Beautiful Books Part 2

The new Penguin Hardcover Classics Set 2 are here!  Come and get yours today...though they may be a bit moist as Jessica, Christy, and I have drooled all over them already!
-posted by Erin

Body Book

Long-time bookseller Autumn is a whiz on the computer and with the "interwebs".  She frequently leads us to various, fabulous book blogs, articles, viral videos, and cute pictures of cats (see below).  But perhaps her greatest find is the Corpus Libris Blog, hosted by those zany folks at Skylight Books in Los Angeles.  Here is our very own Autumn, in what Corpus Libris says is their best submission yet...

Check out more of their great pictures here.

And here's a cute picture of a cat, as promised.

Erica's Secret Garden

Being a pretty large store, you can bet that we have just about every reading interest, genre, and sub-genre covered.  And the same is true for our non-literary pursuits.  We have musicians, jugglers, weight-lifters, knitters, cyclists, runners, carpenters, dancers, baseball nuts, and movie buffs.  And do we ever have gardeners!  It's not uncommon to waltz into work during harvest time, and find a veritable cornucopia of home grown treats patiently awaiting staff consumption. Among our many Farmer Johns and Janes, Erica stands out for her recent commitment to transform her backyard into a self sufficient, urban farmers dream (this adorable baby chick is one of the recent additions to her flock of 7).

Here are two books she swears by in her pursuit of agricultural Nirvana.

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening, by Steve Solomon

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades is my indispensable guide to planting vegetables on my 1/4 acre plot in Shoreline. Steve's honest assessment of what will grow well (not melons) and how to induce ideal conditions for the on-the-cusp plants (like peppers) is pragmatic and ideal. The timing charts for when to get seeds in the ground has been my best friend year after year. When I first started out, I would always mistakenly plant too late then wonder why I wasn't getting any harvest. Benefiting from Solomon's direct experience, now, I know to always make a planting chart, and to start in the beginning of March.

If you have any remote interest in urban farming and jumping on the self sufficiency train, then pick it up, check it out and get excited for Spring!



 
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, By Toby Hemenway

Permaculture is the practice of designing habitats that mimic natural ecology systems. It is integral to making a small plot of land as productive as possible in an urban environment while adhering to sustainable practices. Gaia's Garden is an exemplary look at integrating wildlife, domestic life, rainwater caching and plant guilds to create an oasis of sustainability and practicality. It is a great look at the possibilities of permaculture and ideas for getting started creating your own garden. It is an inspiration to read and use and I hope to implement almost all of the ideals into my yard and garden.

Justice is Served

The blog posting has been a bit sparse as of late, but with good reason, I just finished serving as a juror down at the King County Courthouse.  Although I am happy to do my civic duty, I won't lie and say that during the 6-day trial there weren't a few boring moments.  Actually, there were several boring moments; so many in fact, that I was able to read three books in the down time.  I enjoyed the books I read, but looking back I think I might have chosen my reading material with a bit more foresight.  With that, I humbly offer my reading picks for sequestered jurors:

Here are two fabulous plays... 
Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose
Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee
...what better way to compliment the drama of the courtroom than with a little courtroom drama!

And along with Inherit the Wind, try...
Summer for the Gods, by Edward J. Larson
...This Pulitzer Prize for History winner recounts the famous Scopes Trial immortalized in the Lawrence & Lee play.

Greg suggests...
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
...incidentally he also says that every lawyer should read this novel about a court case that lasts several generations.

Looking for a little nonfiction about the Supreme Court of the land...
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffery Toobin
Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest, by Sandra Day O'Connor

Cheryl suggests last year's...
Jarrettsville, by Cornelia Nixon
... beginning in 1869, amid chaos and confusion in the moments following Martha Jane Cairnes's murder of her fiance in front of 50 witnesses and former Union militia members.

Of course there is always John Grisham, may I suggest...
A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
...I know most have read this, but I still remember sitting in my high school home room class, on the edge of my seat, racing through this legal thriller.

And my personal pick...
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
...I recently re-read this, having not read it since middle school, and I was floored.  There's not much I can say about it that hasn't already been said.  But if you haven't picked up this masterpiece since you were a kid, I think you too will be stunned by the beautiful story of childhood innocence, racial inequality, and the bravery of one man's fight for justice.  Additionally, a new 50th anniversary edition is being released with this beautiful new cover art.

Posted by Erin

Beautiful Books

If you love books, or if you are are aesthete - or both - you will find it difficult to resist these!

 

Penguin has published a line of elegant hardcover cloth-bound classics creator by London designer Coralie Bickford-Smith. These books are made in simple but rich shades, with a repeated design embossed over the cloth. These are books that look and feel like books - a collector's item and a book-lover's dream.

We have the following:

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (mustard & gold, with swans)
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (dove-grey blue & crimson, with flowers)
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte (slate & cerulean, with thistle flowers)
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (charcoal & red, with poppies)
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (navy & cream, with chandeliers)
Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell (light green & dark green; with peas)
Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Thomas Hardy (oatmeal & red; with sheaves of wheat)
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (black & white; with peacock feathers)

These current eight titles will expand in March to include Emma, Madame Bovary, the Odyssey, Treasure Island, and Lady Chatterley's Lover.

