It's Summer Reading Season at Eagle Harbor Books!
We're deep into Summer now, the shortest but most magnificent season in the PNW - and it's time to read outside! Whether you are looking for a light romp of a novel, or you finally have time to dive into the deep non-fiction tome on your to-be-read stack, we have you covered. Can't decide? Click any book cover below to learn more about these featured new books and recent staff recommendations.
We have also curated Beach Reads and Summer Romance suggestions in the bookstore, just in time for Bookstore Romance Day later this month. And you'll find many regional hiking, camping, and field guides for those of you who have waited all year to get out. Of course, the best thing of all is for you to come in and talk with our booksellers for your perfect Summer reads. |
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Coming Soon: Pre-order Now! |
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Becoming Heroines, by Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin |
Hang on tight. This book is a powerful manifesto for women to finally become the heroines of their own story, literally. Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, or ECM to her many fans, has taken on the patriarchy and other forms of systemic oppression in this extraordinary book and gives women (inclusively) a how-to manual to do the same. Using great storytelling, including mythology, memoir, and personal narratives from clients, ECM has written a classic that will keep you riveted. Identifying the themes of recognition, reconciliation, revolution and rebirth, she provides a pathway for living your fullest life. I devoured this book. ~ Jane
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Light Perpetual, by Francis Spufford |
Through snapshots of five young children beginning with their death in a 1944 German bombing of London, this incisive novel imagines their long lives had they survived. Light Perpetual recounts the music scene in the 60’s, a mental breakdown of a bus conductor and his later renewal, gang warfare’s imprint on one of them, another’s complicity in a property boom and bust cycle, and reconciliation between a long divorced couple. With a magic touch, Francis Spufford affirms his fascination with “the complicated fractured broken-up difficult surface of the real world.” Easily, the best literary fiction I’ve read since Hamnet and A Gentleman in Moscow. ~ Dave
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The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold,
by Dinah Manoff
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Have you ever envied the fame and fortune of the Hollywood elite? Be careful what you wish for! In this highly engaging novel Dinah Manoff, a true Hollywood Star, has given us all a taste of fame. Subtly navigating complex cultural issues with deeply nuanced characters and a strong storyline, this novel delivers on all fronts. From the explosive opening scene to the final page, you will not be able to put it down. Book groups will have a lot to discuss with this one. ~ Jane
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The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls, by Ursula Hegi
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What a strange and alluring novel, set in 1878 Germany. Although it is centered on a mother's deep grief after three of her children are swept away by a wave in the Nordsee, the story also acts as a tribute to the desires and tenuous bonds of women trying to uphold one another: the bereaved mother, Lotte; a young girl, Tilli, who will birth a child under the care of nuns at the Home for Pregnant Girls; and Sabine, a seamstress at the traveling Zirkus. Hegi moved me with her maternal imagery, religious iconography and her depiction of relationships formed in times of desperate need. ~ Carrie
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A Girl is a Body of Water, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi |
A sweeping coming of age story dominated by strong women and the men in their lives. As the favored grandchild of a wealthy Ugandan clan in the 1970s-1980s, Kirabo is obsessed with the mother she’s never known. Kirabo is surrounded by the intense, often overwhelming love of her aunt and grandmothers who will stop at nothing to ensure that she has the best possible life. Constantly confronted by the ways patriarchy pit women against each other, the women in this story navigate pain and heartbreak with humor and tough love. Spellbinding, complex, challenging, Makumbi has created a feminist meditation on the nature of female relationships, shot through with history, folklore, and a love story to boot. ~ Cappy
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The Lost Writings, by Franz Kafka, Reiner Stach (Editor) |
This is a collection of fragments and micro-stories uncovered by Kafka biographer Reiner Stach, and translated into English by renowned poet Michael Hofmann. Some stories are a few pages; some a few paragraphs; and some are only a few lines in length. Each is powerful, fascinating, as well as revelatory and mysterious. None feel incomplete, and all ring with the resonance of the most powerful dreams. This is Kafka at his hilarious, insightful, anxiety-ridden, reality-bending best. I feel transformed by this thin volume. I can barely express how grateful I am for the existence of this book. ~ McNevin
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The Law of Innocence, by Michael Connelly |
In what may arguably be his best legal thriller yet, Connelly places Mickey Haller in a desperate fight for his life as he defends himself against a murder charge. He’s been set up with a body in his trunk after a celebratory session at a local bar. To avoid a lengthy prison sentence, it will take the best work of his legal staff and his ex-wives and his half brother Harry Bosch to prepare him for his defense. The suspense is almost unbearable and the pace of the story exhausting, but worth every minute of your reading time! I loved it! ~ Susan
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The Other Bennet Sister, by Janice Hadlow |
While Lizzie Bennet will always hold a special place in my heart, Mary Bennet has become the heroine I never knew I needed! So compulsively readable that I had a hard time putting it down and couldn't wait to pick it back up. I read Pride and Prejudice at least 6 times before I was 20, so I was a little nervous to read this re-telling, but Hadlow has created an ode to Austen that is wholly her own style. At its core this admirable continuation of a beloved classic is a coming of age story. In addition to all the happy mishaps and misunderstandings of an Austen novel, Hadlow includes truly profound observations about life as Mary grapples with questions like: How does one become happy? What is the relationship between beauty and happiness? Utterly satisfying, this book will be loved far beyond Austen fans! ~ Cappy
