Small Business Saturday is on November 29! Come and help us celebrate and support not just Skylark, but all the wonderful local shops, restaurants and services in the District that make our community what it is. This holiday season will be an especially important one for small businesses everywhere, and we would dearly love your support to help us make it a good one.

Every purchase at a small business makes a difference: when we choose to shop small, we’re not just making a purchase, we’re investing in the businesses that keep our economy strong - because small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They create jobs, fuel innovation and keep our communities strong.

To mark the occasion at Skylark, we’ll be doing some limited giveaways while stocks last, and every purchase will be entered into our drawing for the now-traditional bag stuffed stupidly full of goodies. Our make-a-bookmark crafting station will be running all day, and we’ll also be giving away free tote bags with every purchase over $100 (until we run out!) And other fun stuff, too. Come and join us, and #shoplocal!

Join us for the last of a three part journal binding series. Each workshop, Liz will be leading us in a different binding technique. All supplies and materials are provided. Tickets are required to attend and are $20 each - purchase here! Space is limited!

November’s edition of the Skylarking Bookclub will feature a discussion of one of our most popular authors, the very wonderful Olivie Blake, and her newest novel, Girl Dinner, a darkly fun novel about power, lust, and eating your fill, as wealthy moms and sorority girls practice a sinister new wellness trend.

Ali Hazelwood calls Girl Dinner “at once hilarious, scathing, insightful, and heartbreaking.” And TJ Klune says this: "Bracing and darkly funny, Girl Dinner is filled with the fire of feminist rage that burns so good. Also, some cannibalism, as a treat."

As always, attendance is free, and the discussion starts at 6:30 p.m. We’d love to see you there! PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT IN ITS USUAL LAST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH SPOT - BECAUSE THANKSGIVING.

Good girls deserve a treat.

Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.

After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner's new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane's clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she's apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.

As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.

Our November selection for the New Romantics Book Club is Overdue, by Stephanie Perkins! We’ll meet to discuss at the shop at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 19! See you there!

Overdue is a beautiful, slow-burn romance full of lust and longing about new beginnings and finding your way.

Ingrid Dahl, a cheerful twenty-nine-year-old librarian in the cozy mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina, has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for eleven years without ever discussing marriage. But when Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement to a woman she’s only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory feel pressured to consider their future. Neither has ever been with anybody else, so they make an unconventional decision. They'll take a one-month break to date other people, then they'll reunite and move toward marriage. Ingrid even has someone in mind: her charmingly grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, on whom she’s secretly crushed for years. But plans go awry, and when the month ends, Ingrid and Cory realize they’re not ready to resume their relationship—and Ingrid’s harmless crush on Macon has turned into something much more complicated.

We’re thrilled to welcome Jake Adelstein back to Skylark to discuss his new book, The Devil Takes Bitcoin, the wild, true story of cyber-era commerce, crime, cold-hard cash, and one of the greatest heists in history. This will be a fascinating evening which you will not want to miss!

Even in hell, Bitcoin talks. This modern take on an old Japanese saying still holds true. Cryptocurrency was supposed to do for money what the internet did for information, but it didn't work out that way. Its virtual existence unleashed real-world chaos--especially in the homeland of its mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Tokyo was the center of the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, until that company collapsed with nearly half a billion dollars' worth of Bitcoin gone missing. It might be the greatest heist in history. If it was a heist.

So what really happened? The Devil Takes Bitcoin tells the true story of the humble-to-hot commodity, from the former geek website that launched the boom to an inside world of absent-minded CEOs, hucksters, hackers, cybercrooks, drug dealers, corrupt federal agents, evangelical libertarians, and clueless techies. You'll discover Bitcoin's connection to the infamous Silk Road, learn why hell has nothing on Japan's criminal justice system, and get the lowdown on the high cost of betting with the Devil's dollars. All of this for less than the price of a single Bitcoin.

The book is described by Amy Gray of The Saturday Paper as: “A whirlwind account of crypto’s rise and rot. Reading Adelstein’s tale is like listening to the best storyteller at the pub, full of outrageous anecdotes, pithy takedowns, and a clear-eyed account of how crypto’s true lifeblood was always crime … The Devil Takes Bitcoin is a weirdly successful vibe check from what may be the internet’s last Wild West: funny, chaotic, horrifying, and deeply revealing of how belief and greed blur until they’re indistinguishable … If you want to be entertained, informed, and a little appalled, pull up a bar stool.’

Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993, reporting in both Japanese and English. His podcast about the mysterious deaths at the Harry Truman VA hospital in Columbia, Missouri—Witnessed: Night Shift won 🥇 Gold (True Crime) at the 2025 Signal Awards—the Oscars of podcasting. 

From 2006 to 2007 he was the chief investigator for a U.S. State Department-sponsored study of human trafficking in Japan. He has been writing for The Daily Beast, The Japan Times and other publications since 2011, and was a special correspondent for The Los Angeles Times. Considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He co-hosted and co-wrote the award-winning podcast about missing people in Japan, The Evaporated: Gone with the Gods in 2023. He is the author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintage), which is now a series on Max, and also The Last Yakuza: Life and Death in the Japanese Underworld (2023). He has appeared on CNN, NPR, the BBC, France 24, and other media outlets.

ON Tuesday, November 11, we’ll be having our regular meeting of the Order of Books and Banter, to discuss THE BABY DRAGON CAFE by A.T. Qureshi. As usual, we’ll meet in the shop at 6:30 p.m. See you there for an excellent, cozy discussion!

The perfect cozy, romantic fantasy and USA TODAY BESTSELLER for fans of Gilmore Girls and dragons.

When Saphira opens her cafe welcoming pet baby dragons, she isn't expecting it to be quite so hard to keep the fires burning. But her young dragon patrons keep incinerating her furniture, which means selling coffee isn't covering all her costs.

Local heart-throb Aiden is a gardener, though his disobedient baby dragon is a major distraction from his beloved plants. However, Saphira's caf gives him an idea - he'll ask Saphira to train his dragon, and pay her enough to keep the cafe afloat.

They know they're the answer to each other's problems, but happy-go-lucky Saphira and gorgeous-but-grumpy Aiden couldn't be more different. Can they find a way to work together - and maybe even ignite some fire of their own?

We are very pleased to partner with our friends at the University of Missouri Center for the Humanities to offer an online poetry reading given by Ellen Samuels, emeritus professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and award-wining author. Ellen will read from her newest poetry collection, Your Body Should Be a Part of the World.

The event is free to attend, but does require registration. Happily, it’s easy! Just click here.

This poetry collection is a meditation on chronic illness, survival, and community that moves between the intimate space of the sickroom and the messy persistence of nature. Your Body Should Be a Part of the World is the winner of C&R Press’s 2024 Winter Soup Bowl Chapbook Prize and also won the 2024 Brain Mill Press/Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Prize.

Samuels is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she taught for many years in the Departments of English and Gender & Women’s Studies. She founded and directed the UW Disability Studies Initiative and was one of the founders of the community-based Madison Disability Pride Festival. She has been active in disability studies, writing, and activism for over two decades.

October’s Skylarking Bookclub will be the stunning new memoir by Booker Prize winning author, Arundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me. We’ll be meeting at the shop at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 30. Can’t wait to see you there!

A raw and deeply moving memoir from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that traces the complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati’s life both as a woman and a writer.

Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as “my shelter and my storm.”

“Heart-smashed” by her mother Mary’s death in September 2022 yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed” by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.” And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author’s journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today.

With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace—a memoir like no other.

Join us for a haunting night of full of tricks and treats. Come to discuss your favorite reads! Thrillers, horrors, mysteries, fantasies, and perhaps a dash of romance – we want to know them all, and maybe help you find your next chilling read. You’ll drink curated cocktails and enjoy delicious treats. There’ll also be a fun trivia game and a costume contest – so make sure to dress up in your finest Halloween outfit!

Tickets for this event are $20 each and can be purchased here.

Needing some holiday flare in your life? We have just the book club for you! Join us a special Halloween book club featuring Emily Jane’s American Werewolves. For this super special, spooky book club, we will be providing some treats to bring the season into the store! 

Many full moons ago, a young American boy with ambition in his belly and the moon in his veins followed his destiny west, determined to carve a path to success no matter the carnage.

Two centuries later, a city is captivated by the strange and savage murder of a young woman. Her roommate, Natasha, no longer able to afford their apartment alone—and hounded by both rumors of wolves and a pop-star’s angry fan-swarm—has resorted to living in her car. There’s nothing left for her…except vengeance.

Across town, Shane LaSalle is about to see his wildest dreams come true. He already has a gorgeous apartment and a high paying job in venture capital. Now the partners of Barrington Equity have invited him to board the company’s private jet for an exclusive retreat. But with partnership finally in his reach, Shane realizes he’s losing his taste for just how ruthless and all-consuming the firm is.

