I Just Haven’t Met You Yet–Boston Launch

Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning author and writing instructor TRACY STRAUSS for a discussion of her latest book, I Just Haven’t Met You Yet: Finding Empowerment in Dating, Love, and Life.

About I Just Haven’t Met You Yet

I Just Haven’t Met You Yet details Tracy Strauss’s dating history and her journey to dismantle the effects and stigmas of an abusive past, break free of destructive relationship patterns, and ultimately conquer her fear of truly being seen by the world, flaws and all. The author shares the transformative lessons she learned and self-empowerment she achieved while passing each hurdle along the way to finding the love of her life.

Tracy Strauss helps readers empower themselves by taking a challenging look at the ways the negative events of their lives, including sexual harassment and abuse, have shaped their self-perception and created obstacles to personal success, and how readers can change that troubled self-image along with their (love) lives.

I Just Haven’t Met You Yet is a modern-day journey of the heart. It is a story about taking big risks, changing old habits and beliefs about dating, and speaking back to the naysayers, especially that internal critic, the inner love saboteur. It is a prime mover and the only epistolary memoir cum dating/relationship essay book of its kind.

Praise

“Tracy Strauss answers the dreaded question “How are you still single?” with a narrative that’s funny, relatable, genuine, thought-provoking, and universal. She’s written more than just a book about dating; I Just Haven’t Met You Yet is a narrative about a person’s need to be seen—and understood.” —Meredith Goldstein, Boston Globe love letters advice columnist

“Tracy Strauss will break your heart. I defy you to put down this disarmingly charming book. A wry narrative turns in and out of light and deep shadow as if she were dancing. Utterly, beautifully honest. It reaches great heights and will make you wish she had always been your friend.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels

“In I Just Haven’t Met You Yet, Tracy Strauss reminds us of the power of words and memory and honesty and—most of all—the power of hope. This book has one of my favorite last lines that I’ve read in a long time. But don’t cheat and peek at it. Read every single one that comes before it so that when you reach the end, like me you’ll be smiling and crying in equal measure.” —Ann Hood, bestselling author of The Knitting Circle

AMINATTA FORNA in conversation with CLAIRE MESSUD at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store and GrubStreet welcome award-winning author AMINATTA FORNA (pictured) for a discussion of her latest novel, Happiness. She will be joined in conversation by local bestselling novelist CLAIRE MESSUD, author of The Woman Upstairs.

This event is free and open to the public.

DANIEL MALLORY ORTBERG at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes DANIEL MALLORY ORTBERG, aka Slate’s “Dear Prudie,” for a discussion of his latest book, The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror, in conversation with librarian and podcaster Margaret H. Willison.

About The Merry Spinster

From DANIEL MALLORY ORTBERG comes a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Adapted from their beloved “Children’s Stories Made Horrific” series, The Merry Spinster takes up the trademark wit that endeared Ortberg to readers of both The Toast and his best-selling debut Texts From Jane Eyre. The feature has become among the most popular on the site, with each entry bringing in tens of thousands of views, as the stories proved a perfect vehicle for Ortberg’s eye for deconstruction and destabilization. Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children’s stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.

All the Women in My Family Sing

Harvard Book Store is pleased to welcome DEBORAH SANTANA, JENNIFER DE LEON, LISA A. JONES, and others, as they read and discuss the anthology, All the Women in My Family Sing.

All the Women in My Family Sing is an anthology documenting the experiences of women of color at the dawn of the twenty-first century. It is a vital collection of prose and poetry whose topics range from the pressures of being the vice-president of a Fortune 500 Company to escaping the killing fields of Cambodia, to the struggles inside immigration, identity, romance, and self-worth. These brief, trenchant essays capture the aspirations and wisdom of women of color as they exercise autonomy, creativity, and dignity and build bridges to heal the brokenness in today’s turbulent world.

Neuroscientist TALI SHAROT on “The Influential Mind”

Harvard Book Store welcomes cognitive neuroscientist TALI SHAROT—founder and director of the Affective Brain Lab at University College London—and Harvard Law School’s CASS R. SUNSTEIN for a discussion of Sharot’s latest book, The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others.

