Jon Resh with his assistant (and wife) as he entertains a packed house with his “Chronology of Lesser Phobias,” most notably, his fear of animals with three legs and King Tut.

Jonathan Messinger reading from Hiding Out, his collection of short stories. His chosen piece, fitting for Mother’s Day weekend, featured a strained relationship between a mother and her older son, held together by their mutual interest in the narrator and younger brother.

Messinger and his musings on the intricacies of familial relationships kept smiles on these faces for the duration.

Joe Meno and Charles Kim of The Astronomer weave their respective mediums together.

Squeezing between the shelves.

Literago attended Joe Meno’s release party for his new novel, The Great Perhaps on Thursday, May 7 at Quimby’s Bookstore. Joined by friends and fellow writers Resh and Messinger and musican Kim, Meno unveiled what all three friends claimed as their favorite Meno piece yet.  Meno was gracious as he shyly took the microphone after Messinger’s introduction touting his friend’s recent success. Dramatically accompanied by Kim, Mr. Meno read an excerpt from his latest novel that placed the novel’s central characters, a family of four, at the Lincoln Park Zoo, the parents in search of a day of normalcy with their two polarized teenaged daughters.

All in all, it was a low-key night at a kickass bookstore with some humorous and talented writers, an audience tending towards participation and laughter, and bright little moments like Kim’s musical interpretation of a seizure and Messinger’s story’s closing line:

“I hoped that this was the kind of thing families are meant to withstand.”