Epic and electric, American Werewolves brings readers from the wilds of the New World to the opulent board rooms and golf courses of the twenty-first century, where devouring the weak is an American birthright as old as the country itself.

Join us for a three part journal binding series (this is the second of these - the final one is on November 24.) Each workshop, Liz will be leading us in a different binding technique. All supplies and materials are provided. Tickets are required to attend and are $20 each - purchase here! Space is limited!

Witches of Columbia, tonight is your night! From 6-8pm, anyone who comes in dressed like a witch will be gifted a tome selected by our resident high witch for all of your witchy needs. Join us for a night of surprises and cider! 

We are very excited to welcome Rebecca Lexa to Skylark on Thursday, October 23, who will be discussing her new book, The Everyday Naturalist, a step-by-step guide for spotting and recording key traits and characteristics of animals, plants, and fungi.

If you've ever consulted a field guide to identify a new bird at your feeder, you know the process isn't as easy as it sounds. In fact, it seems like you have to know a lot about that mystery bird to even figure out where to start.

The Everyday Naturalist fills in the gaps by explaining what traits to pay attention to when encountering a new species; how and when to use field guides, apps, and other resources; what to do if you get stuck; and more. Rather than focusing on one region or continent, these skills and tools are designed to help you classify nature anywhere you are—whether on familiar territory, traveling, or in a new home.

In chapters about animals, plants, fungi, and organisms like lichens and slime molds, naturalist and guide Rebecca Lexa goes into detail about what sets each of these kingdoms apart from each other—from color, shape, and texture to reproductive characteristics, behavior, and habitat—and includes more than forty full-color photos and drawings to illustrate key points. She also provides detailed case studies to demonstrate how to use all of these traits to identify specimens across multiple kingdoms.

This easy-to-follow guide empowers you to learn more about the species around you, then use what you know to preserve the world you love. And at a time when biodiversity is imperiled worldwide, nature needs more advocates than ever.

Rebecca will also be presenting her talk "Five Reasons to Be an Everyday Naturalist", highlighting some great benefits of learning to identify the living beings around us. Come and join us for what promises to be an inspiring evening!

Rebecca Lexa is a certified Oregon Master Naturalist, registered Oregon Outfitter Guide, and a writer and educator in the Pacific Northwest. She has a master's degree in counseling psychology with a certificate in ecopsychology, the psychology of how we connect to the natural world. She specializes in helping everyday people learn skills and tools for identifying the animals, plants, and fungi around them and gaining a deeper relationship with nature.

This month’s title for the New Romantics Book Club is Zom RomCom by Olivia Dade! We’ll be meeting in the shop on Wednesday, October 15, for all the usual shenanigans!

Teaming up with your neighbor during a zombie outbreak is a no-brainer, but if it turns out he’s a vampire . . . the stakes couldn’t be higher, in this infectious new paranormal romance from the USA Today bestselling author of Spoiler Alert.

When Edie Brandstrup attempts to save her sweet, seemingly harmless human neighbor from the first major zombie breach in two decades, she’s stunned to be saved by him—and his ridiculously large sword—instead. As it turns out, he's actually a super-old, super-surly vampire. But for all her neighbor's newly revealed cynicism and lethality, Gaston "Max" Boucher (yes, Gaston) is unexpectedly protective. He wants her to stay in his safety bunker until the breach is resolved. Edie can’t risk more innocent people getting killed, though—and Max won’t let her save them alone.

As they unravel a sinister conspiracy to set zombies loose on the world (again), the duo meet a host of lovable allies and discover they're not the only ones willing to fight for the future of humanity. Despite the awful timing, Edie finds herself falling for the vampire who’s helping her save the world . . . but all their dangerous plans could end their future before it even begins. As she and Max battle side by side, Edie must decide whether having a love worth living for also means having a love you'd die for—and, in a world that grows deadlier by the minute, whether that’s a risk she’s willing to take.

October’s title for The Order of Books and Banter is Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross. Come and join us!

Set in the world of the gods first introduced in Divine Rivals, #1 New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Ross delivers a sweeping, beautiful adult novel filled with tension, romance, and dark secrets.

True love is more divine, than any ruthless god.

Born in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. But in a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda must come of age sooner than most. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies to ensure her survival. And to complicate matters . . . there is a mortal boy who dreams of her, despite the fact they have never met in the waking world.

Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life—begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.

