In much of the country, the month began with roaring winter storms, but that wasn’t the case here. Our early March was a lamb, so gentle and solicitous that it brought mint jelly with it and invited Northwesterners to tie on a bib. I accepted the offer and bit into the fair weather with gusto, …
Heart Berries achieves that most elusive and sacred goal of literature, to make us feel less alone in the world. With a beautiful and original voice, Mailhot applies the precision of the poet to her prose. Each sentence feels necessary, each paragraph vital, as she grapples with daughterhood, motherhood, sisterhood, wifehood, and finally, selfhood. Mailhot has …
I spotted this KING 5 segment through Seattle Review of Books. It highlights favorite titles by Pacific Northwest authors: You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me Love and Trouble My Rice Bowl Ghosts of Seattle Past Where’s Halmoni? Get Dressed Sasquatch/ Goodnight Krampus Queen of Spades Razor Clams.
The 2018 Pacific Northwest Book Awards Shortlist has been announced! A panel of nine booksellers from the region selected these twelve titles from over 420 nominated books. Up to six winners will be announced in early January 2018. For some history on the awards, click here. Here is the shortlist: All’s Faire in Middle School …
I generally do not read memoirs but I made an exception for this book. Twelve Stones: Notes on a Miraculous Journey is a memoir by Barbara Carole. Her writing is melodious. Her life story is full of extreme peaks of Joy and Sadness. This book reminds of “The Perils of Pauline” in that her chapters leave …
Most of the time, a sticker proclaiming a title is a “NEW BOOK” is sort of self-evident, but in the case of Shel Silverstein, an actual new book is worth getting out of bed, rushing through your morning oat bran, and heading on down to the bookstore early. Runny Babbit Returns is a collection of tongue-twisting poems …
The autobiography of the late Oregon birder extraordinaire, David B. Marshall, Memoirs of a Wildlife Biologist, is available in limited supply exclusively at the [Audubon Society of Portland] Nature Store. Co-editor of the definitive 2003 OSU Press publication Birds of Oregon, Marshall illuminated his own life as a career biologist in this self-published work. It …
Haunting and surprising yet immediately relatable, Palm’s striking memoir sinks its roots deep into readers and holds fast. Everything ordinary, Palm reveals, is extraordinary–tragic, profound, amusing, brutal–when examined up close. In reflecting on her own formative years, growing up ‘between points on the map’ in small-town Indiana, Palm paints a measured, unforgettable portrait of the …
While running at the gym one day, Jessica suffers a burst brain aneurysm and her life takes an extremely unexpected turn. This book chronicles her health ups and downs as she faces multiple surgeries and physical set backs. As she begins to mentally, emotionally and physically recover she uses food as a way to connect …
Alison Bechdel, author of the comic “Dykes to Watch Out For,” strikes a chord with a look back on her family life. This memoir told in graphic novel form is easy to devour in one sitting. The drawings and short dialogue actually slow you down in a good way and help you focus on the …
