Hiya friends and fellow bibliophiles! We're almost to the 4th of July, and halfway through summer already! I've been reading steadily, often late into the wee hours, but this round finds me loving every book that I read, which is rare. Meanwhile, here are some great tidbits for you all to enjoy! Stay cool!
Elliott Bay is one of the most iconic stores in Washington state. I remember them when they were located in Pioneer Square, with creaky wooden floors and a host of funky booksellers and a roster of celebrity authors on tap for readings and book signings...(I met authors like William Kennedy and David Sedaris there). Now that they're on Capitol Hill, I don't get to visit very often, but I still wish them a hearty happy 50th birthday...you don't look a day over 25!
Happy 50th Birthday, Elliott Bay Book Company!
Congratulations to Elliott Bay Book Company https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFSNnuwI6ahkIht0TA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iTX5-kpoMLg-gVdw, Seattle, Wash., which turns 50 next week.
The store's celebration begins next Thursday, June 29, with a conversation on "Queer Books & Bookselling," featuring two local book people who have been central to making bookstores a central part of "building and sustaining community" in Seattle and the store's Capitol Hill neighborhood: Michael Coy, best known for Bailey-Coy Books, and Karen Maeda Allman, a key part of the Red and Black Bookstore Collective. The contributions and stories of Barbara Bailey of Bailey-Coy and Ron Whittaker of Beyond the Closet will also be discussed.
On Saturday, July 1, Elliott Bay will host a 50th Anniversary Family Day Celebration from 1-4 p.m. that will feature local authors, treats, and more, with story time readings every hour with Toni Yuly (with a doughnut social), George Shannon, and Jessixa Bagley. The anniversary celebration includes an artists series and a Filson tote collaboration.
Last year, the store was purchased by Elliott Bay's longtime general manager, Tracy Taylor, along with married team Murf Hall and Joey Burgess, of Burgess Hall Group.
Taylor said, "While we have had the pleasure of hosting some of the world's preeminent writers, from its inception, our reading series has sought to feature diverse, lesser-known, new, famous, infamous, and sometimes controversial writers. Cohosting events with other community partners has been fundamental to the series and helped to put writers and readers together throughout the Seattle area to ensure that new, interesting, and diverse voices continue to be published and translated."
Burgess said, "We are an independent bookstore in the best sense of the term. Meaning we're truly interdependent with our community and our customers. Most of all, we are sustained by the support, curiosity, and enthusiasm for reading that our readers constantly demonstrate to us."
Hall said, "With two young children at home, Joey and I honed in on the kids' section quite a bit. We're thrilled to bring back the beloved story time readings and unveil a new structure in the children's section at our upcoming Family Day Celebration."
Accolades include:
Peter Aaron, former owner of Elliott Bay Book Company: "I had the privilege for 23 years of participating in the bookstore's stewardship. And now, in the hands of its current talented and dynamic owners, the bookstore is achieving heights of success heretofore unknown. Over these 50 years many gifted and dedicated booksellers have made community with readers, writers and publishing professionals to engender and sustain what has become a haven for the written word."
Terry Tempest Williams: "Thank you for the generosity of this place, your care and the readers, including myself who view Elliott Bay as a bastion of free thought ideas and love. XOX"
Senator Patty Murray: "I can't believe it has been half a century since Elliott Bay first opened its doors in Seattle. As anyone who has been there knows, Elliott Bay is so much more than just a bookstore. It's a place to gather, to read, to hear from authors, and take part in other incredible events. They're a staple of our community and one of the first places I tell people about when they visit Seattle. I can't wait to see what the next 50 years will bring!"
I LOVE the Ferndale library's response to these idiotic "Christian" haters running their fascist "Hide the Pride" campaign. You can't destroy peoples curiosity and need to know, especially about the LGBTQ community. Go Ferndale book lovers!
Ferndale Library Staff Grateful for Support in Wake of Anti-LGBTQ Stunt
Earlier this month, staffers at the Ferndale Area District Library in Michigan were surprised to discover that 35 LGBTQ books put out on Pride Month displays had all been checked out and replaced with religiously-themed books . Assistant Library Director Jordan Wright said, “Our first reaction was to get other LGBTQ books we have in the library and put them on the displays in the youth and children’s sections.” Staffers purchased new copies of the books that had been checked out and managed to replace three-quarters of the books on their own.
Ferndale Library staffers later discovered that their library had been the target of a “Hide the Pride” campaign. The library then reached out to their followers on Facebook to ask for support by purchasing books from a list of about 40 titles on an Amazon wish list, or buying the books locally and dropping them off in person. Wright says the library has since closed down their wish list and no longer needs books donated. “We got more copies than we could have possibly imagined,” Wright said. “Overall, Ferndale has been enormously supportive. We’re really grateful to our community for their moral support and their financial support.”
This is the first place I'd visit if I ever made it to NYC. This iconic bookstore is almost 100 years old! Congratulations to the Strand!
Strand Reopens Rare Book Room for 96th Birthday
Over the weekend, the Strand Book Store, New York, N.Y., marked its 96th anniversary with celebrations that included the reopening of its third floor Rare Book Room for the first time in more than three years. The space will stay open through today and has bookseller recommendations made specially for the occasion as well as newly acquired rare book stock for purchase. There is also a selection of artifacts from the Strand's 96-year history on display. On Saturday, staff presented their own writings at a Bookseller Salon. To help commemorate the anniversary, Strand partnered with Curious Elixirs to create a secret elixir bar.
