From Marissa at Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis, OR, originally posted on nwbooklovers on April 11, 2018: In Zumas’s all-too-familiar dystopia set in a small Oregon coastal town, Roe v. Wade has been overturned. The narrative explores the complexity of childbearing — both the desire for and not for — and the reduction …
Trees are fascinating subjects. I am obsessed with tree books and try to read all that I can find. But most of these focus on a tree’s root systems or how they influence the forest floor to support life. Not many of these books delve into the canopy of these trees, until now. This is …
Iron Widow is a book born from female rage. I often pitch it as “Pacific Rim” meets The Handmaid’s Tale because those are two properties familiar to Western audiences, but in truth, I was more inspired by Japanese mecha anime and Chinese harem dramas. The gilded palaces of Imperial China, where thousands of women must …
A delightful expose’ of the famous Barbizon Hotel for Women in NY City, the place where ambitious young women could live safely and in style while beginning their careers. Famous residents included the Unsinkable Molly Brown, Grace Kelly, Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath, Barbara Chase-Riboud, and many others. The women arrived with high hopes and great …
An enlightening, empowering memoir from an admirable woman. Melinda draws on her 20 years of philanthropy with the Gates Foundation, co-founded with her husband Bill, to give her readers concrete ways to lift and to help lift. Each chapter conveys a current issue of need, at home and in other countries. Her message is that …
From a recent newsletter from Eagle Harbor Book Company on Bainbridge Island, WA: What experienced bookseller hasn’t heard this one: “I can’t remember the author or the title, but the cover is blue!” We rarely astonish our customers (or ourselves) by solving a mystery this difficult, but this week was our moment in the sun. The customer …
Celebrate Black History Month with books from Third Eye Books’ Black Freedom Collection. The Black-owned store’s website has 42 pages of recommended books on this theme. Third Eye Books is based in Portland but had to close their brick and mortar storefront during the pandemic. They are still seeking donations for their relocation fund, but …
Lupe Wong Won’t Dance is the story of a twelve-year-old girl who doesn’t want to do something. Pretty universal. But Lupe’s journey isn’t just about one girl trying to weasel out of square dancing in P.E. with comedic results. It’s a book about how it feels to be twelve-years-old, and told you have to do …
Karen from Annie Bloom’s Books in Portland, OR recommends three recent YA titles on the theme of #MeToo (recommended for more mature readers). Red Hood by Alana K. Arnold is definitely about wolves and about frightened girls, but Bisou Martel isn’t willing to play the victim. The second person narration threw me in the first few …
I read the back of this book and laughed out loud. OMG! SOLD!!! Then I dove in, feet first. What I hadn’t expected was one of the most thought-provoking pieces of self exploration and BECOMING, I’ve read in the last decade. Slate writes with the lyrical intensity of Kahlil Gibran and narrative storytelling of Joan …
