Saturday April 29 marked the third national Independent Bookstore Day and the third Seattle Bookstore Day. In Seattle, the weather held and bookstore love was out in full force. The Seattle Bookstore Day Indie Challenge increased to 23 participating stores, with a visit to 19 stores required to achieve Indie Champion status (and a 25% discount …
On Saturday May 21, the Seattle Bookstores that participated in Seattle Bookstore Day on Independent Bookstore Day hosted a coronation celebration for the Indie Champions: 118 (!) book lovers who got stamps at at least 17 of the participating bookstores on April 30. Yes, these folks all went to SEVENTEEN bookstores in one day (and …
“Day has penned what is sure to be an instant cult classic. By turns funny, insightful, inspiring, and all-too-familiar, she maps her rise from lonely homeschooled girl to Internet darling, along the way revealing her struggles, her insecurities, her stubbornness, and, most transparently, her utterly relatable story of finding her way while not fitting in. …
“There is more time than there is expanse of the world and so any voyage at last will end.” –Ivan Doig, This House of Sky Ivan Doig, beloved author, passed away April 9, 2015. His loss is felt deeply throughout the literary community and beyond. We collect some memories here. Our thoughts and condolences go …
From the March 10, 2015 edition of Shelf Awareness from March 10, 2015: Today, Erik Larson’s new book, Dead Wake, about the sinking of the Lusitania, um, launches. (We have a lot of information about the book and Larson below.) It’s a striking accomplishment: Dead Wake is the latest of an outstanding series of nonfiction titles …
Erik Larsen has great talent in setting the scene, recreating a historic atmosphere long past. His books make history not only accessible to readers but tangible, bringing in details and perspectives previously unexplored. In Dead Wake he is in top form, recounting the story of the Lusitania’s final voyage in May of 1915. Alternating chapters …
Tonight at 7:00 at University Bookstore, one of our favorite Christmas traditions takes place: the annual reading by Brad Craft of “A Christmas Memory” by Truman Capote. Craft (above, reading some Ogden Nash holiday poetry), a bookseller, poetry-lover, author, artist, and modern Renaissance man, will warm your heart. The free cookie and cider will help …
Sherman Alexie proposed a couple months ago that authors should work a day at a local indie bookstore, recommending titles and just in general getting out there and supporting books and the favorite local stores that sell them. Handselling–putting a book into a reader’s hand and selling them on it–is what he’s talking about, and …
We’re always going on about the unique virtues and contributions of Independent Bookstores: how socially responsible we are, how community-based we are, how committed to books and literacy, tradition and innovation and on and on. True, if we weren’t around anymore—perish the thought—our customers would be without a major cultural resource, without a convivial, if …
I’m remembering my grandmother’s vacation purse. You know the one, embroidered straw, maybe a palm tree, or a red lobster on one side and a blue crab on the other, maybe “Hawaiian” flowers. There was nothing to say Grandma had been anywhere much, but even if that purse was only from a summer road-trip, it …
