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Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store is an independently run bookstore serving the greater Cambridge area. The bookstore is located in Harvard Square and has been family-owned since 1932. We are known for our extraordinary selection of new, used and remaindered books and for a history of innovation. In 2009, we introduced same-day "green delivery" and a book-making robot capable of printing and binding any of millions of titles in minutes. Find out more about us at www.harvard.com .

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Laura van den Berg: The Third Hotel

Tue, Aug 7, 2018

In Havana, Cuba, a widow tries to come to terms with her husband’s death―and the truth about their marriage―in Laura van den Berg’s surreal, mystifying story of psychological reflection and metaphysical mystery. Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard, standing outside a museum. He’s wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before, and he’s supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled, Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard, revealing her role in his death and reappearance along the way. The Third Hotel is a propulsive, brilliantly shape-shifting novel from an inventive author at the height of her narrative powers.

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Nell Painter: Old in Art School

Wed, Jul 25, 2018

Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school―in her sixties―to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In _Old in Art School_, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful demands of a life fully lived. How are women and artists seen and judged by their age, looks, and race? What does it mean when someone says, “You will never be an artist”? Who defines what “An Artist” is and all that goes with such an identity, and how are these ideas tied to our shared conceptions of beauty, value, and difference? _Old in Art School_ is Nell Painter’s ongoing exploration of those crucial questions, drawing on insights from two careers. Read about Nell Painter, ageism, and "disappearing women" [here](https://medium.com/@ForumNetwork/disappearing-women-nell-painter-and-christine-lahti-e508da6b5271 "Disappearing Women: Nell Painter and Christine Lahti"). Photo: [Time](http://time.com/5318242/nell-painter-old-in-art-school/ "This Woman Went to Art School in Her 60s, Proving It’s Never Too Late to Pivot")

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Jeff Biggers: Resistance, an American Tradition

Fri, Jul 13, 2018

Across cities, towns, and campuses, Americans are grappling with overwhelming challenges and the daily fallout from the most authoritarian White House policies in recent memory. Jeff Biggers reframes today’s battles as a continuum of a vibrant American tradition. Resistance is a chronicle of the courageous resistance movements that have insured the benchmarks of our democracy―movements that served on the front lines of the American Revolution, the defense of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the defeat of fascism during World War II, and landmark civil rights and environmental protection achievements.

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Hanna Holborn Gray: An Academic Life

Mon, May 14, 2018

Hanna Holborn Gray, the first woman president of a major American University, discusses her debut memoir, _An Academic Life_ with historian, author, and Harvard professor Jane Kamensky. _An Academic Life_ is a candid self-portrait by one of academia's most respected trailblazers. Gray describes what it was like to grow up as a child of refugee parents, and reflects on the changing status of women in the academic world. She discusses the migration of intellectuals from Nazi-held Europe and the transformative role these exiles played in American higher education—and how the émigré experience in America transformed their own lives and work. She sheds light on the character of university communities, how they are structured and administered, and the balance they seek between tradition and innovation, teaching and research, and undergraduate and professional learning. An Academic Life speaks to the fundamental issues of purpose, academic freedom, and governance that arise time and again in higher education, and that pose sharp challenges to the independence and scholarly integrity of each new generation.

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Howard Bryant: "The Heritage" and the Politics of Race, Sports, and Patriotism

Mon, Jun 11, 2018

ESPN writer and NPR sports correspondent Howard Bryant presents his latest book, _The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism_. It used to be that politics and sports were as separate from one another as church and state. Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start, were committing a political act simply by being on the field. The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.

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Vic Seidler: Making Sense of Brexit

Mon, Jun 4, 2018

Looking at Great Britain's decision to leave the European Union in 2016, what can we learn? In his new book, _Making Sense of Brexit: Democracy, Europe, and Uncertain Futures_, Vic Siedler addresses the causes and implications of Brexit. He argues that we need new political imaginations across class, race, religion, gender, and sexuality to engage in issues about the scale and acceleration of urban change and the time people need to adjust to new realities. Photo: [Pixbay](https://pixabay.com/en/brexit-output-emergency-exit-eu-1477302/ "")

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Virginia Eubanks: Automating Inequality and Algorithmic Justice

Fri, Mar 23, 2018

For two decades Virginia Eubanks has worked in community technology and economic justice movements. In this talk she discusses her book, _Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor_. It's a hard look at how we've turned over decision-making to algorithms and statistical models, leaving the disadvantaged and less-connected behind. Eubanks is joined in conversation by Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT. Presented by the Harvard Book Store, Harvard Kennedy School's digitalHKS, the MIT Center for Civic Media, and Mass Humanities. Photo: By United States Department of Agriculture [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Maryn McKenna on Agriculture, Antibiotics and Big Chicken

Tue, Feb 27, 2018

Acclaimed health and food policy journalist and Brandeis University Senior Fellow Maryn McKenna talks about her book 'Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats.' She is joined in conversation by University of Massachusetts Lowell philosophy professor Nicholas Evans.

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Fifty Years Since MLK

Mon, Feb 26, 2018

Boston Review, Harvard Book Store, Mass Humanities, and the Cambridge Public Library welcome a panel of acclaimed educators--Brandon Terry, Tommie Shelby, Elizabeth Hinton, and Cornel West--to discuss the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Boston Talks About Racism

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Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline and the Renewal of City Life

Thu, Jan 25, 2018

Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome NYU professor and scientific director of Crime Lab New York Patrick Sharkey for a discussion of his latest book, Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence. He is joined in conversation by sociologist and Harvard University professor William Julius Wilson. From New York’s Harlem neighborhood to South Los Angeles, Sharkey draws on original data and textured accounts of neighborhoods across the country to document the most successful proven strategies for combatting violent crime and to lay out innovative and necessary approaches to the problem of violence. At a time when crime is rising again and powerful political forces seek to disinvest in cities, the insights in this book are indispensable. (Image: [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/bird-s-eye-view-cars-crossing-crossroad-5486/ "Pexels") and Book Cover)

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