I’ve met Kaya McLaren in person only once, but I feel like I know her. A few years ago when she was in Central Oregon, she stopped into Paulina Springs Books with her dog, Big Cedar. We talked for a few minutes before she revealed that she is an author. She was so sweet and genuine–when I …
I used to work at one of those large chain bookstores. Yes, one of those places we indies used to consider the big, bad wolf, until Amazon’s rise to power made us all realize who the wolf really is. I needed a job, it was a job in books, and I took it. I appreciated …
I grew up in Baker County, Oregon and visited the bookstore Betty’s Books on town trips. Betty’s Books sits squarely in the middle of downtown Baker City, on Main Street. It has been in operation since 1979 (when I was three) and is my original model for the magic bookshop. What is a magic bookshop? …
Handselling books is one of my favorite parts of my job. There’s nothing more gratifying than talking about a book I enjoyed, seeing a customer’s eyes light up, and hearing her say, “That sounds great. I think I’ll get that one.” It gives me a little thrill every time. It’s especially fun when the customer …
Welcome to the revamped NWBookLovers.org! As you take a look around the new site, you’ll see that it feels more like a traditional blog than the old version and that we’ve got a bunch of new voices—all while hanging on to the best of the old site: the Face Outs, the author interviews and essays, …
I read Ceiridwen Terrill’s book Part Wild: One Woman’s Journey with a Creature Caught Between the Worlds of Wolves and Dogs with intense interest. Her story of living with her wolfdog, Inyo, held me captive; even though it is ultimately heartbreaking, Terrill’s spirit shines through so brightly that I finished the book feeling hopeful. When …
As a bookseller who is also a mostly unpublished writer, I crave contact with other serious writers. One of my main tasks at Paulina Springs Books is booking our author events, which means I get to meet or have contact with all the authors who come through here. You would think this would be the …
Amanda MacNaughton has worked at Paulina Springs Books for six years, and she’s been in the book world for seventeen. Her first bookselling job was at her college bookstore in Illinois, when she was eighteen. Since then she’s worked at the Deschutes Public Library and at Barnes & Noble in Bend, OR. Tired of corporate bookselling, she …
Brian Doyle’s first novel, Mink River, published to critical and bookseller acclaim earlier this year, is set in a small town on the Oregon Coast called Neawanaka. An unusual novel, it has no main character but is rather a woven narrative encompassing the stories of many characters, including Irish-Americans and Native Americans, as well as …
Anjali Banerjee is the author of five books for young readers and three for adults, the most recent of which, Haunting Jasmine, was published in February. Banerjee was born in Kolkata, India, but she grew up in Manitoba, Canada, and now lives in Olalla, Washington, on the Kitsap Peninsula, in a cabin in the woods. She …
