Hear this
Libro.fm, an online store for audiobooks, is teaming up with local independent booksellers to offer their customers an alternative to Amazon’s Audible service.
This is the way it works: Choose the bookstore you’d like to support and then browse through over 70,000 titles curated by indie booksellers. There are no up-front fees for the indies. When you make your purchase, your local shop gets about half of the profit, according to a Libro.fm representative.
Katie Eelman of Papercuts J.P., which recently announced its membership program, says that Libro’s plan ensures her store won’t be missing out on a growing segment of book buyers.
“Audiobooks have had an annual growth rate of 30 percent,’’ Eelman says. “And this is a cool way to meet that demand, and for consumers to support local businesses.’’
Papercuts is one of a number of local bookstores offering memberships, which involves paying 99 cents for the first book, and then $14.99 a month. Some of the local shops that have signed up include Brookline Booksmith, Harvard Book Store, Porter Square Books, On the Dot Books, and Wellesley Books. A complete list can be found on the Libro website.
Musical interpretation
In her book “Parable of the Sower,’’ Octavia Butler, the first science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur “genius grant,’’ writes of a near-future California beset by drought, a climate-changed dystopia of corporate avarice and political corruption in which 15-year-old Lauren Olamina flees her community and founds Earthseed, a new society preparing for life on another planet. Composer, writer, and producer Toshi Reagon (left) has created a music performance based on Butler’s book, one that involves 20 musicians and singers, 30 songs, and draws from 200 years of black music. Performances run from March 23-26 at the Emerson/Paramount Center’s Robert J. Orchard Stage, 559 Washington St., in Boston. Tickets are $10-$90 and can be found at artsemerson.org.
School Street honors Women’s History Month
The School Street Sessions are gatherings that celebrate literature and history, inspired by the famed Saturday Club, a monthly get-together at Boston’s Parker House that started in 1855 and drew a motley group of philosophers, scientists, writers, and historians. Those gatherings eventually led to the birth of the Atlantic Monthly. This month’s School Street Session, in honor of Women’s History Month, embraces the theme of Women Reading Women and features poets Simone John, Mary Buchinger, Martha Collins, Beatrice Greene, and Mary Bonina, who will read their work, as well as that of women who have served as inspiration. The free event takes place Saturday, March 25 at 3:30 p.m., 60 School Street, Boston, with drinks at Parker’s Bar following.
Coming out
“Afterland’’ by Mai Der Vang (Graywolf)
“First Love’’ by Gwendoline Riley (Melville House)
“Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism’’ by Camille Paglia (Pantheon)
Pick of the week
Mark Ouillette at the Bookloft in Great Barrington recommends “This Old Man: All in Pieces’’ by Roger Angell (Anchor): “Angell calls it ‘a dog’s breakfast,’ and I call this miscellany a grateful survey of his life and work at the New Yorker and with his family, dog, and fellow writers. He’s a master stylist, vivid with wit and nearly a century of memories (failing) and remembered friends (fondly). E. B. White, Derek Jeter, William Steig, and other past masters have their star turns. The best essay, ‘This Old Man,’ is worth the price of admission alone and a model for memoir.’’
Nina MacLaughlin is the author of “Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter.’’ She can be reached at nmaclaughlin@gmail.com.
