On May 22nd, join John Glynn in conversation with Amy Feltman (Willa & Hesper) on his debut work, Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer.

They call Montauk the end of the world, a spit of land jutting into the Atlantic. The house was a ramshackle split-level set on a hill, and each summer thirty one people would sleep between its thin walls and shag carpets. Against the moonlight the house's octagonal roof resembled a bee's nest. It was dubbed The Hive.

In 2013, John Glynn joined the share house. Packing his duffel for that first Memorial Day Weekend, he prayed for clarity. At 27, he was crippled by an all-encompassing loneliness, a feeling he had carried in his heart for as long as he could remember. John didn't understand the loneliness. He just knew it was there. Like the moon gone dark.

OUT EAST is the portrait of a summer, of the Hive and the people who lived in it, and John's own reckoning with a half-formed sense of self. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, The Hive was a center of gravity, a port of call, a home. Friendships, conflicts, secrets and epiphanies blossomed within this tightly woven friend group and came to define how they would live out the rest of their twenties and beyond. Blending the sand-strewn milieu of George Howe Colt's The Big House, the radiant aching of Olivia Liang's The Lonely City, OUT EAST is a keenly wrought story of love and transformation, longing and escape in our own contemporary moment.

John Glynn is an editor at Hanover Square Press, an imprint of HarperCollins. He grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts and lives in New York City. Out East is his first book.

Amy Feltman graduated with an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University in 2016, and now works at Poets & Writers Magazine. An excerpt from Willa & Hesper appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, and her writing has also appeared in The Believer logger, The Toast, The Millions, The Rumpus, Lilith Magazine, Slice Magazine, and elsewhere. Her short story, "Speculoos," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016 and was long-listed for Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. She lives with her partner in Astoria, NY.

Our focus is on an intersectional exploration of women's rights and status worldwide.

The next selection is The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak, which we will discuss on Saturday, May 25th at 1 p.m. The book is available for purchase at the Bookshop at 10% off all month long.

Questions about this group? Email Jen at AstoriaFeministBookGroup@gmail.com.
 

Join us at the Astoria Bookshop for a My Favorite Murder-themed midnight release party for STAY SEXY & DON'T GET MURDERED, a dual memoir by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Pick up the book, meet fellow murderinos, sip bloody marys, and snack on some true-crime-inspired cookies from Chip NYC!

Preorder your copy to get a free magnet + laptop decal with purchase! (Quantities limited)

Join us for a conversation at The Astoria Bookshop in Queens for a live interview with author Emilie Aries, led by the fabulous Elisa Kreisinger - Refinery29's Pop Culture Pirate! -  to learn how to craft your own happy, healthy, and sustainable career.

You'll have the chance get your hands on one of first copies Bossed Up: A Grown Woman's Guide To Getting Your Sh*t Together, and of course you can get your copy signed by Emilie herself! 

About the Bossed Up Book:
In Bossed Up, Emilie Aries shares her relatable personal journey—from hot mess to boss b*tch—to lead women towards their own happy, healthy, and sustainable life. Her candid, refreshing voice serves as a companionable and inspiring guide for young women to take with them as they run the world.

Join local Astoria author John Hill for a discussion of his book, NYC Walks: Guide to New Architecture, followed by a walking tour of Astoria and Long Island City, from Astoria Bookshop to MoMA PS1, looking at recent buildings of note as well as discussing the building boom in LIC.

It can be hard to keep up with New York City’s surge of cutting-edge architecture since the turn of the millennium. This portable, easy-to-use guide directs readers to the city’s newest architectural gems, all completed in the 21st century with some still under construction. Divided into ten 1- to 3-mile walks that extend from Columbia University through lower Manhattan and across to Brooklyn and Queens, this guidebook highlights over 150 buildings, popular destinations like the High Line and Lincoln Center, and trendy locations such as Williamsburg and the Bowery. Led by author John Hill, these tours are highly informative, engaging, and filled with fascinating insights and details. Maps and numerous photographs make this guide the perfect companion for anyone visiting New York City, architecture buffs, and those wishing to better know the city they call home.

John Hill is an architect, editor-in-chief of the Magazine section of World-Architects.com, and founder/writer of the blog A Daily Dose of Architecture Books. He is the author five books, including his first, Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture (2011), and the latest, NYC Walks: Guide to New Architecture (2019). He is a licensed NYC sightseeing guide and has been giving architecture walking tours in NYC since the publication of his first book. He lives in Astoria, Queens, with his wife and daughter.

Join Maia Toll on Monday, June 3rd for a reading and discussion of The Illustrated Herbiary: Guidance and Rituals from 36 Bewitching Botanicals. Buy the book and receive a complimentary herbal bouquet from Petals & Roots!

