If you ask me, nothing beats browsing a well-stocked independent bookstore in person, in part because of that moment when an enthusiastic and erudite bookseller places your next great read directly into your hands. When the pandemic put an abrupt stop to this face-to-face phenomenon, the worker-owned-and-operated Pilsen Community Books (which had the wild fortune of transferring to new ownership two weeks before lockdown) offered instead two monthly subscription programs to replicate at a safe distance that sensation of smart suggestion. Seeds of Change ($20 a month) offers one succinct and welcoming introduction to a radical concept — in June, it was the history of the struggle of Palestine for liberation — geared toward discussion groups or solitary education. Bread and Roses (from $40 a month) pairs one book of history or theory (bread!) with one book of fiction, poetry, or drama (roses!) on a given topic — for example, Jeff Halper’s Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine as the former and Mahmoud Darwish’s Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? as the latter. Luckily, both programs will continue as lit lovers ease back into retail normalcy. With this delicious intellectual-emotional takeout, your brain and your heart never have to go hungry. pilsencommunitybooks.com