Here are a few of our current staff and customer favorites:
The Daugher's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick, a novel that tells the true story about Helga Espy, who in 1896 walked across the country from Spokane to New York City to raise money for her struggling family. 14.99
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Her latest novel is an epic journey from the Mexico of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the US of the McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover days. 16.99 Harper
Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
A mother and daughter journey of self-exploration to the sacred places of France, Greece and Turkey. 15.00 Penguin
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
A “true-life” novel about Walls’ no-nonsense, resourceful and spectacularly compelling grandmother. 15.00 Simon and Schuster:
Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer tells the story of Pat Tillman, former football star who was killed in Afghanistan. 15.95 Anchor
The Big Burn, by Tim Egan. The prize-winning journalist examines the great wildfire of 1910, and its effect on the fledgling Forest Service as well as the forestry policies of the West. 15.95 Mariner
Politics on Demand: The Effects of 24-Hour News on American Politics by Alison D. Dagnes (my sister-in-law -- I'm so proud. Go Ali!)
Taking on today’s brave new world of political reporting, this book examines how the technological changes and financial imperatives of the American media have led to an entertainment-driven news system that cannot meet the needs of a democracy.
Free of partisan slant and easily accessible to all readers, Politics on Demand explains the evolving media system, showing how politicians use the media to sell themselves and how the media uses politicians to its own advantage. Combining insider interviews with facts, statistics, anecdotes, and analysis, the author, herself a former C-SPAN producer, argues that the American media has become harmful for our nation and a detriment to our political system. 34.95 Praeger
Heaven’s Keep by William Kent Krueger
a really good thriller set in the mountainous area of Wyoming. PI Cork O’Connor becomes involved in the investigation into the cause of the disappearance of a small airplane carrying his wife. 15.00 Atria
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
a deliciously gothic tale of a haunted mansion and its inhabitants in the English countryside following World War II. 16.00 Riverhead
The Signal by Ron Carlson
A six day wilderness trip turns dangerous for a young man and his recently exed wife. 14.00 Penguin
Sky Time in Gray’s River by Robert Michael Pyle
lovely writing about the author’s old farmhouse and wooded acreage in southwest Washington celebrating the everyday joys of observing and enjoying the life around one. 13.95 Mariner
Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden by Charles Goodrich
These poems make connections between gardening and life’s deeper quandaries. Through his words we can reflect on how, throughout the gardening year, life relates to the growing cycle. 14.95 Silverfish Review
The Grail by Brian Doyle
The author spends a year hanging around the grape-growing area of Dundee Oregon, observing and gathering stories from the various people involved in the production of some of Oregon’s best wine. 18.95 Oregon State University Press
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
A good read complete with family saga, an estate in Cornwell, a charmingly romantic cottage with secret garden and a bit of a mystery thrown into the mix. What’s not to like? 15.00 Simon and Schuster
Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner
a story of a contemporary family living in the wilds of Alaska and their struggles reconciling the desire for a simple life and the many temptations of the modern world outside. 14.95 Milkweed
GRAVE GOODS by Ariana Franklin
Another medieval mystery featuring Adelia Aguilar, the 12th century's version of a forensic pathologist. 15.00 Penguin
THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE by Joseph Boynton
A Cree Indian man and his niece, tell each other their lives’ secrets while he travels in the unconscious world of a coma. 15.00 Penguin
SONATA FOR MIRIAM by Linda Olsson
Love, loss, grief and secrets are the themes of this wonderful second novel by the author of Astrid and Veronika. Adam Ankar lives in New Zealand where he has raised his daughter alone. His life contains several mysteries involving both his father and his daughter. Suddenly, in the course on one day, his life is forever changed as events occur which cause him to explore his past. As Adam unravels the mysteries from his past, he learns things that help him in his present difficult circumstances. The novel looks at the cost of making judgments about withholding information from others “for their own good”. Adam learns that only when he possesses the whole truth about his life is he released from the past and able to chart his own future. 15.00 Penguin
THE LEGEND OF COLTON H. BRYANT by Alexandra Fuller
He was just an ordinary kid growing up in Wyoming. His interests were typical -- horses, trucks, hunting, hanging out with friends. He lived his life full out, impulsively and without slowing down. His motto was mind over matter – “if I don’t mind it doesn’t matter” and his attitude was all about "cowboying up". And yet, he touched those around him with his purity of spirit and love of his family and friends. His father and grandfather had both worked in the oil fields and in part because he most wanted to become exactly like his father, Colton went to work there, too. And it was there he died at 26 due in part to the reluctance of the drilling company to spend money for required safety equipment.
