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Book giveaways, reviews, and staff recs! BSR Book Week 2025 is coming June 1-7
Alaina Johns
Recently, some major US newspapers including the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a third-party book list supplement—not vetted by anyone, apparently, even the person who “wrote” it—that was AI generated. The AI described a bunch of books that don’t even exist and everyone involved was like, cool, who needs to check what we publish? Let’s get that sucker right into print!!
Do you want book coverage written by professional human beings who are part of your community? Book coverage that dives deep into real books with a Philly connection? Then stick around for our third annual BSR Book Week, running June 1-7, 2025.
BSR book takeover
Book reviews will take over the BSR site for the whole week. We’re talking memoir, poetry, novels, Philly history, cultural analysis, big-name bestsellers, little-known local gems, and more. We even have a book about sandwiches reviewed by renowned sandwich expert Neil Bardhan. Make us your first stop for building your summer reading list.
We will also have a reading-as-resistance roundup featuring recommendations from our staff: books that energize and excite you, inform you, make you think, help you rest, help you eat, help you stay strong as a human being in terrible times.
Join Philly authors at our Book Week Zoom event
We’ll bring you a virtual panel event featuring five exciting Philly authors: Elise Juska (Reunion, out now in paperback), John Morrison (Boyz II Men 40th Anniversary Celebration), Tre Johnson (Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy, out July 29), Annie Liontas (Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery), and Eric Smith (With or Without You), who is also a literary agent and the founder of Philly’s Neighborhood Literary. It’s happening at 6:30pm ET on Zoom. Tickets are a suggested $20 donation, but there’s a PWYC option.
We’ll be talking to these award-winning authors about how living in Philly shapes their craft and careers. The session will be recorded, so you can get a ticket and watch live or later, but we recommend joining us live so you can participate in the Q&A. Get your ticket here.
BSR Book Week giveaway!
We’re also thrilled to team with Housemates author Emma Copley Eisenberg for a book giveaway featuring six notable queer authors (find all the books here), just in time for Pride. (In related news, Housemates is out in paperback on May 27!) Head to BSR’s Instagram page and enter to win the books by following BSR, following Emma, and leaving a comment on the pinned giveaway post about why you think we need queer novels now. If you’re not on Instagram and you’d like to enter the giveaway, email [email protected] with the subject line BOOK WEEK GIVEAWAY and we’ll get you into the mix.
BONUS: our two giveaway winners will each get a ticket to the sold-out Queer Novels Now event at Tattooed Mom on June 6, featuring all of the authors in the giveaway.
Two winners will be randomly chosen and announced at the June 4 panel event. (You don’t have to be present to win, but why would you want to miss a conversation with these authors?)
Thanks for reading with us!
We hope you find some exciting new picks in our Book Week roundups and reviews, enter the giveaway, and join us on June 4. We love to spotlight Philly’s amazing literary community, and make you a part of it.
Did you know BSR subscribers get early access to Book Week content in our May 30 BSR in the Wild newsletter? Subscribe now if you haven’t already! It’s free and there’s never a paywall.
If you like real reviews of real books written by real people, now’s the time to donate to BSR. We will NEVER deliver AI fakery to you. But like all independent media, we rely on our readers’ support to keep producing real journalism.
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