Secret Skylark Online Party!

We had a WONDERFUL time on Thursday night celebrating our second birthday remotely and sharing stories about our favorite books. In addition to a lovely crowd of Skylark customers, we were thrilled to welcome some of our favorite writers: Will Schwalbe, Mamta Chaudhry, Christina Baker Kline, Jennifer Rosner, Mary Morris, Elliot Reed, Joanna Eleftheriou and Caroline Leavitt all joined in the fun.

During the evening we had some Skylark trivia quizzes and gave away some excellent goodies; shared bookshop stories (ask Will Schwalbe about Warrior Cats); and we heard from Garrett of City of Refuge who talked about the organization (Secret Skylark participants have raised over $1,000 for them, for which we are beyond grateful.)

And we talked about so many books! Here is an incomplete list of some of the books we discussed:

Is Rape A Crime? by Michelle Bowdler (Michelle did an event at Skylark earlier this week and her book was just long-listed for the National Book Award, so we raised a glass to her)

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

The Paris Hours by some guy

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

The Moth Presents

Warrior Cats

All the Way to the Tigers by Mary Morris

The Magus by John Fowles

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Knock-Out Queen by Rufi Thorpe

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

Across the Nightingale Floor by Gillian Rubinstein

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Our deepest thanks to everyone who has participated in Secret Skylark. We’ve had over 100 people who have played, and there is still time to get involved! We will be running the program until the end of September. You can read more about it here. We’ve so loved reading your notes to other readers about why you love the books you chose. (As if we weren’t already emotional enough, these days.)

Finally, congratulations to Kaitlyn Burke, who won the grand prize of the evening, this fabulous basket of books and other assorted goodies.