We’re very excited to welcome to Skylark Thomas E. Weber, veteran journalist Thomas E. Weber, who will be introducing his new book, Cloud Warriors, a riveting story of the people pushing boundaries of science and technology to build better weather forecasts—providing life-saving warnings and crucial intelligence about nature’s deadliest threats

Killer tornadoes. Catastrophic hurricanes. Lethal heat waves. Across the United States and around the world, extreme weather events bring an unending torrent of death and destruction. One indispensable tool consistently offers the ability to help reduce the impact of these calamities: the weather forecast. For centuries, humans have sought to foretell nature’s next moves, from ancient farmers to trailblazers of the Space Age, who brought computers and satellites to bear on the problem. Now a new wave of advances, including artificial intelligence and data-gathering drones, makes it possible to accurately detect these fearsome events further in advance. They provide critical time to prepare and get people out of harm’s way—an undertaking made ever more urgent by the effects of climate change.

In a remarkable tale of innovation and perseverance, Thomas E. Weber takes readers into the world of the pioneers creating these game-changing forecasts. From storm chasers racing to hunt twisters and physicists unraveling the secrets of the atmosphere, from scientists studying how people react to warnings to humanitarian groups rushing to avert famines, Weber goes behind the scenes to show how predictions keep getting better. He explains what’s needed to turn these forecasts into actions that prevent tragedies and how anyone can become more weather literate to protect themselves in emergencies. Cloud Warriors will change the way you think about treacherous weather—and the power of being able to see it coming.

Thomas E. Weber is a writer, editor, and veteran newsroom executive with a lifelong interest in how science and technology shape society. He was The Wall Street Journal's first internet columnist and later became a bureau chief for the paper. As executive editor of Time, he supervised the magazine's feature journalism. He has taught journalism and publishing at Columbia University and New York University, as well as at his alma mater, Princeton University. He lives in New York City with his wife.

We are welcoming our friend Kristin back, to enlighten us with even more plant knowledge. We are excited to make even more terrariums. All you need to bring with you is your jar of choice (quart-sized or larger.) Tickets are $20 and include all other materials needed!

We’ve teamed up with our friends at Libro fm and Silent Book Club to host a #BannedBooksWeek Read-In on Tuesday, October 7 from 7:30-9:30 am in protest of censorship. Bring your headphones to join us as we read and take action to fight book bans!

Attendees will receive a free audiobook copy of Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books 📘🎧

Postcard stamps will be available as well as information and resources!

Need more sparkle on your shelves? Join us for book bedazzling! Bring your favorite book and we will provide all of the bedazzling materials. Tickets are required for this event and space is limited. Purchase tickets online or in person for $30 each or $20 with the purchase of a book.

Please join us as we celebrate the launch of POCKET PORTRAITS: JANE AUSTEN, by Columbia local and long-time Friend of Skylark, Janet Saidi.

Join us for a trip back in time to the Regency-era life of Jane Austen, one of literature’s most beloved novelists, with this captivating exploration of her works and the timeless themes of romance, family, and society.

Pocket Portraits: Jane Austen takes you through the moments of Jane Austen’s life—some well-known and some which may be unexpected. These are the moments that shaped her six published novels, which draw deeply on themes of family, agency, philosophy, and love. From excerpts of her swoon-worthy tales like Pride and Prejudice and Emma to insight into Austen’s social commentary and why her works still leave their mark on contemporary pop culture, this book paints a vivid portrait of the complicated woman behind the quill.

This beautifully curated book is both an inspiring biography and a celebration of literary brilliance. Whether you’re a longtime admirer of Austen or just beginning your literary adventure, Pocket Portraits: Jane Austen will leave you fascinated, inspired, and longing for more.

Janet Saidi is the creator of The Austen Connection, a public-humanities and journalism project that connects Austen’s literature to the pop-culture and current events of our world today. The project has been featured in publications such as Electric Lit and The Christian Science Monitor, and at national and international conferences such as Melbourne’s AustenCon and the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) AGM. A professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, Janet has taught writing, editing, and producing for fourteen years. In addition to her work as a producer at KBIA, her journalistic work has appeared on NPR, the BBC, PBS, and in Los Angeles Times and The Christian Science Monitor. Pocket Portraits: Jane Austen, from Simon & Schuster’s Adams Media, is a celebration biography for Austen’s 250th year.

Join us for a three part journal binding series (this is the first of these - the others are on October 27 and November 24.) Each workshop, Liz will be leading us in a different binding technique. All supplies and materials are provided. Tickets are required to attend and are $20 each - purchase here! Space is limited!

