Maurice Send-off

Wild Things...you made our hearts sing.  Seems many people have been ruminating on the passing of Maurice Sendak.  Here are some of the great tributes that have come my way.

Here is one by our very own Vlad. Vlad cooks the books over at the book oven, aka the Espresso Book Machine, aka Ginger. He's also an awesomely talented illustrator, and this week he put pen and heart to paper for this lovely tribute.

And here's the man himself, making a pretty convincing and mischievous Max, King of the Wild Things.



Here's Steve as another would-be Max.  This great Max cut-out lives at Orca Books in Olympia.

And last but not least, another great tribute illustration from Third Place customer, Rob Christianson.

Beautiful tributes for a beautiful man. Great work, guys!

Goodbye, Maurice

Beloved children's book author, Maurice Sendak, passed away today. His classic, Where the Wild Things Are has inspired countless children's adventures, a novel, and even a feature-length movie.  He has written and illustrated numerous other books, and won several literary awards.  We have all been Max, or his mother, or his beastly friends at one time or another.  And I'm sure Maurice will be sorely missed by young and old today.


Recently, Mr. Sendak had appeared on Comedy Central's, The Colbert Report.  Stephen Colbert had sought out the famed writer in an attempt to get his advice on breaking into the children's book "racket."  Below is a clip of Stephen Colbert revealing his new children's book, I am a Pole (And So Can You).  Along with a "glowing" endorsement from Mr. Sendak himself.

In a strange twist, I am a Pole (And So Can You) was released today.

So, take a moment and roar your terrible roars, gnash your terrible teeth, roll your terrible eyes, and show your terrible claws, in honor of one pretty great man.  Thanks for everything, Maurice.  You'll be missed.

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New Release Tuesday

It's new release Tuesday!  One of the best perks of being an independent bookseller has got to be the ARCs.  That's bookstore lingo for Advanced Reader's Copy.  Which means we get to read new books before they are released and then tell you, the discriminating book buyer, all about the awesome new reads coming out.  This week we've got three great suggestions.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain

A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at "the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal" has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America's most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide "Victory Tour" to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests the Dallas Cowboys, slated to be part of the halftime show.

Among the Bravos is the Silver Star-winning hero of Al-Ansakar Canal, Specialist William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and Support Our Troops bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the Cowboys' hard-nosed owner, his coterie of wealthy colleagues, a luscious born-again cheerleader, a veteran Hollywood producer, and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of war.

Among these faces Billy sees those of his sister, father, and Shroom, the philosophical sergeant who opened Billy's mind and died in his arms. Over the course of this day, Billy will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling family, and his brothers-in-arms. In the final few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years.

Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" is a devastating portrait of our time, a searing and powerful novel that cements Ben Fountain's reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Robert and Emily both loved this one.  Robert says:

Ben Fountain has created a sort of inverted Odyssey here where our hero, Billy Lynn, comes home from the Iraq war to find yet a whole new catalog of trials and challenges awaiting him and the rest of Bravo company before they are shipped back to the Gulf.

The book takes place on the final day of that tour, Thanksgiving at a Dallas Cowboys football game where Bravo company are guests of honor. Here the stadium itself becomes a socioeconomic archeological dig where all of America can be seen in the various levels of class and character on display.  

In the end, the novel not only gives us a fresh take on how we view capitalism, materialism, ourselves, our country, and our military, but provides a wonderfully empathetic tragic-hero in Billy Lynn, at once a brave, fearless fighting machine while still a very innocent and confused young man

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you- or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves, and herself.  All while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable--and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

I loved the first book in this series, Divergent, but haven't gotten my hands on the ARC for the new one yet.  It's a pretty hot item around the bookstore right now.  But Emily has read it and she says:

I tend to be disappointed by the second book in a series, but this was a very strong follow-up to Divergent - suspenseful but not repetitive, bringing in new ideas and information about the world. It felt like the author had a plan for the whole story before the first book was published. I can hardly wait for book 3!

This series is a great one for Hunger Games fans, and with two books out, now would be a great time to pick it up and join the fun!

Jeneration X: One Reluctant Adult's Attempt to Unarrest Her Arrested Development; Or, Why It's Never Too Late for Her Dumb Ass to Learn Why Froot Loops Are Not for Dinner, by Jen Lancaster

In Such a Pretty Fat, Jen Lancaster learned how to come to terms with her body. In My Fair Lazy, she expanded her mind. Now the New York Times bestselling author gives herself, and her generation, a kick in the X, by facing her greatest challenge to date: acting her age. Jen is finally ready to put away childish things (except her Barbie Styling Head, of course) and embrace the investment-making, mortgage-carrying, life-insurance-having adult she’s become.

From getting a mammogram to volunteering at a halfway house, she tackles the grown-up activities she’s resisted for years, and with each rite of passage she completes, she’ll uncover a valuable, and probably humiliating, life lesson that will ease her path to full-fledged, if reluctant, adulthood.

We are excited to host Jen for an author event on Tuesday, May 8th at 7:00 PM.  The event will have signing line tickets, so call us today and get to the front of the line to meet this hilarious and genuine, reluctant adult.

Happy Weekend!

Here's a great shot of used book buyer Kestrel, and a cuddly, chummy shark to start your weekend off right.  Come check our other great sidelines, including all the other Squishables.  I can attest to their superior cuddliness!

