Thursday Themes

Bestseller Spotlight: Nature for Earth Day

Every Wednesday, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association publishes the regional bestseller list. On Thursdays, we celebrate Thursday Themes to shine a spotlight on some of the books from the list and give our brains a different way of thinking about books. As we prepare for Earth Day on April 22, we see a lot of titles about the natural world featured in stores and going home with readers. Remarkably Bright Creatures Shelby Van Pelt (#6 Hardcover Fiction) North Woods Daniel Mason (#11 Hardcover …

Apr 18, 2024

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Apr

19

2024

Face Out

Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro

Here is V. Castro’s Immortal Pleasures, which is the story of La Malinche, a Nahua woman who translated for Cortés back in the day. History hasn’t been kind to La Malinche, mostly due to the fact that Cortés left a lot of bodies in his wake. However, in Castro’s hands, La Malinche is reborn as …

Apr

17

2024

Face Out

How to Protect Bookstores and Why: The Present and Future of Bookselling by Danny Caine

    If you ever wondered what kinds of conversations bookstores have behind the scenes about small business economics, community, obstacles, and current legislative landscapes, this is for you. Caine profiles a host of excellent stores who have faced different types of struggles that apply to other bookstores and small businesses in general. Read this …

Apr

16

2024

Award Winners

Congratulations to The Patterson Spring Bonus Booksellers!

  In celebration of the publication of The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, James Patterson awarded spring bonuses to booksellers around the country. The full list of bookseller recipients is here. Through April 30, 2024, you can nominate librarians. Among them, …

Apr

15

2024

Face Out

Loudermilk: Or, The Real Poet; Or, The Origin of the World by Lucy Ives

Truly the only novel about an MFA poetry program that matters; part parody, part homage, and another Cyrano de Bergerac retelling, this ridiculous farce of collegiate-town manners and betrayal is a heady read. –Ruby, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland, OR Poetry month theme reading can include novels, too– novels in verse and novels about poetry. Ask for …

Apr

12

2024

Face Out

The Lost Van Gogh by Jonathan Santlofer

It begins in Paris. A painter studiously works to cover a canvass with a portrait of his wife– Josette– to cover the painting that is already in place but must now be protected. For this is 1944 and art is being ruined, stolen and destroyed. From there, we move to the present and the search …

Apr

11

2024

Thursday Themes

Bestseller Spotlight: Plenty of Pronouns

On Wednesdays, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller list is published. Every week, we love to see what books have been most popular in independent bookstores around our region. As we peruse the list, we ponder patterns. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes. If we include possessive pronouns, we find that we have a very lovely …

Apr

10

2024

Face Out

Thunder Song by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe

Award-winning indigenous writer Sasha LaPointe shared part of her history with us in Red Paint. Now, she returns with a set of essays that add to the story in a new memoir that is honest, at times disturbing, but always interesting. She wants us to know what it is like to be a queer indigenous …

Apr

9

2024

Borrowed Copy

A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest by OR Author Charlie J. Stephens

“In prose drenched with awe, Charlie J. Stephens’ tender novel takes a child’s perspective on the pains of being poor in rural Oregon. Knowing that children like Smokey are cast as furniture in the house of adult desires, immobile and without needs, A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest begs us to take them seriously.” —FOREWORD REVIEWS, starred review In …

Apr

8

2024

Also a Poet by Ada Calhoun-- cream title and black type on background of pink and red

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Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun

This is my favorite kind of non-fiction book—a failure. Which is to say that it isn’t a biography of the influential mid-century poet Frank O’Hara, although it’s full of biographical detail and wise analysis of his life and work. It also doesn’t offer definitive answers about the fraught relationship between distant fathers and their underappreciated …

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