Matt Ruff is mercurial, and you never know what he’s going to do next. With 88 Names, he tackles the whole online persona/MMORPG thing (also known as “I Know What We’re All Doing This Summer”). Our protagonist is John Chu, who runs a sherpa business, which is a thing where neophytes get guided through the hard …
Sunday night marked the debut of “Lovecraft Country,” an HBO series based on Seattle author Matt Ruff‘s novel of the same title. The series is produced by a stellar team that includes Misha Green (who wrote the first episode) and Jordan Peele. Here’s the summary of the show: Based on Matt Ruff’s novel of the …
The finalists for the 2017 Washington State Book Awards were announced on August 7. 2017 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR ADULTS CATEGORIES Fiction The Solace of Monsters by Laurie Blauner, of Seattle (Leapfrog Press) Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, of Bellevue (Vintage Books; reissued 2016; original publication date 2002) Barkskins by Annie …
This week, 600 booksellers gathered in Denver for the 11th annual Winter Institute, a 3-day educational conference for people who own or work in independent bookstores, hosted by the American Booksellers Association (ABA). The ABA started a new tradition on the opening night: a backlist book swap. “Backlist” titlesare books that have been around (the opposite of …
Local authors, like New York Times bestselling author Kevin O’Brien pictured at left, are great supporters of local, independent bookstores. The great news for fans is that autographed copies are often available right on the shelf. For example, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, home to that great wall o’ Kevin shown in the picture, usually has signed …
Seattle’s Queen Anne Book Company opens today in the 1811 Queen Anne Avenue storefront vacated by the similarly named Queen Anne Books last October. That’s a lot of Queen Annes! The grand opening celebration will run from Friday, March 1 through Sunday, March 3, 9 am to 9 pm every day with a non-stop parade of …
Trying to describe Matt Ruff’s writing in one sentence is akin to trying to recap the entire series of “Lost” in one minute. Walk your way through his oeuvre and you’ll meet up with a manipulating Greek god, a resurrected and enslaved Ayn Rand, an imaginary house inhabited by the multiple souls of one man …
“Matt Ruff, author of Queen Anne Books favorites Set This House in Order and Bad Monkeys, has written another page-turning, mind-reeling masterpiece. Imagine a world where the United Arab States is threatened by Christian fundamentalist terrorists, a world where a few good Homeland Security Agents have to fight corruption and conspiracies to protect all they …
