Eagle Harbor Book Co.
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried."
                            - Winston 
Churchill



(Politics seems to be on everyone's mind these days, and we hear many points of view each day here in the bookshop. With Churchill's comments in mind, we've turned this page in our newsletter over to Val Tollefson, our current Mayor who is leaving office soon, after serving one term.)
 
Last year at this time, most of us were deeply engaged with the Presidential campaign.  We expected it to be consequential, because we would be electing our first female President. We were right about the consequential part. This year, our City Council election is the main event on the November ballot. It will too will be consequential, and it is past time for Islanders to become equally engaged.
 
It is the decisions made at the local level that most directly impact our lives. While our City Council election results won't matter to Kim Jong Un one way or the other, they matter greatly to us.  Read more...
Author Events and Readings
 
Wednesday, Oct. 4, from 6-7pm 
Best-selling British author  Cressida Cowell ( How to Train Your Dragon) will talk about her new book,  The Wizards of Once. In this start of a new series, the warring worlds of the Wizards and Warriors collide in a thrilling and enchanting adventure! Once there were Wizards who were Magic, and Warriors who were not. But Xar, son of the King of Wizards, can't cast a single spell. And Wish, daughter of the Warrior Queen, has a banned magical object of her own. When they collide in the wildwood, on the trail of a deadly witch, it's the start of a grand adventure that just might change the fabric of their worlds. 
This event is co-hosted with Kitsap Regional Library and Liberty Bay Books and will be at the KRL Sylvan Way branch at 1301 Sylvan Way, in Bremerton.

Thursday, Oct. 5, 6:30pm
Join us for a timely conversation between generations when Frances Moore Lappe and Adam Eichen talk about the new book they coauthored, Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want. 
The duo has crafted an optimistic book for Americans who are asking, in the wake of Trump's victory, "What do we do now?" The answer: We need to organize and fight to protect and expand our democracy.


 
Saturday, October 14, 11:00 am 
Join us for an enchanted morning when Seattle author  Ilona Bray  comes to talk about her middle reader book , Mossby's Magic Carpet Handbook: A Flyer's Guide to Mossby's Model D3 Extra Small Magic Carpet . The delightful, well-illustrated book is aimed at readers aged 8 - 12.  Just imagine! What if one day, you receive a magic carpet - perhaps from a mysterious great aunt who's done with her own high-flying adventures? Will you be ready to find your way to fabulous locations (and home again) and bravely handle altitude, storms, G-forces, and more?
 


Thursday, October 19, 7:00 pm 
In this sumptuous photo book, On an Acre Shy of Eternity, environmentalist and photographer Robert Dash takes nature exploration to new depthsHe views the mystery of this land -- all his pictures were taken at or near his home on the Salish Sea -- as one might read a book, promoting a visual, poetic, and ecological literacy that he calls "locavore art and ecology" - the art, science and discovery that beckons in one's own front yard. Over a three-year period he traveled from bluff to tree, feather to seed on a near-acre of forest, meadow and cliff shouldering the Salish Sea. Using metaphors, a camera, and a scanning electron microscope, Dash features beauty at scales ranging from craters on the moon to grains of pollen a few thousandths of an inch wide.  
 

Sunday, Oct. 22, 3:00 pm
Part adventure, part memoir, part policy and always exciting,  The Great Unconformity takes a fun fast-paced tour of environmental, political, and spiritual issues surrounding sustainability and climate change. Kate Troll, sometimes called "the Naomi Klein of Alaska," fills her colorful stories with humor, wisdom and hope for a brighter future.  With an eye toward the millennial generation, Troll wraps her stories with the wisdom of recognized global thinkers.



Tuesday, Oct. 24, 5:00 pm
"Writing and meditation practice are a powerful pair, a dynamic duo," Albert Flynn DeSilver teaches. "Together they nourish and push, trigger and define, inform and inspire, enable, and energize. To engage in both practices fully is to activate a more complete, creative, and spiritual self." With a mixture of engaging storytelling and practical exercises, Writing as a Path to Awakening invites you on a yearlong journey of growth and discovery -- to enhance your writing through the practice of meditation while using the creative process to accelerate your spiritual evolution.

 
Thursday, Oct. 26, 7:00 pm
Exercise and fitness were a central part of Jamie Osborne's life throughout his adult years, offering him a place of refuge, solace, camaraderie, and hard work. Catastrophically, in 2007 Osborne was in a cycling accident and sustained a spinal cord injury that rendered him permanently disabled. Though doctors said he would likely never walk again, Osborne has been fighting for nine years to recover his body. Will Your Way Back chronicles his journey, an exercise of will, to walk again and live independently. Anyone who has suffered loss, or have a loved one who is suffering this way, will draw hope from his inspiring story.

