Read It and Reap: Booklovers’ Gourmet marks anniversary with March events

Owner Deb Horan has slated activities during March at Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster, in honor of the bookstore’s 27-year history. An independent bookstore, home to coffee drinkers, book clubs and artists, the shop was resettled at 72 East Main St. in 2020.

Featured celebration events and giveaways will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 4-5. Horan has kept the store going during the pandemic with author signings, art displays and open mic readings.

“Exciting online events were always part of the mix,” Horan says. During the COVID pandemic, she has hosted a virtual book release for “Atlas of the Heart” by Dr. Brene Brown and online conversations with the winners of Galaxy Press’s “Writers of the Future, Vol. 36.”

Horan will also put some of her own photography on display during March, as part of the celebration. Her exhibit is called “Nature by Design.” She was an active member of the women’s art group ARTXII, based out of Worcester, which organized and participated in regional and national gallery, university and museum shows.

“Despite the challenges of running a business in these stressful times, or perhaps as a result of them, the store is busier than ever,” she said. Horan has also expanded the store’s reach through various online efforts, including Bookshop.org, Alibris.com and the My Must Reads app. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Go to bookloversgourmet.com for more information.

Meg Wolitzer hosting 'Selected Shorts'

Novelist Meg Wolitzer (“The Female Persuasion,” “The Interestings”) is the new host of the long-running Public Radio reading series, “Selected Shorts,” starting in March. Launched in 1985, the series features stage and screen actors reading short stories by new and established authors. It’s available as a podcast (npr.org/podcasts). The first episode she hosts, on March 3, will feature performers Joan Allen, Lynne Thigpen and Joanna Gleason. Authors whose works will be read in Wolitzer’s first five episodes include Lisa Ko, Rebecca Makkai, Amber Sparks and Edwidge Danticat.

The series gives listeners a chance to hear authors and their works, read by actors.

Books of interest

• “Finding Dorothy” is a historical novel about MGM’s production of “The Wizard of Oz” by Elizabeth Letts. It is focused on Maud Gage Baum, wife of "Oz" author, L. Frank Baum. Letts has fictionalized the story, but it’s based on Maud’s life from early married days in South Dakota, and goes on to tell the unknown story behind the film.

She went to Hollywood 20 years after her husband wrote the book, to ensure that the story line was followed in the film. Baum was also the daughter of a leading suffragette. Judy Garland, the ill-treated young star of “The Wizard of Oz,” also developed a relationship with Maud, who shares the sad facts of that child star’s life in Letts’ novel. Part biography and part novel, it’s a sure read. A Kansas City book club sent this tip to Read It and Reap.

• Tidepool Bookshop at 372 Chandler St. has assembled a collection of books to blend with the Worcester Historical Museum’s March exhibit, “Pretty Powerful: 100 Years of Voting and Style.” The exhibit runs through March 31.

Book club events

• Joshua Hyde Public Library in Sturbridge will host another in its series of memoirs with Pat Conroy’s “A Low Country Heart” at 1 p.m. March 8. At 6 p.m. March 16, the Armchair Travelers Bookclub will discuss Tim O’Brien’s classic story of war through the eyes of a soldier, “The Things They Carried.”

• Rachel’s Book Club at Thayer Memorial Library in Lancaster requires registration through the library website for events. Up next is the 12:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and 6:30 p.m. March 1 meetings to discuss Elizabeth Berg’s “Open House.” Both meetings are on the same. Book or audio book are available through the library. To register, call (978) 368-8923, ext. 4, or email rrosengard@lancasterma.net.

• The Greatest Book Club Ever takes on Kevin Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” at a 6:30 p.m. meeting in Douglas Public Library on March 3. The library’s Intrepid Readers will discuss “Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom” by Christopher Wren at 6:30 p.m. March 8. On March 10 at 4 p.m., The Book Wizards will discuss “We Will Not Be Silent” by Russell Freedman.

• Off-Track Bookies in Lancaster will discuss Maggie O’Farrell’s “Hamnet,” an intriguing fictional look at the events surrounding William Shakespeare’s family life. Meeting is at 7 p.m. March 10.

• NOW Book Club has slated Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club” for its March 17 meeting in Tidepool Bookshop, 372 Chandler St. Meeting begins at 5 p.m. Leader Joan Killough-Miller says the book relies on strong female lead characters with “a lot of pushback on stereotypes of the elderly. The writing is sharp and witty.” The novel’s book club members depart from their meetings in an attempt to solve a nearby murder.

Send book club selections and book suggestions from your club to ann.frantz@gmail.com. Read It and Reap is published the second and last Sundays monthly. Deadline is two weeks before each publication.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Read It and Reap: Booklovers’ Gourmet marks anniversary with March events