We live in salmon country, right? That’s what we tell ourselves, and in many ways it’s still true, but it’s a complicated, conflicted business now, with hatcheries, dams, $56 Copper River entrees, and, yes, millions of wild salmon still wriggling their way up Northwest streams and rivers to spawn. Cook is a superb guide to …
Everybody does it. I look at the books around me every day in the bookstore and I imagine the books I don’t see; the books I’m unlikely to ever see published, or even written. It isn’t a symptom of dissatisfaction with the books there are. Every day I get to work in the bookstore I …
My local bookstore is the beloved Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle. This is where I scour the shelves for acceptable novels of dystopian distress for my extremely opinionated children, where I discover small press essay collections for my wife, and where I signed the first fresh-off-the-press copy of The Mushroom Hunters right after the …
The Book Awards Committee of the Pacific Northwest Bookseller Association (the pro-indie bookstore professional organization behind this blog) announced the six 2014 PNBA Book Award winners today! Over the next month, nwbooklovers.org will publish essays from the winning authors and local independent northwest stores will host the winners for celebrations. Committee comments for the winners (as …
I am not, by nature, a joiner. Do I have to? is my gut reaction when the word “community” is bruited about. Maybe it has to do with being a writer. I think most deeply and live most fully when I’m alone with the screen and keyboard. Community has always struck me as a distraction. I …