May we recommend...

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
It's been 20 years since Frazier's masterful, National Book Award-winning first novel created a literary sensation, and it remains one of my favorite all-time books. A wounded man's quest for home during the Civil War's close grows into an odyssey in the American grain, epic in scope, intimate and authentic in voice and detail. Rooted equally in human struggles and the rhythms of nature in southern hill country, this novel fuses history, myth, and story of love in a way that moves me to gratitude. Now in an anniversary edition, this is a gorgeous, lyrical and stunning work. ~ John



Love and Trouble by Claire Dederer
Some of us may relate directly to the events of this memoir, others may not, but all of us can identify with the urgent need, first expressed by Plato, to live an "examined life." No one does this better than Dederer. In a unique essay format marked by sensitivity and humor, she reflects on her sexually promiscuous youth and the profound, sudden, and astonishing sexual urges that have returned to her in midlife, which confuse and threaten her carefully crafted role as devoted mother and wife. Read it for the brilliant writing, or for the storytelling. This is a brave undertaking in every respect, and superbly accomplished. ~  Jane




Draw Your Weapons by Sarah Sentilles
This contemplative book that examines the relationship between art and war is like a meandering conversation, but one that is passionate and full of epiphanies both dark and hopeful. Sentilles explores her belief that stories and art can be powerful responses to violence and war. She looks humankind clearly in the eye and asks us not to stand idle. ~ Victoria





The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
This is one of those rare novels whose Young Adult designation belies its appeal across generations. Starr Carter moves in two worlds - her home in a poor black neighborhood, and the privileged suburban school she attends. She loves both, but feels weary of living with two versions of herself. Then her unarmed childhood friend, sitting in a car with Starr, is shot by a cop. Thomas spins a powerful story of love, bravery, and the often-jarring bifurcation that black Americans experience every day. ~ Victoria



Alone: Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat Into Victory by Michael Korda
Occupying a middle ground between memoir and history, Alone chronicles the events of 1940 from the perspective of a young boy in England. Korda eloquently conveys the dire mood of that perilous time, and how the seemingly bleak fiasco of Dunkirk would ultimately stiffen Britain's resolve to stand against the Axis powers, even when it looked as though none would stand with them. ~ Tim





Neverwhere: Illustrated Edition by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell 
This new edition of Gaiman's breakout fantasy novel, originally published in 1997, is absolutely lovely. It includes the author's preferred text, Riddell's beautifully surreal illustrations, and a bonus short story. A great entry to Gaiman's subtly magical work, Neverwhere is a modern fairy tale in the best sense, about journeys, changes, and what you do when you can't go home again. I highly recommend it. ~ Jo  



New in Hardcover Fiction
Provenance
by Ann Leckie
The Resurrecton of Joan Ashby
by Cherise Wolas
Autonomous
by Annalee Newitz
Thalia: A Texas Trilogy
by Larry McMurtry
The Red-Haired Woman
by Orhan Pamuk
The Blinds
by Adam Sternbergh
New in Hardcover Non-fiction
An Odyssey
by Daniel Mendelsohn
Nomadland
by Jessica Bruder
Crash Override
by Zoe Quinn
A Sideways Look at Clouds
by Mara Mudd Ruth
Shooting Ghosts
by Thomas J Brennon & Finbarr O'Reilly
Ranger Games
by Ben Blum
New in Paperback Fiction
Malagash
by Joey Comeau
His Bloody Project
by Graeme Macrae Burnet
My Sister's Bones
by Nuala Ellwood
El Paso
by Winston Groom
The Witches of New York
by Ami McKay
Go, Went, Gone
by Jenny  Erpenbeck
New in Paperback Non-fiction
American Revolutions by Alan Taylor
Now: The Physics 
of Time
by Rchard A Muller
The Year of Voting Dangerously
by Maureen Dowd
The Earth is Weeping
by Peter Cozzens
Blood in the Water
by Heather Ann Thompson
Whale Song
by Margaret Grebowicz
New Books for Kids


Imagine
by John Lennon

I'm Just No Good 
at Rhyming
by Chris Harris

Her Right Foot
by Dave Eggers

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
by  Karina Yan Glaser
  Buy Now

Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford

  Buy Now
The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain

  Buy Now
New Books for Young Adults
The Last Namsara
by Kristen Ciccarelli

A Short History of the Girl Next Door
by  Jared Reck
All the Crooked Saints
by Maggie Stiefvater

And there's more...
Store Book Groups:

 
Speculative Fiction Book Group:
October 3, 7:00 pm 
Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville 
 
October 24, 7:00 pm
The Trespasser, by Tana French

Communty Partners:




Thank you for supporting the
island's independent bookstore