📚🫵 A bookstore made just for you

🗺️ Imagine taking the Orange Line from Dedham to Reading. If you can believe it, according to this 1947 map detailing the OG plans for the T, that was part of the plan. If they could only see us now: spending 90 minutes on our four mile commute.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

It’s no secret that Boston’s independent bookstore scene is booming. Since 2020, a wave of new bookstores have popped up across Greater Boston, opening the door for more niche offerings and empowering locals to throw their hats in the ring.

📚 Take Mila Hossein, the owner of the soon-to-be Narrative Bookshop in Somerville. Hossein “fell in love with books” as a way to escape the “turmoil and not fitting in” after immigrating to the U.S. from Bangladesh at 11 years old. But as much as she loved the stories she read, she never quite found one that represented her experience. Now, she’s creating a bookstore in Davis Square that aims to change that.

🤝 Her mission? Ensure everyone can see themselves reflected in a story. “I didn’t quite ever find stories that reflected what I’d been going through in terms of being a Bengali immigrant,” Hossein said. So in opening Narrative, she’s focused on sourcing books that will fill those gaps. “There’s so much amazing work out there,” she said. “The dream would be that [Narrative] would be a place that people could come to to find community, whether it’s in the pages or with other people.” 

💌 The monthly romance book pop-up Read My Lips Boston shares a similar idea. When twin sisters and avid romance readers Hannah and Lily Barrett picked up “The Whispering Dark” by Kelly Andrew, they found something they’d never seen before: A main character with cochlear implants, which both Hannah and Lily have as well. They were so inspired by the feeling of being seen by their favorite genre that they decided to create that experience for others. So, they founded Read My Lips Boston, a monthly romance pop-up shop featuring hand-selected inclusive romance stories.

💑 Their mission? Give everyone the happy (or spicy!) ending they deserve. “From that moment this summer, we were like, we need to create a space where people can come and read romances where they feel seen,” said Lily. As a genre, romance doesn't tend to be particularly inclusive about what stories it chooses to tell, and their goal is to challenge “all these assumptions about who gets a happy ending [and] about who gets to be wooed,” she said. 

🔍 If you want to support them IRL … Find Read My Lips Boston’s next pop-ups here, and keep up with the latest from Narrative here, it’s expected to open in March.

🏘️ Milton NIMBYs are in the state’s doghouse. The town just south of Boston is going to lose out big time on state grants after residents voted to overturn a zoning ordinance that would have allowed more multifamily housing. The MBTA Communities Act, an effort to address our housing crisis, mandates that MBTA-served communities zone for multifamily housing. So technically, Milton’s decision makes them noncompliant (hence the grant loss). But, the campaign to vote against the ordinance says that they’re open to figuring out a different strategy to comply. 

👋 Gov. Maura Healey to Steward Health Care: LEAVE. Remember Steward? The health care network behind nine Mass. hospitals that was recently on the brink of a financial disaster that threatened to close said hospitals? Well, in a letter sent Tuesday, Gov. Healey said they have till Friday to hand over their financial documents to the state or she’ll take further action. She also demanded they allow the DPH to oversee their operations and turn over their hospitals to new operators ASAP — basically, get out. And she didn’t mince words. 

💰 Biden’s SAVE plan is coming in clutch. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s admin announced they’re forgiving $1.2 billion in student debt to SAVE enrollees who originally borrowed $12,000 or less in federal student loans and have been paying for a decade or longer. So if that’s you (you should’ve gotten an email about it), consider those loans gone. Plus, higher borrowers will also get relief under SAVE (albeit, a little slower): For every additional $1,000 initially borrowed, borrowers can receive relief after an additional year of payments. 

🚲 Bluebikes is throwing us a shutdown lifeline. Thanks to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass., we can all save a little cash on our Bluebikes rides during the Green Line shutdown. By using the code MBTA2024 in the Bluebikes app, you can access a one time (per account) $20 credit toward your ride on either an E-Bike or a regular bike from now through March 8. And the best part? You don’t need to be a Green Liner to take advantage of the deal. Happy biking! 

Do you love your pet? Well, make sure to love them a little extra this week. National Love Your Pet Day was on Tuesday, and to celebrate, Boston.com asked readers to send in pictures and descriptions of their pets. As expected, the results will make you melt.

The list includes Norma, a black cat who “unapologetically embraces her worth!”; Angel, another kitty who has her own iPad for bird videos; and Mulligan, a Golden Retriever whose favorite walking loop “includes a corner store, a Starbucks, and the fire station (all of which provide treats).” 

And that’s just the tip of the adorable iceberg. To read all of the other hilarious and touching stories and see the pets that go with them, check out the whole list here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🐱 Thanks for reading! We promise you, if you’re having a bad day, reading about or listening to people talk about their pets will turn it right around.

🚶 The results are in: 40% of B-Siders chose walking as their preferred way to navigate Boston, followed (from far behind) by the T, and driving. One reader said: “[it’s] usually the only speed I can control lol.”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].