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Kids’ Storytime
Kids’ Storytime
Join us every Saturday for kids’ storytime. Today we’re reading The Cool Bean by Jory John.
Free
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Fiction
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Calendar of Events
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Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Force Collector
Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Force Collector
Karr is a teenage boy like many others in the galaxy. He goes to school, helps his parents with the family business, likes speeders and droids. But Karr also has a secret: when he touches certain objects, he gets searing headaches and blacks out. And along with the pain sometimes come visions of people he doesn’t know and places he’s never been. Karr’s parents worry that he’s sick; his grandmother is convinced the visions come from the Force. But it’s been years since anyone has heard from the last of the Jedi – Luke Skywalker. Are there any Jedi left to guide Karr in the use of his abilities? Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Force Collector (Disney Lucasfilm) is the new YA…
Free
1 event,
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Historical Fiction Book Club
Historical Fiction Book Club
This will be a community led book club focusing on historical fiction titles. The February title will be The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. ABOUT THE BOOK In Depression-era America, five extraordinary women embark on a remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond. Based on a true story rooted in America's past, The Giver of Stars is a richly rewarding novel of women's friendship, of true love, and of what happens when people reach beyond their grasp. We encourage you to purchase your book at Books Around the Corner with our 15% Book Club Discount.
Free
1 event,
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Kiersten White in Conversation With Laini Taylor
Kiersten White in Conversation With Laini Taylor
Now that Nina has turned the Watcher’s Castle into a utopia for hurt and lonely demons, she’s still waiting for the utopia part to kick in. With her sister Artemis gone and only a few people remaining at the castle – including her still-distant mother – Nina has her hands full. But there’s also a new threat on the outside, portended by an odd triangle symbol that seems to be popping up everywhere. Because one near-apocalypse just isn’t enough, right? The darkness always finds you. And once again, it’s coming for the Slayer. Chosen (Simon Pulse) is the new novel from Kiersten White, set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. White will be joined in conversation by Laini Taylor, author of the Daughter…
Free
4 events,
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Teen Book Club
Teen Book Club
The Books Around the Corner Teen Book Club is ran by the teens who attend. No adults allowed. The teens have chosen Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin for the month of November. If you're a teen interested in choosing the next book you are still more than welcome to attend! Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary's reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband takes a special shine to them. Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary…
Free
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Well-Read Black Girl Book Club
Well-Read Black Girl Book Club
Black women and Black nonbinary people are invited to join us every second Thursday of the month for the Well-Read Black Girl Book Club. This month we’re reading Swing Time by Zadie Smith.
Free
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Deadly Diversions Book Group
Deadly Diversions Book Group
This month our group meets to discuss P. D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh mystery series. Join us!
Free
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Walt Gragg
Walt Gragg
In The Chosen One (Berkley), the new novel from Walt Gragg, a fundamentalist Islamic army is on the march in the Middle East, and the fight to stop the spread of madness will take everything the American military can muster. Two months ago, a new leader arose in the Islamic world, the Mahdi – or the Chosen One. He has rallied fundamentalist Muslim forces across the Middle East who have driven deep into Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Standing against them is an allied force made up primarily of American military. It’s a desperate fight. From armored battles in the desert to American carriers desperately dodging waves of cruise missiles, the Mahdi proves to have many tricks up his sleeve.
Free
0 events,
1 event,
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Movie Screening: The Space Between Words
Movie Screening: The Space Between Words
ONE NIGHT ONLY! The super awesome, super intimate, super screening of our award winning feature film TheSpaceBetweenWords at The Rose City Book Pub! "Everything here simply feels true." Richard Propes, The Independent Film Critic. The romantic dramedy stars Lindsae Klein, Michael Draper, Beth Moesche and Willow Finney AND a virtual cavalcade of Portland's finest actors! Come and mingle, eat, drink, laugh and cry. See the film before it's release in 2020.
Free
1 event,
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Spec Script: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Spec Script: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Spec Script is ringing in the New Year in Portland on Sunday January 12th for another episode of tv written by someone who has never watched the show! This episode is going to be massive because we are doing Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Our writer for the bloodsucking 90s hit is PDX theatre superstar and Spec Script fave Heidi Hunter! Reading Heidi's script is another cast of excellent bbs! We have: Caitlin Nolan Jeremiah Coughlan Jamie Carbone Kara Morehart and more! The main part of Spec Script will be a table read of the script, but if you’ve been to a Spec Script before you know there’s more! That’s right, we got the best damn preshow in all of comedy! For the Spec Script Primo…
Free – $5
1 event,
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Blackout Party feat. David Loftus
Blackout Party feat. David Loftus
BONUS BLACKOUT PARTY: In honor of the fun we had last year when the power went out, we have established an annual blackout party. We will operate by candlelight, no recorded music. David Loftus will launch the evening with Story Time for Grown Ups, and then guests are welcome to play non-amplified acoustic music or simply enjoy a gentle, quiet evening. “Story Time for Grownups” presents an American original: the uncanny, unearthly, and chillingly amusing Ambrose Bierce. A journalist of the Old West who (unlike Stephen Crane or Mark Twain) really did fight in Civil War battles and chose to tell the truth about them. No cover. Bierce specialized in three kinds of stories: realistic accounts of Civil War battles, ghost stories set mostly in…
Free
5 events,
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Albina Pageturners Book Club
Albina Pageturners Book Club
This month’s book is The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Check at the Albina Branch Library for free copies of this book and upcoming selections.
