Events

Join us for a discussion of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robison

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About the book:

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A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother.

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The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere."

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Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transcience.

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Start your summer with a deep breath and some quality reading time with Erika Karl of Rituelle.

Bring your own blanket and mat and enjoy a guided meditation at the top of the hour. We’ll follow with silent reading time, close with a guided meditation, and send you on your way with some goodies to keep the vibes good all summer long.

Ticketed event. Limited spaces.

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Join us before work for coffee & pastries and be among the first to get your hands on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program. Registration required.

About the book:

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Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.

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Best-selling author Genevieve Gornichec joins us for a magical evening discussing The Witch’s Heart and The Weaver and the Witch Queen. Stop by to hear from the author and get your books signed!

About the Author:

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Genevieve Gornichec earned her degree in history from The Ohio State University. Her debut novel, The Witch’s Heart, was released in 2021 and has been translated into over a dozen languages. Her sophomore novel, The Weaver and the Witch Queen, followed in 2023. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

About the books:

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‍The Witch's Heart: Angrboda’s story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin’s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she’s foreseen for her beloved family...or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.

The Weaver and The Witch Queen: Oddny and Gunnhild meet as children in tenth century Norway, and they could not be more different: Oddny hopes for a quiet life, while Gunnhild burns for power and longs to escape her cruel mother. But after a visiting wisewoman makes an ominous prophecy that involves Oddny, her sister Signy, and Gunnhild, the three girls take a blood oath to help one another always.

When Oddny’s farm is destroyed and Signy is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Oddny is set adrift from the life she imagined—but she's determined to save her sister no matter the cost, even as she finds herself irresistibly drawn to one of the raiders who participated in the attack. And in the far north, Gunnhild, who fled her home years ago to learn the ways of a witch, is surprised to find her destiny seems to be linked with that of the formidable King Eirik, heir apparent to the ruler of all Norway.

But the bonds—both enchanted and emotional—that hold the two women together are strong, and when they find their way back to each other, these bonds will be tested in ways they never could have foreseen in this deeply moving novel of magic, history, and sworn sisterhood.

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Back by popular demand, join us for a night of bookish bingo! Bring your bestie and come enjoy the fun. Prizes available for all winners! Tickets required. Spaces limited.

Join us before work for coffee & pastries and be among the first to get your hands on V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying novel taking place in three different time periods and places Tickets required.

About the book:

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.

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Join debut author Rosalyn Ransaw for a special signing of her first children's novel, Smoke & Mirrors! Young readers can meet the author and get their books signed. Plus, kids who sign up will receive their own "Fill-As-You-Go Detective Kit" to start solving their own mysteries. Don’t miss this exciting event!

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About the Author:

My name is Rosalyn Ransaw. I write middle-grade mysteries with twisty plots and diverse main characters. I have a B.A. from Columbia University in Political Science and currently live in Columbus, Ohio. When not writing, you can find me working my day job as a Marketing Manager, scrolling through TikTok, or brainstorming my next book idea!

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About the book:

Spending the summer with his aunt as the only Black kid in a small Midwestern town was bad enough, but now Andy Carter’s summer has been effectively ruined.

His dad’s parole hearing is postponed, he misses his friends, and—when an old barn burns down—he’s stuck taking the blame. Andy is sentenced with helping the barn’s owner, a cantankerous old man, renovate his crumbling mansion—a mansion that hides a mystery.

It was once owned by the famous magician the Red Knave. In 1954, the Knave was a wanted suspect in the town’s most infamous murder before disappearing without a trace.

The whole town is sure the Red Knave is guilty, but to Andy, things just don’t add up. Investigating a mystery from the ’50s isn’t the same as spending time with his dad, but Andy can’t help but be drawn into the Red Knave’s exciting world of magic and illusion. To solve the Knave’s final vanishing act, Andy teams up with another boy he doesn’t quite trust. Secret by secret, they try to uncover the Red Knave’s identity and learn why his last performance came to such a tragic end.

With a gripping combination of hidden doors, shocking twists, and deep emotional heart, Smoke & Mirrors asks the question: How much of the truth is what you can get people to believe?

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Join us for a discussion of The Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry.

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About the book: 

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Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping novel from Emily Henry.‍

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‍Named a Most Anticipated book of 2025 by The New York Times ∙ Rolling Stone ∙ People ∙ USA Today ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Bustle ∙ Reader's Digest ∙ BBC ∙ PopSugar ∙ SheReads ∙ Paste ∙ and more!

