Exile in Bookville

Another great night of music book chat at . As always, came prepared with enlightening questions and clever repartee. Nothing surprising there. But what set this night apart were the incredible stories expanded upon from Peter Jesperson’s memoir, Euphoric Recall from Jesperson himself. Didn’t hurt that Tommy Stinson, legendary bass guitarist from The Replacements, was on hand to verify those crazy rock and roll tales.

Both Peter and signed a limited amount of copies, so get ‘em while they’re hot! Having said that, we are limiting this offer to one copy per household.

Signed copies are available in store and online with national shipping!

Earlier this year at a book conference I embarrassed myself in front of one of my literary heroes, . Not one of my finest moments, but I got to finally meet Rachel, right? When I got back to the store later that week I thought that I would double down and pitch hard to host Rachel for her new novel, Creation Lake. Got nothin’ to lose, right? Well, nobody was more surprised when we got the call to host Rachel and Exile could not be more honored!

Please join us next week, Thursday, September 5th to help celebrate Rachel and her new novel, Creation Lake! Rachel will be happy to sign/personalize copies of her books after the event! This is going to be such an incredible evening and we hope you all can make it!

Please click on the link in our bio to register for FREE!

So I’m listening to the cool, dulcet sounds of covering the state roll call at the DNC last Thursday on the ol’ air pods at work (don’t tell my boss!) and guess who walks up to the counter to interrupt my me-time. Jordan goddamn Klepper, that’s who. After freaking out and word-vomiting my appreciation of his work, we settled in for some great conversation about books, music and the DNC. (By the way, dude has fantastic reading taste.)

Jordan spent some quality time at Exile, purchased some books and happily took a photo with an unsuspecting fan. Before he left I gifted him one of our Exile Radio t-shirts (shout out to and !) which I thought would go onto the pile of the many gifts I am sure Jordan collected while in Chicago. But no! Jordan surprised and wore that very t-shirt for an instagram story while giving a backstage tour of the Athenaeum Theater, where was filming live that night! How cool is that! Swipe to see some behind the scenes pictures!

Thanks, Jordan, and hope you make your way back to Exile next time you’re back in Chicago!

One of the best things about an independent bookstore? When two wonderful people run over to your store on their wedding day! Thank you, Stephanie and Marién, for sharing your special day with us. Cheers to many years of books and love!

We have a pretty incredible week of events coming up! Tomorrow, please join us at 7:00pm to help celebrate Rufi Thorpe’s new novel, Margo’s Got Money Troubles. will be in conversation with Exile MVP ! Thursday at 7pm, we have the pleasure of hosting Santiago Jose Sanchez and Richie Hofmann for ’s new novel, Hombrecito. Rounding out this awesome week, we are thrilled to host Cory Doctrow on Saturday, July 20th at 7pm in commemoration of his literary legacy. (We will be the first in line to gush about Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town!)

Please visit the link in our bio for more information about these amazing events, to reserve your FREE ticket, and to purchase signed copies! Hope to see many of you sometime this week! If you can’t make it to any of these events, we will, as always, have signed copies available in store and online with national shipping available!

Also, this is Javier’s happy face, I promise!

Hi, friends—just a quick reminder that we will be closed tomorrow, July 6th and July 7th due to the NASCAR race. All online orders will be processed on July 8th. Thank you all for your understanding and support during the course construction, race, and teardown. We appreciate you all so much!

Another Friday in the ! How lucky are we to be in a building with a puppet theater?!

Hot topic is the way that we rhyme.

In anticipation of ’s triumphant return to Chicago at the in August and to celebrate the release of ’s much anticipated (and amazing!) memoir Rebel Girl, we thought we would share some of our favorite things by Le Tigre and Bikini Kill and why they are so goddamn important.

Signed copies of Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl are available in store and online with national shipping! Revolution Girl Style Now and Le Tigre on vinyl are available in store!

Our building will be closed tomorrow, Monday, May 27th in observance of Memorial Day. We will be back at it bright and early Tuesday morning!

A room with a view of the afternoon storm rolling in.

We love a good party and what’s more fun than a wedding? We wanted to share the exciting news with our customers, as we think of you all more as friends. Some of you we have known for years, some we just met, and some we hope to meet one day soon.

In a world of a lot of bad, there are still many reasons to celebrate. Soon, we will celebrate each other. And by sharing with you all, we will celebrate together, near and far. Please raise a glass to love and friendship, read the last page of Parakeet by .helenebertino, listen to Prince, and dance!

Lots of love to our good friend, , for capturing us so perfectly! You are with us to the end, too!

Sleep Token fans! Before you head to the Salt Shed to see the band, join us Wednesday and Thursday, May 15th and 16th, for a merch pop-up with ! From 12-6pm we will have exclusive merchandise available for purchase! Be sure to get here early, as all our band pop-ups sell out quickly!

