We're celebrating our birthday with a booked September events calendar!

September 2022 marks 35 years since the Raven first took flight as Lawrence’s corner bookshop specializing in mysteries. To make it all the more exciting, this August marks one year since we hauled all of our shelves over to our new Mass Street location, putting us in the heart of our beloved downtown. We want to commemorate these major milestones with the community we’ve been a part of for 35 years now. And since we believe in celebrating birth months rather than just birthdays, we’ve planned a whole month packed to the gills with fantastic and free literary events, like this one!

So be sure you swing by the store to join the party and treat your shelves to some bookish goodness. You can head over to our events calendar to check out the full docket of our birthday bash events. Please note that masks and proof of vaccination are required to attend events at the Raven.

We’re excited to celebrate with you!

Join the economic revolution!

Thanks to the updated and expanded edition of How to Resist Amazon and Why, you’ll know exactly how to go about it, from advocating for fair labor practices to supporting your local, independent bookstores. The Raven couldn’t be happier to host the launch for the 2nd full-length edition of the book that was birthed by the majority owner of the store!

How to Resist Amazon and Why has remained one of the Raven's top weekly sellers for multiple years running. It started its life as an impassioned Tweet thread, and was expanded into a brief but informative pamphlet stocked on the ‘zine spinner in the Raven in 2019. Written by the Raven’s majority owner, Danny Caine, it has been hailed as the start of a David vs. Goliath show-down in the fight against Amazon. Now, three years later, as this former ‘zine reaches its third print iteration, it’s time to recognize the progress we’ve made in supporting local business and economics. Join us for this celebratory launch event—an evening of reading and discussion with Raven owner Danny Caine, culminating in an audience Q&A and the opportunity to get your copies of the revised edition signed by Caine!

This event is free and open to the public! Attendance at in-person Raven events requires a mask and proof of vaccination against COVID-19.

About the Book

When a company's workers are literally dying on the job, when their business model relies on preying on local businesses and even their own vendors, when their CEO is the richest person in the world while their workers make low wages with impossible quotas... wouldn't you want to resist?

Danny Caine, owner of Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas has been an outspoken critic of the seemingly unstoppable Goliath of the bookselling world: Amazon. In this book, he lays out the case for shifting our personal money and civic investment away from global corporate behemoths and to small, local, independent businesses.

Well-researched and lively, his tale covers the history of big box stores, the big political drama of delivery, and the perils of warehouse work. He shows how Amazon's ruthless discount strategies mean authors, publishers, and even Amazon themselves can lose money on every book sold. And he spells out a clear path to resistance, in a world where consumers are struggling to get by. In-depth research is interspersed with charming personal anecdotes from bookstore life, making this a readable, fascinating, essential book for the 2020s.

About the Author

Danny Caine is owner of Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas. He is the author of the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy's, and Flavortown, as well as the viral zine How to Resist Amazon & Why. He was named the 2019 Midwest Bookseller of the year and is a passionate advocate, online and off, for independent, brick-and-mortar bookstores. More at dannycaine.com.