Passing Strange by Ellen Klages is a remarkably restful piece of quiet fantasy that I can’t recommend enough. Set in the queer quarters of 1940 San Francisco, we follow the budding romance between two women: an artist for the pulps and a singer newly arrived trying to find a place to belong. That’s it. And …
Set in Alaska in the 1920s, a husband and wife are drifting apart. Unable to have their own child, they create one out of snow one night, and it changes their whole lives. This novel is full of rich imagery and wonderful characters. Eowyn Ivey has written a beautiful fairy tale that really reaches out …
We don’t consider it often, but writing about the past, even in the most straightforward way, makes time elastic. Take The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, for example. It’s a 1983 novel that’s having a renaissance due to Netflix’s acclaimed screen adaptation. (Side notes: I’ve seen one episode so far and agree with the accolades. I …
Gibbs Smith continues their charming wilderness writing series with Ernest Thompson Seton’s Wild Animals I Have Known. Look, we’re suckers for pretty books, and Gibbs Smith is doing a marvelous job with the design and layout of this series (we’ve thrown a couple more of them on this Newsletter List on bookshop.org). Seton’s Wild Animals I Have …
Ken Kesey and fellow Merry Prankster Ken Babbs bring us a “real American Western” based upon events from the 1911 Pendleton Round Up, which he first heard around campfires as a child in eastern Oregon. Filled with real life colorful characters and great, snappy dialogue, the Kens craft a wonderful American Tall Tale, exaggerated and …
Elizabeth MacKintosh, a writer, had a major impact on my life. She is also known as authors Gordon Daviot and Josephine Tey. Unfortunately, she died in 1952 at the peak of her career. I first “met” her through a tour of the Tower of London in August 1962 just before entering my junior year of …
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 …
One of my childhood favorites. Justin doesn’t like to do “women’s work,” but a few days at his grandfather’s ranch teaches him more lessons than he can ask for! Great middle grade read! –Derrick, The Well-Read Moose, Coeur d’Alene, ID Revisit old book friends and introduce them to new readers at The Well-Read Moose and …
A graphic novel starring Ada Lovelace — often regarded as the first computer programmer — and Charles Babbage, the inventor of the computer. Padua supposes an alternate reality where Lovelace and Babbage build the world’s first computer together, and they use it to fight crime, among other mathematical tasks. The Thrilling Adventures is unlike any …
