Eagle Harbor Book Co.

"Today for the sake of all the dead
  Burst into flower"  
~ Muriel Rukeyser

This quote by the extraordinary poet, Muriel Rukeyser, says it best.  Spring has finally arrived.  Coming out of the damp and the dark season of introspection, we look forward to light, warmth, renewal, and action.  It is time to burst into flower!

It is fitting that April brings us the celebrations of Earth Day and Arbor Day.  We have stocked our shelves with selections on gardening, hiking, and all things outdoors.  We have also loaded our events calendar with author discussions that will inform and inspire you to get outside and experience all of the natural gifts that sustain and invigorate us.  Other events this month bring an emphasis to the arts at a time when the art world needs our support - graphic novels, the craft of storytelling, and a satisfying solid mystery.  

April also brings us National Poetry Month, and we have responded with an overflow of great selections of poetry here in the bookshop, all at 15% off throughout April.  For many, poetry is the most rewarding of the arts.  Poems can delight us, and they can astonish us.  Poems expose the longing we have to feel deeply in order that we may live fully.  And if ever there were a time for us to step more fully into our lives, it is now. 

Finally, we invite you to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with us on April 29.  This is when we recognize the role that bookstores play as community cultural centers.  Join us all month in the bookstore - for books, discussions, celebrations and the power of poetry!

Author Events and Readings
All our events are free and open to the public.  
Please note that there are several different start times for Thursday evening events.

Thursday, April 6, 7:30pm
Comic book and graphic novel fans can meet Seattle cartoonist and author Jon Morris when he visits Eagle Harbor Books to talk about his new book,  The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History.    Every hero needs a villain. But not all villains are dangerous -- some are incompetent, comical, or just . . . weird. In his follow-up to The League of Regrettable Superheroes, Morris presents over a hundred of the strangest, most stupefying super villains to ever see print in comics.  


Sunday, April 9, 3pm
Seattle author Lyanda Lynn Haupt ( Urban Bestiary, Crow Planet) will speak about ther newest book,  Mozart's Starling.   Haupt explores the unlikely and remarkable bond between one of history's most cherished composers and one of earth's most common birds. The intertwined stories of Mozart's beloved pet and Haupt's own rescued starling provide an unexpected window into human-animal friendships, music, the secret world of starlings, and the nature of creative inspiration. A blend of natural history, biography, and memoir, Mozart's Starling is a tour de force that awakens a surprising new awareness of our place in the world. 
 
Tuesday, April 11, 7:00 pm
Mystery fans are invited to join in a special event with London-based author Valentina Giambanco , whose most recent thriller is  Blood and Bone.   Giambanco will introduce readers to her character homicide detective  Alice   Madison, a Seattle homicide detective tracking a serial killer, and talk about this suspense series, which includes  The Gift of Darkness  and  The Dark
Thursday, April 13, 6:30pm
We are delighted to welcome back acclaimed author and teacher Natalie Goldberg (The Great Spring, Writing Down the Bones), who is in residency at the Bloedel Reserve this Spring.  Goldberg will talk about her nearly 45 years of writing and answer questions about what she has learned along the way.  Seating will be limited, so guests are urged to sign up in advance. 
Thursday, April 20, 12pm
We welcome back Seattle writer David Shields, in conversation with  Bainbridge Island author Claire Dederer.  Join us for  a brown bag lunch to discuss his new collection of essays,  Other People: Takes and Mistakes .   These essays present an intellectually thrilling and emotionally wrenching investigation of otherness: the need for one person to understand another person completely, the impossibility of any such absolute knowing, and the erotics of this separation.   Guests are invited to bring their own lunch. The bookstore will provide chips and soft drinks.
 
Sunday, April 23, 3pm
In honor of Earth Day, Eagle Harbor Books will host Seattle author Denise DeLuca, who will speak about her book [Re]Aligning with Nature: Ecological Thinking for Radical Restoration.   DeLuca takes readers aspiring for radical social and business solutions on a direct and simple path to real change: Nature's Path. In this clear, direct, illustration-driven book, DeLuca lays out the core issues of why we are in danger due to being out of alignment with Nature and how re-aligning with Nature can save the planet.
 
Thursday, April 27, 7:30pm
Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes will discuss her new book The Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century Old Oak.  M apes took an intimate look at one majestic hundred-year-old oak tree through four seasons--and the reality of global climate change it reveals.   The oak is a living timeline and witness to climate change. Witness Tree is a beautiful and lyrical read, rich in detail, sweeps of weather, history, people, and animals. 
 
Sunday, April 30, 3pm
David B. Williams ( Too High and Too Steep ) returns to talk about his new book,  Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City
Williams weaves together the history, natural history, and architecture of Seattle to paint a complex, nuanced, and fascinating story.   These walks vary in length and topography and cover both well-known and surprising parts of the city.  Ranging along trails and sidewalks, the walks lead to panoramic views, intimate hideaways, architectural gems, and beautiful greenways. Encounter a new way to experience Seattle.
 
