Welcome back to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC.
This week there’s a fun dinner-party style launch for the paperback of City of Laughter at Liz’s Book Bar, the House of SpeakEasy kicks off its 2025 storytelling season, and there’s a celebration of Sam Shepherd ahead of the upcoming production of Curse of the Starving Class. Also, a particularly great lineup of readers at Pete’s Reading Series.
This evening, I’m visiting my first in-person book club for Amphibian (thanks for the invite, Literary Snobs!) and so I uploaded a book club guide to my website—which is me making encouraging noises to invite me to a book club of your own!
As ever, get in touch with any upcoming events, and please share the love with your bookish friends.
Monday, January 13
Franklin Park Reading Series
Franklin Park Reading Series kicks off 2025 with a new season launch featuring Joseph O’Neill (Godwin), (Horse Girl Fever), Dolan Morgan (That’s When the Knives Come Down), (Log Off) and (In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space). Hosted by founder Penina Roth, expect drink specials and a raffle for the readers' latest books.
Free; 8-10pm; 766 Franklin Avenue, 618 St Johns Pl, Brooklyn
Sarah Hoover: The Motherload
celebrates the release of her debut book The Motherload: Episodes From the Brink of Motherhood—a glitzy art world-meets-new motherhood memoir that asks, what happens when “what to expect when you’re expecting” turns out to be months of rage, anguish, brain fog, and a total surrender of sex, career, and identity? She’s joined in conversation with , an author, actor, activist, writer, and host of the new series, “Busy This Week.” A book purchase from McNally Jackson includes an RSVP for the event.
$29.99 (including book); 6.30pm; Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street, New York
Andy Corren: Dirtbag Queen
Andy Corren discusses his newly released debut memoir Dirtbag Queen—an “utterly unhinged, hilarious” memoir, in which a son pays tribute to his larger than life ‘zaftig good time gal’ mother and his unusual childhood—in conversation with actor Ryan Eggold.
Free; 6-7.30pm; The Corner Bookstore, 1313 Madison Avenue, New York
Tuesday, January 14
Dinner Party Gossip! A City of Laughter Paperback Launch
To celebrate the paperback release of City of Laughter, the debut novel from Temim Fruchter, Liz’s Book Bar is hosting a celebration of storytelling and folklore in all of its most ancient forms, but also the juicy, mischievous kind you might do around the table at a rowdy queer dinner party. Sit down with a drink and a bite, as Temim reads from the novel, and then enjoy dinner-party-quality tales from authors Julia Phillips (Bear), Sabrina Imbler (How Far the Light Reaches), and Asha Thanki (A Thousand Times Before).
$12.51; 6.30-7.30pm; Liz’s Book Bar, 315 Smith Street, Brooklyn
House of SpeakEasy: Seriously Entertaining
House of SpeakEasy kicks off its 2025 season with four storytellers sharing a brand-new story inspired by the theme “This Time Tomorrow.” Featured storytellers are Jordyn Taylor (The Paper Girl of Paris), Todd Almond, playwright, performer, and star of Broadway’s Girl From the North Country and Gossip Girl, Astead W. Herndon, the national politics reporter for the New York Times and host of the NYT podcast “The Run-Up,” and Nora Lange (Us Fools). After memorable tales, test your literary knowledge with quotes quiz Tip of My Tongue.
From $18; doors 6pm; Joe’s Pub, The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, New York
Sarah Hoover: The Motherload
again, discussing The Motherload: Episodes From the Brink of Motherhood this time in conversation with Jenny Jackson, the Vice President and Executive Editor at Alfred A. Knopf.
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Erika Swyler: We Lived On the Horizon
Erika Swyler celebrates the publication of her newest book, We Lived On The Horizon—an engrossing novel about a bio-prosthetic surgeon and her personal AI who are drawn into a revolution—in conversation with Juliet Grames (The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia).
$5, redeemable in store; 6.30-8pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, New York
Zeeva Bukai: The Anatomy of Exile
Zeeva Bukai launches her debut novel The Anatomy of Exile. The Abadi Family saga begins when a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and a Jew ends in predictable tragedy; the family flees to America to mend, but encounters only more turmoil that threatens to tear the family apart. Zeeva is joined in conversation by Sara Lippmann (Jerks).
$5, redeemable in-store; 7-9pm; Powerhouse Arena, 28 Adams Street, Brooklyn
Wednesday, January 15
Open Book
’s literary open mic returns for the New Year themed on “Revival” with this month’s featured performer . Happy hour from 5-7pm, and 7-7.45pm for open mic signup.
