Initially skeptical to read a book about a young musician with just a couple albums out (who may not have even hit his creative peak yet), I quickly understood just why, in the year 2020, this book needed to come out. Using the framework of the 4 albums of Kendrick Lamar, Marcus J. Moore writes a …
A concert pianist honored by a massive ticker-tape parade through Manhattan? Violent riots breaking out over the appearance of an Austrian conductor at an American concert hall? It may be difficult to imagine such events taking place today, but as this book demonstrates in fascinating detail, the classical music world became caught up in the …
I’d been reading picture books to my kids for years before writing my own. I’d always taken pleasure in them but never really considered what a deep art form the genre is. It took creating Libba to figure that out.First, let’s take the words. Like in a song or poem, I wanted to get them just right. …
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, a trade association of independent booksellers, publishers, authors, and librarians, announced the 2019 Northwest Book Awards Shortlist, selected by a committee of independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. From more than 400 nominations, the committee chose the following 12 finalists, written or illustrated by creators from the …
Washington State Book Awards winners were announced on Saturday, October 13, 2018 at the Seattle Public Library. The Washington State Book Awards honor works of outstanding literary merit by Washington authors. An award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality to an author who was born in …
Malu (short for Maria Louisa) straddles two worlds, punk music and record stores on her dad’s side, and academic achievement and Mexican culture on her mother’s side. When she lands at Posada Middle School, she finds herself on the outside again and takes on the school’s culture by starting her own punk band. I loved …
A fascinating book that charts not only the brief history of hip hop as a musical genre, but also the changing cultural tides of America over the last forty years. Filled with hilarious illustrations and deep insight, this book is an excellent addition to the array of brilliant music history books already available. –Elias, Fireside …
In Mozart’s Starling, Haupt explores the unlikely and remarkable bond between one of history’s most cherished composers and one of earth’s most common birds. The intertwined stories of Mozart’s beloved pet and Haupt’s own starling provide an unexpected window into human-animal friendships, music, the secret world of starlings, and the nature of creative inspiration.
Nowhere is the truism “everything old is new again” truer than in pop music, where all the upheavals of the digital era have brought us back to the hit-factory days of Tin Pan Alley, the Brill Building, and Motown, led this time by a handful of Scandinavians who have married ABBA to R&B to produce …
Celebrating the launch of North of Hope: A Daughter’s Arctic Journey published to acclaim earlier this year, Margot Case sits down with Shannon Huffman Polson to discuss the trickiness of memoir, writing place, and sharing deeply personal stories with the world. Enjoy a conversation around weaving narrative threads together, exploring what is unknown, and what risk is …