Free
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Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club will alternate monthly between Science Fiction and Fantasy. January will be a Fantasy Pick. We will discuss Storm Front by Jim Butcher. In this first book in the offbeat Dresden Files, readers are introduced to Harry Dresden, a wizard with a consulting practice in modern-day Chicago. Dresdens profession offers him little money, lots of mockery, the suspicion of his magical colleagues, and plenty of danger. Available at a 15% discount to order if you plan on attending the book club.
Free
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Reading: W.H. “Bill” Cameron and J.S. James
Reading: W.H. “Bill” Cameron and J.S. James
Annie Bloom's welcomes Oregon mystery authors W.H. "Bill" Cameron and J.S. James. Crossroad is Oregon author W.H. Cameron's latest mystery. Melisende Dulac is a fish out of water after relocating from the East Coast to a small community in the Oregon high desert. But just as she's beginning to think of Barlow County as home, her life takes an ominous turn when she comes upon a grisly multiple car wreck and three shattered bodies on an isolated road outside of town. Near the scene, Melisende trips over a fourth body, that of a newborn girl lying a physics-defying distance from the wreckage. There is no one to claim the infant, nor a clear indication she was even part of the accident. The crash offers plenty…
Free
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Collisions: Short Story Workshop
Collisions: Short Story Workshop
In this fiction workshop, we will explore how to use all manner of combustible collisions, both small and large, as generative fuel. Have a slew of disparate ideas stewing in your brain? We’ll investigate the power of unexpected pairings—how colliding seemingly unrelated images or ideas can spark something entirely original and point your work forward. You will build your own stories and receive the focused attention of a workshop environment. All levels Josha Nathan is a 2017 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient. He earned his MFA at the University of Oregon and has taught at several institutions, including Portland Community College. January 14–February 18, 2020 Tuesdays, 7:00–9:00 p.m. (six sessions) Instructor: Josha Nathan For writers at all levels
$275
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Science Fiction Book Group
Science Fiction Book Group
This month our group meets to discuss The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Free
1 event,
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2019/2020 Portland Arts & Lectures: Min Jin Lee (Sold Out)
2019/2020 Portland Arts & Lectures: Min Jin Lee (Sold Out)
Min Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017. The San Francisco Chronicle lauds it as “beautiful. . . Lee’s sweeping four-generation saga of a Korean family is an extraordinary epic.” It was on over 75 best books of the year lists, and will be translated into 27 languages. Her debut novel, 2007’s Free Food for Millionaires, was also a national best seller as well as a Top 10 Books of the Year for The Times of London, NPR’s Fresh Air, and USA Today. Lee is a recipient of fellowships in fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard. The 35th season of Portland Arts & Lectures features some of the most engaging…
SOLD OUT
3 events,
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Page-Turner Book Club
Page-Turner Book Club
We will discuss The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement - a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing. Available at a 15% discount to order if you plan on attending the book club. Email us to order it or come in!
Free
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Rene Denfeld in Conversation with Stephanie Rose
Rene Denfeld in Conversation with Stephanie Rose
We are thrilled to welcome Rene Denfeld to Books Around the Corner on January 16th at 6:30-7:30pm. Rene is the internationally bestselling author of the novels The Enchanted, The Child Finder, and The Butterfly Girl. Rene will discuss The Child Finder and The Butterfly Girl with Stephanie Rose, former librarian and owner of Books Around the Corner. Page Turner Book Club attendees of The Child Finder and/or The Butterfly Girl will have priority. This will be an intimate event so attendance will be capped at 15 people. To RSVP please come in and order a copy of The Butterfly Girl and/or The Child Finder or if you've attended one of the two book clubs already please let us know you plan on attending. Bring your…
Free
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S. L. Stoner
S. L. Stoner
Night fog drives a young newsboy into a seedy saloon where his appearance catapults Sage Adair into a world of painful memories, child exploitation, and frantic searches for missing loved ones. In the eighth novel of S. L. Stoner’s historical mystery series, Bitter Cry(Yamhill), Sage and his colorful allies find collaboration to be the path to survival. What follows is a journey into the dark corners of Sage's own past and into a present that includes kidnapping, murder, and greed.
