Andrew Shaffer is responsible for Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery. That’s right: Joe Biden and Barack Obama as a crime-fighting duo. Obama graciously inhabits the Sherlock Holmes role in this crisp and chatty crime caper, while Biden shows Watson a thing or two about how the sidekick should steal the show. Sure, it’s all …
This one has obsessive fly-tiers who are willing to steal feathers from the British Museum of Natural History, a spin through naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace’s predilection for charting and collecting feathers, and a long-form discussion about the nature of beauty. Wallace, as you may know, was one of the first to propose the idea of …
We’re a bit swoony-eyed about A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice by William Glassley. Glassley joins the ranks of naturalist writers who make talking about rocks and lichens sexy with this witty and engrossing memoir of time spent wandering about on Greenland. Even though Glassley tackles the hard sciencey …
We are delighted that Peter Wohlleben’s follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees is here. In The Inner Life of Animals, Wohlleben ascribes many of the fundamental emotional qualities to animals. He doesn’t do so scientifically, but does so from an armchair empricist’s standpoint. To put it bluntly, he doesn’t come out and say, “Ducks …
Most of the time, a sticker proclaiming a title is a “NEW BOOK” is sort of self-evident, but in the case of Shel Silverstein, an actual new book is worth getting out of bed, rushing through your morning oat bran, and heading on down to the bookstore early. Runny Babbit Returns is a collection of tongue-twisting poems …
by Evelyn Nicholas, A Good Book, Sumner, WA I am a bookstore owner, and I realize that often we as booksellers are the only people in some folks’ lives, but I never expected a customer to ask me THAT. Our job is to guide people to books that will give them pleasure during the relaxing …
Lance Hendricks is a perfect kid—plays trumpet, 4.0 GPA, has earnest heart palpitations for a girl, knows his way around cars. When his trusty steed—er, car—breaks down in the middle of the Washington wilderness, things—wait for it—go awry. It’s like David Lynch’s Lost Highway meets The Wizard of Oz, but without all the monkeys. [And we’ll gloss over …
…speaking of delights, Alissa Nutting returns with Made for Love, a story about girl and a trailer park and her father’s life-like sex doll. Why would a young woman live with her father in a seniors’ trailer park, especially when Dad has a rather *cough* interesting relationship with, uh, “Diane”? Because she’s trying to get …
…[H]ow about a six-foot Shakespearean timeline? That’s right! Thirty-eight of the Bard’s best, detailed out in a handy wall chart that lets you envision the world of Shakespeare as never before. It’s got quizzes and Gant charts and even a pocket magnifier (for finding that oft-quoted soliloquy from the emo-est of Danish princes that is …
We’ve got a new cookbook for you! Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking. Nosrat’s been teaching everyone from professional chefs to middle school kids to author Michael Pollan (though we’re not quite sure where he falls in this spectrum: clumsier than a professional chef and more able to read directions …
