Last Friday afternoon, as part of the week’s virtual regional trade show, booksellers from around the Pacific Northwest watched members of the PNBA Book Awards Committee present a selection of books they are excited about for the 2021 Book Awards. About 400 titles have been nominated for the award (more were arriving during the conference). …
…and speaking of building better tomorrows, we’re delighted to see Ibram X. Kendi has cleverly put out a baby board book. Timing is everything, and nothing happens overnight in book publishing, which makes the arrival of Antiracist Baby this week a marvel. Kendi, whose Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and How to …
Shaun Bythell’s follow-up to Diary of a Bookseller is out this week. Confessions of a Bookseller picks up where Diary left off. Yes, Wigtown is still out in the ruralest of rural places in Scotland. Yes, people still don’t understand how used book stores work. Yes, Shaun still wrestles with his staff understanding where books …
With social distancing guidelines in place, audiobooks, ebooks, and online orders from local bookstores are a way to keep your communities as healthy as possible. Libro.fm, the Seattle audiobook company that partners with many independent bookstores, is offering a new member incentive that is a big help to local, neighborhood shops. If you haven’t tried …
Last week, booksellers, authors, illustrators, and publishing professionals from around the country gathered in Baltimore for the American Booksellers Association annual education conference, Winter Institute. Among the featured authors was WA’s own Deb Caletti, promoting her upcoming young adult book, Girl, Unframed. On her way home, Caletti experienced a particularly uplifting experience. She posted about …
Today, Liberty Bay Books’ Suzanne Droppert and author Suzanne Selfors made a very exciting announcement: Suzanne Selfors will be the new owner of Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, WA as of February 1, 2020, and Suzanne Droppert will stay at the helm of the Bremerton Liberty Bay Books, but will rename it Ballast Book Company. …
Ann Patchett’s newest novel gives us two separate portraits: one of a family and one of a house. Danny, the son of a self-made man, and presumptive heir to both his business and the luxurious Dutch House, narrates this story. I found I could never predict where the story was going to go. As soon …
From the Libro.fm blog It’s strange to call someone on the phone—someone you’ve never met—after listening to them speak for ten hours. It’s even stranger when that person turns out to be as wry as the main character in the book they narrated. We spoke with Kathleen Wilhoite, a singer and actress who played Liz …
Live from PAX West, a book review! There’s something to the notion of a time war, isn’t there? One faction wants This, another faction wants That, and time is the battlefield. There’s also something futile to the notion, but that’s another book (All of an Instant by Richard Garfinkle [out of print]). This book is …
Garth Stein, bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, has always been a storyteller. He went to graduate school for film and made documentary films for years before he wrote his first novel, which he did while also working on grant proposals. “It was almost accidental,” he says. “But I enjoyed the process, …
