“It” being the the inaugural reading from For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs. Because last night was the launch of the book, the store encouraged us to bring snacks, the better to promote a party atmosphere. It appeared to work. Here, the cover birds lounge amid fruit, cheese, wine, and homemade shortbread cookies cut into tiny bird shapes. 
The birds didn’t eat any of the cookies, but many people in the standing-room-only crowd seemed to like them:
They also liked Erika Mikkalo’s reading of her story-made-of-26-even-shorter-stories, “26 Letters”: 
Kathie, the bookseller running the show, did a thoughtful introduction of me in which she said that reading my book made her think of lots of positive words that begin with vowels (thanks, Kathie!) and then I read half of the eleventh essay in the book called “However Measured or Far Away,” the one about my cousin who decided, at age 29, to become a Roman Catholic nun:
This was the third book launch I’ve done at Women and Children First, and as usual, it was great to be there, thanks in no small part to their great publicity…
…and super-welcoming attitude. So: thanks to Women and Children First, thanks to co-reader Erika Mikkalo, thanks to Beth Rooney for the cookie recipe and Martin Seay for the cookie-baking assistance, and thanks to everyone who braved the freezing rain to come hear a reading on a Wednesday night! Stay tuned for further readings, including one with Cristina Henriquez at the Book Cellar on Wednesday, February 17th.