At the Merc

December 13, 2021

Our Favorite Reads of 2021

You should have heard the grumbling when we asked our staff to pick their three favorite reads from 2021. If we’d had a dollar for...

April 30, 2021

Cicadas and The Mercantile

We hear the cicadas are about to emerge from their 17-year nap, and that reminded us of a great little newspaper clipping our friend and...

April 22, 2021

Saundersinalia

Can you believe it? On Saturday, November 6th, 2021, George Saunders will deliver the Mercantile Library’s thirty-third Niehoff Lecture. The MacArthur Fellow and PEN/Malamud, Folio, and...

December 18, 2020

Our favorite reads of 2020

Whatever else it was, 2020 was a great year for reading at the Mercantile. Circulation is up, and readers have found gems in the stacks...

March 20, 2020

Books in the Time of Cholera

It might seem odd to think of libraries at a time like this. But it might also be worth noting that libraries exist for times...

February 12, 2020

The Mercantile Library Visitors' Register, 1872-1918 is Online

Excuse me while I geek out. The Mercantile Library’s Visitor Register is now available online, thanks to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County...

January 31, 2020

Lost Bookstores of Cincinnati

A soon-to-be shuttered bookstore is a sad place. On lunch this week, I visited The Booksellers on Fountain Square for the last time, picking up some...

December 19, 2019

Books of the decade

As 2019 winds down, inspired by the collection of “best of the decade” book lists at LitHub, and so many other of our favorite reading...