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

Bindlestiff Bestsellers

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

Linda Ashman, Rain! (board book)

Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You

Asali Solomon, The Days of Afrekete

Jessica Fern, Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy

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

Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby

Frank Herbert, Dune

Michelle Zauner, Crying in H-Mart

Madeline Miller, Circe

Innosanto Nagara, A is for Activist (board book)

Richard Powers, Bewilderment

Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem

Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Octavia Butler, Lilith’s Brood

Kyle Cassidy, Cooking with Roswell

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

Yael Frankel, The Elevator (picture book)

Adrienne Maree Brown, Grievers

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

All Hallow’s Read

An annual spooky book celebration held as part of Woodlands Cemetery’s Halloween Fun Day.

Sunday, Oct. 24, Noon – 3 pm, The Woodlands (40th & Woodland Ave.)

Peruse a collection of new and used “spooky” books and take one home to enjoy! (If you have some books you’d like to donate for the event, bring them along.) Books about pumpkins, autumn, monsters, goblins and ghosts, fall, etc… An all ages event.

Sponsors: The Woodlands Cemetery & Historic Landscape, Bindlestiff Books, Free Library of Philadelphia, and A Book A Day. For more information or to arrange to donate books: allhallowsread@gmail.com

2022 Calendars

We have Slingshot Organizers, Nikki McClure, and Solidarity Forever labor history calendars in stock, along with a smattering of other calendars and organizers.

Bindlestiff Bestsellers

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

Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You

Kyle Cassidy, Cooking with Roswell

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

Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby

Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age

Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom

Coralie Bickford-Smith, The Worm and the Bird (picture book)

Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun

Jessica Fern, Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy

Thomas Elias, Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Kiese Laymon, Long Division

James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

Frank Herbert, Dune

Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Michael Pollan, This Is Your Mind on Plants

Maggie Nelson, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint

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

Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair

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

CLR James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

N K Jemisin, The City We Became

Ayana Johnson, All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis

bell hooks, All About Love

Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country

Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays

R O Kwon, Kink: Stories

Bindlestiff Bestsellers

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

Kyle Cassidy, Cooking with Roswell

Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir

Octavia Butler, Kindred

Jessica Fern, Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy

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

Akwaeke Emezi, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir

Diane Adams, Love Is (picture book)

Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun

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

Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age

Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom

Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions

Jeff Kinney, The Deep End (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 15)

James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Sarah Schulman, Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993

Tillie Walden, On a Sunbeam (graphic novel)

Janet Hardy, The Ethical Slut, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love

Carole Lindstrom, We Are Water Protectors (picture book)

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Ling Ma, Severance

Kiese Laymon, Long Division

Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

N K Jemisin, The Fifth Season

Cece Bell, El Deafo (YA graphic novel)

Dave Pilkey, Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls (YA graphic novel)

William Gibson, Neuromancer

Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English, Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers

Luke Pearson, Hilda and the Troll (YA graphic novel)

George Petrides, Peterson First Guide to Trees

Abby Hanlon, Dory Fantasmagory

Mem Fox, Where Is the Green Sheep? / Donde esta la oveja verde?

Asia Citro, Dragons and Marshmallows (Zoey and Sassafras)

Sunday: If it’s not raining, sale will go ahead.

Note that this is an outdoor event, and so dependent upon the weather. At this moment the forecast shows a significant chance of rain for Thursday. Rain is bad for books, and so we will not set up if it is raining, or if rain seems imminent.
Why not swing by on your way to Pericles?

Bindlestiff Bestsellers

Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Matthew Burgess, Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring

Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir

Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby: A Novel

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

Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun: A novel

Siena Siegel, To Dance

Tiffany Jewell, This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work

Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad: A Novel

Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age

bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions

James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

Alison Bechdel, The Secret to Superhuman Strength

Cathy Hong, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

Madeleine Miller, Circe

Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem

Nikki McClure, How to Be a Cat

Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed

Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Douglas Tallamy, The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees

Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Masks still required at Bindlestiff

While all Bindlestiff volunteers are now vaccinated, for the safety of our customers and staff we will continue requiring customers and staff wear masks while in the bookstore for the next several weeks.