Free
1 event,
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Jessica Hische
Jessica Hische
In the follow-up to Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave, award-winning illustrator Jessica Hische brings to life another series of inspirational words and scenes with her lovely hand lettering and adorable illustrations. Tomorrow I’ll Be Kind (Penguin Workshop) is an uplifting and positive book that encourages kids to promise that tomorrow, they will be grateful, helpful, and kind. This book is a reminder to all readers that the smallest kind gesture can make the biggest difference in the world.
Free
1 event,
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Mystery Author Event
Mystery Author Event
Please join Friends of Mystery members and authors J. S. James and W. H. Cameron for an afternoon of readings from River Run and Crossroad, followed by conversations with the authors and book signings on Saturday, January 18th at 1:00 pm. The authors have won recognition for their work from writer’s organizations, including the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association, the UK’s Crime Writer’s Association the Spotted Owl Award and the Rocky Award. James was desperately spinning his writing wheels when he won the PNWA mystery/thriller competition and got the traction needed to finish his debut novel. He lives near Portland, Oregon with his family, including their “Velcro” Vizsla and furry red exercise machine, Maggie. He writes in a casino for atmosphere, and is hard at work…
Free
0 events,
1 event,
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Liska Jacobs
Liska Jacobs
To coolheaded, fastidious Pricilla Messing, Italy will be an escape, a brief glimpse of freedom from a life that's starting to feel like one long decline. Rescued from the bedside of her difficult mother, 40-something Cilla finds herself called away to Rome to keep an eye on her wayward teenage niece, Hannah. But after years of caregiving, babysitting is the last thing Cilla wants to do. Instead she throws herself into Hannah's youthful, heedless world – relishing the heady atmosphere of the Italian summer. But being so close to Hannah brings up complicated memories, making Cilla restless and increasingly reckless, and a dangerous flirtation with a teenage boy soon threatens to send her into a tailspin. In The Worst Kind of Want (MCD), Liska Jacobs…
Free
2 events,
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Emily Suvada in Conversation With Fonda Lee
Emily Suvada in Conversation With Fonda Lee
Cat’s hacking skills weren’t enough to keep her from losing everything – her identity, her past, and now her freedom. She’s trapped and alone, but she’s survived this long, and she’s not giving up without a fight. Though the outbreak has been contained, a new threat has emerged – one that’s taken the world to the brink of a devastating war. With genetic technology that promises not just a cure for the plague, but a way to prevent death itself, both sides will stop at nothing to seize control of humanity’s future. Facing her most devastating enemy yet, Cat must race against the clock to protect her friends and save the lives of millions. This Vicious Cure (Simon Pulse) is the gripping finale to Emily…
Free
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Chad Dundas
Chad Dundas
Having lost much of his memory from a traumatic brain injury sustained in Iraq, army veteran Matthew Rose is called back to Montana after his father’s death to settle his affairs, and hopefully to settle the past as well. It’s not only a blank to him, but a mystery. Why as a teen did he suddenly become sullen and vacant, abandoning the activities and people that had meant most to him? Then on his first night back, Matthew sees a house go up in flames, and it turns out a local college student has died inside. And this event sparks a memory of a different fire, an unsolved crime from long ago, a part of Matthew’s past that might lead to all the answers he’s…
Free
2 events,
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DELVE: Women Write the West: Leslie Marmon Silko, Annie Proulx and Claire Vaye Watkins
DELVE: Women Write the West: Leslie Marmon Silko, Annie Proulx and Claire Vaye Watkins
In this seminar, we will explore the works of award-winning contemporary writers Leslie Marmon Silko, Annie Proulx, and Claire Vaye Watkins and how they confront, disrupt, challenge, and complicate the dominant narrative of the West. Leslie Marmon Silko’s now classic novel Ceremony weaves desert landscape and tribal origin stories into a tale of a returning war veteran’s trauma and healing. In Close Range: The Wyoming Stories, the first of three short story collections unified by setting, Annie Proulx tells the hard luck tales of Wyoming’s inhabitants in her exacting prose. The stories are merciless, yet beautifully rendered, the antithesis of a romanticized cowboy tale. Claire Vaye Watkins rounds out the seminar with her stunning debut short story collection Battleborn, set in the Mojave Desert and…
$220
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William Gibson
William Gibson
Verity Jane, gifted app-whisperer, has been out of work since her exit from a problematic relationship with a Silicon Valley billionaire. Then she signs the NDA of a dodgy start-up, becoming the beta tester for their latest product: a digital assistant, accessed through a pair of ordinary-looking glasses. “Eunice,” the disarmingly human AI in the glasses, soon manifests a face, a fragmentary past, and an unnervingly canny grasp of combat strategy. Meanwhile, a century ahead, Wilf Netherton works amid plutocrats and plunderers, survivors of the slow and steady apocalypse known as the Jackpot. His employer, Ainsley Lowbeer, can look into alternate pasts and nudge their ultimate directions. Verity and Eunice have become her current project. Wilf can see what Verity and Eunice can’t: their own…