Free; 8pm-late; Fiction Cafe & Cocktail Bar, 308 Hooper St, Brooklyn
Aria Aber: Good Girl
Aria Aber celebrates the launch of Good Girl—an electric debut novel about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of self-discovery and a portrait of the artist as a young woman set in a Berlin that can’t escape its history—in conversation with Leslie Jamison (Splinters).
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Beyond Ownership: Land, Housing, and the Fight for Equity
In this conversation, Audrea Lim, the author of Free The Land: How We Can Fight Poverty and Climate Chaos, and the artist Amy Ching-Yan Lam discuss how real estate ownership is woven into our cities, societies, relationships and psyches and how it profoundly shapes our personal and collective futures.
Free; 7pm; The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, 110-112 W. 27 Street, Ste. 600, New York
Pagan Kennedy: The Secret History of the Rape Kit
Journalist Pagan Kennedy launches The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story—a thrilling biography that tells the story of the troubled, heroic woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity—in conversation with senior editor at The Atlantic, Honor Jones. Wine reception to follow.
Free; 7.30pm; Greenlight bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
Thursday, January 16
Pete’s Reading Series
Pete’s Reading Series, curated and hosted by Temim Fruchter and Brian Gresko, welcomes Helen Phillips (Hum), Maureen Sun (The Sisters K), Simon Wu (Dancing On My Own), and Ledia Xhoga (Misinterpretation).
Free; 7.30pm; Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St, Brooklyn
Steven Duong: At the End of the World There Is a Pond
Steven Duong celebrates the publication of his debut book, At The End of the World There Is a Pond—a collection of poems, each set in the wake of a deep rupture, that ask: how can we reconcile a deep love for the world, in all its buzzing, wriggling aliveness, with an equally deep, self-destructive desire to leave it behind?—in conversation with writer and editor Noor Qasim.
$5, redeemable in store; 6.30-8pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, New York
Poured Over Live Taping with Elizabeth Harris
New York Times books reporter Elizabeth Harris discusses How To Sleep At Night for a Poured Over Podcast live taping event with Miwa Messer. A purchase of the book from Barnes & Noble Upper West Side is required to attend this event. Please call ahead and speak to a bookseller and reserve your copy.
$25.99 (price of the book); 7pm; Barnes & Noble Upper West Side, 2289 Broadway, New York
A Celebration of Sam Shepard: Curse of the Starving Class
The cast of The New Group’s upcoming production of Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class—David Anzuelo, Kyle Beltran, Calista Flockhart, Cooper Hoffman, Jeb Kreager, Stella Marcus and Christian Slater—will read an excerpt from the upcoming production, followed by a conversation about Sam Shepard’s life and work as one of American theater’s most inimitable voices with the actors and The New Group’s Artistic Director Scott Elliott.
From $25; 8pm; 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York
Friday, January 17
Brave, Unbodied Scheme—a McNally Jackson poetry reading series
An evening of poetry in McNally Jackson Seaport’s bar, featuring Alan Gilbert, CAConrad, Eduardo Martínez-Leyva, Precious Okoyomon, and Zoe Brezsny. Hear poems, drink wine.
$5 for RSVP, redeemable in-store; 7pm; McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, New York
Sunday, January 19
Lampblack Reading Series
The second season of the Lampblack Reading Series kicks off with Jeremy Michael Clark (The Trouble with Light), Christina Cooke (Broughtupsy), and Aaron Robertson, a writer, translator, and editor at Spiegel & Grau (and creator of
on Substack). Lampblack is an organization created by Black writers to support, promote, and celebrate Black writers.$12.51; 6.30-7.30pm; Liz’s Book Bar, 315 Smith Street, Brooklyn
Sunday Salon
Themed “Beyond Borders: A Celebration of Voices,” the New Year’s first Sunday Salon features Jody Chan (impact statement), Saba Keramati (Self-Mythology), Rosa Kwon Easton (White Mulberry), and Jennifer Tan, exploring the complexities of identity, cultural heritage, and the transformative power of story and poetry. DJ DubSix returns to provide the beats. They also currently have a call for submissions for their 2025 SalonZine around the theme of uncertainty.
Free; 5-7pm; Von Bar, 3 Bleecker Street, New York
NB. Please check all details before attending, the fact checker went awol.
I’m a Brooklyn-based journalist and author. My debut novel Amphibian is available now from Ig, as well as Virago in the UK, and forthcoming from dtv in Germany. My first book, No Way Home: A Memoir of Life on the Run (St. Martin’s Press, 2018) followed my childhood as the daughter of an international pot smuggler and federal fugitive. I’m here and here on Instagram. Get in touch with any bookish events you’d like me to include!
Wonderful to see all these amazing events — such a great start to what is clearly going to be a very literary 2025.
Excellent! See you at Open Book tonight!