The merry month of May seemed to fly by, bringing us lots of joy and insightful discussions in book clubs, creativity in writing workshops, and even our first pop-up event!

We kicked off the month with what proved to be a small-but-mighty group, according to our bookseller Amanda, sharing their strong opinions on JoAnne Tompkins’ What Comes After for our Old Town Books Book(s) Club. Our first batch of orders included signed copies - hurry before they’re gone for good!

Our newest group, the Murder By the Book Club, continued to grow in strength as they gathered virtually to discuss Camilla Bruce’s fictionalized tale of one of America’s most prolific female serial killers, In the Garden of Spite. Our bookseller Amanda shared that the group is interested in branching into both true crime and fictional thrillers in the future, so there’s something for every fan of the spooky, uncanny, or even terrifying.

May Book Club News Round-Up:

• Our beloved Bad Romance Book Club met on Zoom to talk through Martha Waters’ new release, To Love and to Loathe. Celebrate Pride Month and pick-up bestselling author Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop, in time for this month’s meeting on 18th (queer time travel romance set in NYC, anyone?). Mention BRBC at check-out and get 10% off while you get added to the invite. We’ve got signed copies!

• Our Sci-fi/Fantasy club discussed Becky Chambers’ series finale, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. This month, they’ll be diving into Andrea Stewart’s epic fantasy debut, The Bone Shard Daughter, now out in paperback. We’ve got signed copies here in the store!

In addition to our monthly clubs, the May events calendar was rounded out by several interactive artistic offerings:

• Kristen Zory King hosted the second of her three springtime writing workshops. Join her again on June 26 to unlock your inner author and tap into your inner self. Generate multiple rough draft starts in the span of just an hour and a half - the perfect way to jumpstart your creativity. The workshops are free, but Old Town Books with also be accepting Pay-What-You-Can donations for our nonprofit Book Love program.

• Old Town Books hosted our first pop-up event here at the new store. We were excited to welcome plant lovers in for a weekend of beautiful browsing, highlighting texts and merchandise with a botanical theme. The real stars of the show, however, were the plants grown in the greenhouse of our very own Ally Kirkpatrick! Be sure to follow us online and sign up for our newsletter to catch all of the details for our next event.

Blog contribution by Shannon McCarthy.
Photo contributions by Nicole Blair.