I am deep into Gaskell's Cranford (the one on top of this pile below) and as happy as a clam in that story of a provincial English town filled with spinsters and gossips, where everything has its proper place and ceremony.

So splurge a little and treat yourself to a well-bound classic. It's worth the temptation.

Posted by Christy

The things you can do while not walking up the stairs...

Pulitzer Predicament

The Pulitzer Prize for fiction is my all-time favorite literary prize, and past winners invariably wind up on my to-read and re-read lists. The only small thing that irks me is the lack of a shortlist before the prize is announced. Christy, a fellow bookseller, feels about the Booker Prize the way I feel about the Pulitzer, and this year I will admit to a little jealousy as she bounded around the store on the day the Booker shortlist was announced. On one hand the Pulitzer race is always exciting and filled with speculation, but on the other, there seems to be no way to prepare. I want to be able to read all the contenders in order to make an informed decision in the same way that people watch all the Best Picture nominees before Oscar night.

Well, this year, I may have an answer to my problem. For the past two years, Pulitzer Prize First Edition Guide has made a prediction list, and the 2008 and 2009 winners and finalists have been on those lists. This year they are producing two lists; one, which was released in late January, and a more concise list to be released in March as the prize draws nearer. Here are their current predictions below:

My Father's Tears: And Other Stories, by John Updike
Lark and Termite, by Jayne Anne Phillips
Homer and Langley, by E.L. Doctorow
The Humbling, by Philip Roth
The Maples Stories, by John Updike
American Salvage, by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, by Daniyal Mueenuddin
The Red Convertible, by Louise Erdrich
Chronic City, by Jonathan Lethem
A Good Fall, by Ha Jin
Dear Husband, by Joyce Carol Oates
Little Bird of Heaven, by Joyce Carol Oates
Spooner, by Pete Dexter
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Generosity: An Enhancement, by Richard Powers

And click here for more on how their predictions are made.

I myself am going to jump into American Salvage and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. I can't wait!

Posted by Erin

An Interview with Chris Bohjalian

Recently our very own Cheryl McKeon was able to sit down with bestselling author, Chris Bohjalian. Check out her interview below.

Secrets of Eden, Chris Bohjalian’s twelfth novel, again examines a social issue as revealed through engaging characters and gripping plot twists.

Why does he choose these often controversial topics for his books?

“Nobody wants to write a 15,000 word Op-Ed piece,” he laughs, “but I do want to tell a ripping good yarn.”

And his popularity and sales attest to the fact that, indeed, his yarns are good ones. Secrets of Eden appeared on the Publishers’ Weekly bestseller list just 5 days after its release.

“I base my novels on one precise idiosyncratic moment,” he said in a recent Third Place Books visit. While researching The Law of Similars, a 2000 novel, he met with a victims’ rights advocate who showed him Polaroid photos of head indentations in sheetrock.

“I never stopped thinking about those images,” he said. After Double Bind, his eleventh novel, was published, sexual violence and domestic abuse victims from around the country wrote asking if they’d met him, because he seemed to know their stories.

With the Polaroid images still on his mind, he researched Secrets of Eden, which opens with a husband and wife’s apparent murder – suicide, and includes a “snarky” pastor whose involvement in the tragedy forces him to examine his faith.

Asked who his most autobiographical character might be he referred to Stephen Drew, the minister. “I fear that’s who I’d be as a pastor!” Bohjalian says with a slight shudder.

The novel is set in his home state of Vermont, which he says is known for foliage, syrup, and gourmet ice cream, but where two-thirds of its homicides (15 in 2008) are domestic abuse.

Growing up in a family that moved frequently, Bohjalian treasures his home, family and life as a writer that revolves around that stability. Nine of his 12 books are set there.

He is proud of his recognized ability to write from the perspective of female characters, noting that a reviewer of Midwives complimented “Chris Bohjalian’s accurate description of her childbirth experience...”

He plans to write a sequel to Skeletons at the Feast, an exception to his Vermont setting, a WWII novel set in Poland and Germany. The last sentence in the book gives a clue to what will happen, he shares.

And the protagonist of his next book is a pilot of a small plane who does not share Sully Sullenberger’s story but crashes in a deadly Lake Champlain landing, and his attempt to recover from the tragedy by moving to a small – yes, Vermont – town.

Autographed copies of Secrets of Eden and Bohjalian’s other titles are available at Third Place.

Posted by Cheryl

Under the Cherry Tree

There have been a rash of holidays lately, and amidst all the hubbub we forgot to wish you a Happy President's Day!

Presidential biographies are often the giants of American nonfiction. Perhaps this is based on the American penchant for individual personalities and myth and of course the characters who have historically shaped our nation are large personalities indeed. Here are a few ideas for brushing up on your presidential knowledge:

Three recent biographies of Honest Abe that should intrigue Lincoln Lovers are Lincoln's Melancholy : How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk; Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer,by Fred Kaplan; and Lincoln on Race & Slavery edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Among the Pulitzer winning biographies are American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham; and Sally Gordon-Reed's biography of Jefferson's other family, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.

President Obama has been a popular author - if you haven't yet, get a hold of his Audacity of Hope, Dreams from my Father, and the Inaugural Address. There has also been a constant supply of new books on the Obama family, the administration, and the 2008 election season. One such book is John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, which has been flying off the shelves at Third Place Books.

Posted by Christy