Rosemary is for remembrance; sage is for wisdom. The symbolism of plants — whether in the ancient Greek doctrine of signatures or the Victorian secret language of flowers — has fascinated us for centuries. Contemporary herbalist Maia Toll adds her distinctive spin to this tradition with profiles of the mysterious personalities of 36 herbs, fruits, and flowers. Combining a passion for plants with imagery reminiscent of tarot, enticing text offers reflections and rituals to tap into each plant’s power for healing, self-reflection, and everyday guidance. Smaller versions of the illustrations are featured on 36 cards to help guide your thoughts and meditations.

Maia Toll is the author of The Illustrated Herbiary and The Illustrated Bestiary. During a life-changing year apprenticed to a traditional medicine woman in Ireland, Toll learned healing craft working with both humans and animals on a local organic farm. She helps women cultivate personal spirituality through a connection with the rhythms of nature in her online programs, The Medicine Keepers Collective and Witch Camp. She is the founder and owner of Herbiary, a natural products store with locations in Asheville, North Carolina, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  

Join us June 4th at 7 p.m. for a discussion of Lauren-Brooke Eisen's book, Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration. 

From divestment campaigns to boardrooms to private immigration-detention centers across the Southwest, Eisen examines private prisons through the eyes of inmates, their families, correctional staff, policymakers, activists, Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, undocumented immigrants, and the executives of America’s largest private prison corporations. Private prisons have become ground zero in the anti-mass-incarceration movement. Universities have divested from these companies, political candidates hesitate to accept their campaign donations, and the Department of Justice tried to phase out its contracts with them. On the other side, impoverished rural towns often try to lure the for-profit prison industry to build facilities and create new jobs. Neither an endorsement or a demonization, Inside Private Prisons details the complicated and perverse incentives rooted in the industry, from mandatory bed occupancy to vested interests in mass incarceration. If private prisons are here to stay, how can we fix them? This book is a blueprint for policymakers to reform practices and for concerned citizens to understand our changing carceral landscape.

Lauren-Brooke Eisen is Senior Fellow in the Brennan Center’s Justice Program where she focuses on improving the criminal justice process through legal reforms. Eisen specifically focuses on financial and behavioral incentives that affect the justice system and how prosecutors can play a greater role in creating a more fair and just legal system.

Previously Ms. Eisen was a Senior Program Associate at the Vera Institute of Justice in the Center on Sentencing and Corrections where she worked on policies that aimed to improve public safety while reducing prison populations. Ms. Eisen also served as an assistant district attorney in New York City where she served in the Appeals Bureau, the Criminal Court Bureau, and the Sex Crimes Special Victims Bureau where she prosecuted a wide range of misdemeanor and felony cases. Before entering law school, Ms. Eisen worked as a beat reporter for a daily newspaper in Laredo, Texas where she covered criminal justice issues. Ms. Eisen has taught an undergraduate seminar on mass incarceration at Yale, currently serves as an adjunct instructor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and she supervises NYU Law students who participate in the Brennan Center Public Policy Advocacy Clinic.
 

Join children's book author Jeffrey Burton for a special storytime on Thursday, June 6th at 11 a.m. for a reading from his books The Wheels on the Fire Truck and Twinkle, Twinkle Unicorn!

An action-packed yet adorable story, The Wheels on the Fire Truck is the first book in a new series that is perfect for parents and little ones who love things that go. Follow the fire truck around town as cuddly animal firefighters run the siren, hold on tight, and save the day!

A magical twist on the popular bedtime nursery rhyme, Twinkle, Twinkle, Unicorn is the first book in a brand-new board book series that’s perfect for parents and little ones to snuggle up with and share.

Jeffrey Burton has written several books for children. He lives in New York City with his family.

Parenting for Social Justice meets every other month after reading a predetermined book that focuses on topics such as race, gender, social class, and similar subjects.
 
All are welcome to attend, however, meetings will aim to encourage dialogue between parents. Discussions will include issues such as implicit racial bias, cultural appropriation, and white privilege in order to raise self-awareness on these topics and also consider how personal insights can be translated into parenting techniques as well as interactions with other families and people in our community.

The next selection is An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, which we will discuss on Saturday, June 8th at 4pm.

Email psjbookclubastoria@gmail.com for inquiries.

Crafting Mythic Quests II: Myths represent the ways that ancient cultures sought to explain the origins of the world and of existence itself. Sounds like a killer creative writing prompt to me! Through a mixture of discussion and writing exercises, we will explore the mythic realm of quests, break down the hero's journey, and write into a time before time began. Note: This workshop is building off of April's Crafting Mythic Quests session so both returning and new drop-ins are welcome.

$10 suggested contribution. BYO pen & paper.

