The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the regional trade association for independent bookstores, just concluded its annual fall trade show this week. This means that the PNBA Board of Directors gathered, and when that happens, there’s a tradition of going around the room to introduce ourselves and something we’ve read lately.
Below are the books that the board, including booksellers and sales reps from the region, shared.
David Hartz, Book ‘N’ Brush in Chehalis, WA:
David has focused on some socially aware nonfiction lately. He heartily recommends Souls in the Hands of a Tender God by Craig Rennebohm withe David Paul and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Tina Ontiveros from Klindt’s Booksellers in The Dalles, OR:
Tina recommends the forthcoming memoir, Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot. It takes place in the Pacific Northwest on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation. The book goes on sale February 2018.
Brad Smith from Paulina Springs in Sisters, OR:
Brad presented two nonfiction books that he considers must-reads: A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, More Efficient Tax System by T. R. Reid and Queen of Be-Bop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan by Elaine M. Hayes, a biography that uses the lens of jazz to teach about racism and sexism in our country from 1930s onward.
Colleen Conway, Penguin kids’ sales rep from Penguin Random House:
Colleen really enjoyed Educated by Tara Westover; it will be published in February 2018. She has also been joining in the annual real-time read-along of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.
Emily Adams from Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, WA:
Emily has been enjoying rereading Sea of Poppies and the other two books in the Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh. She also loved The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. The new cookbook she’s been cooking out of the most is My Rice Bowl by Rachel Yang and Jess Thompson.
Carol Spurling from BookPeople of Moscow, ID:
Vice president Carol had a lot to share! Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan is a great bookstore-set mystery, Through a Long Absence: Words from My Father’s Wars by Joy Passanante is powerful nonfiction, spy thriller Slow Horses by Mick Herron will keep you turning the pages, and Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales will keep even reluctant readers riveted.
Shawn Donley, President of the Board and sales rep for Hachette Book Group:
Shawn is reading ahead, so you’ll want to preorder his picks. He raved about Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes, a remarkable middle grade novel about social justice that will be published in April 2018. He also mentioned a title I can’t even find a cover for yet– a book about bees by the region’s own Thor Hanson, titled Buzz.
Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, WA:
The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher is a fascinating history with a little spooky otherworldliness for Halloween; Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie Dao is a gripping, original YA fantasy debut, and Agent M by Henry Hemming is a true story of special agents and spymasters worthy of James Bond.
Emily’s lineup is so aesthetically pleasing!