The Holiday Season is finally here!
However you honor the Holiday Season - Hannukah, Winter Solstice, Christmas - the giving season has arrived, and we are off to a great start! We've gathered this season's biggest titles, as well as many of your favorite classics. Our shelves and tables are overflowing with great gift ideas. We have beautiful ornaments, boxed cards, greeting cards, and unique stocking stuffers as well. Calendars and journals are moving briskly, and if you haven't started your Advent Calendar, we have them for you! Best of all, our booksellers are ready to recommend their favorites for everyone on your list, and we love to suggest great ideas beyond the bestsellers.
Sometimes the best gift for someone is one that they can pick out for themselves, with a gift certificate from you. Take advantage of our Annual Gift Card Sale this weekend - see more details below. Online shopping is also encouraged, and if you haven't tried it, it's easy! Check out our online Holiday Gift Guide below for some great gift ideas. We're hosting our annual Cyber Monday Sale this Monday, for additional savings. Free gift-wrapping, curbside pick-up and shipping are always helpful options.
The Elf on the Shop Shelf is returning for the 2022 Holiday Season all along Winslow Way. Bring your youngest shoppers downtown this month and join in the fun. The program will run from December 1st through December 23rd 2022.
Finally, supply chain shortages and shipping delays are still an issue in 2022. We urge you to shop early for the best chance to get the perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Let us help you Shop Small and Give Big this holiday season!
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Our 2022 Holiday Gift Guide! |
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Holiday gift giving can stretch farther with our discounted holiday gift card sale! From Friday, December 2 through Sunday December 4, you can save from 20% - 25% on specific denomination gift cards in-store, or over the phone:
$25 gift certificate - $20
$100 gift certificate - $80
$200 gift certificate - $150
Whether you are buying gifts or stocking-stuffers, or simply want to take advantage of the savings yourself, we've got you covered. It's our thanks to you in the season of giving!
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Take advantage of our Cyber Monday Sale to shop from home. Save 20% on most books purchased on our website Monday, December 5, whether you choose to pay online or at the store. Just fill up your cart and enter the coupon code CYBER22 when you check out. You can choose in-store pickup, contact-free curbside pickup, or let us ship your order.
You can also choose to have us gift wrap!
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The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O'Farrell |
The historic facts of the tragic young life of Lucrezia de Medici are well known, but the story behind it is not. That’s where the brilliant storytelling of Maggie O’Farrell takes over. A beautiful young girl from an important family is taken in an arranged marriage to the powerful Alfonso II d’Este Duke of Ferrara, only to die suspiciously soon afterwards. This book will transport you to the glorious opulent days of the courtesan life in the Italian Renaissance, and introduce you to fascinating and richly imagined characters. From the opening pages, through the mounting tension, and finally to the shocking ending, this is historical fiction at its best. ~Jane
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The Cloisters, by Katy Hays |
Dark academia, ancient tarot cards, an historic monastery filled with medieval art, and devious characters all contribute to an atmospheric novel with definite Gothic undertones. Ann Stillwell from rural Walla Walla, WA receives a coveted art historian internship in NYC, and finds herself assigned to the famous Cloisters monastery. She is woefully unprepared for all that she encounters, including distinguished players in the insular art world and an obsessive relationship with her ultra-wealthy co-worker, Rachel. Tension mounts as she discovers seemingly sinister research being conducted, midnight seances, and deadly plants being cultivated in the exquisite gardens of The Cloisters. A suspenseful read with a surprisingly twisted ending! ~Jane
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The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy |
The Passenger is an intoxicating, mesmerizing novel, part Kafka and all Cormac McCarthy. Bobby Western is deeply in love with his younger sister, a mathematical genius and schizophrenic who died by her own hand. He is also a salvage diver increasingly afraid of the deep, and who may have seen something that has dire implications for his safety. Now he is being pursued by shadowy men with vast resources – which could also be due to his father’s work alongside Oppenheimer on the bomb. Rich in vivid dialog and terse, powerful descriptions, this novel is a dark joyride – compelling, fascinating, and haunting. ~McNevin
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Making a Scene, by Constance Wu |
In this collection of essays actress Constance Wu explores her own vulnerability and experiences as well as how fame changed her as a person. Her coming-of-age story delineates the highs and lows of family dynamics, her first jobs, her relationships, and much more. If you were wondering what happened when she disappeared from the spotlight at what some might say was the peak of her career, this book will answer those questions in full. ~Lily
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Now is Not the Time to Panic, by Kevin Wilson
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In this surreal story a girl and her only friend accidentally create a “satanic panic” in their small Southern town. Frankie, a teenager who has never been outside the constraints of Coalfield, meets Zeke, an aspiring artist. He encourages her to pursue her secret dream of writing, and together they start to make art and to find self-expression for the first time in their young lives. The characters each have their own depth and voice, and reading their story feel as though you’re getting to know them personally. ~Aran
