Dear Reader,

People often ask us where we get our books, and the answer is: There are a lot of answers. One way, of course, is from customers who trade us their books for store credit—we always welcome new inquiries! But also, occasional opportunities come along to acquire lots of new books, which means that sometimes, we decide to close the store on very short notice. Like say, tomorrow.

We’ll be off on an inventory adventure tomorrow, Wednesday, February 25. We hope to come back with enough new stock to make proper amends for any inconvenience.

Thanks for a Lovely Evening with HAMOC

We want to say thank you to everyone who joined us last Friday night for an evening with the Haitian American Museum of Chicago, in support of the new book Haitians in Chicago. Written by HAMOC founder Elsie Hector Hernandez and other community leaders, Haitians in Chicago is a pictorial history that spans the centuries between our first non-indigenous settler, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, and current Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. At Charmers on Friday, Elsie shared her own story of founding the museum in 2012 to celebrate the art, music, culture, and spirit of her people. The book is a natural extension of that project, and we still have copies on sale at the event price of $12.

Sad you missed this great event? Perhaps you should come to a different one…

Friday, March 6, 6 p.m.: Brian Bouldrey Book Party in Jarvis Square

A week from Friday, we’re joining Jarvis Square Tavern to celebrate local author and Northwestern creative writing professor Brian Bouldrey’s forthcoming book, The Good Pornographer. The party will take place in the cabana outside JST (with heaters running!), and we’ll be on hand to sell books. Please come by for a toast to Brian!

Sunday, March 8, 5:30 p.m.: LitFic Book Club, Dealing with the Dead

On Sunday, March 8, we’ll be meeting once again at Charmers (Kate will have the key this time) to discuss Dealing with the Dead, by Alain Mabanckou. We’ve still got a few copies here, so please come grab one and join us next Sunday!

Reminder: We’re still offering 6-month and 12-month litfic book club subscriptions, for $100 and $200, respectively. You can start a subscription at any time, and you can see what we’ll be reading through the end of 2026 on our website’s Events page.

Wednesday, March 25, 6:30 p.m.: Inaugural Nonfiction Book Club, Oathbreakers

We want to get the ball rolling on this long-promised club, even while we’re still hammering out the full reading schedule. Starting in March, our nonfiction book club will meet on the last Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Charmers. Our first read (by request from a longtime customer) will be Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers that Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe, by David M. Perry & Matthew Gabriele. You might recall we were bummed to cancel an event with them in December, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get together and talk about this “real-life Game of Thrones!”

The beauty (and, let’s be honest, frustration) of “nonfiction” as a category is that it can mean so many different things. We’re kicking off with history but fully intend to delve into politics, art, music, social science, memoir, and more with this club. If you’d like to join the nonfiction book club, please let us know which subjects interest you most by taking this short survey. Thanks!

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Okay, pals, that’s all the news. We hope to see you very soon, just not tomorrow!

-Kate & Michael