If you need a good laugh and a good cry, pick this book up. Emily Austin masterfully marries tragedy with the poignantly ludicrous in this raw novel. Sigrid wants to die: fed up with her dissatisfying job, grieving the loss of her best friend, lamenting her heavy family dynamic, and feeling generally like growing up …
It’s not too late to celebrate Pride Month! Island Books of Mercer Island, WA has a great list of books for kids about acceptance and love on their website. You’ll find board books, chapter books, young adult books, and books for the young-at-loving-heart. Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle has been celebrating the days of …
Washington State Book Awards winners were announced on Saturday, October 13, 2018 at the Seattle Public Library. The Washington State Book Awards honor works of outstanding literary merit by Washington authors. An award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality to an author who was born in …
For me there are two main kinds of books with queer characters: those where queerness plays an integral role in the story and those where no one in the book bats an eye at a character’s queerness. Both are tremendously important. The first so that we can tell stories about our culture, how we got …
This was originally posted on Island Books’ tumblr It’s always a pleasure to see the list of finalists for the annual Washington State Book Awards, not least because the judges are some of our favorite people, local booksellers and librarians. We especially wanted to take note of this slate of books, though, since so many of their …
Seattle7Writers, the nonprofit collective of Pacific Northwest authors, partners with independent bookstores this summer to introduce readers to favorite authors and raise money for literacy nonprofits. In July, Island Books hosted the Seattle7Writers cookout to benefit Team Read, a nonprofit organization that pairs struggling young readers with trained teen reading coaches for one-on-one tutoring after school and …
LAURIE FRANKEL: BEING A GIRL IS HARD BUT AWESOME published on LitHub March 2, 2018 In my twenties, in graduate school, I thought a lot about my daughter. She didn’t exist yet, but when you’re studying fiction for a living, this doesn’t matter as much. I had long observed that being a girl in the …
The 2018 Pacific Northwest Book Awards Shortlist has been announced! A panel of nine booksellers from the region selected these twelve titles from over 420 nominated books. Up to six winners will be announced in early January 2018. For some history on the awards, click here. Here is the shortlist: All’s Faire in Middle School …
This big-hearted novel of family is full of lovable characters that feel like friends. Frankel deals with serious social issues and conflicts while keeping the tone light, striking an excellent balance between humor and empathy. I loved every page! Highly recommended for book groups. — Emily Adams, Third Place Books, Seattle WA Sweet and unassuming, …
The NW booklovers’ community extends beyond the Pacific Northwest… Here, we see a lovely photo of a display promoting an event at Book Passage in San Francisco. (I pulled this post’s headline from the great intro on the shelf talker pictured.) The picture was posted by former Third Place Books bookseller, Cheryl McKeon, on Facebook with …
