Brooklyn, NY

Books are Magic

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Welcome to the independent bookstore serving Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Brooklyn Heights!

Books Are Magic is a family-owned independent bookstore with locations in Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens and Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn, committed to being a welcoming, friendly, and inclusive space for all people. We believe that books are indeed magic, and that literature is one of the best ways to create empathy, transportation, and transformation. We are enthusiastic about offering thoughtfully selected voices and stories on our shelves, and about hosting affordable events featuring emerging writers as well as long-adored authors. Books Are Magic is a place for children to feel comfortable, for young readers to grow into lifelong readers, and for our neighbors to be introduced to vibrant new books. Books Are Magic is owned by Emma Straub and Michael Fusco-Straub. You can read more about Emma Straub's books here.

books are magic brooklyn heights exterior

Upcoming Events

Nov15

Story TimePicture BooksBrooklyn, NY

Storytime w/ Anden Wilder: Elaine

11:00 AM • Sunday, November 15, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn HeightsFree

A quirky chicken named Elaine journeys through the big city in search of artistic inspiration in this funny picture book about self-discovery—a perfect story to inspire young readers to explore their own creative pursuits! Meet Elaine: a big city chicken with a lot of love for the world. And what she loves the most is her city: the hustle and bustle, the tasty pizza, and best of all, the art. But when Elaine looks around, she sees all sorts of different artists. Painters. Sculptors. Performers. But what kind of artist is SHE? Come along with one ingenious chicken as she goes in search of what makes a true artist. Told with vibrant illustrations and witty text, this is a story about the beauty of sharing yourself with the world. Anden Wilder is an award-winning illustrator and the creator of picture books, including Scamp and Tulip’s Mess. When she isn’t making books, she also makes paintings and is a teacher to artists of all ages. Anden hopes to inspire kids to be their most creative and truest selves through her work. Event guidelines: RSVP is highly encouraged but not required. Additional copies of the event book will be available for purchase in-store. The reading will be followed by a book signing. As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact eventhelp@booksaremagic.net.

Nov16

Author EventNon-FictionBrooklyn, NY

Lauren Elkin: Vocal Break w/ Rachel Syme

7:00 PM • Monday, November 16, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$10.89–$32.66

From the acclaimed author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters, a fierce, insistent, ecstatic investigation of the female voice, its power and vulnerabilities, and the ways women sing and speak their way through the world. For millennia, women’s raised voices have been called unruly, uncivilized, dangerous. Singing women were cast as sirens: mythical creatures who lured sailors to their death. A vocal break is where the voice shifts from lower to higher registers—from one thing to another. What can be made in this space of transition? Lauren Elkin draws on her own experiences as a young soprano in the 1990s as well as showcasing a full-throated, full range of other singers, including Édith Piaf, Maria Callas, Cyndi Lauper, Kathleen Hanna, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Beyoncé, FKA twigs, and Billie Eilish. Looking closely at the way power and identity shape our voices, she immerses readers in an eclectic soundscape, from musicals and pop music to folk, punk, and opera. As she seamlessly blends cultural history, criticism, memoir, and feminist manifesto, Elkin lays out how women have used their voices to defy convention, genre, capitalism, racism, sexism, and the forces that attempt to keep them quiet. What makes women’s singing so powerful—to the point at which others feel the need to control or manipulate it? Vocal Break is Elkin’s insistent, joyous call: Girls to the front, NOW! Event guidelines: Each ticket includes either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card. Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. A signing will follow the talk. The conversation will be livestreamed for free online here . As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact eventhelp@booksaremagic.net.

Nov17

Author EventLiterary FictionBrooklyn, NY

Rachel Calnek-Sugin: Universe of Grace w/ Katie Yee

7:00 PM • Tuesday, November 17, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$10.89–$31.56

A dazzling, kaleidoscopic debut novel about the life of a precocious girl in Philadelphia trying to figure out who—or what—she might be. One afternoon, on a visit to the Bronx Zoo, a jaguar tells six-year-old Grace Goldberg-Li that she isn’t human. But this is something that Grace has already suspected. Her life seems normal, but no one else, not even her beloved sister seems to be experiencing things as brightly and painfully as she does. As she approaches adolescence, Grace begins to think that she might be an alien. Maybe this would explain the urge to steal every beautiful object she can find, or the peculiar voice in her head that’s fixated on the apocalypse of climate change, insisting that everyone she loves is going to die. In adulthood, Grace still doesn’t have the answer to the strangeness that seems to be outside and inside her. Is it the world that is unusual and falling apart? Or is it her? She will attempt, over and over, to remake herself and find a place in it. She will fall recklessly in love with a gorgeous doctoral student; she will merge into a tree during the pandemic; she will become the best employee that Wendy’s has ever seen; she will travel to the ends of the earth and keep going. Tender, profound, and endlessly imaginative, Rachel Calnek-Sugin’s Universe of Grace is a transcendent coming-of-age story in a world that’s uncertain and wondrous in equal measure. Covering the span of a single life and everything it touches, Universe of Grace shows us that we are each more interconnected, vast, and variable than we can ever know. Event guidelines: Each ticket includes either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card. Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. A signing will follow the talk. The conversation will be livestreamed for free online here . As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact eventhelp@booksaremagic.net.

