Ordinary Girls is a book that makes me feel seen. Too often, those of us who grow up below the federal poverty line spend the rest of our lives erasing ourselves. If we manage to migrate out of poverty, we do so at a cost. The gatekeepers of academia, and of literature, only want to hear …
If you haven’t yet, it is time to read Wild Honey, Tough Salt, the latest collection of poetry from Kim Stafford. Whatever ails you– this is your medicine. With Wild Honey, Tough Salt, Kim Stafford once again shows himself a poet for the people. With his clean lines and approachable lyricism, Stafford invites readers to join him, to sit …
Stephanie Land’s Maid gives voice to those of us who have lived below the poverty line. Land cleaned other people’s houses while her own walls were covered in black mold that made her child sick. She lost precious wages standing in line for food stamps. She filled out endless paperwork to get childcare so she could work …
Heart Berries achieves that most elusive and sacred goal of literature, to make us feel less alone in the world. With a beautiful and original voice, Mailhot applies the precision of the poet to her prose. Each sentence feels necessary, each paragraph vital, as she grapples with daughterhood, motherhood, sisterhood, wifehood, and finally, selfhood. Mailhot has …
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the regional trade association for independent bookstores, just concluded its annual fall trade show this week. This means that the PNBA Board of Directors gathered, and when that happens, there’s a tradition of going around the room to introduce ourselves and something we’ve read lately. Below are the books that …
Running an independent bookstore is a bit like getting up everyday and heading off to fight your own personal Goliath. Except unlike David I know that each time I will get my ass kicked. I know that every single day my faith in the power of literature will be tested. These things never change. Today, …
I am delighted to be serving on the PNBA awards committee when Leslye Walton’s debut novel was nominated. Reading The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender feels like dreaming or being under a spell. A heartbroken woman turns into a canary, a kiss on the neck leaves a permanent mark that only slowly fades through …
Be warned: To read Adrianne Harun’s A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain is to subject yourself to a constant sense of subdued terror and simultaneous wide-eyed wonder. Harun is a master storyteller and Mountain reads like folklore. She delivers blaringly real characters and setting mixed with carefully metered out magical realism and …
