Here’s further proof that no one writes families as well as Laurie Frankel. Mabs, Monday and Mirabel are triplets growing up in a small town beset by an ever-worsening environmental crisis that has profoundly damaged its residents. Determined to find the culprit poisoning their town’s water, the girls’ mother wages a campaign that divides the …
This essay by Laura Kalpakian was originally published on her blog. Never has folding laundry produced such creative results as that day in 1990 my mother and I were working our way through the laundry basket, casually reminiscing. We were remembering the elaborate shrine to Elvis on the front porch of a small tract house …
Told from dual perspectives—from Benny and from “the Book” itself—young Benny’s story begins when his father is killed in a senseless accident and he begins hearing the voices of inanimate objects. Much to his dismay, his mother, Annabelle, finds comfort in collecting random items to excess, and the situation soon spirals out of control. However, …
New Paperback of the Week from Madison Books Among the booksellers of my acquaintance, this was by far the most-anticipated book of the year. Author Mikel Jollett was once a young fiction writer of growing reputation who made an unexpected career turn and became the front-man for indie band Airborne Toxic Event. His literary talent …
Every Thursday, we shine a spotlight on some of the titles featured in this week’s Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association regional bestseller list. This week, a sense of place came up in quite a few titles. Some you can find on a map. Tokyo Ever After Emiko Jean (#5 Young adult) Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker (#13 paperback …
There is just something about history that draws me in, and this novel was no different. I have read many books about World War II, but I especially loved this one as it focused on three women codebreakers at Bletchley Park. The Rose Code deals with two time periods, the first starting 1940 and the …
Now in paperback! Kelleen and I both loved this. When an eccentric and Edgar Allan Poe obsessed billionaire dies, his will is published in the paper, promising an inheritance to anyone who can untangled his clues. The writing is fantastic and the characters are beautifully layered. This would be a perfect October read. –Lori, Island …
H. G. Parry’s deliciously literary bangity-bang The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is out in paperback now. The premise is pretty simple: Charlie can make characters in books come to life. The complication is, uh, as frantic as a cave full of bats caught up in silly string. Naturally, Charlie and a handful of literature’s greatest must …
In 2008 I quit an all-consuming sales position in Missoula and tried to move with my husband to Lake Pend Oreille in the slim Idaho panhandle, where we hoped to rededicate ourselves to our writing. Mother nature had other plans for us, blanketing the Inland Northwest with record-breaking snowfall and rendering our little cabin in …
Not long ago a book sneaked up on me. The paperback of Valerie Trueblood’s Terrarium hit the shelves of Madison Books, which served as a reminder that I’d had the hardcover sitting unread on my nightstand for far too long. I tried one story in the collection, then another, and kept going until the characters began …
