Tag: Brookline Booksmith

  • ‘People are looking to learn’: Brookline Booksmith, Prison Book Program expand access to reading in prisons

    By Hazel Nystrom

    Brookline Booksmith is expanding its partnership with a nonprofit that gives free books to people in prison thanks to an anonymous donor.

    For Banned Book Week, which runs through October 11, the donor will match the cost of all books purchased from the Prison Book Program’s wishlist  on Booksmith’s website, which is compiled through requests by incarcerated individuals. 

    Booksmith has partnered with the program for the past four or five years, said Peter Win, the store’s co-owner and co-manager.

    On the wishlist are books on language learning, legal aid, self-help and trade skills, as well as an assortment of novels.

    Kelly Brotzman, executive director of the Prison Book Program, said the books on the list can provide essential information to incarcerated people. 

    “People are looking to learn,” she said. “They’re looking to improve themselves. They’re looking to gain skills. They’re looking to do better in life. They’re looking to prepare for release.”

    Dictionaries are the top request. “We send thousands and thousands a year,” Brotzman said. 

    The Prison Book Program, which is based in Quincy and has been operating since 1972, is an approved book vendor for over 1,000 jails and prisons in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam. Last year, Brotzman said the organization sent around 70,000 books to incarcerated people. 

    As part of Booksmith’s partnership with the Prison Book Program, the bookstore donates ARCs, or Advance Reader Copies, which are pre-publication books used for promotional purposes that can’t be sold.

    “We’re lucky that we get a lot of ARCs from publishers to preview,” Win said. While the store  had been donating ARCs to county jails independently, “it has been helpful to give those to the prison book program as well.”

    The Prison Book Program is run entirely by volunteers who comb through prison regulations on book content and formatting, write personal notes, and package and mail books.

    Among those volunteers are “book fairies,” people who peruse vintage and second-hand stores, and garage or yard sales to help source books for the program.

    Despite their large volunteer base, fund-raising is “extremely important,” Brotzman said. The group spent $125,000 on mailing packages last year.

    “The cash match comes in really handy in helping cover those postage costs,” she said.

    During Banned Book Week, Win hopes to bring attention to book bannings and challenges, and wants people to understand that people in prisons are “very interested in having reading material.”

    “Reading is important for everybody,” Win said.

    For people outraged about book bans in libraries and schools, Brotzman hopes they turn their attention to the inequities in the prison system.

    “Jails are not statutorily obligated to provide any kind of programming whatsoever,” she said. And “even when libraries exist in the prisons, they’re very, very inferior.”

    While nearly 2,500 unique titles faced censorship attempts in 2024, according to data from the American Library Association, Brotzman hopes to highlight the “very limited universe of content” incarcerated people have, she said.

    “The prison system can literally ban any book they want to… for any reason they want to,” Brotzman said. “It’s really important for people to know that the limitations on the freedom to read are much, much, much more severe for incarcerated people than for anyone.”

    Win hopes to continue the standing relationship between the Brookline Booksmith and the Prison Book Program in the years to come.

    “I think our work with them has been successful,” Win said. “It’s beneficial for them and beneficial for us.”

    This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on October 7, 2025.

  • Brookline demonstrators fill Coolidge Corner to mark American Revolution anniversary, protest Trump

    Brookline residents waved American flags and held signs condemning President Trump’s administration at Coolidge Corner Saturday on the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolution.

    Brookline PAX, a civil rights and social justice activist group, organized the “Stand Up for Our Constitution!” demonstration. Jon Margolis and Bob Weintraub, who serve on the PAX board, helped lead the charge to set up the event a week prior.

    “I didn’t know if we would have six people or 600 people,” said Margolis, holding an American flag.

    Weintraub estimated 200 people participated in the event, which began at 11 a.m. on the hot and humid Saturday. He held a sign that read, “After 250 years, we are the new sons and daughters of liberty.”

    The Sons of Liberty, a colonial resistance group, led the first armed conflict against England in the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775.

    Participants held signs reading “Fight Oligarchy,” “Defend Democracy,” and “Elon is not President! Trump is not King!”

    “I’ve been around a while,” Weintraub said. “This is by far the most dangerous moment for our democracy.”

    Motorists honked their horns in support of the demonstration as they drove by on Harvard and Beacon streets.

    Margolis said he wanted the event to express contempt for the Trump’s administration for violating the spirit of the U.S. Constitution and American democracy.

    Jon Margolis carried a sign at the demonstration on April 19, 2025. Photo by Charlie Johnson

    Trump has been criticized for imposing aggressive tariffs against foreign countries and for mass deportations of noncitizens carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A federal judge Friday blocked the Trump administration from deporting more people without due process.

