VOLUME XVI · CIRCULATION DESK
CHAPTER & VERSE READERS’ CLUB · EST. MMX
SAT 16 MAY 2026 · OPEN UNTIL 21:00
No. 314 · A Reading Bulletin

Where
stories wait
on the third
shelf, between
the window
and the rain.

An independent bookshop & café in Portland’s Old Port. Ten thousand titles, hand-pulled coffee, and a chair by the window with your name on it.

Browse the shelves
This week's readings →
10,412
titles in stock
4.9 ★
612 reviews
Sat
open till 22:00
Demon Copperhead · Barbara Kingsolver
North Woods · Daniel Mason
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store · James McBride
Tom Lake · Ann Patchett
The Bee Sting · Paul Murray
Birnam Wood · Eleanor Catton
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama · Nathan Thrall
Currently on the front table
CATALOG · 813.54
Acquired 09 May 2026

Staff Pick of the Week

by Sloane M. · Bookseller, ten years on the floor

“A novel that begins as a love letter to a single Maine farmhouse and ends as a four-hundred-year argument with the land itself. Read it in October if you can. Read it now if you can’t wait.”

$18.95
Reserve a copy →
Due back
16/05/26
Due back
30/05/26
Due back
13/06/26
NOW SHELVED · The Bee Sting by Paul Murray❖ READING TONIGHT 19:00 · Yiyun Li in conversation❖ SATURDAY 10:00 · Children’s story hour❖ CAFÉ SPECIAL · Cardamom oat latte $5❖ BOOK CLUB · June pick — North Woods❖ RARE ROOM · First edition of E. B. White in stock❖
BROWSE THE SHELVES · SIX SECTIONS

Find your next chapter.

Hand-shelved by booksellers who have been reading the same way you do for thirty years. Each card is a doorway, not a category.

813 · FICTION

Fiction & Literature

The front-table novels: literary debuts, the National Book longlist, the small-press finds you won’t see at the chain shop down the block.

1.
North Woods
Daniel Mason
2.
Tom Lake
Ann Patchett
3.
The Bee Sting
Paul Murray
3,180 titles in stock →
823 · MYSTERY

Mystery & Thriller

Whodunits, slow-burn psychological, Nordic noir, and the rare-as-hen’s-teeth cozy crime.

1.
The Maid
Nita Prose
2.
The Searcher
Tana French
500 · SCIENCE

Science & Nature

Field guides for Casco Bay, Robert Macfarlane essays, climate writing that hopes more than it scolds.

1.
An Immense World
Ed Yong
2.
Underland
R. Macfarlane
J · CHILDREN’S

Children’s Loft

Up the back stairs — picture books, middle-grade, a tree-stump reading chair, and Saturday-morning story hour at 10:00 sharp.

1.
The Day the Crayons Quit
2.
The Last Cuentista
Story hour Sat 10:00 →
920 · HISTORY

History & Biography

Maine-set memoir, doorstop biographies, lighter narrative history for the long winter evenings.

1.
King: A Life
Jonathan Eig
2.
The Wager
David Grann
The window seat on a Tuesday afternoon.
OUR STORY · SIXTEEN YEARS ON EXCHANGE STREET

A small room. Ten thousand books.
One very good chair.

Chapter & Verse opened in the back half of an old print-shop on Exchange Street in 2010, with three hundred used books and a borrowed espresso machine. The room is bigger now. The chair is the same chair.

We hand-select every title on the floor — no algorithm, no co-op-payment shelf placement, no “as seen on the airport rack” table. If it’s here, a bookseller put it here because they wanted you to find it.

“A bookshop is not a shop. It is a conversation that has been going on, in one corner of one town, for as long as anyone can remember.”
— SLOANE M., OWNER-BOOKSELLER
16
years on Exchange St.
10,412
titles in stock today
72
readings hosted in 2025
1,840
book-club members
THE CAFÉ · BACK ROOM

Coffee. Tea. A slice.
Stay as long as you like.

Behind the third bookcase, eleven seats, a slow Aeropress menu, and bread from Forage on Congress Street. Free Wi-Fi, real mugs, no laptops on Saturdays.

From the bar

Drip of the day Allagash blend
3.50
Cortado
4.25
Oat-milk cardamom latte
5.00
Aeropress single-origin
5.50
Loose-leaf pot, 2 cups
6.00
TODAY’S SLICE

Maine blueberry buckle

Stone-fruit crumb, lemon glaze, served warm. From the Forage bakery on Congress Street. While it lasts — usually until about three o’clock.

