This past month I’ve been reading a lot about the small businesses closing in and around Harvard Square, such as Black Ink, as outside developers drive up rent to unsustainable rates. Therefore, this month, I’d like to take a moment to remind you all to support small and local businesses as you do your gift shopping this holiday season (F*CK AM*ZON). Some of my favorite places, in addition to Black Ink, for unique and whimsical gifts are Ward Maps, Nomad, Joie de Vivre, Magpie, and Loyal Supply Co. Rebekah Brooks is magnificent for vintage jewelry, and I love Raspberry Beret and The Garment District for vintage clothing. For delicious edible gifts, check out Honeycomb Creamery and Curio Spice Co., for all your toy and game needs go to Henry Bear’s Park, Comicazi, and Pandemonium, and if you want to paint your own gifts, go to Made By Me.

And, obviously, I am obsessed with independent bookstores. This past month I went to so many fantastic author events, all courtesy of your favorite local bookstores. So please, please, PLEASE consider ordering your book presents (because books make the best presents, right?) this holiday season from your local independent bookstores as opposed to the evil empire (F*CK AM*ZON). Some of my favorite bookstores include:

• Newtonville Books in Newton, MA
• Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA
• Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA
• Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA
• Papercuts J.P. in Boston, MA
• Book Ends in Winchester, MA
• Trident Booksellers in Boston, MA
• More Than Words in Boston, MA
• Blue Bunny Books in Dedham, MA
• The Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton, MA
• Wellesley Books in Wellesley, MA
• The Concord Bookshop in Concord, MA
• Belmont Books in Belmont, MA
• I AM Books in Boston, MA
• McNally Jackson in Manhattan & Brooklyn, NY
• Astoria Bookshop in Queens, NY
• Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY
• The Strand in Manhattan, NY
• Barrett Bookstore in Darien, CT
• Elliott Bay Books in Seattle, WA
• Powell’s in Portland, OR
• Book & Bar in Portsmouth, NH
• Green Hand Bookshop in Portland, ME
• Hello Hello Books in Rockland, ME

Please tell me some of your favorite independent bookstores and/or other favorite small businesses in the comments below. And happy holiday shopping!

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November has been a kickass month of author events, thanks to several amazing indie bookstores. THIS is the stuff you can’t get from that giant online retailer. THIS is why we need local bookstores!!!

On 11/6, I heard Carmen Maria Machado in conversation with Kelly Link at the Brattle Theatre, discussing Carmen’s new memoir In The Dream House, courtesy of Harvard Book Store.

On 11/8, I laughed with Lindy West about her new book The Witches Are Coming at the First Parish Church in Cambridge, also courtesy of Harvard Book Store.

On 11/18, I listened to Ta-Nehisi Coates talk about his debut novel The Water Dancer with Meghna Chakrabarti at the Chevalier Theatre, courtesy of Brookline Booksmith.

On 11/20, I celebrated Nina MacLaughlin‘s fiction debut Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung at Harvard Book Store.

And on 11/22, I enjoyed Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne and Kelly J. Ford in conversation about Elizabeth’s debut novel Holding On To Nothing at Newtonville Books.

Seriously, what a great month. Thank you to the independent bookstores who made this possible! Remember these places when you start your holiday shopping in the next few weeks.

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Not only did Fiction Advocate publish the September edition of Non-Fiction by Non-Men today, featuring my interview with Jennifer Finney Boylan (more on that later), but I also heard Mary Karr speak about her new book The Art of Memoir at the Brattle Theatre, sponsored by the Harvard Book Store and GrubStreet!

Mary Karr at the Brattle on September 14, 2015.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Ms. Karr’s talk:

Every memoir is a survival story by dint of the fact the person who wrote it is still alive.

Reading memoir makes me feel less alone.

Don DeLillo said fiction starts with meaning and then you manufacture events. With memoir, you start with events and look for meaning.

Memoir lives or dies based on voice.

You need an inner life the size of Lake Superior to write a book.

The art of memoir is how we bullshit ourselves.

The well-bred American WASP can ignore reality better than any heroin addict.