Nov18

Author EventLiterary FictionBrooklyn, NY

Sophia Veltfort: This Vital Absence w/ Lily Akerman

7:00 PM • Wednesday, November 18, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$10.89–$28.25

Seductive, unsettling, and impossible to put down, This Vital Absence is a novel about inheritance that transforms into an uneasy reckoning with the stories we tell to survive. Sylvia is the daughter of two loving mothers, but she has always wanted to know her father. When she moves back to New York City, a dossier arrives from her moms, with a new lead: Dean, an anesthesiologist who may bear some responsibility in the death of a pop star. At the same time, Sylvia meets Molly, a woman with her own family mysteries, with whom she makes a deal: they will help each other in the search for each other’s biological families. These three are drawn into a series of narrative games, games that leave Sylvia and Molly reeling and faced with a choice about the kinds of stories in which they are willing to participate. With the propulsive prose and psychological intensity of Patricia Highsmith, Veltfort probes questions of inheritance and intimacy, the allure of obsession, and misunderstandings that shape our lives. Event guidelines: Each ticket includes either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card. Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. A signing will follow the talk. The conversation will be livestreamed for free online here. As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact eventhelp@booksaremagic.net.

Nov19

Author EventLiterary FictionBrooklyn, NY

K Chiucarello: Nanny Nanny w/ Jia Tolentino

7:00 PM • Thursday, November 19, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$10.89–$30.50

A single, 35-year-old career nanny decides to have a baby of her own in this incandescent debut novel unsettling traditional narratives about motherhood, gender, class, domestic violence, and the politics and labor of care. After years of caring full-time for the children of the rich and the famous, our narrator has been struck, finally, with baby fever. Over a drink with sympathetic friends, she lists all the reasons why she wants to have a baby, beginning with a story about the intoxicating, abusive relationship with an ex-wife that she barely survived. She ponders how to fill the gaping void left in the wake of such horrific domestic violence. What’s the next most violent thing a woman can do to herself? she asks. Have a baby. Soon, her story opens other doors to the past—the seemingly idyllic childhood she spent under her father’s roof; the mentorship, and judgment, of female writers whose children she has reared; and the man, her first love, who now seems to be offering her a second chance. Each unraveling thread reveals the complex tangle of thrill and pain, tradition and progress that has led her to this moment, this calling. Is it time for her to become a mother? K Chiucarello’s stunningly original debut novel explores the brutality of gendered violence, including the gossip that polices women’s choices and the conventions that determine which women have the right to tell their story, and how. With wit, candor, and unprecedented nuance, Nanny Nanny upends every expectation of a book about motherhood, queering the biological clock and subverting narrative bounds.

Nov20

Author EventSocial ScienceBrooklyn, NY

Michelle Tea: Free Love w/ MJ Corey

7:00 PM • Friday, November 20, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$11–$33

A revelatory and wildly entertaining chronicle of polyamory, from PEN/America Award winner, Guggenheim fellow, and beloved literary and tarot icon Michelle Tea. In recent years, polyamory has become a topic of fascination for the general public, but it has long enjoyed a great deal of popularity in many subcultures formerly deemed “underground” or “alternative.” Having been a member of these communities for years, Michelle Tea explores the complexity, beauty and affirmation of this practice with candor, humor, and deep appreciation. Combining her prodigious skills as a storyteller, deep research, and the kind of gonzo reporting that has earned her scores of dedicated readers, Tea takes us into the lives and hearts of those who are creating new relationship systems and forms of honest, ethical communication. Infused with the warmth and introspection that inform all of her various artistic practices, Free Love is Tea’s clarion call for greater visibility, acceptance, and a kinder, more sensual world. It is an unforgettable narrative from one of our most spirited ethnographers.