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A Ladder to the Sky, by John Boyne |
As the unofficial president of EHBC’s unofficial John Boyne fan club, it would be remiss of me not to recommend Ladder to the Sky. In this deeply unsettling and sometimes horrifyingly funny novel we meet Maurice Swift, a young writer who will do whatever it takes to forge a legacy for himself—no matter the cost. Maurice is every writer’s worst nightmare and every reader’s morbid fascination. Boyne’s kaleidoscope of perspectives sheds a startling light on the relationship between morality and art, begging the question “who really has what it takes to be remembered?” ~ Sam
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Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World, by Joby Warrick
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Red Line, covers the Syrian civil war and the American response in brisk, gripping prose, filled with action and detail. Warrick's use of a wide cast of individuals gives the book a detailed and deeply personal perspective: from a chemical weapons scientist for ISIS to a Syrian doctor who foresaw their threat and the men and women behind the international response to the Syrian civil war. Red Line takes these viewpoints and shows us a hidden world behind the events in Syria and Iraq, illuminating a conflict deeper and more complex than the one that has played across news headlines. ~ Owen
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The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray |
In 1905 young Belle da Costa Greene was hired as a librarian at Princeton University to be the personal librarian of J.P. Morgan. Her job was to organize and enhance Morgan’s stunning collection of art and literature, making the J. Pierpont Morgan Library one of the finest collections in the world. In the process of her extraordinary career, she scaled the heights of high society in New York, London, and Paris, and navigated the treacherous waters of the world’s most famous auction houses, museums, and galleries, as the lone woman. Her story is stunning by any measure—but the fact that she did it while denying her identity to protect herself and her family from racial persecution speaks volumes. Meticulously researched, her story is inspiring, moving, passionate and totally captivating! ~ Susan
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People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry
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This quirky romance novel will transport you on vacation with the main characters Poppy and Alex. Trying to save their friendship two years after they’ve stopped speaking, the two travel to Palm Springs where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. But underneath all the antics that makes you laugh out loud is a story that reminds us sometimes the richest love is platonic love. ~ Willa
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Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, by Colin Dickey |
Ghost story enthusiast and history lovers unite! If you’ve ever wondered why ghost stories resemble the place and era they originated from, Colin Dickey packs a punch by illuminating America’s dark past confronting why we tell the stories we tell. This is not a book of ghost stories nor a book about the truth or falsity of such claims. Instead, Dickey “focuses on questions of the living: how do we deal with stories about the dead and their ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed haunted?” You will be surprised, have many aha! moments, and feel bewitched by Dickey’s conclusions. There are many quotable passages to share, but you’ll just have to read the whole book to find them for yourself! ~ Laura Kay
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Priestdaddy, by Patricia Lockwood
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A frequently-lauded best book of 2017, this memoir had me bursting into laughter throughout. It recounts the author’s upbringing as the daughter of a rogue and eccentric Catholic priest and her enabling mother; her escape; and then her return home to live in a time of dire financial straits. Lockwood’s gifts of insight and language combine organically with the outrageous nature of her personal history. It is not a surprise that she is a poet with a highly original voice. Everything about this book is a treat! ~ McNevin
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New In Paperback Nonfiction |
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Up Up Up Down
by Kimberley Gee
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Lala's Words
by Gracey Zhang
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Bird Boy
by Matthew Burgess
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Ten Thousand Tries
by Amy Makechnie
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Journey Beyond the Burrow
by Rina Heisel
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The Pathfinders Society
Curse of the Crystal Cavern
by Francesco Sedita &
Prescott Seraydarian
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Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom
by Sangu Mandanna
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Paranorthern and the Chaos Bunny A-Hop-Calypse
by Stephanie Cooke
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New Books For Young Adults |
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Six Crimson Cranes
by Elizabeth Lim
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Mad Bad & Dangerous to Know
by Samira Ahmed
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After the Ink Dries
by Cassie Gustafson
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Cast in Secrets and Shadow
by Andrea Robertson
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Rise to the Sun
by Leah Johnson
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Drop In - You are Welcome! |
All Store Book Group titles are discounted 15% up until the date of discussion
Reader's Circle Book Group
August 23, 7:00 pm
by Ann Petry, Tayari Jones (Introduction by)
Speculative Fiction Book Group
August 4, 7:00 pm
by Dan Simmons
Mystery Book Group
August 24, 7:00 pm
Our popular in-store book groups are now meeting virtually by zoom!
Contact us for the meeting links.
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Join us in congratulating the Longlist Finalists for the 2021 Booker Prize, announced earlier this week. Some of the titles by international authors are not yet available here in the USA but we anticipate having them soon. In the meantime, if you are looking for great fiction, come by and pick up one of these amazing gems. |
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Thank You For Supporting The Island's Independent Bookstore |
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157 Winslow Way E
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
206.842.533
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