Dear Reader,

Since we last wrote, we’ve had our first in-store author event, which was a great success, and we’re excited to tell you about two more. We’re also getting pumped for our first-ever Charmers/JSB collaborative book club coming up on Sunday and Small Business Saturday on the 29th.

Let’s get into it.

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Holiday Hours & Small Business Saturday

This year, we’ll once again be closed on Thanksgiving (November 27) and Black Friday (November 28), but we hope you’ll save some post-feast energy for Small Business Saturday, November 29. Like Independent Bookstore Day in April, it’s a very big day for us, and one of the reasons we can stay afloat the rest of the year.

That said, we know everybody’s struggling right now. We had a sad/strangled/bitter laugh at Searah from Early to Bed’s Instagram post about “running a small business while the world burns around you.” (On the plus side, we have much lower overhead and prices. On the minus side, our product doesn’t have quite the same payoff.) Taking care of yourself and your people is the most important thing, end of story.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t seen that our neighbors at R Public House are doing free to-go dinners, no questions asked, now you know. They post the day’s neighbor meal on Instagram and Facebook every day. If you want to help support their generosity, you can order one for someone else during their open hours.

Finally, while we’re under the heading “Holiday Hours,” we’re going to be open 11-3 on December 24, then closed December 25-January 1, reopening on Friday, January 2. We’ll be open throughout the month of January this year. We will remind you of all this later.

Book Club Sunday, 5:30 PM, at Charmers Cafe

We’re discussing It Lasts for Ever and Then It’s Over, by Anne de Marcken, this Sunday at 5:30 p.m. at Charmers Cafe, 1500 W. Jarvis. We’re so excited to unite both halves of our amazing book club! As a reminder, we’ll provide some beverages and snacks as usual, but there will be no Charmers staff or food service. No RSVP needed for this one.

Max Delsohn and Riley Yaxley, November 13, 7 p.m.

On Thursday, November 13, we’ll host the Chicago book launch of Max Delsohn's debut short story collection, Crawl. Torrey Peters says, “Max Delsohn has a poet’s sense of yearning, a stand-up’s sense of timing, and a 3.A.M hookup’s desperate frankness about sex—all of which combine to make Crawl one of my favorite story collections of the past few years.”

Max will be in conversation with Riley Yaxley here at the store at 7 p.m. For more information and to RSVP (not required; always appreciated), please go here.

David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele, December 11, 7 p.m.

We’re thrilled to be hosting the paperback launch of Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry’s Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe. Gabriele and Perry’s history of the Carolingian Civil War was described as “a real-life Game of Thrones” by the New York Times. Author Harry Turtledove calls it, “Popular history as it should be written—intelligent and wry, with some snarky digs at modern times despite nominally being about the 9th-century Franks.”

Gabriele and Perry will both be here to talk about the book and answer everything you ever wanted to ask a medievalist. Again, RSVPs are not required but are appreciated for headcount.

General Reminders

If you have books to trade for store credit, please email us at [email protected]! As a reminder, store credit can be used for to purchase both used and new books in-store—including new book orders we place for you.

Don’t feel like leaving the house now that it’s dark in the late afternoon? Bookshop is always open, and if you select us as your favorite store, we get a cut that really makes a difference. They also sell ebooks!

Prefer audiobooks? Libro.fm also supports indie bookstores, including ours. We’d be delighted if you shopped there.

Need something for the JSB fan in your life? We sell cute physical gift cards in store and electronic gift cards online.

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As always, we’re grateful for you and your business. We can’t wait to see you soon.

-Kate and Michael