Asian/Pacific Islander books pop-up this weekend

The pop-up will offer a wide selection of English language books, including fiction, memoir, young adult, and children’s books across a range of price points. It will also offer translated works as well as bilingual Chinese-language children’s books. It will take place on the first floor of the Crane Chinatown community center (1001 Vine St) during the weekend of the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations.

An opening reception Friday night, September 16, from 6pm to 9pm will host open mic readings. The pop up will be open throughout Saturday, Sept. 17, and Sunday, Sept. 18, from 11am to 7pm.

Bindlestiff at Sept. 15th Dollar Stroll

Bindlestiff Books will celebrate the Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll Thursday, 9/15, with tables of $1 books (from picture books to novels, and lots of nonfiction too) from 5:30 to 8:30 in front of the store. We’ll keep the store open late as well.

The Dollar Stroll has a long tradition, and now stretches from Clark Park or so through 52nd, with food, live music, popsicles, theater tickets, plants, and of course books. (Most for $1, but some stands will have specials at somewhat higher prices)

A Book A Day fundraiser

A Book A Day will hold its 2nd annual Fall Fundraiser Sunday, October 2, 2022, 1:00–4:00 PM at the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, 3907 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

You can find details and register here:

Register on Eventbrite

Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll; Thursday, June 16

Bindlestiff Books will celebrate the dollar stroll with tables of $1 books (from picture books to novels, and lots of nonfiction too) from 5:30 to 8:30 in front of the store. We’ll keep the store open as well.

The Dollar Stroll has a long tradition, and now stretches from Clark Park or so through 52nd, with food, live music, popsicles, theater tickets, plants, and of course books. (Most for $1, but some stands will have specials at somewhat higher prices)

Producing Politics: Author event June 14

On Tuesday, June 14, Daniel Laurison will celebrate the release of his new book, Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us. The event begins at 6:30 at the Penn LGBT Center Goodman Room & Patio, 3907 Spruce Street.

Publishers Weekly called it an “illuminating insider’s view of American politics….Laurison’s case for how current campaign practices undermine democracy is detailed and persuasive. Readers will learn much from this peek behind the political curtain.” 

You can RSVP for the event at https://bit.ly/ProducingPols Refreshments will be available on the patio, Dr. Laurison and others will speak about the book inside (please wear masks while indoors). Bindlestiff will be there for those interested in purchasing a copy. (We can also take advance orders, which will be available on the 14th.)

https://daniellaurison.com/research/producing-politics-book-launch-june-14th/

How Books Are Made

The New York Times has published a multimedia documentation of how a book – in this case, Marlon James’ Moon Witch, Spider King (available at Bindlestiff) – is made, from conception through binding.

Mikel Jollett – Hollywood Park (sold out)

We have reached maximum capacity for this event and have a wait list, so we are not accepting new registrations.

Join New York Times bestselling author and Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett for an in-person event Friday, April 8, to discuss his remarkable memoir, Hollywood Park. Each ticket includes admission to the event and a signed paperback edition.

Hollywood Park is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country’s most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer.

“Hollywood Park succeeds most in compassionately depicting the suffering and struggle of others with addiction: those left to obscurity; those barely holding on. Jollett’s life story shows that you can pass through the gauntlet of pain and trauma to self-reliance and sustainable meaning.”

— National Public Radio 

Friday, April 8, 2022, 5:30 p.m., Theater of the Living Arts, 334 South Street

(doors open at 5 pm)

Attendance is limited to the first 100 to sign up. To reserve your ticket (free with book purchase) for a short presentation and Q&A session, followed by individual book signing:

Please pre-pay for your copy ($17.99 paperback) via Venmo to @Bindlestiff4530. (Copies of the book are still available at Bindlestiff)

This event is presently fully subscribed…

Children’s book author Ashley Bryan has died

Anti-Book Fanatics & Our Schools

We are seeing assaults on the rights of children to select and read books that interest them, and of librarians and teachers to stock these in school libraries and classrooms. One Pennsylvania school district requires parents to specifically request that their children be permitted to read “Heather Has Two Mommies”; another prohibits any “controversial” books (a category that seems to include any books dealing with gender, racism, poverty or social struggles) from accessible school libraries, though again parents can request that their children be permitted to read specific titles if the school happens to have them. Few parents will know about these policies, or what books are potentially available.

The Inquirer recently ran an article about how Philadelphia-area authors of children’s books (picture books and young adult titles — many available at Bindlestiff) are being impacted by these anti-book fanatics. https://www.inquirer.com/news/banned-books-critical-race-theory-trans-lgbtq-authors-20211230.html

Bindlestiff Bestsellers

These are our best-selling titles for the last month:

David Graeber & David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

Maria Carluccio, The Sounds Around Town (board book)

Kyle Cassidy, Cooking with Roswell

Monika Vaicenavičiene, What Is A River? (picture book)

Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby

Jessica Fern, Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy

Asali Solomon, The Days of Afrekete

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem

Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Yotam Ottolenghi, Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook

Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Richard Powers, The Overstory

Renee Watson & Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water (picture book)

Jeff Kinney, Big Shot (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 16)

Ben Hatke, Zita the Spacegirl

Innosanto Nagara, A is for Activist (board book)

Deatra Cohen & Adam Siegel, Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews

Mary Oliver, Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions

Frank Herbert, Dune

Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

Madeleine Miller, The Song of Achilles