Instructor Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons is an award-winning essayist, playwright, and teaches creative writing at York College and Fairleigh Dickinson University. She also produces No, YOU Tell It! (www.noyoutellit.com) - a reading series that "switches-up" the storytelling. Each NYTI storyteller writes a true-life tale and then flips scripts with a partner to present each other's story. Contact her at noyoutellit@gmail.com.

Join children's book author David Ezra Stein for a special storytime on Thursday, June 13th at 11 a.m. for a reading from his book Hush, Little Bunny.

“Hush Little Baby” is a lullaby that parents have sung to their children for generations. Now Caldecott Honor winner David Ezra Stein has reimagined the classic featuring an irresistible papa bunny and his little one.

Award-winning children's author and illustrator David Ezra Stein was born in Brooklyn, NY. David Ezra Stein’s Interrupting Chicken was awarded a 2011 Caldecott Honor, as well as many state awards. His picture book Leaves won the Ezra Jack Keats award and was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Reviews Editor’s Choice, and a School Library Journal Best Book. David lives in Kew Gardens, NY with wife, Miriam, and two small children. When he’s not working on new stories and pictures, he enjoys making music, cycling, cooking, hiking, and talking with kids and grown-ups about books!

The next meeting of the Young Adult book club is on Saturday, June 15th at 3 pm, when we'll be discussing On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden.

Grab On a Sunbeam for 10% off in store all month!

For more information about the YA Book Club, email christian@astoriabookshop.com

Join Nishta Mehra on June 19th for a reading and discussion of 
Brown White Black: An American Family at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion. 

A beautiful and profound memoir about family and motherhood, race, and raising a black child in America today. In this moving collection of essays from a fresh new voice, Nishta J. Mehra takes us into her life—the daughter of Indian American immigrants, the wife of a white Christian woman from Texas, and the mother of an adopted black child, Shiv. Nishta's life is a series of intersecting boundaries—of race, gender, sexuality, and religion—and these essays examine the ways she navigates the various communities and ideologies that make up her family's life. This is a book about moving between boundaries and establishing a space for yourself and your children that doesn't conform to rigid notions of what it means to be a family. Nishta writes movingly of her love for Shiv, and her desire to protect her child at all costs, even as she also feels responsible for preparing her child for the harsh realities of being a black in America today.

Nishta J. Mehra was raised among a tight-knit network of Indian immigrants in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the proud graduate of St. Mary's Episcopal School and holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Rice University and an M.F.A in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. An English teacher with over a decade of experience in middle and high school classrooms, she lives with her wife, Jill, and their child, Shiv, in Phoenix. She is the author of The Pomegranate King, a collection of essays.

Kick off your summer break with Joanne Ramos, author of The Farm, and Elvia Wilk, author of Oval. Both writers join us Thursday, June 20th at 7 p.m. at the bookshop to give readings and discuss their work.

THE FARM: Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages—and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here—more than you’ve ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds; your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a Host at Golden Oaks, or the Farm as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on delivery.

OVAL: In the near future, Berlin’s real estate is being flipped in the name of “sustainability,” only to make the city even more unaffordable; artists are employed by corporations as consultants, and the weather is acting strange. When Anja and Louis are offered a rent-free home on an artificial mountain—yet another eco-friendly initiative run by a corporation—they seize the opportunity, but it isn’t long before the experimental house begins malfunctioning. After Louis’s mother dies, Anja is convinced he has changed. At work, Louis has become obsessed with a secret project: a pill called Oval that temporarily rewires the user’s brain to be more generous. While Anja is horrified, Louis believes he has found the solution to Berlin’s income inequality. Oval is a fascinating portrait of the unbalanced relationships that shape our world, as well as a prescient warning of what the future may hold.

Joanne Ramos was born in the Philippines and moved to Wisconsin when she was six. She graduated with a B.A. from Princeton University. After working in investment banking and private-equity investing for several years, she became a staff writer at The Economist. She currently serves on the board of The Moth. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children.

Elvia Wilk is a writer and editor living in New York and Berlin. She writes about art, architecture, and technology for several publications, including frieze, Artforum, e-flux, Metropolis, Mousse, Flash Art, Art in America, and Zeit Online.
 

On June 21st, join mystery writers Cara Black and Alex Segura for a reading and discussion of Cara Black's new novel, Murder in Bel-Air.

Cara Black's riveting 19th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris's 12th arrondissement.

Cara Black is the author of nineteen books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series. She has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son and visits Paris frequently.

Alex Segura is the author of the Pete Fernandez mystery series set in Miami, short stories that have appeared in numerous anthologies, and a number of best-selling and critically acclaimed comic books. He also co-writes the LETHAL LIT podcast. A Miami native, he lives in New York with his wife and son.