Coming Soon: Pre-order Now! |
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Learning to Talk to Plants, by Marta Orriols |
Paula received a double blow when the love of her life, Mauro let her know that he was leaving her for another woman, and then he died suddenly just hours later. The grief, despair, and confusion was palpable in Orriols's lyrical prose. Paula’s career as an accomplished pediatrician with neonatal patients becomes all-consuming, while her friends and family try to help her navigate the dark days without knowing the whole story of Mauro’s deceit. The deft writing and empathetic characters elevated this novel from becoming morose. Indeed, this beautiful meditation on grief, betrayal, and starting over was hard to put down.
~ Jane
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Facing the Mountain, by Daniel James Brown |
Another look at the Greatest Generation, from the author of The Boys in the Boat. This time Brown tells the heart-rending and heroic story of American men of Japanese descent who served in World War II. Coming from families of farmers, small businessmen, women, and community leaders, these young men had their life turned upside-down after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many were sent to detention camps with their parents, and others were left in limbo in the only communities they had ever called home. When they were finally allowed to serve in the US military, they were among the bravest and most accomplished soldiers. Brown does a remarkable job in capturing these people and their times -- all with resonance for our own. ~ Victoria
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Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata |
Funny, uniquely plotted, and paced. I breezed through this novella in two sittings. Set in present-day Japan, Murata made me feel like I was physically in the convenience store working alongside its star employee Keiko. Her commentary on the many forms the urge to fit in can take is biting yet hilariously subdued - at times almost painfully so. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a quick clever read. ~ Cappy
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Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, by Rivka Galchen
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Having at its heart the early-1600s case of accused witch Katharina Kepler, mother of famed scientist Johannes Kepler, Galchen’s amazing novel rings true for our times. Katharina, a protagonist who beguiles and compels us in equal measure, possesses an abundance of good humor, common sense, folk remedies and wisdom. Galchen deftly and masterfully lays bare the bigotry and paranoia in Katharina’s small German town with the plague and the Thirty Years’ War serving as historical backdrops. Will the defense put together by Johannes be enough to save Katharina? An absolutely wonderful read, with plenty of food for thought! ~ John, Bookseller Emeritus
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The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry |
One of my indispensable books, The Essex Serpent is fantastic and fantastical, equal parts a love story, an excavation of Victorian gender roles and social norms, and an unflinching look at the costs of true belief. Cora Seaborne is a terrific heroine, and her exploration of the liminal spaces where faith, love, and magic intersect is beautifully drawn and expertly examined. Perry has a gift for making the setting matter as much as any other character and also makes each character's story feel important, compelling, and sympathetic. ~ Rafe
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Victoria Chang's collection of poems is an intimate, original elegy from a daughter to her mother. In mourning, she lays to rest the many other things that died alongside her mother: a sense of home, the dress her mother wore, the blame she has carried as a daughter. Even the poet, a mother herself, watches her own selfhood die. I read Obit during a marathon of reading poetry books, and this one is a stand-out. I was particularly struck by Chang's emotional integrity, the cohesiveness of this collection, and how her precision of language and form cuts to the heart. ~ Carrie
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The Woman They Could Not Silence, by Kate Moore |
On the eve of the American Civil War, Elizabeth Packard’s husband commits her to an Illinois insane asylum for her independence of thought regarding women's equality. Separated from her six beloved children and determined to prove her sanity and secure her own release, Elizabeth begins to observe the mental institution with scrutiny as she works to write her way out of confinement. This book gives a scathing account of an early activist for women’s rights; it's a story that shocked, enraged, and inspired me. Although I felt the author skimmed much too easily over the boiling system of injustices surrounding Black Americans during these very years, Kate Moore has nonetheless told an important story that thoroughly absorbed my attention. ~ Carrie
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon |
This one's a long-time favorite. Sammy Clay is a comics-obsessed Brooklyn boy; Josef Kavalier is his cousin, a magician-in-training refugee from Europe. Together they are budding entrepreneurs and the creator of The Escapist, a comic book superhero whose daring deeds will eventually elevate Sam and Joe from the tenements of Brooklyn to the elite upper reaches of the Empire State Building. This is an incredibly thoughtful novel about where comic books came from and what they were for, but also about what comic books can mean to us as individuals or as a society. Chabon turns a loving and unflinching eye on the trials, tribulations, and choices of his protagonists and the superheroes they invent. ~ Rafe
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The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams
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Widower Mukesh grieves and passes his days in routine loneliness. Aleisha is working in her local library for the summer, escaping the troubles at home and tamping down university anxiety. When Mukash visits the library, Aleisha gives him a list of novels she discovered in a returned book. As they read through the list, their lives open in surprising directions, demonstrating once again the enriching qualities of the novel. This thoughtful and heartwarming debut joyfully joins The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, The Red Notebook, and The Little Paris Book Shop -- as yet another homage to the power of books and reading. It is an absolute delight and will be catnip to book groups craving a story that reminds us why we read and why libraries and book shops are so important. ~ Susan
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The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescott
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Boris Pasternak was greatly revered as a poet in his native Russia, even by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. But as Pasternak neared completion of his epic novel, Doctor Zhivago, the Soviets were keen to prevent it from being published anywhere, fearing (rightly) that it would portray the Bolshevik Revolution in a harsh light. In this historical novel, Lara Prescott immerses us in the dilemmas facing Pasternak and his family in light of the real threat of KGB interrogation and the Gulag if he were to publish Zhivago. In addition, Prescott invents several lively fictional female characters working in the typing pool at the CIA in Washington DC, who with their male colleagues work to obtain a manuscript of Zhivago to use in the Cold-War propaganda struggle. The Secrets We Kept is an engaging spy story that also features at least two compelling love stories. ~ David
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The Bookseller's Secret, by Michelle Gable |
This charming tale of two authors, eighty years apart, is as much an homage to the talents of the real Nancy Mitford and her life working in a bookshop in wartime London as it is the fictional story of young American Katie Cabot, struggling to follow-up her debut bestseller and survive an unraveling romance. Nancy’s wit and her irreverent descriptions of high society London life are delightful and Katie’s search for the mysterious missing Mitford manuscript make this story of books, war, and unexpected love a true page-turner. ~ Susan
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Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA, by Amaryllis Fox
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Fox worked for several years in CIA's Clandestine Service, adopting fake identities in dangerous places in order to uncover and prevent efforts by terrorist groups to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Having researched and published extensively on ethical issues in espionage and covert action, I was impressed with her desire to pursue legitimate goals through ethical means. In her compelling memoir, Fox takes us inside her CIA training, explains what it takes to recruit and handle foreign agents, and helps us feel her stress in pretending to be someone else while knowing that she could be under surveillance 24/7 by hostile intelligence agencies. ~ David
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Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie |
One of my very favorite science fiction stories ever begins here. Ancillary Justice is told in first person, by Breq—an AI robot. that began as the intelligence network of a massive imperial starship and its crew of ancillaries, and then morphed into a lone soldier on a daring mission. With both the thrills of a solid space opera and the deep intelligence of the smartest science fiction, the Imperial Radch trilogy rewards reading and rereading. ~ McNevin
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Blue Nights, by Joan Didion |
This book has taken permanent residence in my brain. In Blue Nights, maybe even more than its companion piece, The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion brings us inside her jumbled, grieving mind. I am obsessed with her ability to tell a completely non-linear but cohesive story. Skipping around from her present life to the day in 1966 when a doctor called to say there is "a beautiful girl here at the hospital, would you like her?" Didion explores the endless pain she feels in the wake of her daughter's death many years later and how this pain is inextricably linked to her own current instability. Haunting and riveting. Joyful and complex. Creative and oh, so Didion. ~ Cappy
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New In Paperback Nonfiction |
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A Library Book for Bear
by Bonny Becker
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Agent Llama
by Angela Woolf
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The Bug Club
by Elise Gravel
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We Are Family
by LeBron James
& Andrea Williams
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Dead Wednesday
by Jerry Spinelli
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Friends Forever
by Shannon Hale
& LeUyen Pham
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Erik vs. Everthing
by Christina Uss
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New Books For Young Adults |
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Redemptor
by Jordan Ifueko
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Me (Moth)
by Amber McBride
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Rainbow in the Dark
by Sean McGinty
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Ashfall Legacy
by Pittacus Lore
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Cazadora
by Romina Garber
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Living Beyond Borders
by Margarita Longoria
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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
September 7, 7:00 pm
Speculative Fiction Book Group
September 1, 7:00 pm
Mystery Book Group
September 28, 7:00 pm
Our popular in-store book groups are now meeting virtually by zoom!
Contact us or check our website for the meeting links.
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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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