SAVE THE DATE
Tuesday, May 9, at 7pm


Join us for the launch of best-selling Bainbridge author Claire Dederer's fierce new memoir, Love and Trouble: A Midlife ReckoningBainbridge author Carol Cassella will be with us for a conversation with Claire at the launch party.  From the New York Times best-selling author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, a ferocious, sexy, hilarious memoir about going off the rails at midlife and trying to reconcile the girl she was with the woman she has become. Dederer is a happily married mother of two, ages nine and twelve, when she suddenly finds herself totally despondent and, simultaneously, suffering through a kind of erotic reawakening. This exuberant memoir shifts between her present experience as a middle-aged mom in the grip of mysterious new hungers and herself as a teenager--when she last experienced life with such heightened sensitivity and longing.

May we recommend...
From the diverse selection of staff recommendations on display in the bookshop, these titles have captured our attention this month.  Come in and see what else we recommend.


The Vegetarian by Han Kang 
Celebrated South Korean author Kang has written a three-part novella that follows a woman named Yeong-hye, who decides to become a vegetarian after a frightening dream. This seemingly simple choice reverberates through her life and her family in bone-chilling and fascinating ways. Kang uses Yeong-hye's choice to explore the violence behind human sustenance in all its forms. Kang's prose is electric, her characters deeply human, and her plot unpredictable and riveting. A must-read. ~ Emma



Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 
This novel tells the haunting tale of Nadia and Saeed, who begin a relationship during a civil war in an unnamed country. Life is ominous: neighborhoods reduced to rubble, abandoned offices calmly looted by employees, windows covered by bookshelves to forestall bullets. The couple exit their land via a mysterious door to other countries. But reinventing oneself in exile is harrowing even in the best of times. Both promise and the despair crackle through Hamid's spare prose in this rich dystopian story for our times. ~ Victoria



Odes: Poems by Sharon Olds 
Pulitzer Prize winner Olds' new collection is a great choice for National Poetry Month. Olds is humorous and observant, with a gift for describing intimacy in all its manifestations. She draws a thread of narrative through her collection by dedicating every "ode" to a different subject, from her own mismatched legs to her mother's withered cleavage. Though her lightheartedness shines through her work, Olds does not shy from fierce studies of pain or cruelty. Be prepared to devour this deceptively slim collection in one sitting. ~ Emma 



Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 0385542364  
A devastating and unflinching novel about slavery, and the story of one young woman trying to outrace its clutches. Cora has known mostly loss throughout her young life-her mother disappeared, presumably escaped without her; her grandmother, with tales from Africa, dies, leaving Cora to fend for herself within the plantation's brutality. The story of her escape and the almost hallucinatory route to her future asserts a most-needed black narrative of the shameful stain of slavery and its legacy. Beautiful and compelling. ~ Victoria



New in Hardcover
WhiteTears
by   Hari Kunzru

The Underworld
by Kevin Canty 

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?
by Alyssa Mastromonaco
The Best We Could Do
by  Thi Bui
  Buy Now
Himself
by Jess Kidd
  Buy Now
Teeth
by Mary Otto
New in Paperback

TheDevourers
by Indra Das

The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah
I'm  Thinking of Ending Things
by Iain Reid
Secondhand Time
by Svetlana Alexievich
  Buy Now
We Too Sing America
by Deepa Iyer
The Silk Roads
New Books for Kids
Under the Umbrella
by Catherine Buquet and Marion Arbona


I Just Want to Say Good Night 
by Rachel Isadora
  Buy Now


Feathers and Hair, What Animals Wear 
by Jennifer Ward



Stanley's Store 
by William Bee

The Lotterys Plus One
by Emma Donaghue 
Horizon
by Scott Westerfeld
New Books for Young Adults
Strange the Dreamer 
by Laini Taylor
Night Witches: A Novel of World War Two by  Kathryn Lasky
Hear the Wolves 
by Victoria Scott

And there's more...

Store Book Groups:
 
Readers Circle Book Group:  April 4, 7:00 pm 
Bend In The River by V. S. Naipal     
 
Speculative Fiction Book Group: April 4, 7:00 pm  
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang   

History Book Group, April 25, 7:00 pm
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff 
 
Mystery Book Group: April 25, 7:00 pm 
Carrion  Death   by Michael Stanley   


Saturday, April 29: Indie Bookstore Day/#Seattlebookstoreday


Join us for a day of celebration of bricks and mortar independent bookstores!  We'll open our doors early -- at 7:30am -- for those planning to travel to bookstores around the Seattle area. Or stop by anytime during the day for prizes, surprises, authors, and more! We'll have special merchandise, food, and lots of talk about books, audio books, and more.  Meet other booklovers who are scrambling to visit every participating bookstore in the greater Seattle area!




Check our our Spring Break Audiobook Playlist!


What's Up Bainbridge: Author Podcasts!



  

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island's independent bookstore