Borrowed Copy

Rick Rocks! Celebrating Rick Simonson’s 50 years at Elliott Bay Book Company

Rick Simonson has been building community in Seattle and hobnobbing with literary luminaries all over the world for 50 years now. […] “Rick and I have walked many trails together. But Rick is always too modest, and he always deflects,” said Simonson’s best friend and a legendary bookseller himself, Paul Yamazaki. As Yamazaki talked about his friend’s modesty, Simonson turned away before he cut in, “He does it, though! He does it! He got tagged with an award he couldn’t …

Nov 10, 2026

what's new

Nov

9

2026

Face Out

The Dying Light by Ann Cleeves

After a girl is found dead in the pool of her friend’s summer house in Devon, DI Matthew Venn is called in to solve the murder and locate the victim’s friend, who is now missing. As more is revealed throughout the investigation, the case goes far deeper than it appears on the surface. Secrets and …

Nov

6

2026

Booklovers' Field Trips

Portland Book Festival November 2026

Portland, OR! Get ready for the Portland Book Festival with the event running from November 2- 8, 2026. The main day will be Saturday, November 7. From bookstore festival partner Broadway Books in Portland: [W]e have expanded our partnership with Literary Arts at the Portland Book Festival (November 7th) and you’ll find us at our …

Nov

5

2026

Thursday Themes

Bestseller Spotlight: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

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. This week, the beloved children’s book duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are well-represented. The witchy Room …

Nov

4

2026

Face Out

Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski

Mark Z. Danielewski returns with Tom’s Crossing, a “magisterial, page-turning epic” about a pair of young people who attempt to lead a couple of horses along an icy mountain route in Utah. It sounds like a coming-of-age novel. Or possibly a young Americana novel. Think All the Pretty Horses meets Huckleberry Finn. Or Lonesome Dove meets True Grit. But, at the heart …

Nov

3

2026

Borrowed Copy

A Conversation in the Cold: HarperCollins PNW Rep Jamil Zaidi Talks “Winter Song” with Author Rebeca Lee Morales

From debut Eugene, OR author Rebeca Lee Morales, Winter Song is a moving, pitch-perfect novel of love, community, and the redress of past wrongs in working-class America, for fans of Elizabeth Strout and Kent Haruf. In the frozen Minnesota hinterland of 1986, police chief Gordon Trent, facing mandatory retirement, squares off with Byron Lugo, a …

Nov

2

2026

Face Out

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

Like The Royal Tenenbaums and Fleishman is in Trouble and Bottoms and Big Swiss but also wholly original. A one-sided open marriage, maybe building a bomb with your pen pal, gnat infestation in the church, seedy billionaires throwing Eyes Wide Shut parties, a man named War Crimes Wes with an autoimmune disorder, being too smart for your own good …

Oct

30

2026

Face Out

The Dragon Has Some Complaints
by John Wiswell

It’s time to meet my new favorite dragon, one with three heads (used to be four heads) and none of them can agree on anything. After a battle goes awry, this dragon sneaks into a dragon rider academy, pretends to be a tame dragon to get the free room and board while he heals, and …

Oct

29

2026

Thursday Themes

Bestseller Spotlight: Halloween Hauntings

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 look for something special to showcase. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes. If the bestseller list is any indication, your local, …

Oct

28

2026

Face Out

The Killing Of A Chestnut Tree
by Oliver Langmead

This multi-faceted gem of a novel set in late Victorian England is a mere 176-pages. But, like a finely cut gem, this author doesn’t waste anything–not time, not words, not paper–in telling what turns out to be a brilliantly woven mystery-within-a-mystery–the first of a new series that introduces us to Havelock Harper (consulting detective) and …

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