Written by Seattle’s own [retired] city council member and social activist Nick Licata, this book is what so many of us need now more than ever. Think of it as an instruction manual for social change, perfect if your call to arms needs some direction. –AJ, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA Get informed and …
Before she was known for her memoir Wild, Cheryl Strayed was writing advice columns under the pseudonym Dear Sugar. The essays collected in this book are unlike any other advice pieces I’ve ever read; they’re filled with empathy and gut-wrenching honesty and are the perfect thing for someone who might be feeling a little (or a …
Two true stories are told side by side here– that of the lead architect of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and that of a serial killer who uses the fair to lure victims to his hotel. Elevating, yet creepy. Yet elevating. Oooh, but creepy. –Diana, Village Books, Bellingham and Lynden, WA It’s not quite …
Baseball season is finally here! Check out these new books on America’s pastime. Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original by Mitchell Nathanson From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939–2019) was the sports world’s deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick …
Don’t forget to pick up some books for the holiday weekend! Your local independent bookstore may be taking a much-needed day off on July 4th, so check in with them online or over the phone to know their hours for the holiday weekend, and while you’re at it, you can purchase some great reads. What …
. . .we have Wes Moore’s Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City. While the title sounds like it could be about any number of locations during the last few months, Five Days is about life in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, back in 2015. Moore (with assistance from Erica L. …
Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments contains some of the most imaginative, inventive, and radical history writing I’ve ever encountered. Taking as her subjects the black women excluded from the US historical archive, Hartman challenges and unsettles dominant understandings of who “makes” history. In vibrant and ecstatic prose, Hartman tells the story of how the wayward, the …
by Jhoti Roy for Literary Arts During a special broadcast on OPB Radio on Monday, June 22, 2020, the winners of the 33rd Annual Oregon Book Awards, selected by panels of out-of-state judges, were announced. ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE Cathy Camper of Portland Lowriders Blast from the Past LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE …
…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 …
No better $35 can be spent for a book in this country than this collection of James Baldwin’s collected non-fiction— what were published as five books, from Notes of a Native Son through The Devil Finds Work, with a selection of essays not previously collected included. Timely in their day, this writing feels prophetically and astoundingly true …
