Meet The Author: Jeannine A. Cook
November 13, 2026 · 7:00 PM · Sinking Spring Public Library, 3940 Penn Avenue · Advance registration requested
About the event
Author and bookseller Jeannine A. Cook visits Sinking Spring Public Library for an after hours conversation about her memoir, "Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett's Bookshop." Cook founded her bookshops in honor of women she felt deserved more recognition, naming Harriett's in Philadelphia for abolitionist Harriet Tubman, with sister shops Ida's in Collingswood, New Jersey, and Josephine's in Paris.
She opened the Philadelphia shop on February 1, 2020, shortly before the Covid-19 lockdown, and the memoir traces what came next. It chronicles how she left an abusive past to build a bookshop that survived the pandemic and drew international attention. Reviewers have described it as both a memoir and a guide to community organizing, and it moves between the larger work of building literary community and more intimate ground such as chronic illness, losing her father, and finding a sense of home.
The evening is hosted by Reading District Libraries and gives Berks County readers a chance to hear Cook talk about her work and ask questions of their own.
Hosted by Sinking Spring Public Library on BerksConnect.