6.50 the slice
Saved for book-club members until 11am.

From the kitchen

Sourdough toast, salted butter
4.50
Maine cheddar & chutney
8.00
Soup of the day, w/ bread
9.50
Almond croissant
4.75
Hand-pie of the day
5.25
EVENTS · THE FRONT ROOM

This month’s readings.

All readings are free, all seats are first-come, all readings end at exactly 20:30 because the booksellers want to go home.

SAT
16
MAY
TONIGHT · 19:00 · FREE

Yiyun Li in conversation with Lewis Robinson

The novelist reads from Wednesday’s Child, a story collection that critic Parul Sehgal called “the most disquieting and the most graceful book of the year.” Signing after. Wine and seltzer in the back room.

Reserve a chair →
WED
20
MAY
19:30 · FREE · 22 SEATS

Daniel Mason on North Woods

A four-hundred-year argument with one Massachusetts farmhouse, told through twelve voices. The book is already the bookstore-of-the-year pick at half the indie shops in New England.

Reserve a chair →
SAT
23
MAY
10:00 · CHILDREN'S LOFT

Story hour with the Portland Public Library

Picture-book reading, four under-five-friendly songs, and a parent-friendly espresso bar. Run with our friends at the Riverton branch.

Drop in →
THU
28
MAY
19:30 · FREE · SIGNING

Maine Writers Showcase — four new voices

Four debut authors from the Stonecoast MFA reading ten minutes each. The most exciting hour of the month if you like seeing the future before it shows up on the front table.

Reserve a chair →
THE READERS’ CLUB · SINCE 2011

Twelve books a year.
One very good evening a month.

Pay $19/month, get the book in the mail the first of each month, then meet here on the third Wednesday to argue about it. Wine, cheese, a moderator who has actually read the book.

i.
The book of the month

delivered to your door, gift-wrapped, with a hand-written staff note.

ii.
The third-Wednesday meeting

moderated, generous, opinionated, never longer than ninety minutes.

iii.
15% off the rest of the shop

year-round, no expiry, stacks with sales.

iv.
First-look on signed copies

every reading we host, first row of seats reserved.

Join the club — $19/mo
Gift a membership →
JUNE 2026 PICK · CARD No. 178

North Woods

by Daniel Mason · 384pp · Random House, 2023

A century-spanning chorus set in a single Massachusetts farmhouse, told by twelve narrators — one of them a beetle, one of them the land itself. Audacious, tender, the kind of book that makes you put the book down to look out the window.

WED 18 JUNE · 19:30 · The back room
Moderated by Sloane M.
DEAR CHAPTER & VERSE · LETTERS FROM READERS

4.9 / 5 on Google.
612 letters and counting.

"
The best small bookshop in New England, full stop. Sloane recommended a novel I’d never have picked up and it became my book of the year. The coffee is excellent. The chair by the window is dangerous.
EMMA T.
Member since 2019 · 4 yrs in the club
"
I came in for a notebook, left with three novels, two espressos, and an invitation to the book club. I’m now on year three. The way they handsell — quietly, generously, never up — is a lost art and they have it
RAJIV P.
Member since 2022 · 36 books bought in 2025
"
Our four-year-old asks to go to “the bookhouse” on Saturday mornings. We don’t always leave with a book. We always leave a little softer than we came in
HANNAH & WILL M.
Story-hour regulars since 2024
VISIT · 84 EXCHANGE ST.

The door is the green one,
between the chocolatier and
the old print shop.

Chapter & Verse Bookshop & Café
84 Exchange Street
Portland, ME 04101

Mon — Fri
09:00 — 21:00
Saturday
09:00 — 22:00 (late shelf hours)
Sunday
10:00 — 19:00
Café kitchen
open until 16:00 daily
Call (207) 555-0188
[email protected]
Get directions →
SHOP · LEFT PAGE
No. 314
Shelves
The café

A book delivered to your door

Join the Readers’ Club: one staff-picked novel a month, $19, 15% off the rest of the shop, gift-wrapped on the first.

VISIT · RIGHT PAGE
EST. MMX

An independent bookshop & café on Exchange Street since 2010.

84 Exchange Street · Portland, ME 04101

Mon — Fri
9 — 21
Saturday
9 — 22
Sunday
10 — 19
© 2026 Chapter & Verse LLC · Member, American Booksellers Association