Join us at Paper Hearts Bookstore at 6:30PM on the second Thursday of every month to discuss a work of literary fiction!

For September 2026, we are reading Long Island Girls by Gabrielle Korn

It's 2005, and Susan is barreling down the Long Island Expressway driving a car full of friends to an indie rock show. Eliza is a surprise addition in the backseat—unexpected, out of place, and impossible to ignore. Their connection is immediate, electric, and complicated from the start, shadowed by the kind of small-town rumors that have a way of sticking. As quickly as they come together, they part.

As Susan moves from Long Island to Brooklyn, from college to the insular world of indie labels, she begins to carve out a life in music, and the future she always dreamed of. Yet the scene that once felt like home reveals its limits, forcing her to confront who gets to belong, who gets to create, and what it costs to stay.

When Susan and Eliza reconnect years later, the pull between them hasn’t faded—but neither have the unresolved histories that first drove them apart. As past and present collide, Susan is caught between two worlds—where she's from, and where she's trying to go.

Moving between the raw intensity of youth and the clarity of hindsight, Long Island Girls captures the ache of growing up, the messiness and joy of queer identity, and the way music, memory, and desire shape who we become.

Join us at Paper Hearts Bookstore on Saturday September 5th at 10:30AM for a special story time (and signing) with author Razan Abdin and her book Splendidly Sawsan!

From award-winning illustrator Shahrzad Maydani and debut author Razan Abdin, this affirming, social-emotional learning picture book follows a vivacious little girl who sees the world differently—while offering a fresh, intersectional approach to neurodivergence

Sawsan is a storyteller and a dreamer, a mover and a shaker. Her imagination sends her soaring into space or diving deep into the ocean with the jellyfish!

With all her energy and excitement, words EXPLODE out of her mouth during story time. Sitting still at school feels IMPOSSIBLE! And sometimes, when her feelings swell up and BURST! like waves, it feels like she’s not in control of her brain or her body—even though she’s trying her best.

“Let’s create a strategy, you and me,” says Dr. Salim . . . After all, she knows Sawsan isn’t “rude” or “bad”—she just needs a little help navigating her big, bursty emotions.

A story of affirming others and learning to love yourself, this social-emotional learning picture book follows a vivacious, neurodivergent child who sees the world a little differently—and maybe that’s a pretty splendid thing.

Join us for the launch of Arkansas Poet Ellie Black’s debut poetry collection, Revelator!

Ellie will be reading from the collection, signing copies, and will even give a musical performance!

The event begins at 6:30PM at Paper Hearts Bookstore on September 1st, 2026.

Ellie Black's debut collection, Revelator, glitches and falters, iterates and alludes. This is a book concerned deeply with what's real, what's fake, and what's fantasy. With equal parts humor and horror, this fragmented, oracular collection explores the consequences of the increasingly blurry digital-physical landscape in which we find ourselves and its relationship to power, control, and what we worship. These poems transform shards of language, pop culture, and literature into a tightly wound poetics of excess engaged with an incantatory attention to sound. Famous women, teenage girls, movie characters, and reluctant prophets are victims, villains, and victors, sometimes all at once. Here, boundaries blur between high and low. Angels visit and animatronics come to life. Sylvia Plath, Lee Edelman, and Evil Dead II share space in a single poem. Revelation, this collection proposes, exists at the limits of confessional poetry, religious confession, the dramatic twist, and the divine promise of an apocalyptic ending. Revelator offers up a mirror to how we invent and perform ourselves on stages, on screens, and in our lives.

Join us and local author Madeline Taylor for a dinner and discussion of the first book in her romantasy series, Heir of Illusion.

This month we are meeting at Southern Tail Brewing at 900 E 9th Street in Little Rock.

Tickets are $50 and include a copy of the book, your first drink of the evening, and appetizers. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/read-between-the-wines-tickets-1987756479138?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Join us for an evening with Arkansas author Jessica Gutierrez to celebrate her latest essay collection Adulting for Amateurs: Misadventures of a Geriatric Millennial.

A hilarious look at how getting older does not necessarily mean maturing.

Co-hosted with our friends at Dropping Hairpins!

Join us at Pettaway Coffee on the last Monday of every month at 6:30PM for 45 minutes of silent reading. Bring any book you like! The final 15 minutes of the hour is reserved for chatting, socializing, or slipping out silently if you prefer.

We recommend arriving about 15 minutes early if you’d like to purchase a beverage from our friendly baristas!

Join Paper Hearts Bookstore and local author Robert Arnold for the launch of a new volume of political essays! Come get into some good trouble, wield hope like a weapon, and build community!

The event will comprise of a reading, Q&A, and signing at Paper Hearts Bookstore in Pettaway Square, Sunday, May 24th from 2:00PM-4:00PM

Copies of Defiance Til Death Vols. 1 & 2 will be available for purchase.

Spooky Stories book club meets every third Wednesday of the month at Paper Hearts Bookstore at 6:30PM. This club focuses on horror, thriller, and mystery novels spanning classics to contemporary.

Check our calendar, or our monthly flyer in-store and on Instagram to see what we are reading each month. Remember, if you purchase through Paper Hearts, you get 10% off!

For May, we are reading The Reddening by Adam Nevill.