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‍Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.

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When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

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One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

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Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.

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Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

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But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

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And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.

Summer camp has come to Storyline! Stop by the shop for some camp themed activities, snacks, giveaways, and a full line-up of camp movies. Showtimes are as follows:

9 am - Parent Trap (‘98)

11 am - Camp Nowhere

1 pm - Troop Beverly Hills

3 pm - Babysitter’s Club

Registration encouraged to gauge attendance

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Join us for a discussion of The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez.

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About the book:

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The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

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But that god cannot be contained forever.

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With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

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Join us for a dual discussion of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and James by Percival Everett.

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About the books:

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Mark Twain's tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society, which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.

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When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature. 

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Join us for a discussion of Audition by Katie Kitamura.

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About the book:

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Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.

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INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

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“A tightly wound family drama that reads like a psychological thriller."—NPR

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“Bold, stark, genre-bending, Audition will haunt your dreams.”—The Boston Globe

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One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love.

Join us for a discussion of Model Home by Rivers Solomon.

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About the book: 

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The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.

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As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural?

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Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.

Give yourself permission to take a summertime break! Bring a book and your favorite blanket for a relaxing afternoon reading in the park.

We’ll meet up at the shop and walk down to Northam Park together for some quality reading time. Picnic snacks included. Tickets required. Limited spaces.

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Ohio poet Andrew Grace joins us for a conversation and signing to celebrate his latest collection, A Brief History of the Midwest.

About the Author:

Andrew Grace was born in 1978 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where his family has farmed for several generations.

​He studied English literature at Kenyon College in Ohio, and earned his MFA at Washington University in St. Louis. He attended Stanford as a Stegner Fellow, and earned his Doctoral degree from the University of Cincinnati.

​He is the the author of three books of poems, A Belonging Field (Salt Publishing), Shadeland (Ohio State University Press) and SANCTA (Ahsahta/Foundlings). His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry, Boston Review, New Criterion and Adroit Journal amongst others. He is also a Senior Editor at the Kenyon Review.

​He now teaches poetry at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio where he lives with his wife Tory and their two daughters.

About the book:

A Brief History of the Midwest is a lyric encapsulation of the hardship and hope of the American Midwest.

These poems trace the trajectory of the middle of America from its colonization to the present day. Hardships that range from loneliness to the opioid crisis to the largest earthquake in US history reverberate through the collection’ s fields, Northern waters, and derelict barns. The losses here are both historical and personal, as is the resilience of those who survived them. All the while there are moments of light that transcend a history “ written in thorn,” a moment of rest after bathing sheep, the flick of a trout in the Boyne River, a fistful of rose hips.

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Enjoy an evening of yoga among the book stacks with Happy Babe Yoga! Spaces are limited. This is a ticketed event. Cost is $20 per person and includes a private hour in the shop with a guided yoga session.

Come dressed in your coolest pajamas and enjoy a Bluey: Sleepytime–themed event with crafts, for real life!

Tickets required. Spaces limited.

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Back by popular demand! Bring a book you’d love to add a little sparkle to. We’ll provide all the crafting supplies and everything you need to make your books shine. Tickets required. Spaces limited.

Stop by Storyline to meet debut author Katie Yee and pick up a copy of her novel, Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar.

About the author:

Katie Yee is a writer from Brooklyn. She has received fellowships from the Center for Fiction, the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and Kundiman. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, No Tokens, The Believer, the Washington Square Review, Triangle House, Epiphany, and Literary Hub. By day, she works at the Brooklyn Museum. By night, she writes, usually under the watch of her judgmental rescue dog, Ollie.

About the book:

A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie.

A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak—it’s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie.

Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation. She starts talking to Maggie (the tumor), getting acquainted with her body’s new inhabitant. She overgenerously creates a “Guide to My Husband: A User’s Manual” for Maggie (the other woman), hoping to ease the process of discovering her ex-husband’s whims and quirks. She turns her children’s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture—and to maybe save herself in the process.

In the style of Jenny Offill and the tradition of Nora Ephron’s hilarious and devastating writing on heartbreak and womanhood, Maggie is a master class in transforming personal tragedy into a form of defiant comedy.

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