This month we’ll be revisiting the always-popular thriller/suspense genre with this cracking debut novel from Kelsey Cox, Party of Liars. Carrie read an early galley of this months ago and couldn’t stop talking about it. Come and join the discussion!

A lavish, Texas-sized Sweet Sixteen turns deadly in this twisty, pulse-pounding new novel — serving up a fresh take on a classic locked-room whodunnit. Let the festivities begin…

Today is Sophie Matthews’s sixteenth birthday party, an exclusive black-tie bash in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where secrets are as deep-rooted as the sprawling live oaks. Sophie’s dad has spared no expense, and his renovated cliffside mansion—once thought haunted and shuttered for years from outsiders—is now hosting the event of the season. Then, just before the candles on the three-tiered red velvet cake are blown out, a body falls from the balcony onto the starlit dance floor below.

It’s a killer guest list. Everyone is invited in. Not everyone will get out alive.

Come prepared with pillows and blankets and join us for our silent book club. From 6-7:30, we will have lights dimmed and music off for your reading enjoyment. Our registers will be open for all of your book buying needs. 

We are VERY EXCITED to welcome back to Columbia Dr. Emily Wilson, who is returning to Skylark to discuss her much-lauded translation of Homer’s Iliad. Anybody who attended Dr. Wilson’s event for the Odyssey will remember what an extraordinary event that was - you won’t want to miss this, believe us! The event starts as we open our doors (10:00 a.m.) on Saturday, September 20. We suggest you get there early to snag a seat!

Emily Wilson is Department Chair and Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, holding the College for Women Class of 1963 Term Professor in the Humanities. Wilson attended Oxford University (Balliol College B.A. in Classics and Corpus Christi College M.Phil. in Renaissance English Literature) and Yale University (Ph.D. in Classics and Comparative Literature). She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance & Early Modern scholarship, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In 2025, she received an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree from University of King’s College in Halifax. She lives in Philadelphia with her family and pets.

September’s New Romantics Bookclub is Love is a War Song, the new romantic comedy by Danica Nava, USA Today bestselling author of The Truth According to Ember.

Pop singer Avery Fox has become a national joke after posing scantily clad on the cover of Rolling Stone in a feather warbonnet. What was meant to be a statement of her success as a Native American singer has turned her into a social pariah and dubbed her a fake. With threats coming from every direction and her career at a standstill, she escapes to her estranged grandmother Lottie’s ranch in Oklahoma. Living on the rez is new to Avery—not only does she have to work in the blazing summer heat to earn her keep, but the man who runs Lottie’s horse ranch despises her and wants her gone.

Red Fox Ranch has been home to Lucas Iron Eyes since he was sixteen years old. He has lived by three rules to keep himself out of trouble: 1) preserve the culture, 2) respect the horses, and 3) stick to himself. When he is tasked with picking up Lottie’s granddaughter at the bus station, the last person he expected to see is the Avery Fox. Lucas can’t stand what she represents, but when he’s forced to work with her on the ranch, he can’t get her out of his sight—or his head. He reminds himself to keep to his rules, especially after he finds out the ranch is under threat of being shut down.

It’s clear Avery doesn’t belong here, but they form a tentative truce and make a deal: Avery will help raise funds to save the ranch, and in exchange, Lucas will show her what it really means to be an Indian. It’s purely transactional, absolutely no horsing around…but where’s the fun in that?

My friends, The Order of Books and Banter is bringing it in September. We’ll be discussing one of the most anticipated books of the year in any genre - Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, the new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger from V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—how it ends, and how it starts.

Skylark Bookshop is thrilled to host five fantastic local authors to discuss genre, process and place, inspired by this year's One Read book, Daniel Mason's "North Woods." Join us to learn from these authors from across genres and backgrounds. Find out more about One Read here. We’ll be joined by the following writers:

• Lynne Lampe writes poetry about family, mental illness and societal expectations. Lynne’s poems appear in the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, One, Yemassee, Many Nice Donkeys, The Inflectionist Review, Rise Up Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Small Orange, LIT Magazine and elsewhere. Her debut collection, "Talk Smack to a Hurricane" (Ice Floe Press, 2022), was a 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Award winner and a finalist for the 8th annual McMath Book Award. A Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize finalist, she edits academic writing and reads for Tinderbox Poetry Journal.

