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Browse: Home / riffs on classics

riffs on classics

Feb

17

2025

Fat Ham by James IJames

Fat Ham is a staff pick from Dani at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, WA. Not all independent bookstores have a Drama section or plays on the shelves, but most can order for you– especially Pulitzer Prize winners like Fat Ham. Read contemporary classics from Elliott Bay Book Company and other independent bookstores.  

Jan

24

2025

Tara Karr Roberts, author

An Original Essay by 2025 PNBA Book Award Winner Tara Karr Roberts

The first time I saw the ocean, I was 19, at a distant family member’s wedding on the California coast. The first time I saw the Atlantic, I was 30. The friend who picked me up at the Boston airport at midnight exited the freeway and pulled up to an empty beach so I could …

Jan

23

2025

Bestseller Spotlight: W Words

On Wednesdays, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller List is published. Every week, we love to see what books have been most popular in independent bookstores around our region. As we peruse the list, we ponder patterns. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes. W is for winter and witches and women and water and walls and …

Jan

20

2025

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

This is the kind of Macbeth retelling I’ve been looking for. Ava Reid crafts a Lady Macbeth both bound to the decisions of others as well as conniving in her own right. Every page was filled with female rage and impotence in the face of male dictators while also highlighting Lady Roscille’s brilliant mind. I …

Jun

24

2024

A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd

Okay, so the first thing I have to say about this book is: IT’S HILARIOUS! The second thing I have to say about it is: IT’S A HOOT! And the third thing is… just a second while I try to stop laughing… I LOVE IT! It features Rosaline (she prefers Rosie) – the daughter of …

Apr

15

2024

Loudermilk: Or, The Real Poet; Or, The Origin of the World by Lucy Ives

Truly the only novel about an MFA poetry program that matters; part parody, part homage, and another Cyrano de Bergerac retelling, this ridiculous farce of collegiate-town manners and betrayal is a heady read. –Ruby, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland, OR Poetry month theme reading can include novels, too– novels in verse and novels about poetry. Ask for …

Mar

1

2024

Author Appreciation: Percival Everett

Shout out to an author we’re thrilled about: Percival Everett! Not only is the adaptation of his novel Erasure (“American Fiction”) up for an Academy Award, but we are so excited for the release of his latest novel James [available March 19, 2024]! Told from the perspective of Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it …

Jul

7

2023

Cover of "The Spare Man" featuring a standing couple with a dog. The wife holds a cane.

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

This really did feel like a futuristic “The Thin Man” in space, complete with the smoldering wife/husband chemistry, the swanky cocktails, the glamorous fashion, the charming dog, and the determined sleuths. I loved it! Bonus elements that added layers of satisfaction were a culture that normalizes pronouns at introduction (plus lots of nonbinary pronouns and …

Dec

12

2022

Good Night, Little Bookstore written by Amy Cherrix, illustrated by E.B. Goodale

Book lovers everywhere will adore this sweet picture book in the rhyming style of Goodnight Moon. We travel around a cozy bookstore saying goodnight to the bookstore cat, customers’ forgotten items, and other familiar bookshop sights. Eagle-eyed readers will enjoy scanning the shelves for clever covers based on real books. Charming illustrations and text would …

Sep

14

2022

Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore

A “Gatsby Remix” for Young Adult readers. You might think you know this story already, but I can assure you that this retelling is an enticing, intersectional crown jewel that just might, for me, surpass the original. McLemore has long been a master of writing atmosphere and longing, and this quality really shines in Self-Made …

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