Boston Flora

Tag: Porter Square Books

  • Monday, May 9, 7:00 pm – Seeds: One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, will host author Richard Horan on Monday, May 9, beginning at 7 pm, for a discussion of his latest book Seeds: One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton.  From the wooded road made of golden hemlock running past L. Frank Baum’s childhood home to the lonely stump of Scout’s oak in Harper Lee’s Alabama, Richard Horan gathers tree seeds-and stories-from the homes of America’s most treasured authors. At once a heartfelt paean to literature and a wise, funny, and uplifting account of one man’s reconnection with nature, Seeds celebrates Horan’s triumphs and calamities on his quest to link trees with great writers.  Richard Horan recently spoke with Tom Ashbrook, the voice of “On Point”, about the book and his experiences on the road.  Horan is a novelist, English teacher, and book reviewer for several national publications. His novel Goose Music was a finalist for the Great Lakes Fiction Award and won the ForeWord Book of the Year Bronze Medal. He lives in Oswego, New York.  For more information, email ellen@portersquarebooks.com, or call 617-491-2220.

  • Thursday, November 11, 7:00 pm – Atlantic

    Blending history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, science and exposition, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester tells the breathtaking saga of the Atlantic Ocean. A gifted storyteller and consummate historian, Winchester sets the great blue sea’s epic narrative against the backdrop of mankind’s intellectual evolution, telling not only the story of an ocean, but the story of civilization.

    Winchester’s many books include The Professor and the Madman; The Man Who Loved China; The Map that Changed the World; Krakatoa; and A Crack in the Edge of the World. Each of these have been both New York Times and national bestsellers, and have appeared on numerous best and notable lists. Winchester was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2006. Winchester now lives in Massachusetts and New York.

    Simon Winchester will be at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, on Thursday, November 11 at 7 pm to discuss his most recent book Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories.

  • Tuesday, August 3, 7:00 pm – Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilization

    Porter Square Books in Cambridge hosts author Andrew Rimas on Tuesday, August 3, beginning at 7 pm.  Andrew will speak on his most recent book, Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilization. The book vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past twelve thousand years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate-and gives us fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. The narrative takes the reader to places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain. Discussed are the history of cyclic consumption and also of the future and the impact of food availability and distribution on world events. Rimas is a journalist and the managing editor at the Improper Bostonian magazine; previously he was an associate editor and staff writer at Boston Magazine. His work has frequently appeared in those publications, and in the Boston Globe Magazine and the Boston Globe. For more information, email ellen@portersquarebooks.com, or call 617-491-2220.

  • Tuesday, June 29, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, welcomes Leslie Brunetta, a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, Technology Review, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly, as well as on NPR, on Tuesday, June 29, beginning at 7 pm.  Her wonderful new book, co-authored with Catherine L. Craig, Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating “cures arachnophobia for any lucky reader…”, according to Simon Levin, author of Fragile Dominion.  For more information, log on to www.portersquarebooks.com.

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  • Monday, June 7, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Novella Carpenter

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, will host author Novella Carpenter on Monday, June 7, from 7 – 9. Carpenter, who grows greens and raises livestock on a dead-end street in the ghetto, is the author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. For the past decade, the 38-year-old has cultivated land in the city, the last six years on GhostTown Farm, the sunny, squat lot in Oakland, California next to her rundown, coral-colored flat — complete with a back porch covered in goat poop — where she lives with mechanic boyfriend Bill and a menagerie of her so-called edible pets, including rabbits, chickens, and, on occasion, a turkey or two.

    The ‘hood is also dotted with long-shuttered businesses, drug dealers, prostitutes, multiethnic neighbors, and what Carpenter affectionately refers to as “fellow freaks.” She feels right at home there. “The neighborhood had a whiff of anarchy,” she notes in her memoir. “Spanish-speaking soccer players hosted ad hoc tournaments in the abandoned playfield. Teenagers sold bags of marijuana on the corners. The Buddhist monks made enormous vats of rice on the city sidewalk…And I started squat gardening on land I didn’t own.”

    A child of back-to-the landers, Carpenter has received stellar reviews, most notably in the New York Times, for chronicling her exploits in the urban jungle.  She’s been featured everywhere from mainstream outlets like Time, foodie circles, like Culinate, and eco-green arenas like Grist. Log on to www.portersquarebooks.com for more information.

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