• Phong Nguyen is a writer of historical fiction ("Bronze Drum"), experimental fiction ("Roundabout: An Improvisational Fiction"), spin-offs ("The Adventures of Joe Harper"), alternate history ("Pages From the Textbook of Alternate History"), dirty realism ("Memory Sickness") and more. Nguyen teaches fiction-writing at the University of Missouri, where he is the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing. 

• Jill Orr is the author of the Riley Ellison mystery series and "How Not To Be Old (Even If You Are)." Her work has earned a Silver Falchion nomination, a starred review and Best Book of the Week from Booklist, a Midwest Connections pick and a feature in People.com’s holiday gift guide. She lives in Columbia, Missouri.

• Donald Quist is the author of two essay collections, "Harbors," a Foreword INDIES bronze winner and International Book Awards finalist, and "To Those Bounded." He also has a linked story collection, "For Other Ghosts." He is creator of the online nonfiction series "PAST TEN" and an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Missouri.

• Nandor Fox Shaffer grew up with superheroes, Star Wars, movies, video games, music and comic books coursing through his veins and spinning about in his imagination. Inspired by the likes of George Lucas, Jonathan Hickman, Steven Moffat, Ed Brubaker, Scott McCloud and others, he couldn't resist the power of the art of storytelling. At the age of 28, he's published seven titles — "Man-Child #1-3," "The Fabled Offering," "SEASONS Volume 1: Spring," "SEASONS Volume 2: Summer," and "Lifeline" — which won him the 2021 Indie Volt Comic Book Award for Best Writer and Best Comic. He lives in Missouri and plans to write and create for as long as he lives.

August’s Skylarking Bookclub sees us dip our toes into the wonderful world of translated books. We’ll be discussing The Second Chance Convenience Store, by Kim Ho-Yeon. Carrie loves her translated literature, so you know this will be a vibrant discussion!

In this million-copy international bestseller from Korea, the owner of a corner store takes in an unhoused man who does a good deed, a kind soul whose presence will transform the whole neighborhood—a heartwarming tale of community and redemption reminiscent of the bestselling novels of Matt Haig and Gabrielle Zevin.

Dok-go lives in Seoul Station. He can’t remember his past, and the only thing he knows for certain is that he could really use a drink. When he finds a lost wallet filled with documents, his life is drastically changed.

Mrs. Yeom, a retired history teacher and current owner of her neighborhood’s corner store, is distraught over the loss of her purse, until she receives a mysterious call from the person who found it. To thank this down-on-his-luck stranger, she offers him a free meal from the convenience store. Seeing the joy the food brings him, Mrs. Yeom impulsively invites him to stop by for lunch every day.

In a twist of fate, Dok-go saves the store from a robber—a brave act that propels Mrs. Yeom to offers the bear-like man a job working the night shift, despite the objections of her wary employees. The store’s new employee quickly wins over the quirky denizens of the neighborhood, becoming a welcoming ear and source of advice for his coworkers and neighbors’ problems, and helping his new boss save the store from financial ruin. But just when things are looking up for Dok-go, Mrs. Yeom's good-for-nothing son, eager to sell the store, hires a detective to dig into the mysterious man’s past and what he seems to be trying so hard to forget.

The Second Chance Convenience Store is a moving and joyful story of a woman fighting for her community and a man who has lost everything except the will to try again.

For August’s New Romantics Bookclub we’re returning to a shop favorite, Ashley Poston, for her excellent new book, Sounds Like Love.

A hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake.

We. Are. So. In.

Joni Lark has a secret. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA, and yet she can’t write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.

When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark inspiration. But when Joni gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is hiding something, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.

How can Joni write when her world is leaving her behind?

Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with an emptiness of his own.

Surely, he’s a figment of Joni’s overworked imagination.

Then a very real man shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s arrogant and guarded—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan for breaking their inconvenient telepathic connection: finish the song haunting them both and hope they don’t risk their hearts—or their secrets—in the process.

Because that melody, the one drawing them together . . . what if it’s there for a reason?

August’s title for The Order of Books and Banter is The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst. Come get cozy with us!

New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel set in the world of The Spellshop! Follow her to The Enchanted Greenhouse, a cozy fantasy nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love.

Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.

This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.

But Terlu doesn’t want to return home, and as she grows closer with the unwittingly charming gardener, Yarrow, she learns that the magic that sustains the greenhouses is failing—causing the death of everything within them. Terlu knows she must help, even if that means breaking the law again.

This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by Yarrow and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.