Anne Lamott at First Parish Church

Harvard Book Store welcomes ANNE LAMOTT—author of numerous New York Times bestsellers including Dusk, Night, Dawn and Almost Everything—for a discussion of her new book Somehow: Thoughts on Love. She will be joined in conversation by NEAL ALLEN—spiritual coach and author of Better Days and Shapes of Truth.

Ticketing

Tickets to this event are now sold out.

We will have a stand-by line at First Parish Church. If any seats are still open five minutes before the event begins, we will sell tickets to those in the stand-by line on a first-come, first-served basis. Of course we can’t guarantee that those in the stand-by line will get in, but we are often able to let in some (or sometimes all) of those patiently waiting!

Tickets include admission for one and one hardcover copy of Somehow. Anne will sign copies of her new book after the presentation. Books will not be personalized.

Signing Line Guidelines

1. Attendees will receive their copy of Somehow when they check in at the church. Check-in will begin at roughly 6:15pm. With their book, attendees will also receive a colored wristband. You do not have to wear the wristband, but please hold on to it for the duration of the event. 
2. After the presentation, which will last roughly one hour, attendees should stay in their seats until their wristband color is called to enter the signing line. Please expect wait times. Signing lines can often last between 60-90 minutes. Attendees who prefer to not wait in the signing line may exit out the church doors they came in following the event. 
3. During the signing, Anne will sign books following the event but she WILL NOT be personalizing inscriptions in the books. 
4. Anne has kindly asked that during the signing attendees DO NOT ask for posed photos or selfies. It’s fine to take photos while you are waiting in line, but when you get to Anne’s signing table, please refrain from asking her to pose for any photos or selfies. 
5. We will have additional copies of Somehow and some of Anne’s backlist titles available for purchase at the event.   

Thank you for following these guidelines and supporting Harvard Book Store! 

About Somehow

“Love is our only hope,” Anne Lamott writes in this perceptive new book. “It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks.”

In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward. “Love just won't be pinned down,” she says. “It is in our very atmosphere” and lies at the heart of who we are. We are, Lamott says, creatures of love.

In each chapter of Somehow, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises.

Somehow is Anne Lamott’s twentieth book, and in it she draws from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair as it galvanizes us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm, and wise.

Masking Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.