Pocket Books Shop

Austin (notorious bully) asked every member of Team PB to recommend ONE book for Pride this year. Everyone complained (a lot) but eventually agreed to narrow down their fifty+ recommendations to one excellent q***r masterpiece. The result? A list of 9 absolute must-read bangers from across genres and across the rainbow. How many of these beauties have you read? Which are immediately going on your TBR???

Have you snagged one of our new 'Support Q***r Bookstores' tanks yet??? We're obsessed with the hot pink print on the black shirts -- available in sizes 5XL through XS for $26. We also have a new colorway of the tee-shirt version currently available in sizes 5XL through M for $28 -- beautiful violet shirts with teal ink! Check out the merch page of our website and grab your summer fit in time for Pride!

We're in that beautiful middle-of-the-month lull, where the new release table isn't quite so overflowing but each title packs a punch. There's a little something for everyone here, but keep a special eye out for VOYAGERS, which Sarah describes as "I Want To Believe but as a book," and the new deluxe edition of store favorite BABEL, which is so beautiful we can barely stand it. (Should we force Austin to teach a Lit 903 on BABEL & anticolonialism? Sound off in the comments.) Come see us and scoop up your next favorite read!

HOW TO COMMIT A POSTCOLONIAL MURDER is as voicey and punchy as its title would lead you to believe. It's the summer of 1986, and sisters Georgie and Agatha Creel are ready to welcome their auntie, uncle, and cousin into their rural Wyoming home and help them acclimate to their new country's ways. Things go okay, until their uncle's actions become so untenable that the sisters decide he must die. Georgie is an irresistible narrator whose exploration of the depths of her sisterly bond with Agatha is nothing short of profound. Georgie's relation of all she and her sister experienced--from the mundane to the traumatic--somehow maintains her childhood innocence and the sharpened edges of her adult perspective. What at times feels like a disjointed structure quickly reveals itself to be Georgie's attempts at piecing together the web of hurts and disappointments and secrets that created the conditions of her family life. Readers expecting a thriller will be disappointed, but those interested in wry and pensive literary fiction will find much to love in Nina McConigley's debut novel!

This one's for the introverts and the indoor cats!!! We love the concept of Pride (obviously), and we'll be happily popping up at Lancaster Pride on Saturday, slingin' books amid the crowds and the music and the joy. But if you're a ~quiet q***r~ who would rather turn the big light off and do some parallel play with other friends of Dorothy, we got you. Join us on Sunday at Zoetropolis for our Quiet Q***rs Party! A $10 ticket gets you entry for some silent reading time in the cozy theater & crafts / puzzling / whatever else we come up with in the Snug! (If you're feeling the vibes, make sure to snag a $10 ticket from Zoe to stick around for a screening of Saving Face at 12:30pm!)

We'll also be hosting a q***r bookfair on the patio at Zoe -- open to everyone! Stop by to grab a drink, a snack, and a big gay summer reading stack!

What an exceptional novel. POOL HOUSE is achingly good. Every sentence insists on the reader's full attention, and the reader will gladly submit.

Moon is both a glamorous actress/cultural icon and a neglectful mother who often lives in squalor. Her daughter Stevie keeps her distance as much as possible, until Moon receives the news that her ex-co-star and ex-lover Mac has died. Moon and Stevie sink into grief, but the realities of life continue on. Moon rents out her home in order to afford her mortgage, often relegating herself and Stevie to the glass pool house on the property. This see-through refuge easily becomes a glass cage from which Stevie and Moon observe the world.

The shame of being unable to afford the life she wants drives Moon to move back into the "Big House" when a co-worker comes to stay. As they play house, pretending to act like a normal family, the tension between mother and daughter becomes taught.

POOL HOUSE is a stunning debut novel about aging, grieving, and being house poor in a high class world. It is a delight to fall into Choi's prose and to share space with Stevie and Moon in POOL HOUSE.

we literally don’t even know how to use AI, just come to our store and buy real books written by real people

It’s gonna be another scorcher today — luckily, we’ve got these fabulous fans for sale at Prince Street! Trust us, you’re going to want to grab one before Pride next week! Snag one now & thank us when everyone else is trying to catch your breeze at the stadium!

We’ve been so grateful to how many of you continue to round up at the register to support the — you all raised $771 again in May! That money goes directly to support the great work LNF does. This month, we’re also lucky to host the Pennsylvania Immigration Advocacy Clinic as they give an info session on the work they do to support Lancaster’s immigrant communities & let you know how you can get involved. The event is free, but please RSVP on our website to secure your seat!

Surprise -- we're squeezing in one more event for Pride 2026! We are thrilled to announce that Sara Nović, bestselling author of TRUE BIZ and recent release MOTHER TONGUE will do an author talk on Saturday, June 27 at our Wheatland location. Seats are limited, so please RSVP at our events page to snag your spot!

More on MOTHER TONGUE:
Sara Nović’s early years were steeped in music, Bible study, and a strong desire to fit in. But when she failed her school’s mandated hearing test, her worldview was thrown into chaos. Desperate not to be marked as different, she told no one, staying in the hearing world for as long as she could by brute force.

Eventually unable to ignore the fact that she was deaf, Nović sought out other deaf people and was welcomed into a tight knit community rooted in the beauty and joy of American Sign Language. Nović realized that rather than maintaining the facade of her old life or trying to straddle two worlds, she would need to cultivate an existence in the space between.

Now the mother of two young sons—one, biological and hearing, the other, adopted and deaf—Nović reflects on her life both before and after parenthood. She’s raising her children within the deaf world, offering them things her younger self needed, all the while knowing that as her children grow, their own paths will branch off from hers in ways she cannot fully predict or plan for.

Interwoven with Nović's personal story is a remarkable portrait of America through reflections on some of its most complex histories: the rise of the Christian right, the thorny world of international adoption, and above all, the deaf and disabled communities’ stubborn survival in the face of persistent oppression.

Nović’s clear, bold voice is one readers will hold onto, learn from, argue with, and be inspired by, as she asks us to recognize difference as a source of opportunity rather than fear, as a chance to draw families and communities together, and to build something new.