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"When I am dead,
I hope it may be said,
His sins were scarlet,
but his books were read."
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Quality magazines often capture a small slice of a bigger story or the sweet telling of a small one. Either way, it's a delight to find a pearl hidden between the covers.
One such story showed up in a somewhat obscure magazine we carry published by Oxford American
, A Magazine of the South. John T. Edge's piece in the fall 2016 edition,
The Harris Hegemony, underscores the danger of stereotyping. Will Harris, a fourth generation cattleman in southwest Georgia, ditched high-yield, fertilizer intensive farming and went organic, adopted animal welfare practices, and attracted food obsessives to his products. When lauded as a savior, he scoffs that he's not saving anything except "...(his) own ass." He rebuilt houses in this formerly dying town for his farm workers and incurred the wrath of old time locals who don't like all the black workers who became their neighbors.
Reflecting on his new thinking, he dismisses organized religion but didn't stop there. "I was raised to be a racist and homophobic, but then I realized, that shit don't work." A daughter who works on the farm is now pregnant and lives with her wife in the house where her dad was raised. So much for forgetting that those who live in the rural south may well be as disparate as we are.
This year's Spring edition is equally worth reading. The short piece on the black horsemen of Kentucky starts sweetly by comparing
Da Hoss, an aging racing thoroughbred, with Gene Carter, his aging minder, at the Kentucky Horse Park. "Carter looks better; he's ninety to De Hoss's seventy-eight human years, and his back only just stoops." The article then reflects on the buried history of black jockeys who dominated the early Kentucky Derby races but have now been erased, compliments of Jim Crow.
Hopefully it will take you less time roaming around the book store than the year it took me before I found this small treasure.
Dave
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Author Events and Readings
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Thursday, May 4, 4:00 pm
Renowned chef
Deborah Madison
will be signing copies of her latest,
In My Kitchen: A Collection of New and Favorite Vegetarian Recipies
. Madison has received the M.F.K. Fisher Award from Les Dames d'Escoffier International, four James Beard Foundation Awards, and five awards from the Intl. Assoc. of Culinary Professionals. In 2016 she was inducted into the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Hall of Fame. She will be visiting us after a special lunch event with Greg Atkinson at Restaurant
Marché
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Thursday, May 4, 7:00 pm
Bainbridge Island author and sailor
Wendy Hinman,
follows her previous memoir, Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven Year Pacific Odyssey, with her newest book,
Sea Trials: Around the World with Duct Tape and Bailing Wire
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It is a gripping story of a family in a quest to sail around the world, despite daunting challenges, including a shipwreck, threats from wild weather, pirates, gun boats, mines and thieves, a broken rig, scurvy and starvation. There are glimpses of fascinating cultures and enough levity to keep readers of all ages hooked to a suspenseful, satisfying ending.
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Tuesday, May 9, 7:00 pm
Bainbridge Island author
Carol Cassella
will be in conversation with Claire at this much-anticipated launch party.
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Thursday, May 11, 7:00 pm
Help us welcome
Kristin Jarvis Adams when she presents her amazing family memoir,
The Chicken Who Saved Us: The Remarkable Story of Andrew and Frightful. This is the remarkable true story of a mother searching for answers in the unseen, and her autistic son Andrew's extraordinary relationship with a backyard chicken. When Andrew developed a devastating and mysterious illness, it was his chicken who astounded the medical community and helped to save his life.
"Heartbreakingly beautiful - the gift of the animal human bond."
- Temple Grandin
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Mother's Day - Sunday, May 13, 3:00 pm
Celebrate Mother's Day with a great tribute to women! We'll host
Chandler O'Leary and
Jessica Spring, when they discuss their wonderful volume,
Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color. The
Dead Feminists series is an ongoing letterpress collaboration between O'Leary and Spring. Since 2008 this series has featured powerful quotes by historical feminists, tied in with current political and social issues. A portion of the sales of each piece is donated to nonprofit causes via the
Dead Feminist Fund, in honor of the power of the press to change the world.
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Sunday, May 21, 3:00 pm
We welcome back MacArthur Fellow
David R. Montgomery and his wife and co-author,
Anne Biklé, to discuss their new book,
Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life. This follows their previous title
The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life. Montgomery and
Bikl
é introduce us to farmers around the world, at the heart of a brewing soil health revolution that could bring humanity's ailing soil back to life, remarkably fast. Including farms in both industrialized and developing communities they show that a new combination of farming practices can deliver solutions to problems farmers face today.
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Thursday, May 25, 6:30 pm
Join us when author
Steve Olson comes to talk about his classic book,
Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens, recently out in paperback. Shedding new light ont he cataclysm, Olson interweaves the history and science behind this event with page-turning accounts of what happened to those who lived and those who died. Rich with vivid personal stories of lumber tycoons, loggers, volcanologists, and conservationists,
Eruption delivers a spellbinding narrative built from the testimonies of those closest to the disaster, and an epic tale of our fraught relationship with the natural world.
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SAVE THE DATE
Saturday, June 3, Noon to 2 pm
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Where can you meet best-selling authors, find all of your great summer reads, and support the Bainbridge Schools Foundation all in one fell swoop? At Eagle Harbor Book Company, of course!