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In the late 1990s, Hua Hsu experienced a tragedy when his close friend, Ken, was killed in a violent carjacking. The two had forged a friendship while attending UC Berkeley, one that Hua defines through their differences: Ken liked Dave Matthews, Hua couldn’t stand mainstream music; Ken wore Abercrombie & Fitch, Hua spent hours thrifting; Ken was Japanese American and had family in the US, Hua is the son of Taiwanese immigrants who spent time abroad. Over the last twenty years, Hua has been processing his friendship with Ken, the parallels between their lives, and what it means to come of age in the shadow of tragedy. His memoir, Stay True, is that story. ~Zac
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The Recruiter, by Douglas London |
Douglas London worked at the Central Intelligence Agency for several decades specializing in HUMINT, i.e., recruiting foreign citizens to become spies for the U.S. In this fascinating memoir, he offers richly detailed stories about individuals whom he enlisted to provide secrets about their governments, or in some cases terrorist organizations. He exhibits nuanced and reflective views on the ethical dilemmas and moral ambiguities in HUMINT, such as dealing with unsavory characters, or protecting a spy providing valuable intelligence. He takes us inside tense situations where he and/or his agents faced severe consequences if their espionage work were exposed. He also comments on the personalities and leadership styles of various colleagues and bosses (mostly unnamed) within the CIA and evaluates changes over time in the culture of the organization. ~David
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Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang |
When five-year-old Qian Julie Wang’s father angered the Chinese government (again) her family was forced to flee China for New York City. Julie was thrown into a dismal world of poverty, prejudice, and unscrupulous employers eager to exploit undocumented workers – and their children. The family’s fortunes changed when Julie found a children’s book and taught herself English. Assisted by a few helpful teachers and the New York Public Library, Julie gradually found a new world of opportunity and promise. Julie’s memoir describes the despair of her family’s situation with beautiful, descriptive prose flowing through the pen of a true storyteller, and you will emerge with a new understanding of the plight of immigrants, particularly Asian-Americans, in the United States. ~James
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The Rising Tide, by Ann Cleeves |
Every five years since school a group of friends meets to celebrate their friendship and to remember Isobel, a member of their group who died during their first trip together. On their tenth celebration one member of the group, a media celebrity recently fired for misconduct, is murdered. Vera Stanhope and her team are called in to investigate. As Vera, Joe, and Holly work their way through interviews of the friends and neighbors, a complex landscape of guilt, long-kept secrets and betrayals is bared; soon Vera and her team find themselves in grave danger. Full disclosure, I am a huge fan of Ann Cleeves and this tenth in her Vera Stanhope series is possibly her best! ~Susan
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Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory, by Raphael Bob-Waksberg |
Given its sentimental and sincere book title you don't expect this collection of short stories to make you laugh out loud, its dark humor taking you from laughing to crying in less than a paragraph. This book has a love story for everyone – come for the rockstar superheroes and stay for people falling in love in opposite dimensions. Exceptionally well-written, clever, and overall amusing, this is one I wish I could read for the first time all over again. ~Willa
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your name. 01, by Makoto Shinkai
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your name is the story of a boy and a girl who live completely different lives until they suddenly begin to swap bodies every few days. Mitshua Miyamuzu has a very traditional, secluded lifestyle, tucked in the mountains with her family. Taki Tachibana is her opposite, a high school boy in constantly bustling Tokyo who never has a dull moment. Now they must learn to communicate with each other and to navigate their new surroundings. The manga was adapted several years ago into a beautifully animated movie, and you can see the inspiration for that cinematic art spilling out of the pages here. Reading it feels like stargazing with the characters. ~Aran
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Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, by David Rakoff
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In Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, David Rakoff presents a series of 12 loosely connected vignettes. Each story, beginning with a young slaughterhouse worker in the early 1900s and ending with a disrupted marriage at the turn of the 21st century, is connected to a theme in the book’s title. But here’s the novel’s quirk: it’s written all in verse. Rakoff, an essayist and contributor to This American Life, died in 2012 shortly after finishing the novel. In Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish Rakoff weaves heavy stories -- about love, abuse, poverty and death -- into the light, beautiful rhythm of couplets. ~Zac
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The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, by Michael Ondaatje
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As in all his best work, Ondaatje spends most of this text unpacking a popular mythology – in this case the heavily romanticized and whitewashed "Wild West." By focusing on the classic antihero / archetype / lost boy Billy the Kid, he's able to delve into everything from the early days of tabloid journalism to a very American form of toxic masculinity. But because it's Michael Ondaatje, this is not a cold retelling of familiar facts. Rather, it’s a pastiche of characterizations, forms, and voices – the way light falls on Billy’s hands is as important as how newspapers reported on the violence those same hands did. This is several kinds of books at once, bundled into a marvelous exploration of one man’s life – real, perceived, and imagined. ~Rafe
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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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