Nov23

Author EventCookingBrooklyn, NY

Gail Simmons: Guesting w/ Jenni Konner

7:00 PM • Monday, November 23, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$11–$38

Countless influential voices have written books about hosting, offering tips for what to cook, how to set the perfect table, mix the best drinks and create the most welcoming vibes. But hospitality, by definition, involves at least two people; where is the advice for guests? Culinary expert and perennial Top Chef judge Gail Simmons is something of a professional on the subject. As a tastemaker and lifestyle authority, she is invited to countless social events running the gamut from world-class fine dining and international affairs to neighborhood potlucks. Through it all, she knows that for any gathering to be a success, guests must rise to the occasion and actively embrace their role. In Guesting, Gail unpacks the reciprocal nature of this relationship and explores the sometimes-tricky choreography that governs its dance. She also shares her essential tenets of guesting, and proven strategies for navigating any social situation (yes, even assigned seating). From dinner parties to weddings, religious observances to restaurants, Guesting guides readers through all types of “get-togethers” with confidence and grace. It also connects the vital role guesting plays in our wellbeing and the integrity of our collective culture, at a moment when technology and the temptation for short-term comfort have diminished our inherent need to create—and maintain—human relationships. And since any good guest knows that bringing something to the table is always the right move, Gail shares ideas and recipes for thoughtful store-bought contributions, homemade food gifts, and favorite dishes to share with a crowd. Whether you’re visiting an old friend, going out for dinner, or attending a milestone celebration, Gail has the answers and inspiration to help you become the consummate guest. Event guidelines: Each ticket includes either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card. Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. A signing will follow the talk. The conversation will be livestreamed for free online here. As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact eventhelp@booksaremagic.net.

Dec1

Author EventHistoryBrooklyn, NY

Ryan Schreiber: Weird Era w/ Amanda Petrusich

7:00 PM • Tuesday, December 1, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$16.33–$41.37

An Almost Famous–like memoir for the twenty-first century: Pitchfork’s founder opens up about running the most influential, and infamous, music publication of the internet age. In 1996, as legacy media slowly went digital, a nineteen-year-old Minneapolitan named Ryan Schreiber fired up his family’s desktop computer and brought his dream to life: a daily online music zine published for, and by, nerds like him. He wasn’t yet a writer, but he was passionate about discovering and sharing new music; he figured if he didn’t do it, someone else would. He named his site Pitchfork, an homage to the assassin tattoo Tony Montana sports in Scarface. Schreiber also decided to eschew a five-star rating system for a new one based on a decimal scale from 0 to 10. Little did he know that he had launched what would become one of the most consequential cultural forces of our time. Thirty years after Pitchfork’s founding, Schreiber recounts the extraordinary story behind the site and the generation of listeners and musicians it fostered. He was in the room for it all: the consequences and thrills of Pitchfork’s make-or-break criticism; the boom and bust of digital media; and the albums, concerts, and meltdowns he witnessed from some of this century’s most beloved musicians. Along the way, he writes candidly about the site’s and his own growing pains as he sought to stay true to Pitchfork’s roots despite its morphing from a bedroom blog to a global behemoth, a journey that culminated in the site’s shocking sale to Condé Nast in 2015. From one of the most influential names in the industry, Weird Era is a compulsively readable and revealing memoir of fandom, music, media, and the power of trusting your gut. Event guidelines: Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. A signing line will follow the talk. As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact eventhelp@booksaremagic.net.

Dec3

Author EventTheaterBrooklyn, NY

Bex Frankeberger: Antigone at the Rot Party w/ Molly McGhee

7:00 PM • Thursday, December 3, 2026Books are Magic · Brooklyn Heights$10.89–$26.13

A mysterious invitation slides under the door. Antigone opens it, holds it to the light, tries to discern its color, wonders about its faint scent of decay. But there is no mistake: she has been invited to the Rot Party. The question is: who will join her? Antigone at the Rot Party is a post-modern translation of a pre-modern classic, asking age-old questions with new fervor and wit. What do we owe the dead? Can we be brave enough to act in their memory? Can we be brave enough to love? Bex Frankeberger’s debut—kind of a play, kind of a novel—filters Antigone through queer theory and contemporary philosophy, bringing us uncannily close to the perennial nature of power and hubris. Against both, it jolts us to recognize that principled defiance is still the most potent, and timeless, of antidotes. You are cordially invited to join Antigone at the Rot Party. Each ticket includes either a copy of the featured book or a $10 donation to PCRF. Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. A signing will follow the talk. The conversation will be livestreamed for free online here. As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact eventhelp@booksaremagic.net.

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