Fuller, who is best know for her memoir, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, has written this beautiful and sad true story about the real modern day west. Her portrayal of Colton is moving and gripping. Her ability to tell his story leaves the reader moved and as heartbroken as if Colton were your own loved one. 15.00 Penguin
DIVISADERO by Michael Ondaatje
Delayed gratification. That's what this book was for me. Since its publication a year ago, I've been eyeing it and wanting to immerse myself in the beautiful place that I knew the author would create with his words. But there were so many other books that "needed" to be read in the meantime. But finally I got to it and did go off into his words for a lovely couple of days.
The novel is about three people who spend their youth together and wind up in separate and distant lives. But Ondaatje doesn't just narrate. The idea of this book is given in its title. Divisadero is the Spanish word for division and it is derived from the word divisar, which means to gaze at something from a distance. So a divisadero can be a height, a point from which you look at something far into a distance. And that is what the author does with his characters. He gives us their lives but approached from various aspects, the present, the past and even the pasts of those who come into the main characters' lives. And they, in turn, view their own lives and the world around them with great detail and with varying perspectives. Set in northern California, Nevada and France, the story is about life's traumas, the perils of love, the beauty of interpersonal attachments and the impact all of these events have on the directions our lives take. $13.95 Vintage
THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE by David Wroblewski
This first novel is an amazing tale. It is one of those wonderful reads which are best undertaken without too much knowledge about what is to come. But I will give you just a bit of the story to entice you. Edgar is a mute boy living with his parents in rural northern Wisconsin. His family has for generations bred and trained a line of dogs. On this farm, where communication by hand signals and signs are part of everyday life, Edgar lives a happy life and thrives among his canine companions. But then an estranged uncle reappears and events occur which lead to a complete upheaval of Edgar's life. With amazing insights into the minds of dogs and interesting descriptions of the dog training techniques used by the Sawtelles, the plot evolves along with the portrayal of the connections between humans and animals. In turns suspenseful and thoughtful, Edgar's story reads like an ancient epic all the way to its exciting conclusion. $16.99 paperback, Ecco Books
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann
Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The island of Guernsey is one of the channel islands located between England and France. During World War II, it was occupied by the Germans for five years. This little known bit of history is explored in this novel written as a series of letters to and from the main character, Juliet Ashton. Juliet achieved a modest amount of fame as a writer for a series of articles she wrote for a British newspaper about her experiences in London during the war. Now in the years following the war, she is searching for a new writing project. When she is contacted by a member of a literary society on the small island, she begins a correspondence which will change her life. The literary society was originally formed as a ruse to prevent the Germans from arresting some of the islanders caught out past curfew. But is has evolved into a true book group with wide ranging literary interests. Through this group Juliet learns of the experiences they had under the occupation and decides to go to the island to do research for a book. There she becomes swept up in the lives of the people she had been corresponding with and through them she finds a resolution to her post war malaise. Filled with charming characters, heartbreaking stories of life under occupation and examples of the strength of the human spirit, this little novel was both delightful and heartwarming. $14.00 paperback, The Dial Press
AWAY by Amy Bloom
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York's Lower East Side, to Seattle's Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom's work-her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart-come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable. $14.00 Random House
EXCELLENT WOMEN by Barbara Pym
Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym's richest and most amusing high
comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered
spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those "excellent women,"
the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred
gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors-anthropologist Helena Napier
and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next
door-the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually,
and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires. $13.95 Penguin
Young Reader Recommendations
THUNDER ROLLING IN THE MOUNTAINS by Scott O’Dell and Elizabeth Hall. The Newberry award winner, O’dell, tells the Nez Perce story through the eyes of Chief Joseph’s daughter. 6.99
CHAINS by Laurie Halse Anderson
A young adult novel set in New York City during the Revolutionary War. A young slave girl owned by British loyalists is asked to spy on her owners by the slave boy of rebels. An interesting look at this war for freedom from the perspective of one whose freedom is not being considered. 6.99 Atheneum
INCARCERON by Catherine Fisher explores worlds within worlds. Incarceron is a living prison designed to be a perfectly controlled environment for those considered criminal or just unwanted in the “real” world. But things have deteriorated over time both inside Incarceron and outside where a family has established dominance over the world and has engineered a fake society of courts and royalty mimicking the 18th century. When a girl on the outside establishes communication with a boy on the inside the worlds collide. 9.99 Dial
The sequel, SAPPHIQUE is now available 17.99