FINDING YOUR CENTER

Lisa and fellow contributors to “Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America” will be at the Center for New Words in Cambridge tomorrow for a reading from the anthology, described as exploring “through a child’s lens the sometimes savage, sometimes innocent, and always complex ways in which race shapes American lives and families.”

This is a free event, held at 7 p.m. at the center, which is at 186 Hampshire St., Inman Square, meaning it’s frustratingly difficult to get to without a car, especially in the cold. It’s a haul from Porter or Harvard. But worthwhile, given the evidence of Lisa’s passionate writing and reviews of the book. The event is even to be recorded for the WGBH Forum Network.

The center alone is worth the visit, if only as a beacon for what a bookstore can be when it can be a bookstore no longer. That is, the center is a bookstore without books — a possibly increasingly important model in a world in which WordsWorth gives way to Amazon and iPods and laptops make even the T and coffee shops an isolating experience.

Finally, although there’s no live music planned for Thursday night, consider visiting the Ryles jazz club just down the street. My sister went to an event at the center one rainy night, only to find the building locked. The gaggle of drenched attendees were not only granted sanctuary by Ryles managers, but invited to use part of the club for their event.