In the early 2000s, Laura Stanfill (Forest Avenue Press) and Nancy Townsley (author of the new debut novel Sunshine Girl) were colleagues at a community newspaper chain in Portland, Oregon. Nancy’s new novel follows Eliza Donovan, the daughter of a journalist, as she pursues her own reporting career amid turbulent industry changes and, in the …
Literary Arts announced the finalists for the 2025 Oregon Book Awards. Congratulations! The winners of each category will be announced live at the 2025 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony, hosted by Omar El Akkad, at Portland Center Stage at The Armory on Monday, April 28, 2025. Tickets are available here. SPECIAL AWARDS In addition to recognizing …
Here is Ken Forkish’s Let’s Make Bread, a delightful comic book cookbook (filled with illustrations and helpful diagrams by Sarah Becan). Much like Let’s Make Ramen and Let’s Make Sushi, Let’s Make Bread is a charmingly illustrated guide to, well, making bread. Plan accordingly. And bring us some examples of your efforts. Please and thank you. –A Good Book, Sumner, WA …
For the first time, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) unveiled its Book Awards Shortlist live on the show floor at the association’s Fall Tradeshow, Sept. 30, 2024. These honorees are now being promoted throughout PNBA’s 160 store membership. Selected by an Awards Committee of independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, the …
The King of Not-Cozy has a new book out. This is Chuck Palahniuk’s Shock Induction, a satirical parable about surveillance capitalism, indentured servitude, and sleazy billionaires. Kids at a highly reputable high school are disappearing, and no one wants to talk about what’s happening. That’s because everyone knows these kids are being chosen for a …
From Shelf Awareness Thursday, October 3, 2024: Obituary Note: Tom Spanbauer Author Tom Spanbauer, best known for his cult classic The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon and his award-winning final novel, I Loved You More, as well as his long-running Dangerous Writing workshop, died September 21. He was 78. Born in Pocatello, Idaho, he attended …
If you liked Justin Cronin’s vampire trilogy (starting with THE PASSAGE), I think you’ll love FEVER HOUSE and THE DEVIL BY NAME, a kind of zombie/STAND hybrid, by Keith Rosson. Big scares, big gross-outs, big fun. –Stephen King (@StephenKing) on X Oct. 5, 2024 Fever House is an Annie Bloom’s Staff Pick, and Portland author …
by Dana Haynes Don’t ask Portland novelist Michael Keefe what time period his new book, All Her Loved Ones Encoded, is set in. Better to ask what time period isn’t it set in. Keefe will take part in a book launch at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 S.W. Capitol Highway, …
Inside a rented house on bluff in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, I’m one of four women on a DIY writer’s retreat. A wall of tall windows shows a blue scene: a bend in the Mississippi River, cloud cover, deciduous trees, buzzards tilting just beyond our overlook. Inside, having run or walked or stretched to clear our …
Dear Bookseller, I was 14 when I traumatically lost ~50% of my hearing. As I grappled with this loss, my Generalized Anxiety Disorder skyrocketed. For years after, my only solace was found in stories—I’d get lost in books, focusing on fiction in an act of desperate self-preservation. But the more I read, the less I …
