We aim to be open Noon – 7, Tuesday through Saturday, and Noon – 5 on Sundays.
However, the store is staffed by volunteers, and sometimes schedules don’t work out. Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends are the most reliably staffed. If we’re not open at noon, there’s a good chance (any day of the week) that we’ll open at 3:30. But it might make sense to call (215.662.5780) before making a special trip.
These our our best-selling titles for the last month, in descending order of sales:
Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation: A Novel (Southern Reach Trilogy)
Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
Junot Diaz, Islandborn (picture book)
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
Roxanne Gay, An Untamed State
Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions
Neil Gaiman, American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition
Ursula LeGuin, Short Stories and Novellas Box Set: The Found and the Lost; The Unreal and the Real
John Oliver, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo (picture book)
Besser van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Monica Brown, Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos (picture book)
Bindlestiff Books will once again offer a diverse selection of new books for $1 in front of the bookstore for the Baltimore Avenue dollar stroll Thursday, which begins at 5:30, and keep the store open that evening until 8 pm
Authors Asali Solomon — DISGRUNTLED (a novel), and GET DOWN (story collection); James Ijames (playwright); and Elisabeth Jaquette, translator of THE APARTMENT IN BAB EL-LOUK (by Dona Maher) and THE QUEUE (Basma Abdel Aziz) will present their work Wednesday, May 16, at the Cannery at Dock Street (50th & Baltimore) in the second installment of a new literary series. Doors open at 5; the readings begin at 7 pm. Philadelphia-based writers Matt Jakubowski and Christine Kendall are the hosts.
Simon & Schuster has released a remix of the Wizard of Oz, with a series of chapter books that creates an epic history against which the story is retold. The first book in the Ages of Oz trilogy tells the story of how Glinda grows from a 13-year-old student uncertain of her future to the most powerful sorceress in Oz. The creator’s intention was for Oz to mirror our current zeitgeist – a tumultuous political place where wicked rulers control through illusion, fear, terror, distraction, and unlawful imprisonment. We have autographed prints of the artwork from the second book in the series (which goes on sale in mid-May) hanging on the store’s back wall. Let us know if you’d like one at the end of the month. AGES OF OZ: A FIERY FRIENDSHIP and A DARK DESCENT, created by Gabriel Gale and Lisa Fiedler.
Saturday, March 10, Noon – 4 pm, Kingsessing Library, 1201 S. 51st StFriends of the Kingsessing Library and Bindlestiff Books are co-sponsoring e program titled Mumia: His Ongoing Legacy.” Come for an afternoon of food, multimedia exhibits, and discussion on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s latest book, Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? Copies of the book will be available.
Doors open at 5pm for drinks + snacks; the readings start at 7pm. Come early to secure a seat! Books will be available for sale during the event, provided by Bindlestiff Books.
Ursula K. Le Guin died today (Monday) at 88. The author of the Earthsea novels, The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness and many others, she was and remains among the brightest stars in the sky of fantasy literature. The New York Times obituary notes, in part:
Ursula K. Le Guin, the immensely popular author who brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminist sensibility to science fiction and fantasy with books like “The Left Hand of Darkness” and the Earthsea series, died on Monday at her home in Portland, Ore. …
Ms. Le Guin embraced the standard themes of her chosen genres: sorcery and dragons, spaceships and planetary conflict. But even when her protagonists are male, they avoid the macho posturing of so many science fiction and fantasy heroes. The conflicts they face are typically rooted in a clash of cultures and resolved more by conciliation and self-sacrifice than by swordplay or space battles.
Bindlestiff carries most of her fiction, two volumes of her poetry, three volumes of essays, several books she wrote for children and young adults, and a translation of a Spanish-language novel (in the magical realism tradition) that she edited. We also have several copies of a slipcased 2-volume edition of her collected novellas and short stories – enough to keep even the swiftest reader engrossed for weeks…
Bindlestiff supplies the books for a U Penn-library supported initiative that puts two books a week into the libraries at Penn Alexander and Henry Lea schools. Above, we see Penn Alexander students posing with some of their favorites.