19 of your favorite
Seattle7Writers will take over the bookshop and take charge of hand-selling fabulous stories for everyone from kids to grandparents! Plus, they will each bring special homemade goodies for customers to sample.
When you check-out, we will donate 20% of all sales to the
Bainbridge Schools Foundation, whose goal is to ensure that island students achieve global standards of academic excellence.
It's a win/win! See you there!
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We have chosen a somewhat eclectic assortment of books that have caught our eye. These staff recommendations may speak to the current zeitgeist, or provide critical insight about an important international event or world figure, or feature an unusual used book we've recently acquired, or one that brings a smile on a dreary winter day.
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The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience
by Kent A. Kiehl, Ph.D.
As a 23 year old graduate student, Kiehl walked into a maximum-security prison in Abbotsford, BC. His task was to interview prisoners considered to be the most dangerous in Canada, to determine which ones showed psychopathic traits. This work began the career detailed in this book, and it's fascinating story told by one of the leading experts in the field of psychotherapy. Kiehl holds the reader's attention right up to the last page.
~ Ann
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Grace by Natshia Deon
With brilliant writing and astonishing storytelling, this debut novel is incredible. An unflinching, intimate tale of women, both free and enslaved during the years surrounding the Civil War.. It is narrated by the ghost of an escaped slave who hovers near her daughter throughout the story. Their parallel stories intertwine to capture the terrors frustrations, injustices, and enduring hopes of the women in that era. Book groups will find much to discuss with this great novel for our times.
~ Jane
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Norse Mythology
by Neil Gaiman
As he demonstrates in his earlier books, including
American Gods, creating contemporary versions of mythology is one of Gaiman's niches, perfectly matching his experience and skills. It's no surprise, then, that he does well with this collection of Norse myths retold in a way that's both modern and poetic, engaging and readable without losing the spirit of the original myths. It's the perfect book to read in chunks-pick a story and settle down with it for ten minutes. It will linger with you well into the days after. I can't recommend this one enough.
~ Jo
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The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded: Poems
by Molly McCully Brown
In this heartbreaking and harrowing collection, the reader is placed within the walls of an institution that opened in 1910, its practices becoming linked with the eugenics movement in America. The imagined presence of the Colony's former inmates and staff haunts this work. Eloquently restrained, the poems are marked by compassion for the countless women who underwent sterilizations without their knowledge. This masterfully composed volume possesses a chilling, incantatory beauty.
~ John
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Beartown
by Fredrik Backman
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Music of the Ghosts
by Vaddey Ratner
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American War by Omar El Akkad
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Shadow Land
by Elizabeth Kostova
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Walkaway
by Cory Doctorow
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If We Were Villains
by M.L. Rio
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Last Hope Island
by Lynne Olson
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It's Up to the Women
by Eleanor Roosevelt
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The Age of the Horse by Susanna Forrest
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Janesville
by Amy Goldstein
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Behaving Badly
by Eden Collinsworth
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Thunder in the Mountains
by Daniel J. Sharfstein
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Sonora
by Hannah Lillith Assadi
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My Struggle: Book 5
by Karl Ove Knausgaard
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Barkskins
by Annie Proulx
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The Long Dry
by Nan Jones
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Secondhand Time
by Svetlana Alexievich
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Pumpkinflowers
by Matti Friedman
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The Mathews Men
by William Geroux
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The Naturalist
by Darrin Lunde
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Open Midnight
by Brooke Williams
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Black Hole Blues
by Janna Levin
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The Book of Mistakes
by Corinne Luknye
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Town is by the Sea
by Joanne Schwartz
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Shine!
by Patrick McDonnell
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Evil Emporor Penguin
by Laura Ellen Anderson
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Panda-Monium
by Stuart Gibbs
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The Star Thief
by Lindsey Becker
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New Books for Young Adults
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Alex & Eliza
by Melissa De La Cruz
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The Wonder of Us
by Kim Culbertson
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Pyromantic
by Lish McBride
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Used Books Sale!
It's Spring cleaning time at the Used Book Annex! Throughout the month of May, all used books will be on sale at 30% off. We are making room for incredible new inventory coming in each month. So, wander downstairs and see what treasures we have found for you!
Store Book Groups:
Readers Circle & Speculative Fiction Book Groups:
May 2, 7:00 pm
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
History Book Group: May 28, 7:00 pm
Mystery Book Group:
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Steve Olson
The co-owner of Eagle Harbor Book Company from 1987-1997, Steve and his wife Nancy spearheaded a significant chapter in EHBC history. Under their leadership, the bookstore nearly doubled in size and gained character through a renovation that emphasized the original fir flooring and exposed beams of the century-old store. After selling the store, he continued his dedication to the written word as a reference librarian at the Bainbridge branch of the Kitsap Regional Library. Steve was a bright, gracious, well-loved gentleman, and a fixture of the Bainbridge Island community. He left an island full of friends behind after his passing. Steve will be greatly missed.
A Memorial Gathering Remembering Steve Olson will be held Saturday, May 6th, 2017, from 1-4 pm at Mount Baker Rowing & Sailing Center 3800 Lake Washington Blvd., Seattle
Memorial donations to the Seattle Parks Foundation
and the Audubon Center at Seward Park are gratefully accepted.
Thank you for supporting the island's independent bookstore
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