In The Influential Mind, neuroscientist TALI SHAROT takes us on a thrilling exploration of the nature of influence.  We all have a duty to affect others―from the classroom to the boardroom to social media.  But how skilled are we at this role, and can we become better?  It turns out that many of our instincts are ineffective, because they are incompatible with how people’s minds operate.  SHAROT shows us how to avoid these pitfalls, and how an attempt to change beliefs and actions is successful when it is well-matched with the core elements that govern the human brain.

This event is not ticketed.

The Influential Mind will be on sale at the event for 20% off.

The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought

Harvard Book Store welcomes Tufts University’s DENNIS C. RASMUSSEN for a discussion of his latest book, The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought.

David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as “the Great Infidel” for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy, and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism. Remarkably, the two were best friends for most of their adult lives, sharing what RASMUSSEN calls ‘the greatest of all philosophical friendships’. The Infidel and the Professor is the first book to tell the fascinating story of the friendship of these towering Enlightenment thinkers―and how it influenced their world-changing ideas.

This event is not ticketed.

The Infidel and the Professor will be on sale at the event for 20% off.

Foreign correspondent/author DEBORAH CAMPBELL: A Disappearance in Damascus

Harvard Book Store welcomes foreign correspondent DEBORAH CAMPBELL for a discussion of her prize-winning book, A Disappearance in Damascus: Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War.

In the midst of an unfolding international crisis, renowned journalist Deborah Campbell finds herself swept up in the mysterious disappearance of Ahlam, her guide and friend. Campbell’s frank, personal account of a journey through fear and the triumph of friendship and courage is as riveting as it is illuminating.

This event is not ticketed.

A Disappearance in Damascus will be on sale at the event at 20% off.

Attention fantasy-lovers: MAX GLADSTONE is back with The Ruin of Angels

Fantasy lovers, take note!  Harvard Book Store welcomes MAX GLADSTONE, local author of the Hugo-nominated Craft Sequence, for a discussion of The Ruin of Angels, the sixth novel in the series.

The God Wars destroyed the city of Alikand. Now, a century and a half and a great many construction contracts later, Agdel Lex rises in its place. Dead deities litter the surrounding desert, streets shift when people aren’t looking, a squid-like tower dominates the skyline, and the foreign Iskari Rectification Authority keeps strict order in this once-independent city―while treasure seekers, criminals, combat librarians, nightmare artists, angels, demons, dispossessed knights, grad students, and other fools gather in its ever-changing alleys, hungry for the next big score.

This event is not ticketed.

The most recent The Ruin of Angels novel will be on sale at the event for 20% off.

Local bestseller KRISTIN CASHORE shares her novel Jane, Unlimited

Harvard Book Store welcomes local bestselling author KRISTIN CASHORE, author of the award-winning Graceling Realm series, for a discussion of her highly anticipated new standalone novel: Jane, Unlimited—a novel about grief, adventure, storytelling, and finding yourself in a world of seemingly infinite choices.

Jane has lived an ordinary life, raised by her aunt Magnolia—an adjunct professor and deep sea photographer. Jane counted on Magnolia to make the world feel expansive and to turn life into an adventure. But Aunt Magnolia was lost a few months ago in Antarctica on one of her expeditions.  Now, with no direction, a year out of high school, and obsessed with making umbrellas that look like her own dreams (but mostly just mourning her aunt), she is easily swept away by Kiran Thrash—a glamorous, capricious acquaintance who shows up and asks Jane to accompany her to a gala at her family’s island mansion called Tu Reviens.

This event is not ticketed.

Jane, Unlimited will be on sale at the event for 20% off.

A Column of Fire, the latest in the Kingsbridge series

International bestselling author KEN FOLLETT has enthralled millions of readers with the first two books of his Kingsbridge series, The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. The saga now continues with Follett’s magnificent new epic, A Column of Fire.  Harvard Book Store welcomes FOLLETT for a discussion of his latest novel.

Ned Willard wants nothing more than to marry Margery Fitzgerald. But when the lovers find themselves on opposing sides of the religious divide sweeping across the country, Ned goes to work for Princess Elizabeth. When she becomes queen, all Europe turns against England. The shrewd, determined young monarch sets up the country’s first secret service, to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions, and invasion plans. Over a turbulent half century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. Elizabeth clings precariously to her throne and her principles, protected by a small, dedicated group of resourceful spies and courageous secret agents.

This event is ticketed.  You may purchase tickets here.

This book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.