This is the new standard for AI horror. Tremblay blends satire, paranoia, and genuine emotional depth into a story that is as heartbreaking as it is terrifying. Julia and Bernie quickly become characters you care about, and their cross-country journey transforms from a technological experiment into a meditation on identity, humanity, and love. Unsettling, clever, …
It actually had me laughing out loud. The voice is refreshing; at a time when it seems AI is seeping into everything, you can almost feel the warmth of the human touch here. –Laura, Paulina Springs Books, Sisters, OR Treat yourself to a road trip of a book from Paulina Springs and other independent bookstores.
Foreword Reviews interviewed PNW author, Alexandra Oliva in May Enjoy! Dontaná McPherson-Joseph Interviews Alexandra Oliva, Author of The Radiant Dark Science and fiction—you can almost sense the tension between those two words. Science is serious, it wants evidence and facts. Fiction is playful, it imagines and creates and does whatever the hell it wants. All of …
Douglas Stuart’s books transport me entirely. They wrap me up in stories and characters’ lives that are so real and so beautifully broken that I can’t help but daydream about them and worry about them while my book is closed. Reading this book felt like breathing the freshest air and running into the wind. I …
From Shelf Awareness May 8, 2026 Reading with… Laurie Frankel Laurie Frankel is the author of six novels, including Enormous Wings (Holt, May 5, 2026), a fresh, funny, timely story of bodily autonomy, women’s rights, elder rights, reproductive rights, family, love, grandmas, paparazzi, sex, profane priests, and hamsters. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington …
Laurie Frankel has a way of treating serious issues in a warm and loving way, and of bringing understanding to contentious topics. Maybe this book can open a few yes to the horrors of the Texas (and unfortunately other states’) laws. –Karen Emmerling, Beach Books, Seaside, OR I was instantly drawn to 77-year-old Pepper Mills; …
A gripping multi-generational story that delves into messy relationships, motherhood struggles, inherited trauma, dreams for the future, AND the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. –Rachel, Brick & Mortar Books, Redmond, WA Explore fiction from Pacific Northwest authors (and novels that expand your horizons in many ways) at Brick & Mortar Books and other independent bookstores.
The atmosphere of the Bog Wife is damp, oppressive, and ever present in the drama surrounding family history, tradition, and obligation with a specter of the supernatural haunting the periphery. The layers of metaphor stack upon each other like the sphagnum moss that layers the bog to become a rich peat. —Obadiah, Sherwood Bookstore, Sherwood, …
You will be wholly moved as you journey along with Leigh, gaining an intimate understanding of her soul and appreciation for those around her who help her see the truth and beauty in herself. The focus isn’t her trauma; yes, her trauma informs her life in indelible ways, and still, she grows greatly just like …
It was a @mariasemple weekend for her old Seattle friends: watching her on stage @townhall_seattle trading zingers with @whoiskenjennings on Saturday night and hosting a book-signing visit at the store and doing some visiting with friends on Sunday. Her new novel, Go Gentle, is a heartful hoot, the kind of book for which the adjective “madcap” was invented—we’ve been trading our …
