Be the Change with Linda Given, author of The Book of Joie
When:
Sunday, Mar 24, 2024 3:00p -
4:00p
Sunday, Mar 24, 2024 3:00p -
4:00p
Where:
Porter Square Books
25 White St.
Cambridge, MA 02140
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Accessible Spots, Social Good
Event website:
https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/be-change-linda-given-author-book-joie
PSB's March Be the Change event features Linda Given, author of Joie de Vivre Or a Thousand Singing Hamsters.
Joie de Vivre opened in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1984.
Through its door lay a world of clever, beautiful, original and just plain wacky items - all designed to delight, enchant or give pleasure through the unexpected. The Book of Joie is its history from beginning to end, an inside look at the joys, trials, lessons and surprises of running a small business. Stories of customers, employees, suppliers, gift shows and singing hamsters fill these pages, as well as the changes and challenges all small businesses encountered as the internet and smartphones transformed the retail world. The store, a much loved local institution, reluctantly closed its door for good in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.
Linda Given grew up in the Hudson Valley, and enjoyed writing from a young age. (Horses and boys were a common theme.) After a failed college career, she worked in retail, was a bilingual waitress in Montreal, a violinist in a chamber music ensemble, an administrative assistant, managed an American Craft gallery and later, living in Vermont, a woodworker’s girlfriend, making and selling rolling pins and cutting boards. She opened Joie de Vivre in Cambridge in 1984, as an experiment, and happily, it succeeded, bringing “joie” and fun to the local community and beyond. Along the way, she decided to finish her college education, earning a degree in writing and psychology from the Harvard Extension School, while continuing to run the store full time. Joie de Vivre made her happy in countless ways, and in 2020, after closing what had become a Cambridge institution, she decided to write its story. If she ever wins the lottery she just might open another store. For now, she continues to live and write in the Boston area.
Porter Square Books will be donating 20% of sales from 3-5PM on March 24 to Cambridge Local First (CLF). CLF is a non-profit network of locally-owned, independent businesses in Cambridge, Massachusetts with the mission of supporting and promoting a thriving, equitable local economy . Learn more about them here!
