Every Wednesday, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association publishes the regional bestseller list. On Thursdays, we celebrate Thursday Themes to shine a spotlight on some of the books from the list and give our brains a different way of thinking about books. This week’s list shows some signs of summer, including the annual graduation bestseller. The sales coincided with …
Like D.B. Cooper, poet-logger Wobblies, potlatches, and the geoduck, The Golden Spruce is the kind of story Cascadia produces best: mystical, misty, mystifying, and just a little bit larger than life. A great read, engaging without pandering or condescension, this story is part whodunit, part song-of-place, and part sorrowful cautionary parable. A must for all …
I grew up reading Judy Blume and the Sweet Valley High series. Book after book, I never saw anyone on the page who resembled me or had similar family experiences. What’s worse—I didn’t notice. Then, in my early twenties, I attended a Native College where I was assigned to read novels by Indigenous authors. Wow, …
Nothing warms up a cold, dark winter evening quite like a good murder mystery. And nothing makes a cold, dark winter pass more quickly than binge-reading murder mysteries written in series. So stack ‘em up, and start with these suggestions to keep you warm ‘til spring… I recently reread Edmund Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop after …
Heart Berries achieves that most elusive and sacred goal of literature, to make us feel less alone in the world. With a beautiful and original voice, Mailhot applies the precision of the poet to her prose. Each sentence feels necessary, each paragraph vital, as she grapples with daughterhood, motherhood, sisterhood, wifehood, and finally, selfhood. Mailhot has …