Free
1 event,
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Kate Milford
Kate Milford
Marzana and her best friend are bored. Even though they live in a notorious city where normal rules do not apply, nothing interesting ever happens to them. Nothing, that is, until Marzana’s parents are recruited to help solve an odd crime, and she realizes that this could be the excitement she’s been waiting for. She assembles a group of kid detectives with special skills and together, they explore hidden passageways, navigate architecture that changes overnight, and try to unravel the puzzle of who the kidnappers are. But will they beat the deadline for a ransom that’s impossible to pay? The Thief Knot (Clarion) is the new standalone middle reader mystery set in the world of the Greenglass House, from National Book Award nominee and Edgar…
Free
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0 events,
0 events,
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1 event,
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Rene Denfeld and Kimberly King Parsons
Rene Denfeld and Kimberly King Parsons
Rene Denfeld and Kimberly King Parson, in Conversation We are thrilled to welcome Portland authors Rene Denfeld and Kimberly King Parsons to discuss their most recent books, The Butterfly Girl and Black Light, respectively. The authors will each read and then discuss writing, individual life experiences and influences, and the publishing process, as well as take questions from the audience. Rene Denfeld is the author of the acclaimed novels The Enchanted, The Child Finder, and The Butterfly Girl. After captivating readers in The Child Finder, Naomi--the investigator with an uncanny ability for finding missing children—returns in The Butterfly Girl. In addition to being an internationally bestselling author, Denfeld has also worked as a journalist and licensed investigator. She lives in Portland, where she is the…
Free
2 events,
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Fiction Addiction Book Club
Fiction Addiction Book Club
We will discuss The River by Peter Heller. The story of two college students on a wilderness canoe trip--a gripping tale of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence. Available at a 15% discount to order if you plan on attending the book club.
Free
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Crissy Van Meter in Conversation With Leni Zumas
Crissy Van Meter in Conversation With Leni Zumas
Evie grew up with her well-meaning but negligent father, surviving on the money he made dealing the island’s world-famous strain of weed, Winter Wonderland. Although her father raised her with a deep respect for the elements, the sea, and the creatures living within it, he also left her to parent herself. With wit, love, and bracing flashes of anger, Creatures (Algonquin) probes the complexities of love and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief – and the ways in which our childhoods can threaten our ability to love if we are not brave enough to conquer the past. Lyrical, darkly funny, and ultimately cathartic, Crissy Van Meter’s mesmerizing, provocative debut exerts a pull as strong as the tides. Van Meter will be joined in conversation…
Free
3 events,
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Horror Book Club
Horror Book Club
We will discuss Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Please note the change in week for this month only. For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past -- and get away with murder. Available at a 15% discount to order if you plan on attending the book club.
Free
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SFWA NW Portland Reading Series – January 2020
SFWA NW Portland Reading Series – January 2020
The Pacific Northwest is home to a Tardis-Full of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, a fact celebrated every quarter with the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors in Portland and Seattle. Each event features three authors who read from their latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision. In addition, space is provided for networking and conversation. Booksellers will be on hand with fresh copies of the authors’ books for you to buy and get autographed. Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and author of the New York Times bestselling Robopocalypse and its sequel Robogenesis, as well as How to…
Free
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Russell Rowland
Russell Rowland
Montana, 1968: The small town of Paradise Valley is ripped open when popular rancher and notorious bachelor Tom Butcher is found murdered one morning, beaten to death by a baseball bat. Suspicion among the tight-knit community immediately falls on the outsider, Carl Logan, who recently moved in with his family, and his troubled son Roger. What Carl doesn't realize is that there are plenty of people who have reason to kill Tom Butcher. Complications arise when the investigating officers discover that Tom Butcher had a secret – a secret he kept even from Junior Kirby, a lifelong rancher and Butcher’s best friend. As accusations fly and secrets are revealed one after another, the people of Paradise Valley learn how deeply Tom Butcher was embedded in…
Free
1 event,
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American Dirt – CANCELLED
American Dirt – CANCELLED
Please note this event (and the remainder of Cummins’s tour) has been cancelled by her publisher. Lydia Quixano Perez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with four books he would like to buy – two of them her favorites. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s…
Free
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