I did not know that I would find pleasure in the rain. I grew up in northern Alberta on the edge of the subarctic, where everything is covered in snow for several months of the year. I moved to Vancouver, BC to teach and to write. It rained every day that first January. I was …
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, …
It’s time for a Thursday Theme, where we shine a spotlight on some of the titles featured in this week’s Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association regional bestseller list. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Let’s celebrate the first week with bestselling books by Asian American authors, and let’s work on getting some books by …
“These unbroken stretches of consciousness, days sometimes blurring into one another, seems just a feature of modern life, not worth complaining about,” an insomniac remarks to herself. Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is a collection of short stories that captures the modern sense of malaise that is now more pronounced, more intense, as …
The cathartic power of righteous anger is usually overlooked, but not this book! This book is all about righteous anger. One young woman is born with a coveted power, and with that power she works to avenge not only her sister, but also all young women who are being sacrificed in the dystopia she lives …
Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black is calling to us from the table over there. The paperback edition has a much more evocative cover (even though we are fans of big block text), highlighting Edugyan’s larger-than-life story of George Washington Black, an eleven-year-old field slave from Barbados, who has some adventures. Some adventures. We make it sound …
Washington Black is a novel about a boy of precarious visibilities: he is all too visible to those who would demean his humanity; he is all too invisible to those who might recognize his gifts and value his very real potential to make great contributions to the world. Born an eleven-year old field slave in …
