what's new

Sep

25

2010

Borrowed Copy

The American Meadow Garden Wins Gold

Timber Press in Portland announced yesterday that The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn has won a Gold Medal from the Garden Writers Association for Best Book of 2010. Author John Greenlee and photographer Saxon Holt were both in attendance at the 62nd annual GWA Symposium held in Dallas, TX earlier this month to accept the surprise Award. Two other Timber Press books won Awards at the Symposium, Bloom-Again Orchids by Judy White for writing; …

Sep

23

2010

Borrowed Copy

Len Does Down Under

Len Vlahos, the Chief Operating Officer of the American Booksellers Association, the national association of independent bookstores in the United States, traveled to New Zealand and Australia last month, to talk about the effects of digitization on the book world, otherwise known as eBooks. Apparently, New Zealand and Australia are about 18 months behind the …

Sep

23

2010

Borrowed Copy

Four-Star Librarian Gig

Portland’s Heathman Hotel recently hired a part-time libarian to help manage its 4000-volume library, The Oregonian reported yesterday. The books in the Heathman collection are signed by authors who’ve stayed at the hotel, Stephen King, Bill Clinton and Annie Dillard among them. The librarian, Sophie Soprani, is a 20-year-old aspiring writer and an English major …

Sep

23

2010

Face Out

Mink River by Brian Doyle

“Brian Doyle loves words; big words, small words, fancy words, plain words, exotic words, domesticated words, adjectives, verbs and nouns especially, and because he loves words he piles them up in great juicy heaps of phrases and paragraphs and sentences and pages and whole books and makes delicious stories with them, stories about impossibly possible …

Sep

22

2010

1remark

Borrowed Copy

Good Night Oregon: What About Idaho, MT, AK & WA?!?!

It’s always fun to check out the weekly list of Northwest Bestsellers, especially to see what’s selling well in the Northwest that’s not on the national lists. This week a little book caught my eye called Good Night Oregon (#8 on the children’s illustrated books list), from a company called Our World of Books. I’m …

Sep

22

2010

Conversations

Bonny Becker on Bookstores, the Same Bad Boyfriend and that Simple but Profound Mix

The picture books by Seattle kids’ author Bonny Becker are some of the best and most fun to read in our stacks. Her Mouse and Bear series, now three strong, hits that just-right combination of satisfying both kids and adults with its humor and repetition (but not too much) and a charming relationship between these …

Sep

22

2010

One Nightstand

Tell All

Oh Chuckie P….what can I say? As always, Chuck Palahniuk delivers the most bizarre and unique books you’ll ever read.

Sep

22

2010

One Nightstand

The Outside Boy

I’m just about done with this wonderful book. Set in Ireland in the late 1950’s it’s the story of a family of Pavee or travelers. Christy Hurley is the 11-year-old protagonist. His family temporarily settles down so he and his cousin can receive their first communion. It’s richly written and I will recommend it to …

Sep

21

2010

Borrowed Copy

Looking for November's Lost Art of Reading

PWxyz has a nice article today about a book that won’t be available until November, The Lost Art of Reading by David Ulin, published by the Northwest’s own Sasquatch Books. We haven’t seen the book but we sure do like the concept. PWxyz describes it thusly: “Ulin confronts the question of whether and how the …

Sep

21

2010

Face Out

Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg

“Beautiful Oops! is such a wonderful book! A tear in the page becomes a smile, a bent corner an ear. Vivid illustrations of all manner of artistic boo-boos teach us-young and not so young-that art is not about perfection but  possibilities.”-Holly Meyers, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle

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