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Sunday May 8 is Mother's Day!
Here's a friendly reminder that Mother's Day is this Sunday! Finding gifts for mom is what we do best! Check out our list of recommendations, or come in and browse. We know you'll find the perfect gift. And for something a little extra, we have lovely soaps, candles, totes, pouches, journals, cards and much more.

Graduation season will soon begin. From books that inspire to those that give great advice, along with the perfect journal and writing tools, we have unique gift ideas to get them started. Come in and browse our displays, choose clever cards, and get great gifts for the grad in your life.

It's Asian American & Pacific Islanders Heritage Month! Browse our recommendations for some amazing new releases. There are so many new authors you might want to consider for your own reading, and for fascinating book group discussions.

It's also warm enough to start your gardens - finally! We've compiled a list of some local favorite gardening titles to help inspire you design your own green space, from large landscapes down to gorgeous pots, we can help.

And if all this isn't enough to entice to find your next great read, publishers are releasing more new titles this month than ever before and we have all the hottest titles. Our staff has been busy with new recommendations for you. So, scroll down to see what else we're excited about this month. Click any book cover to learn more...

And visit us soon!
Upcoming Author Events
Well, the weather is no longer an excuse for staying home when there's a great event in town. And these author events qualify! Scroll down to learn more, and don't forget to RSVP!
Jon Mooallem - Thursday May 17, 6:30pm
Join is for the launch of Serious Face: Essays, the latest book from Bainbridge Island author and journalist Jon Mooallem. We will have the rare chance to hear firsthand Jon's unexpected and at times astonishing perceptions of the people and situations he encounters in his work. Jon will be joined in conversation with Northwest journalist Bruce Barcott, Senior Editor at Leafly and author of several popular non-fiction books.
Dana Simpson - Saturday May 20, 6:30 pm
Hey, Unicorn Lovers! We are joining with Liberty Bay Books and BARN to bring your favorite author to town. Dana's newest book in the series, Unicorn Selfies, will be released on June 6, but we will have it early for you! Be the first of your friends to get a copy, and yours will even be signed! Available now for pre-orders. And be ready to ask questions! We hope to see you there!
Christina Kemp - Thursday June 2, 6:30pm
In her new memoir, Across the Distance: Reflections on Loving and Where We Did & Did Not Find Each Other, Bainbridge Island author Christina Kemp weaves poetic language and piercing wisdom into this intimate exploration of relationships, grief, and loss. Her words reflect the boundless depths of loss, the power of healing, and the sacred truths that lay within, beneath, around, and among all of us. Christina will be joined by revered local author Steph Jagger for this evening of reflection on universal themes that show up in everyone's lives.
Coming Soon: Pre-order Now!
May We Recommend...
The Hemingses of Monticello, by Annette Gordon Reed
No beach read, this 600+ page, Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork on enslavement during the Colonial era and the early days of our republic. Gordon-Reed’s magisterial discussion of the intricate interweaving of the Jefferson and Hemings families exemplifies the complexity of slavery as an institution and as the root of race as the most important issue in America. Reading this book in preparation for a visit to Monticello, I came away deeply grateful for its profound insights. ~ John, Bookseller Emeritus
The Trees Witness Everything, by Victoria Chang
Emily Dickinson once wrote, "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." That's exactly how I feel about Victoria Chang's work in this slim volume. Each poem is an impossible beautiful grief. Giving homage to W.S Merwin and drawing on Japanese syllabic forms, Chang skillfully shapes the shadows of trees and departed mothers into new language. ~Carrie
The Atmospherians, by Alex McElroy
In a world where men have started to “horde”—which ranges from groups of men forcibly changing tires to groups of men falling off a bridge—Sasha’s life is turned upside down by men’s-rights advocates who blame her for the death of her stalker. Desperate, she agrees to help her somewhat unhinged best friend Dyson start a cult that will free men from toxic masculinity. McElroy’s observations on body image, masculinity, and influencer culture are razor sharp. I laughed and cringed just the right amount as this satirical joy ride went off the rails, all told in the voice of a true crime confessional. ~Cappy
Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home,
by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh
"There are places that haunt us," writes Kerri Ní Dochartaigh – the  homes we've left behind, the countries or cities that have sundered while we lived there, the forests we explored with loved ones. Thin Places is a tender paean to the places the author has loved, left, or returned to, but it is also a deeply personal history of trauma and grief, of growing up in Ireland during the Troubles, and of the landscapes (both mythic and natural) that have been her places (and solaces) throughout. This is a remarkable book about borders and liminal spaces, about what it's like to come from a "hollowed-out place," and about coming to terms with the constant layering of grief. ~Rafe
Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Zott is dynamic, direct, driven, and a brilliant chemist. However, as a woman in the late 1950s, she is constantly degraded, sidelined, and underestimated, excluded from research projects whilst male coworkers attain undeserved rewards. Elizabeth’s life takes turns she never expected as she finds love, a dog (or rather, the dog finds her), courts tragedy, and becomes first a mother and then a cooking show host. But she refuses to compromise her personal beliefs or her commitment to science, incorporating them into her show, for as she says: “Cooking is chemistry.” This hilarious and heartfelt read hosts a lovable cast of characters. A story filled with lessons in chemistry as it relates to biology and nutrition, but also lessons in the chemistry of relationships and the making of family. ~Chloe
Several People Are Typing, by Calvin Kasulke
Told entirely via posts in the assorted channels of a small PR firm's office network, this hilarious, utterly bizarre yet strangely relatable novel takes us through the crisis of an employee whose consciousness seems to have mysteriously uploaded into the network itself; a romance that devolves into communication via emojis; a client's urgent need to restore its image in the wake of Pomeranians who seem to have been poisoned by their product; plus the everyday struggles, flirtations, rivalries and squabbles amongst the staff. And an increasingly idiosyncratic and less-than-helpful automated computer help bot. Give yourself a break from your own stress with this up-to-the-moment cutting-edge social-satiric lark. ~McNevin
Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet, by Michael Meyer
Benjamin Franklin was the ultimate Renaissance maninventor, statesman, populist, writer. Few of us knew of his legacy to the tradesmen of Boston and Philadelphia that survives today. Fulbright and Guggenheim scholar Mayer delved into this deathbed gift, established to be lent to tradesmen over the next two centuries, intended to support the “leather apron” class. Designed to jump start careers, the loans are repaid with interest over ten years, perpetuating the initial nest egg many times over! Meyer salts the story of these amazing with tantalizing tidbits and little-known facts about Franklin that make his book so much more than another Benjamin Franklin biography. I loved it! ~Susan
Unlikely Animals, by Annie Hartnett
I don’t say this lightly: Unlikely Animals is a masterpiece. This intricately layered story takes place in a rural New Hampshire town and follows Emma Starling, who can no longer avoid her family and must come home. She knows it’ll be bad but has no idea just how out of hand things had gotten. Her father is hallucinating hordes of animals, her ex best friend is missing, her brother is recovering from another stint in rehab, her mother has reached the end of her rope. To top it all off? She’s talked into becoming the long-term substitute for the town’s 5th grade teacher who’s had a mental breakdown. Told from the perspective of the town graveyard (Yes! You read that correctly!) Hartnett has spun a brilliant, hilarious, poignant, joyful, wacky, optimistic romp. This book is truly a gem. ~Cappy
Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel
With every book, Emily St. John Mandel adds more layers to the utterly unique literary landscape she's been crafting for years. In the stunning Sea of Tranquility (a companion and sort-of-sequel to The Glass Hotel, with spoilers inherent to the plot) she has outdone herself. As in her earlier works, she explores Art as our salvation, our burden, and our ontological concern, but there is so much more awaiting readers in this centuries-spanning story. In Station Eleven, Mandel posits that “survival is insufficient” and in this book she goes deeper into that theme. The characters in this novel are intensely alonean exile, an author on tour, a time-traveling sleuthand there are not a lot of writers who delve so painstakingly into what "alone" can mean, or what loneliness is. The story Mandel unspools to frame that examination is compelling, intriguing, and spectacular. ~Rafe
Harrow, by Joy Williams
Harrow is weird, dark, utterly baffling, and yet whimsical and even hilarious. It follows the journey of a teenage girl who may or may not have died and resurrected as an infant—her mother says yes—across a bleak, post-post-apocalyptic and disintegrating landscape. Reality itself seems to be collapsing along with the environment. It is peopled with characters who are not exactly survivors, including a precocious young boy dedicated to his studies of law, and seniors who plot to destroy whatever is left of civilization with grandiose ambition. This one won’t be for everybody—but fans of Kafka and David Lynch will love it. ~McNevin
The Hard Crowd, by Rachel Kushner
These amazing and entertaining essays by the author of The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room cover autobiographical and cultural topics that include her feral childhood, music, literature and art, classic cars, prison reform, and social justice. A couple of stand-outs include the San Francisco music scene of her youth and the tale of her participation in an ill-fated motorcycle race from Southern California south through Mexico, a 1,080 mile run called the Cabo 1000. That last one alone is worth owning this book! ~McNevin
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157 Winslow Way E
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
206.842.533