On Wednesdays, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller List is published. Every week, we love to see what books have been most popular in independent bookstores around our region. As we peruse the list, we ponder patterns. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes. W is for winter and witches and women and water and walls and …
On Wednesdays, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller List is published. Every week, we love to see what books have been most popular in independent bookstores around our region. As we peruse the list, we ponder patterns. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes. The featured titles this week contain uncertainty or impossibility, with words to ignite …
Here is Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love. Lovingly designed by Chip Kidd (of course), Murakami T is a wee book wherein Haruki Murakami reminiscences about his t-shirt collection (which is not as extensive as his vinyl collection, by the way). And because it’s Murakami, his “reminiscences” are delightfully quirky and eccentric essays. It’s totally a “WTF is …
There’s an opinion in publishing that literature in translation doesn’t sell— that the books are dense and unapproachable, and that Americans won’t read authors whose names we can’t pronounce. Norman Manea (The Lair, Yale Margellos) says books in translation are thought to be “too ‘complicated,’ which is another way of saying that literature should deal …
“Murakami’s collection of short stories is like perfect sushi: dazzling to the eye, deceptively simple yet beautifully executed. Stark but not bleak—powerful—each story is a bento in itself.” —Ann, University Bookstore, Seattle
“The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami may be his best collection of short stories. The 17 surreal tales collected in this volume achieve a remarkable balance between strange whimsy and serious philosophy, never being either too dark or too silly. Newlyweds rob fast food shops, little green aliens fall in love with earth women, and, …