Join us for a book club that spans all genres at Lost Forty Brewing! We meet at 7:00PM on the third Tuesday of every month to enjoy books, beers, and yummy snacks.

For May, we are reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

Check our calendar, or our monthly flyer on Instagram and in-store to see what we are reading each month. Remember, if you purchase your book at Paper Hearts, you get 10% off!

Paper Hearts Book Club meets on the second Thursday of every month and focuses on contemporary literary fiction.

This month we are reading The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. Meet us at the bookstore at 6:30PM!

Check our calendar, or our monthly flyer in-store and on Instagram to see what we are reading each month. Remember if you purchase your book from Paper Hearts, you get 10% off!

Join us and our friends at North Little Rock Library System for a Dungeon Crawler Carl themed adult spelling bee, hosted by Flyway Brewing in Argenta from 6:00PM- 8:30PM! The winner will take home a voucher from Flyway Brewing and a special treat from Paper Hearts.

To participate in the bee, register at nlrlibrary.org. Must be 21+ to register.

Join us and our lovely chef friend Paige at Sterling Market at 7:00PM for a potluck dinner of dishes from the cook book Kitchens of Hope.

There is no registration or ticket fee required. All we ask is that you bring a shareable dish from the cook book to enjoy with everyone. At dinner we will discuss the cookbook itself as well as our dishes and maybe pick up a few handy techniques from Paige!

Join us at Paper Hearts Bookstore for a reading, Q&A, and signing with professor at Lyons College and author Dr. Stephanie Saunders to celebrate the release of her debut novel, Covered Buttons.

A moving coming of age tale set in the Ozarks in the 1930s, Covered Buttons follows teenager Thea Everson as she learns what adulthood holds for her from a cast of women passing along their knowledge to the next generation.

Join us at Paper Hearts Bookstore with our friends from Good Day Pottery to paint a planter shaped like a stack of books!

Tickets are $55 and include all supplies, instructions, and the kiln firing of your final piece.

One lucky participant will win a gift card to Concrete Roots to pick out a new plant to fill your planter! To secure your ticket, stop by the store, send us a DM on Instagram, or email us!

Join us at Pettaway Coffee for our Silent Book Club. Enjoy 45 minutes of silent group reading (bring whatever book you like!), followed by 15 minutes of mingling and free discussion. We do suggest you arrive around 6:15 to order a tasty beverage!

Join Paper Hearts and the Little Rock Firefighter Museum on October 24th for a story time at 4:00pm followed by a meet and greet with local firefighters, and a tour of an antique truck!

Join us at the store for an ongoing discussion of Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work by Jess Rimington and Joanna L. Cea. In need of a copy? Come stop by the store and grab one for free! (First come first served until we run out!)

Join us at Laman Library for an evening with India Hayford, author of The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree.

This month, Spooky Stories is reading The Haar by David Sodergren. Come by the store to pick up your copy at 10% off! We will meet in the store (408 East 21st Street inside Pettaway Square) for discussion at 6:30PM!

Join Kat for a spooky story time at Lush in the Chenal Promenade! From 2:00-4:00pm, Lush is hosting performances by local drag queens, Gage and Stormey Weather. Press a bath bomb with the queens, get your cards read by Alchemy XXII, stock up on your favorite reads and scents for the season!

This month for our in-house book club, we are reading any book with a magic system! Think Babel by R.F. Kuang, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, etc. We meet in the store (408 East 21st Street inside Pettaway Square) at 6:30 PM!

Join Mojade (for her very last Read Between the Wines :( ) at El Sur restaurant at 6:30PM for margaritas and apps while we discuss local author Regina Black’s newest release, August Lane! Tickets are $50 and include your copy of the book, one house made margarita, and appetizers. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/read-between-the-wines-margarita-tickets-1554642079309?aff=oddtdtcreator

Join us at the store for an ongoing discussion of Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work by Jess Rimington and Joanna L. Cea. In need of a copy? Come stop by the store and grab one for free! (First come first served until we run out!)

Join Paper Hearts owner, Beth Quarles, at Ron Robinson Theater for a discussion with Maggie Stiefvater, author of The Listeners, and Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Happy Land!

Our very own Mojade Adejokun will be moderating a discussion with Annabel Monaghan, author of It’s A Love Story, and Little Rock’s own Regina Black, author of August Lane. The discussion will be from 1:00pm-2:00pm at Ron Robinson Theater.

Paper Hearts has got disco fever! Show off your dance moves with us at the SOMArdi Gras parade, but Don’t Let Pigeon on the Dance Floor! If you are interested in riding with us on the float or helping us decorate, please contact Beth or Kat at hello@paperheartsbooks.com or through the Paper Hearts Instagram!

Join us at Lost Forty Brewing ( 501 Byrd St, Little Rock, AR) for their ACOTAR -inspired See You Next Tuesday event on Tuesday, February 25th from 4:00PM - 9:00PM! We will be there to help you find your next romantasy read, or guide you even deeper into the Maas-iverse (if you aren’t already an expert that is).

Lost Forty is offering thematic “Faerie Wine” and “Impressive Wingspan” cocktails to toast to “the stars who listen and the dreams that are answered.” Make your own bookmark to keep track of your favorite scenes, and join our friends at Painting with a Twist to create your own City of Starlight. (Reservations start at $38 per person, save your spot here!)