Third-generation owner Nancy Bass Wyden commented, "I am incredibly proud of what the Strand has become, as well as where we are headed. To celebrate our anniversary, I thought it would be nice to focus on our history and the things that make Strand such a magical place--books andour booksellers."
I love Paddington bear! I can hardly wait for this movie to debut!
Movies: Paddington in Peru
Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Rachel Zegler, and Emily Mortimer "are in talks to join the cast of Paddington in Peru https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFSPkOsI6ahkJBFxGQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iTXZGjpoMLg-gVdw, the third opus of the beloved bear's adventures," Variety reported. Based on Michael Bond's children's book character, the movie is set to start filming in July.
Paddington in Peru also stars Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Madeleine Harris, and Samuel Joslin. Ben Whishaw and Imelda Staunton will also be back as the voices of Paddington and Aunt Lucy, respectively. Filming locations include the U.K., Peru, and Colombia.
The world of K-Pop has never met a star like this. Debut author Lyla Lee delivers a deliciously fun, thoughtful rom-com celebrating confidence and body positivity—perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Julie Murphy.
Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.
She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else.
When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn’t count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho.
But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself.
I loved how Skye maintained her sense of self and self-worth despite her nasty fatphobic mother who did everything in her power to bring her daughter down. What a terrible parent! Yet with the help of her father, who was a bit of a wimp for not telling his wife off and/or divorcing her for her emotional abuse of their daughter, and some friends, and her own unshakeable faith in her talent as a singer/dancer, Skye comes out smelling like a rose, and SPOILER, winning part of the competition. If you're a fan of groups like BTS, (I am!) and American Idol or the Voice, this book is for you. The prose is vigorous and bouncy, while the energetic plot zooms along. I read this book in one sitting! I'd give this page turner an A, and recommend it to any young thespian looking for a body-positive main character and a great story of triumph over the odds.
No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister is a delicious literary fiction novel by a local PNW author. I've had the privilege of interviewing EB several times while working as a staff reporter for the Mercer Island Reporter and a freelance writer for the Seattle Times. She's a warm, bright and delightful person, and her books reflect those wonderful qualities in her excellent prose and beautifully crafted plots. No Two Persons is no exception, and I couldn't put it down. Here's the blurb:
One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s No Two Persons is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.”
That was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go…
Alice
has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories
remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart
open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find
their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free
diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world
around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief.
Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something
different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways
forward for their lives.
Together, their stories reveal how books
can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways—and how we
are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.
“With its beautiful parts that add up to a brilliant whole, No Two Persons made my reader’s heart sing.”—*Nina de Gramont
Normally, switching POVs every chapter would have driven me crazy, but EB manages to connect each character and chapter in a seamless way, so that it feels as if you're reading it all from nearly one POV, just with different flavors. For those, like myself, who are huge bibliophiles, this book will make you understand how deeply fiction can effect us all in our everyday lives. Having read all of EB's other novels, I can definitely say that this book is well at the top of the list of my favorites. I'd give it a well deserved A, and recommend it to anyone who wonders about the impact of books on humanity as a whole, and authors in particular.
Stuck With You by Ali Hazelwood is a fun rom-com that echos STEM-forward romantic books like Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry. The protagonist, Sadie, is stuck in an elevator with her nemisis, an engineer who is described to look suspiciously like Chris Hemsworth. Erik was, at one time, Sadie's lover, but the two broke it off after Erik's company steals a big client and her sustainable company's idea for a "green build." She's furious that she let her guard down with him, only to be ambushed by his corporate espionage. The back and forth (and flashbacks) that ensue are hilarious and heartbreaking. Even the sex scenes contain a bit of fun and laughter, which is rare in romances these days. Here's the blurb: Nothing like a little rivalry between scientists to take love to the next level.
Mara,
Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always. Though their
fields of study might take them to different corners of the world, they
can all agree on this universal truth: when it comes to love and
science, opposites attract and rivals make you burn…
Logically, Sadie knows that civil engineers are supposed to build
bridges. However, as a woman of STEM she also understands that
variables can change, and when you are stuck for hours in a tiny New
York elevator with the man who broke your heart, you earn the right to
burn that brawny, blond bridge to the ground. Erik can apologize all he
wants, but to quote her rebel leader—she’d just as soon kiss a Wookiee.
Not
even the most sophisticated of Sadie’s superstitious rituals could have
predicted such a disastrous reunion. But while she refuses to
acknowledge the siren call of Erik’s steely forearms or the way his
voice softens when he offers her his sweater, Sadie can’t help but
wonder if there might be more layers to her cold-hearted nemesis than
meet the eye. Maybe, possibly, even burned bridges can still be
crossed.
The prose here is elegant and the plot swift and sure. I felt that Sadie forgave Erik a bit too easily, but, as with Shakespeare's rom-coms, "all's well that ends well." I'd give this satisfying, sexy enemies to lovers tale an A, and recommend it to someone looking for a saucy beach read.
The Ladies Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia White is a historical lesbian romance, full of wit and insight into the time period and the clever ways that the LGBTQ community got around the laws prohibiting homosexuality at the time. Here's the blurb:
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