Des souvenirs tellement chers…
Merci, Notre Dame. Find sanctuary in independent bookstores, where you can honor the past and imagine the future.
Ball Four by Jim Bouton
I couldn’t tell you who won last year’s World Series, because I don’t follow baseball. But this sports book has earned a sterling reputation as a classic that transcends the game. Author/knuckleball pitcher Jim Bouton has the humorist’s eye for telling, pithy detail, and the memoirist’s courage in sharing honest and sometimes unflattering anecdotes about himself …
Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner
The headline to a review I wrote of this book when it came out in 2004 read, “Caribou Hair Everywhere,” and I can’t think of three words that better describe it. Raised by a father who moved from the Midwest to a sod igloo in remote, northwest Alaska, young Cutuk grows toward an inevitable choice …
The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg
This is a little book, written in a modest style, but its claims are large. Despite her title, Ginzburg wants us to set aside the “little virtues” of frugality, caution, and tact for the greater ones of love, courage, and generosity. The essays were written between 1944 and 1962 in the wake of personal and …
The City in Which I Love You
by Li-Young Lee
Sit down. Right here in the aisle is fine. Get your phone, put in earbuds. Go to YouTube. Watch Li-Young Lee read his poem”This Room and Everything in It.” Buy this book. –Shawn, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA Immerse yourself in poetry at Elliott Bay Book Company and other independent bookstores.
Amateur Hour: Talking about, and selling, some good books
Ever since freshman year of high school, when I was first introduced to the likes of Great Expectations and The Ox-Bow Incident, talking about books—for me—has always come a close second to actually reading them. So, in December, I boarded a plane in Philadelphia to live every bibliophile’s dream: selling books. I couldn’t have felt …
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Some say New York City is a “melting pot.” I think not so much. Positively scads of vastly different folks exist in close proximity. But the vastly different doesn’t go away. That’s the secret! In this book a poor kid gets mixed up with a lot of rich ones. Uptown, Downtown, Eastside, Westside … she sees it …
Amerika by Franz Kafka
This week, someone absconded (yes, it happens, especially in that corner of the store) with almost our entire Kafka section, but they left this one behind, which is somehow fitting. It’s the forgotten one of Kafka’s novels, and for that reason and many others I often say it’s my favorite of his books, or of …
Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill
It’s usually the case in books that the story takes place when people are not working: that’s when life, apparently, begins. Gill’s memoir flips that on its head: there is almost nothing in the book outside the work she did, along with troops of others, for almost twenty years: planting trees to replace logged clearcuts …
Beloved by Booksellers: PNW Authors’ Backlist
This week, 600 booksellers gathered in Denver for the 11th annual Winter Institute, a 3-day educational conference for people who own or work in independent bookstores, hosted by the American Booksellers Association (ABA). The ABA started a new tradition on the opening night: a backlist book swap. “Backlist” titlesare books that have been around (the opposite of …
