From the Island Books newsletter April 17, 2019 I’ve been writing poetry, or something resembling that, consistently since I was eleven years old. I’ve always liked words, the energy, the power, and the meanings that all vary. Unlike prose writing, poetry offers up a canvas of possibility in its negative space. I found I was …
When I heard an interview with Jonathan Auxier talking about how many years of historical research he did when writing Sweep, I couldn’t wait to dive into his authentic world of Victorian chimney sweeps. As perfectly as he has constructed this world it is, after all, the story of a girl and her monster, so there is plenty of …
From Shelf Awareness April 11, 2019 by Alex Mutter Seattle’s Madison Books Plans IBD Opening When Madison Books opens in Seattle, Wash., on April 27, Independent Bookstore Day, it will be the first new, general-interest, independent bookstore in the city’s Madison Park neighborhood since 2005. The roughly 400-square-foot bookstore is a sister store to Phinney Books, …
“I’ve always thought of them, of the poems, as being very private investigations and negotiations of a space that I can’t quite figure out—they’re where I wrestle with what I both resist and am drawn to.” I can’t stop reading and rereading Phillips’s poems. They are carefully considered but always unsettled, restlessly looking to reveal, …
Kittens in vending machines, hippos rising out of dark water, broom handles made of gold: in his first novel, King of Joy, Seattle writer Richard Chiem blends comforting absurdity with the most profound reaches of grief. The result is a strange, unsettling harmony that is typical of his writing. Drawing from themes also present in …
From patch.com by Neal McNamara SEATTLE, WA — There’s a new effort underway to resurrect the L.E.M.S. Life Enrichment Bookstore, which was once the only black-owned bookstore in Washington. L.E.M.S. owner Vickie Williams died on March 3, 2017, and the store had to sell off its inventory to pay down bills. But the store, located …
Extremely powerful saga! “Fox” grew up in an environment that led to petty crime, just to survive. While locked up he’s convicted of murder, but is innocent, and spends 40 years in solitary confinement. This is a story about institutionalized racism and inhumane conditions, but also about hope, and his unbreakable spirit and remaining sane, …
Twenty-eight general bookstores and 11 children’s specialty bookstores have been nominated for the Women’s National Book Association’s 2019 WNBA Pannell Awards, which honor bookstores that enhance their communities by using exceptional creativity to foster a love of reading among their young patrons. Rediscovered Books of Boise, ID and Third Place Books of Lake Forest Park, WA are …
In the ’60s four young siblings visit a psychic who tells each of them the day they will die. Would you live your life differently if you knew the date of your death? Would you want to know? Free will or fate? These and other questions are surrounded by beautiful writing that keeps you turning …
Phinney Books in Seattle shared excitement about some spring titles in a recent newsletter. February 26 The Border by Don Winslow The arrival of this final volume is making it clear that Winslow’s epic trilogy about the drug wars on the US-Mexico border is one of the central fictional dramas of our time, closing in a storm …