De La Soul had it right: three / that’s the magic number. On Independent Bookstore Day—Saturday, April 27th—please join us in celebrating THREE YEARS OF EXILE IN BOOKVILLE! We will open early at 8:00am and stay open as late as the party takes us.

For those of you riding the IBD buses, we are your first stop! Throughout the day we will have author guest booksellers to help you pick your next great read and we will end with cocktails around 8pm. For more information about Independent Bookstore Day, for a map of participating stores on the crawl, and for bus details, please click on the link in our bio.

We try, daily, to express our gratitude to our community for their support over the years. You all are, entirely, the reason we are here. This day is as much a testament and celebration of you as it is for Exile. We hope to see as many of you as possible on Exile’s birthday. Cheers to you all, near and far!

As always, anything creative we do, like this awesome De La Soul tribute graphic, is a product of none other than Larry Law. If you haven’t checked out his art, do yourselves a favor and visit his website! , you are the third member of Exile La Soul!

It takes two to make a merch collab go right. It takes two to make it outta sight!

Stay tuned for the big and Exile in Bookville merch reveal. Coming Independent Bookstore Day, Saturday April 27th!

And the outstanding authors keep on comin’! Man, oh man, what a great few weeks it has been at Exile! Huge thanks to Benjamin and his partner for braving the fierce winds and rain to come hang out! Benjamin graciously signed copies of his incredible books, The Maniac and When We Cease to Understand the World, translated by our pal Adrian Nathan West.

We have a limited amount of signed copies available in store and online with national shipping!

It took us a few days to catch our breath and start walking on solid ground again. Thank you, deeply, to everyone who came out to see Percival Everett and Gabriel Bump. Your support is what allows us to host incredible events like these! And again, big thanks to everyone at the and for helping us run the perfect event.

We hope your life is a little different and a little better after hearing their conversation. We certainly aren’t the same and for that, we are thankful.

We still have a few signed copies of James in stock! Snag your signed copy in store or online with national shipping!

In 24 hours, Percival Everett takes this stage.

Please join us tomorrow at 7:00pm inside our beautiful at the for an evening with Percival Everett. We don’t know how, we don’t know why, but we’ve been given the tremendous honor of hosting Percival to help celebrate his new (and absolutely incredible) novel, James. Percival will be in conversation with another incredibly talented writer, Gabriel Bump, author of The New Nocturnals.

We will have signed copies of James, and a select few Percival Everett titles, available for sale at the event. We are offering 10% off copies of James purchased at the event. We will also have signed copies of Gabriel Bump’s The New Nocturnals and Everywhere You Don’t Belong.

Click on our bio link to purchase tickets, books, and to find more information.

This will be a night we will never forget and we hope you’ll join us in the revelry!

Mitski AND Exile in Bookville?! We are BEYOND EXCITED to collaborate with for Here On Earth: Chicago Gallery + Pop-up Shop! Please join us this week, March 21-24th from 4-7pm daily, featuring photographs from The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We curated by along with 2024 Mitski merch.

Entry is free and open to the public! No ticket or purchase necessary. A limited edition large-format photozine is available exclusively at Exile. We will also have a selection of books Mitski recommends available in store!

This is going to be a very fun and unique event and we hope to see you all there!

Happy Sweet 16 to Kristin Enola Gilbert, the best partner in love and life anyone could ever ask for. Please raise a glass at some point today, maybe hum a few bars from any song off of Exile in Guyville while you’re at it.

Love you, Kristin, and I am honored to be able to spend another year with you.

An early spring evening in Chicago at Exile.

Sundays are for the dogs. In particular, this dog. When Buran visits, everyone at Exile is happier! 

Symmetry: A bookstore located in the historic displaying original fine art of the bookstore.

WE. HAVE. THE. BEST. CUSTOMERS. Seriously. Check out the original hand-painted gel monoprint created from a photograph she took of the fiction section at Exile! Stop in and see this beautiful piece in person. Photos, as always, never do justice. The paint she chose for the mirror actually reflects light!

Thank you, Emily, for capturing Exile so exquisitely and for sharing your art with all of us to enjoy.

all passes—art alone endures

Birthday wishes do come true! We really, really, really cannot believe we have the incredible honor of hosting one of our favorite authors of all time—Percival freaking Everett! Percival will be in conversation with Gabriel Bump on Thursday, March 28th at 7pm.

But wait, it gets even better! This once in a lifetime event will be held inside the historic in our beautiful !

Signed copies of James are available for preorder through our website and will also be available for purchase at the event. We are offering a 10% discount for preorder and onsite purchases of James. We will also have signed copies of a select few Percival Everett backlist titles available for sale at the event.

Tickets are on sale now! Click on our bio link for more information about the event, to purchase tickets, and to preorder signed copies of James!

Quite simply, there’d be no Exile without you. We celebrate you always and today we raise an extra glass to you. On behalf of so many, we hope you know just how much you are loved.

Happy to you, Javier! Here’s to many more blurry nights singing and dancing in Exile!

Tuesday is for readers!