The Weight of Ink: RACHEL KADISH & JOANNA RAKOFF discuss Jewish Literature
Porter Square Books hosts author RACHEL KADISH and novelist/journalist JOANNA RAKOFF in conversation about KADISH’s newest novel: The Weight of Ink.
Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. Electrifying and ambitious, sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, The Weight of Ink is a sophisticated work of historical fiction about women separated by centuries, and the choices and sacrifices they must make in order to reconcile the life of the heart and mind.
This event is not ticketed.
The Weight of Ink is currently being sold at Porter Square Books.
If you cannot attend the event, you can still get a signed copy by purchasing the book online and mentioning in the comments section at checkout that you want it signed (or personalized). This must be completed at least 24 hours prior to the event.
Poet SIMONE JOHN launches collection: Testify, joined by poet KRYSTEN HILL
Porter Square Books welcomes SIMONE JOHN with local poet KRYSTEN HILL as JOHN launches her first full-length poetry collection: Testify.
JOHN’s first full-length book of poems experiments with documentary poetics to uplift stories of black people impacted by state-sanctioned violence. Testify is ultimately a book of witness. It “burdens” its readers “with knowing.” Combined, both chapters serve as an unflinching critique of race and gender supremacy in the United States.
This event is not ticketed.
Equally Wed: The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your LGBTQ+ Wedding
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning editor and writer KIRSTEN PALLADINO, cofounder of EquallyWed.com, for a discussion of her book, Equally Wed: The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your LGBTQ+ Wedding.
By and large, most wedding books in the market are still centered around one bride and one groom. And yet, the advent of full marriage equality in the United States has made a new, polished wedding planning book dedicated to guiding LGBTQ couples both timely and essential. KIRSTEN OTT PALLADINO will fill that need with this definitive book to inspire couples everywhere who are seeking a meaningful, personal ceremony and a momentous beginning to legally married life.
This book will be for sale at the event for 20% off. There will also be a signing after the event.
No tickets required for entry.
CLAIRE MESSUD in conversation with WBUR’s CHRISTOPHER LYDON
Harvard Book Store and WBUR welcome local bestselling novelist CLAIRE MESSUD—author of The Emperor’s Children and The Woman Upstairs—and Radio Open Source‘s CHRISTOPHER LYDON for a discussion of MESSUD’s latest novel, The Burning Girl, a coming-of-age story about the bond of best friends, set in small-town Massachusetts.
This event is ticketed. You may purchase tickets here.
This event is co-sponsored by WBUR, Boston’s NPR News Station.
Rethinking the Cold War with Kennedy School scholar ODD ARNE WESTAD
Harvard Book Store welcomes Harvard Kennedy School’s ODD ARNE WESTAD for a discussion of his latest book, The Cold War: A World History.
We tend to think of the Cold War as a bounded conflict: a clash between two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, born out of the ashes of World War II and coming to a dramatic end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Bancroft Prize-winning scholar ODD ARNE WESTAD argues that the Cold War must be understood as a global ideological confrontation, with early roots in the Industrial Revolution and ongoing repercussions around the world.
This event is not ticketed.
The book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Body, and Brain
Harvard Book Store welcomes psychologists DANIEL GOLEMAN and RICHARD J. DAVIDSON for a discussion of their book, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body.
In the last twenty years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, DANIEL GOLEMAN and RICHARD DAVIDSON show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it.
This event is ticketed. You may purchase tickets here.
The book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
Award-winning author ALEX GILVARRY at Harvard Book Store
Harvard Book Store welcomes ALEX GILVARRY, the Hornblower Award–winning author of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant, for a discussion of Eastman Was Here—a novel set in the literary world of 1970’s New York, following a washed-up writer in an errant quest to pick up the pieces of his life.
The year is 1973, and Alan Eastman, a public intellectual, accidental cultural critic, washed-up war journalist, husband, and philanderer; finds himself alone on the floor of his study in an existential crisis. His wife has taken their kids and left him to live with her mother in New Jersey, and his best work feels as though it is years behind him. In the depths of despair, he receives an unexpected and unwelcome phone call from his old rival dating back to his days on the Harvard literary journal, offering him the chance to go to Vietnam to write the definitive account of the end of America’s longest war.
This event is not ticketed.
The book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
VANESSA GRIGORIADIS: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus
Harvard Book Store welcomes VANESSA GRIGORIADIS, contributing editor of the New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, for a discussion of her book, Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus.
A new sexual revolution is sweeping the country, and college students are on the front lines. Women use fresh, savvy methods to fight entrenched sexism and sexual assault even as they celebrate their own sexuality as never before. Many “woke” male students are more sensitive to women’s concerns than previous generations ever were, while other men perpetuate the most cruel misogyny. Amid such apparent contradictions, it’s no surprise that intense confusion shrouds the topic of sex on campus.
This event is not ticketed.
The book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
SALMAN RUSHDIE with his latest novel, The Golden House
Harvard Book Store and the Mahindra Humanities Center welcome internationally renowned author SALMAN RUSHDIE for a discussion of his latest novel, The Golden House—a modern American epic that is equal parts The Great Gatsby and The Bonfire of the Vanities, set against the panorama of contemporary politics and culture. Mr. Rushdie will be joined in conversation by HOMI K. BHABHA, Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University.
On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from foreign shores takes up residence in the architectural jewel of “the Gardens,” a cloistered community in New York’s Greenwich Village. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent, and unmistakable whiff of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons. There is no mother, no wife; at least not until Vasilisa, a sleek Russian expat, snags the septuagenarian Nero, becoming the queen to his king—a queen in want of an heir.
This event is ticketed. You may purchase tickets here. Tickets include a copy of The Golden House.
This event is co-sponsored with The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University.