    “People need to get into the streets,” he said. “It’s obvious that the people in power in Washington don’t care about democracy.”

    Cindy Rowe, president of the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action and a Brookline resident, participated in the demonstration.

    “A weekend like this makes people reflect on democracy…to see it torn to shreds is very painful,” Rowe said.

    Rowe said more Americans should come together to protest the Trump administration.

    “We have to take our responsibilities seriously and reflect upon the government that we want for our modern times,” she said. “We can’t just let an irresponsible administration run amok and ruin all the systems that have been created.”

    If political change requires waving signs and standing on street corners, she said, then so be it.

    “We have to stand up in every way we can possibly think of to protect our democracy,” she said.

    Perry Grossman, assistant registrar at Boston University’s dental school, said he is concerned about the state of education in the country after Trump signed an executive order to begin eliminating functions of the Department of Education and transfer more control to state governments. He has one kid in high school and another who is a sophomore at BU.

    “I would really call it a regime more than an administration,” he said. “They have gone off the rails in terms of what they are doing.”

    Liam Hennessy and Daniel Wasserman made signs from cardboard they got from their friend who works at the Brookline Booksmith down the street.

    Liam Hennessy and Daniel Wasserman made signs from cardboard they got from their friend who works at the Brookline Booksmith down the street. Photo by Charlie Johnson

    Hennessy, 18, said the pair were protesting to protect the rights of people close to them. He is concerned for all their friends who are immigrants and members of the transgender community.

    “We are fighting for their lives,” he said.

    Hennessy grew up in Newton but attends boarding school in Western Massachusetts.

    Hennessy said he wished more young people joined Saturday’s protest and were more politically active in general.

    “There is a culture of neutrality going on,” he said. “I think there is so much to tackle that people just get emotionally stressed.”

  • Why top authors and literary stars keep coming back to the Brookline Booksmith

    When Kelly Andrew was growing up in Connecticut, she went to Brookline Booksmith many times to hear authors talk about their work when her family would visit Boston.

    Now that she’s a best-selling novelist herself, she returns there to talk about her own work. She was at the Coolidge Corner mainstay Thursday night for a conversation about her new book, “I Am Made of Death,” a horror-romance tale featuring characters who are deaf.

    “The first time I came to an event was as a reader,” said Andrew, who lost her hearing at age 4 but regained it through an implant at age 9. “It was a formative and prominent part of my journey.”

    C.L. Herman, a fellow author, interviewed Andrews in front of dozens of people. A sign language interpreter stood next to the pair, translating what they said, as some audience members were deaf.

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    The 64-year-old store is a major destination for best-selling authors and other celebrities. This month alone Brookline Booksmith will host young adult novelist John Green, journalist Omar El Akkad and nonfiction writer Laurie Woolever.

    Comedian and actress Chelsea Handler talked about her new memoir, “I’ll Have What She’s Having,” before a crowd of hundreds at the store last week. Novelist and essayist Elinor Lipman was there Tuesday to talk about her new book, “Every Tom, Dick & Harry.”

    Best-selling author Joseph Finder has been promoting his psychological thrillers at the bookstore since 1991. In late January, he had a conversation with Hank Phillipi Ryan, a fellow thriller writer, about his new book “The Oligarch’s Daughter.”

    People enjoy hearing what authors have to say about their writing processes instead of just hearing them read aloud from their books, Finder said.

    “They want to hear the story behind the story,” he said. “They want you to talk more than they want you to read.”

    Brookline Booksmith customers are sophisticated and savvy, Finder said.

    “One of the most engaged bookstores that I’ve been to,” Finder said. “I made a lot of sales that night alone.”

    He has seen bigger audiences at other bookstores on his tours but rarely audiences as engaged.

    Marshall and Judy Smith opened Brookline Booksmith at Coolidge Corner in 1961. They expanded in the 1970s, opening more than 70 Booksmith stores across the country. The chain didn’t last long. By the 1980s, the couple closed down the majority of the other stores. They held onto the neighboring Wellesley Booksmith before selling it in 2010.

    The Smith family has remained at the helm of the store throughout its lifetime. Marshall died in May 2022, but Judy still serves on the board of directors.

    In September 2022, the store added a wing. The author events, which had been held in the basement, have moved to the new space.

    Lisa Gozashti, who began working at Brookline Booksmith in 1991 and became a co-owner 24 years later, said the store hosts a wide variety of events to engage with the diverse customer base.

    “We try to have an oasis for an examined life,” she said. “People that are engaged in living in any capacity will walk into our space and find something that inspires them.”

    Silas Winer, who has worked as the assistant director for events at the bookstore for two years, said the event is an opportunity for the community to come together to learn new things.

    “These are the best hours of our lives,” he said.

    This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.