an interview by Aileen Keown Vaux for therumpus.net Once in a great while, a novelist comes along with the ability to dazzle the crowd with their own taxonomy-defying creation. In her debut novel, Fire Season, Leyna Krow deftly weaves together elements of magical realism, historical fiction, and traditional westerns to make something so much greater than …
The Washington State Book Awards are presented by the Washington Center for the Book and The Seattle Public Library. These awards honor outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2021.This year, the judges read and evaluated 243 books. Biography and Memoir Winner: Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism by Elsa Sjunneson …
From the Seattle Public Library’s Shelf Talk blog August 23, 2022. Title links go to SPL page; book cover links go to Bookshop.org. Your local independent bookstore is happy to help you find these books! Congratulations to 39 finalists in eight categories for the 2022 Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) for outstanding books published by …
One of the hazards in the fast-growing American cities of the late 1800s was fire, and the Northwest was no exception. Most of us are familiar with the 1889 blaze that reshaped Seattle’s streets, but Spokane fell victim to flame in the same year. Unlike the Seattle fire, Spokane’s conflagration remains unexplained, which enables Leyna …
The Angel of Rome by Jess Walter One of the most popular authors at Madison Books, and one of my own favorites, Jess Walter is an infallibly engaging storyteller, equaled by few in that regard. More than that, he has a quality that even fewer writers share, that of continual reinvention—every book is different in …
Each year since 1965, the Pacific Northwest Book Awards have celebrated exceptional books written by Northwest authors. PNBA is proud to announce the 2022 Book Awards Shortlist, selected by a committee of independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. This year’s committee chose the following 12 finalists, crafted by Northwest authors, from a list …
Prior to last night’s virtual event hosted by Third Place Books (Seattle), Village Books (Bellingham), Browsers Bookshop (Olympia), and Auntie’s Books (Spokane), Rebekah Denn wrote a piece about Spokane author Kate Lebo. Read it to get some new book recommendations and a fresh look at a favorite author. Lebo’s newest work is The Book of …
The gorgeous writing, vivid setting, compelling characters, and engrossing story aren’t even the best parts of this novel. Instead, I just keep marveling at how Jess Walter takes events from history to illuminate our present while keeping them rooted in their own time, from the labor movement to class, race, and gender equality and civil …
In The Heaven of Animals, and now in his first novel, Lake Life, award-winning and critically acclaimed author David James Poissant takes readers into the trenches of human relationships. Lake Life, a powerful and driving domestic drama embodies the radiance and speed of a cutthroat trout as well as the glistening underbelly, concealed, tender, life-giving. …
by Shann Ray Published in the Inlander March 21, 2020 Have you ever heard the voice of a loved one speaking over you with unexpected kindness? In times of stress, that voice can be almost unbearably rare. I’ve been thinking about how the 24-hour news cycle is often far from gentle, not at all concerned with …
