How did enslaved people create community in 18th century Cambridge? How did unfreedom persist despite the legal end of chattel slavery in Massachusetts? Though there’s tremendous research to build on, current residents can also offer tips, leads or ideas to follow up.

After years of relative obscurity, Pauline Hopkins is hailed today as one of the most influential African-American writers of the early 20th century, a pioneer in her literary work and social thought.

The Central Square Branch Library closes Nov. 26 through Dec. 20 for new furniture to be installed in the ground floor, children’s room, literacy center and Lewis Room.

At a time the Harvard Book Store has already reported struggling with sales down significantly compared with any period before the coronavirus pandemic, Wednesday brought another blow: A closing to sanitize the Harvard Square space after a staff member tested positive for Covid-19.

Rodney’s Bookstore has closed in Central Square, with its wares stored in anticipation of a spring opening in a new location. It could be replaced by a relocated bank, but recently passed zoning complicates that move.

The fun of Chuck Latovich’s thriller “The Girl in the Boston Box” goes way beyond a savvy dissection of South End real estate and dead accurate descriptions of T travel from Harvard Square to Fenway Park. The book is slick and sophisticated, with plenty of pleasantly electric shocks.

If you’ve ever been to a Cambridge or Boston area poetry reading, you’ve probably heard Charles Coe deliver one of his truths in his deep baritone voice. That voice resounds through Roberto Mighty’s short film, “Charles Coe: Man of Letters.”

If you’ve ever been to a Cambridge or Boston area poetry reading, you’ve probably heard Charles Coe deliver one of his truths in his deep baritone voice. That voice resounds through Roberto Mighty’s short film, “Charles Coe: Man of Letters.”

The message of “Ten Thousand Shells & Counting,” Nadija Mujagić’s pricelessly intimate account of coming of age in bullet-riddled Sarajevo, is not that war brings out the extraordinary in people, but that it obliterates the ordinary.

For many in Cambridge, books feel like one of the main food groups. When libraries and bookstores closed in March due to the Covid-19 lockdown, some felt starved. Fortunately, with lower virus rates, the city’s main purveyors of books are open again, though operations are anything but normal.