Martyr! took over my brain completely. Kaveh Akbar created a revelatory experience in novel form about the absurdities of living, loving, dying, and discovering one’s identity. Each poetic page was filled with passages I want to keep close. — Torrin, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, WA Explore the National Book Awards finalists at Queen Anne …
Here is Willy Vlautin’s The Horse, which is the story of Al Ward, a man in his final years, who finds a horse on his doorstep one morning. He’s not sure if the horse is a hallucination, but its presence triggers a lot of contemplation of life—the one he had and the one he didn’t …
No one walks the fine line between enchantment and shadow quite like Ogawa, a tension she strikes with such precision in Mina’s Matchbox. Just like Tomoko, the reader can’t help but be infatuated with Mina, her eclectic family and the beautiful home they inhabit, all the while unable to shake the feeling that there is …
A book about healing, caregiving, and poetry. . . Small Rain is a beautiful book, one to read quietly while watching birds, contemplating life, and dipping into a poetry collection. One of my favorite books of 2024. Highly recommended! — Caitlin Baker, Island Books, Mercer Island, WA Bask in something profound and lovely from Island …
“In prose drenched with awe, Charlie J. Stephens’ tender novel takes a child’s perspective on the pains of being poor in rural Oregon. Knowing that children like Smokey are cast as furniture in the house of adult desires, immobile and without needs, A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest begs us to take them seriously.” —FOREWORD REVIEWS, starred review In …
Koh approaches her historical novel with an unwavering interest in the human heart & the way politics, war, & things of such scale affect the realms of intimacy and interpersonal relationships. Koh uses language with the utmost elegance, her prose is poetic & confident with imagistic, memorable metaphors. Her characters feel flesh & bone; yearning …
Every Wednesday, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association publishes the regional bestseller list. On Thursdays, we celebrate Thursday Themes to shine a spotlight on some of the books from the list and give our brains a different way of thinking about books. This week, the list is refreshed with some new-to-the-list titles. Until August Gabriel García Márquez, Anne McLean …
Shout out to an author we’re thrilled about: Percival Everett! Not only is the adaptation of his novel Erasure (“American Fiction”) up for an Academy Award, but we are so excited for the release of his latest novel James [available March 19, 2024]! Told from the perspective of Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it …
This book rocketed its way to the top of my all-time favorite books list. It is absolutely brilliant. It’s not a new premise – death row inmates are offered a path to freedom by fighting other inmates to the death in a gladiator style arena – but Adjei-Brenyah has taken these games to new heights …
Think: Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, but sapphic and romantic. Leah returns home to her wife, Miri, from a deep-sea research mission that was only supposed to last three weeks. But after six agonizing months of absence, the Leah who has returned is as mysterious to Miri as the circumstances that kept her away. Foreboding and beautifully written, …
