market. The store will celebrate Independent Bookstore Day this Saturday at its Somerville location. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff All things fantastical can be found at Side Quest Books & Games, but its commitment to showcasing the underrepresented is entirely nonfiction. The Somerville shop will be debuting new swag displaying graphics commissioned by local artists. Other items customers can snag to rep their bookworm ways include Indie Bookstore totes and stickers — the latter of which will be given out for free with every purchase. 1 Bow Market Way, Somerville. Porter Square Books Porter Square Books in Cambridge handout Porter Square Books is more than just its two retail locations in Cambridge and Boston's Seaport neighborhood. The retailer's foundation of the same name works to make reading more accessible within the Cambridge community through sponsored visits by authors to local schools and book donations. To support their efforts on IBD, PSB will be holding a Stuffed Animal Portrait Fund-raiser at its Cambridge location, during which attendees can bring their favorite cotton-brain friend to get their portrait drawn by professional illustrators. Later in the day, PSB employees will partake in a bake-off, where the 'Undisputed Baking Champion of the Year' will be determined by the audience's taste buds. 1815 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. Read My Lips Boston Twin sisters Lily (left) and Hannah Barrett will be organizing an Independent Bookstore Day celebration in Malden. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE For romance readers, Read My Lips has a bit of everything. From raunch-filled pages you hide in public to sweet tropes that have you kicking your feet, they carry it. Therefore, it's only fair that things get a bit hot and heavy during the IBD event. The pop-up bookstore will be setting customers up on blind dates with books at Idle Hands Craft Ales, where readers may find a $25 gift card lying seductively between the pages. The romance pop-up will also be donating 10 percent of the profit from book-themed merch to the pop-up's nonprofit of the month, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. 89 Commercial St., Malden. Advertisement The Purple Couch Bookshop Purple Couch is fittingly decorated with colorful furniture at its North Andover location. The Purple Couch Bookshop North Andover's Purple Couch Bookshop is taking Independent Bookstore Day a step further by making its celebration a two-day event, extending to Sunday. Throughout the weekend, customers can play a game of banned books bingo, take a peek around with the little ones for a kids' scavenger hunt, or go on blind book dates. On Saturday and Sunday night, the store will remain open until late and provide light refreshments for celebrating customers. 350 Winthrop Ave. Unit 9B, North Andover. Boujee Bookstore Located in Norwood, Boujee Bookstore will spend Indie Bookstore Day in the company of various New England-based authors. Boujee Bookstore The vibes at Boujee Bookstore are typically light, fun, and girly, and so are its Independent Bookstore Day activities. Customers (21+) can snag a free cocktail or fill a bag at the all-pink candy bar while browsing the store's tidily shelved titles. Alongside other bibliophiles, customers can spend time with eightindie fantasy authors, including Amanda Sinatra and Allie Maddox, to get their books signed by locally-based writers. 61 Endicott St., Norwood. Marianna Orozco can be reached at
Boston Globe
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Boston is bustling with romance book clubs — where happy endings aren't just possible, but required
The circle of eight readers nodded in agreement. Advertisement 'But I was like, 'I don't care.'' Everyone began to nod again. Discussion leader Hannah Barrett, who cofounded Read My Lips — a local curator that hosts pop-up book shops and events — agreed: 'It's nice to live in a fantasy.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Just a show of hands at the late February Romance Book Club hosted by Read My Lips Boston, a curator of inclusive romance stories. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE/Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe While romance may be dead on planet Earth — succumbing to the blows of dating apps, red flags, and podcast bros — it's certainly alive and well in books. So, for some readers, 'book boyfriends' are a much better object for their affection. After all, why scroll through a dating app when you can engross yourself in an emotionally charged enemies-to-lovers epic with a guaranteed happy ending? While the genre has existed long before love became as rare as first editions, the rise of #BookTok redefined how readers talk about the genre. It provided a digital space where tropes, once considered cheesy or cringe, thrive, and intellectualism is met with a not-so-sexy Offline, the popularity-fueled discourse has translated to a rise in romance book clubs — groups dedicated to exclusively reading and unabashedly discussing the genre, organized by the likes of booksellers, cafés, libraries, and friends. There, everything from third-act breakups to 'open door' sex scenes can be safely discussed not only without judgment, but with enthusiasm. Greater Boston has its share of like-minded gatherings — like Advertisement Barrett started the Read My Lips book club with her twin sister Lily in September 2024. Like the book club trend itself, the Barrett twins had first built community online via an But even IRL, some essentially 'online' tasks must be settled. Before the readers began to discuss book's juicy details, they set upon the difficult, yet necessary task of ' Twin sisters Lily and Hannah Barrett lead the monthly meeting of the Read My Lips book club at The Speedway in Brighton. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE For Viggo, member Osler suggests, 'Ryan Gosling but with shaggy hair.' Dot Brown rebuts with 'the cartoon version of Osler joined after her own fateful meet-cute at Rite, home to a permanent Read My Lips bookshelf — where readers can browse and buy from their curated collection. There, she met shop owner Ren Wheeler who spotted Osler at the bookshelf and told her about the club's meetings. Advertisement 'The proverbial voice on my shoulder said, 'You know, I'm just gonna show up and see if I can meet more people outside my circle,'' Osler said. Now, Osler and Read My Lips have been going steady for months. Brown, on the other hand, was on the search for romance — that is, fellow romance lovers. 'I'm a big reader,' Brown says. 'Not a lot of my friends read romance. I don't have a space to [talk about it], like, I'll talk about the books, and they're like, 'What are you talking about?'' Before joining Read My Lips, she had tried several other reading groups throughout Greater Boston, including the Its focus is on discussing tropes (enemies-to-lovers), subtropes (forced proximity), and the historical accuracy of bodice-rippers, rather than a single, specific novel. Readers are told to arrive with topic-relevant romance books — and to then defend their honor. The only catch? Any books brought to the table must end happily ever after. An assortment of books displayed for the Read My Lips book club at The Speedway in Brighton. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE About a dozen members meet in a BPL conference room for tea and to participate in Wimbledon-worthy back-and-forth's about the meaning and enjoyability of the trope du jour — which is picked by club-creator, BPL staffer, and romance reader Veronica Matasy. 'It was a little experimental in the beginning,' says Matasy, 'Just thinking how many people are gonna show up, you know? Is this something that we can sustain?' Advertisement Matasy started the book club in September 2023 to provide a designated space for romance readers who wanted to discuss their theories and analysis, but feared skepticism because of the genre. 'Part of [the stigma] has to do with the fact that, historically, romance has been considered to be the province of women,' explains Matasy. Its next meeting — which takes place April 13 — features The club's topic-centered approach — much like dinner party conversation starters — may be unconventional, but can create a more dynamic space for discussion of literary value and authorial intent. And while not everyone will be on the same page, members could leave with a new perspective on a trope, or at least a few new titles to check out from the library's stacks. 'Giving readers a space to seriously discuss romance novels is destigmatizing and helpful,' says Matasy, 'and, at least I hope, makes the people who read romance novels feel that what they read is worth discussing.' Upcoming events Romance Book Club; Discussion: 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo' by Taylor Jenkins Reid April 7, 7 p.m, Trident Booksellers, 338 Newbury St., Boston, Read My Lips Book Club; Discussion: 'I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com' by Kimberly Lemming April 10, 6 p.m. The Annex at the Charles River Speedway, 525 Western Ave., Brighton, Happily-Ever-After Book Club ; Discussion: STEM Romances Advertisement April 13, 2:30 p.m. Boston Public Library, Central Library, 700 Boylston St., Boston, Marianna Orozco can be reached at
