Porter Square Books Is Up For Sale

An email from the bookstore assures fans there's a search for a responsible new owner.

Porter Square Books, a popular bookstore for Somerville bookworms, though it's technically in Cambridge by a few hundred feet, is up for sale, according to an email from the store. The email, sent to customers in the store's membership program, says, "The 'rumor' you may have heard is true. Porter Square Books is for sale." Before you rip your hair out and start attacking people with Kindles, know that the current owners of the bookstore "have turned to the public arena to find just the right next owner of the store who will nurture and protect the spirit, culture, enthusiasm and dependability that is Porter Square Books," the email says. It says the current owners have "allowed a significant timeframe" for conducting the search and "when …

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Jennifer Haigh, New York Times Bestselling Author, Reads in Somerville Sunday

The author of "Baker Towers," "The Condition" and other novels will read from her new collection of stories, "News from Heaven," at The Book Shop in Ball Square at 3 p.m.

Somerville Library Unveils 'The Awesome Box'

The Awesome Box lets residents recommend awesome books and "mind-blowing" reads to each other.

Maybe The Who will write a song about it: "The Awesome Box." It's a new initiative at the Somerville Public Library, conducted in partnership with the Harvard Innovation Lab, that lets residents share awesome books with each other by placing them, you guessed it, in something called the Awesome Box. If you check out a library book and think it's awesome, put it in the box. If you want to see what books your neighbors think are awesome, you can visit the Awesome Box website. The first book in the box: "Fifty Shades of Awesome." Okay, that last bit was made up. Here are more details from the Somerville Public Library: SOMERVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY UNVEILS “AWESOME BOX” PROJECT Partnership with Harvard University Innovation Lab Helps Residents …

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Scare Your Kids Into Reading with These Books for Halloween

Check out ReadKiddoRead's list of the best Halloween books for kids.

All of us—adults, teens and children—enjoy a scary chill.  What better time of year than Halloween to indulge in stories that make our spines tingle?  It's the perfect time for your family to share some spooky stories each evening. To get you started, here are some Halloween books filled with ghosts and ghouls, wizards and witches, haunted houses and black magic that everyone can enjoy together.  PICTURE BOOKS for ages 2-6 The youngest children love the fun of Halloween: costumes, trick-or-treating and gentle tales of ghosts and goblins. Here are some books for this age group: GHOSTS IN THE HOUSE By Kazuno Kohara For ages 1-6 There are fuzzy pumpkin costumes in sizes as small as 6 months, so why not a Halloween board book for toddlers? …

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Banned Books Week: What You Need to Know

Censorship is alive and well, as highlighted by Banned Books Week—and you might be surprised by who the most vocal challengers of books are.

The importance of the First Amendment and the concept of "intellectual freedom" might not always be readily apparent to most kids, but Banned Books Week is a great opportunity to make those lessons come alive for children—and adults. Banned Books Week is held annually during the last week of Sept. (Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2012). The week is an occasion for libraries and bookstores across the U.S. to help folks realize just how real and ongoing a problem censorship is. Some bookstores in the Somerville area commemorating banned book week include Porter Square Books (25 White St., Cambridge) and Bestsellers Cafe (24 High St., Medford). Of course, you can always head to the Somerville Public Library to borrow some of the titles. More than 11,000 …

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