How do I choose what memories to cut? That’s easy. You cut anything that’s boring.

Things that I thought would be whole chapters ended up being two sentences, and things that I thought would be two sentences ended up being whole chapters.

For the sake of truth, if someone disagrees with my memory I feel compelled to mention that, but not to represent her point of view. My sister can write her own damn book.

I became an overnight success after writing for twenty years.

Anybody who writes anything is narcissistic. Any artist is narcissistic. If you can spend eight hours alone with your own mind, that is the definition of narcissism.

Social media narcissism is shallow and in the moment. A book, a memoir, should last forever. It’s like the difference between a Tic-Tac and a steak.

A book is a bomb that doesn’t go off until a reader reads it.

Yeah, it was a great night. Every time I hear her speak (the first time I did was back at a Columbia Writing Program Nonfiction Dialogue in April 2013), I feel much better about writing and life. Ms. Karr is pretty much perfect.

Well, except for this:

Major book-signing fail.

Whoops.

But, hey, it’s hard to maintain eye contact and keep up small-talk with a stuttering fangirl reader, while also signing a book. If I’ve learned one thing from reading and listening to Mary Karr, it’s that all humans make mistakes, and that’s what makes us interesting and worth writing about. We’re likeable especially when we’re unlikeable.

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So, let’s assess.

Part One: The Strand Edition.

Anyone who loves books and has ever been even near New York City has been to The Strand. I first went to The Strand when I was in sixth grade and my dad was working in Manhattan; it was the end of the 1990s and then The Strand boasted having eight miles of books. Now it has eighteen.

Please note here that I actually used to have more tote bags from The Strand, but when moving this past summer I tried to streamline things a bit and limited myself to keeping only a couple. That’s a joke though––you know the next time I go back to New York I am going to buy another one.

Part Two: Book Culture (née Labyrinth Books) Edition.

In my defense, I did spend two years at Columbia University for grad school, and Book Culture is the official bookstore of the MFA Writing Program. However, two of these bags are from back when Book Culture was called Labyrinth Books, purchased while visiting one of my high school best friends who was a first-year at Barnard. So, I have no real excuses here.

Part Three: Cambridge Edition.

Growing up in the Greater Boston Area, north of the Charles River, I always had a crush on Cambridge and its many cool independent bookstores. It is my great honor and pleasure that I now live within walking distance of both Porter Square Books and the Harvard Book Store. Gotta love that (Harvard) crimson.

Part Four: Not-in-the-Northeast Edition.

Both of these gems were bought on trips to regions outside of the Boston/New York area. Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon is legendary, so obviously I had to commemorate my trip there, and Book People in Austin, Texas is magical. One of my worst home-after-traveling regrets is having not purchased a tote bag from a bookstore that I visited. Why didn’t I get one from the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Washington or McKay’s in Nashville, Tennessee? What was I thinking?!

Also independent bookstores should learn from Book People’s tote design––more tote bags need zippers! My books are always falling out everywhere!

Part Five: Boston/Brookline Edition.

I’ve spent many an hour and many a dollar at the Brookline Booksmith, especially during my years living in Dorchester and hanging out at Coolidge Corner. However, confession, I have yet to go to the new Jamaica Plain bookstore Papercuts JP. Both of these tote bags were presents from two of my BFFs: H. Tucker Rosebrock and Elizabeth Jane Good. Thanks for encouraging my habit, people.

Part Six: The Final Edition.

Don’t forget about Printed Matter, Inc. in New York! While not a traditional bookstore in the sense that it doesn’t sell copies of Yes Please by Amy Poehler, you can’t get much more independent than a bookstore selling zines, chapbooks, and artist books. Their tote bags are works of art themselves.

Remember: books is power.

FINAL TALLY:

TWELVE tote bags from NINE bookstores.

That’s it. For now, at least.

I’ve decided it’s probably less weird if I just accept that this is a “collection” and not an “intense subconscious hoarding situation.” So, in that case, let me ask all of you: What are your favorite bookstores that I absolutely must visit one day, and, from which, purchase a tote bag? 

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