Art and the Public Transit Reader

Image from Underground NY Public Library

Yesterday, on the bus ride home, the gentleman beside me was reading.  And when I see someone with a book in their hand, I can't help but glance over to see what they're reading.  I either catch a glimpse of the cover, or sneak a peek the title on the top of the page.  He was reading War and Peace.  And I have to say I was impressed, not only because I have attempted to read that novel three times and failed, but because that is one big book to lug around on public transit.

I love seeing people reading, it's one of my favorite things about riding the bus, and if I happen to have read their book, I get an odd little thrill.  I almost never say anything to these bus readers, though it is a great way to start up a conversation.  It's one of the many reasons to dislike the Kindle and other eReaders.  Perhaps such devices are destroying the "brick and mortar" book industry, but more importantly they are denying me the joy I get by peeking into a stranger's life.

All of that being said, today I stumbled upon the greatest Facebook page ever.  Perfect for satiating my public transit, book fetish.  It's called Underground NY Public Library.  And the page is devoted to snapshots of New Yorkers, on the subway, reading.  That's all, so simple, but so lovely.  Check out the page.  Some of the shots are just beautiful and if you are a lover of books, and readers, they will make your heart swell.

Image from Underground NY Public Library

Posted by Erin B.

Pulitzer Prizes Announced

Wow.  The Pulitzer Prizes were announced today.  And everyone is stunned (or at least I am) that there was no prize awarded in the fiction category.  It's the first time since 1977 that there has been no fiction award.  However, the Pulitzer Board did reveal the finalists for fiction, I guess it was the least they could do.  The nominated finalists were Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson; Swamplandia! by Karen Russell; and The Pale King, by the late David Foster Wallace.  Seems in this case it might not have been an honor just to be nominated...

Other (actual) winners include:

Drama:  Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes

History:  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by the late Manning Marable

Biography or Autobiography:  George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis

Poetry:  Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

General Nonfiction:  The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

I"m especially disappointed as the Pulitzer fiction prize is my favorite book prize.  I guess I'll just have to read all the finalists and choose for myself.  That being said, if I were awarding the prize it would go to the Tiger's Wife, by Tea Obreht.

Posted by Erin B.

New J.K. Rowling...at last!

There have been whispers and mutterings but it looks like the rumors are true.  J.K. Rowling's first post-Harry Potter release has a name... and a plot synopsis!  Grown-ups take heart, this one's for you!  Read all about it on Little, Brown's website, and mark your calendars.  I know what I'll be reading come September 27th.

Little House Love

We all have those books that forever ring true in our lives. Steve has long loved the Little House on the Prairie series, as a child and still, perhaps more, as an adult.

Before visiting Tolkien's Middle-Earth and William Gibson's cyberspace, I traveled across the American frontier with Laura, Pa and the rest of the Ingalls family. Like the realms of fantasy and science fiction to come, reading about Laura's world was a completely different, fascinating and new experience of the imagination. Not only was I immersed in the lives of these pioneers but I felt like a cherished member of the Ingalls family as well. Every time I finish the final book, I feel as if I am saying good-bye to very dear friends, at least until the next time I read it. -Steve

This Thursday, Third Place welcomes one author whose love for Little House arguably rivals that of our very own Steve.  At 7:00PM, Wendy McClure will present her new book, The Wilder Life : My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie

For anyone who has ever wanted to step into the world of a favorite book, here is a pioneer pilgrimage, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a hilarious account of butter-churning obsession.

Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder-a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she's never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She retraces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family- looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House, and explores the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura's hometown.

Whether she's churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of "the Laura experience." Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder's life and work have shaped our ideas about childhood and the American West.

Join us tomorrow for what is sure to be a delightful evening. I know Steve will be there!

Book Hilarity

Need a laugh?  You simply must, Must, MUST check out this hilarious site.  The Malcolm Gladwell Book generator.  Guffaw!  It's not that we don't love Malcolm Gladwell, because we do, but this is just too great.  Oh, how book humor makes me glow.

Surviving the Zombie Drought

Are you upset that The Walking Dead season is over?  Don't know how'll you'll make it until next fall?  Well don't worry one bit!  Along with stocking up your end of days pantry, and archery lessons for the coming zombie apocolypse, head on down to Third Place for some Walking Dead reading material.


We've got the Walking Dead Chronicles : The Official Companion Book.  This book goes behind the scenes of the first season of the beloved T.V. series.






But best of all, check out the graphic novel that started it all.  With 15 collected installments of the monthly comic, these fast-paced, action-packed books are sure to get you through the dry spell until Rick and the gang are back on the small screen.





And if you're looking for some hands on preparation, we've got loads of books on homesteading and the all important  Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, by Max Brallier.


Good luck survivors.

Hungry for More?

You've read all the books and now you've seen the movie.  Now what?  How do you sustain yourself until the next screen installment?  While you could simply read and re-read the triology, we have some great suggestions of other books that are sure to satiate your hunger for more Huger Games.

Legend by Marie Lu

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Epitaph Road by David Patneaude

2097 is a transformed world. Thirty years earlier, a mysterious plague wiped out 97 percent of the male population, devastating every world system from governments to sports teams, and causing both universal and unimaginable grief. In the face of such massive despair, women were forced to take over control of the planet--and in doing so they eliminated all of Earth's most pressing issues. Poverty, crime, warfare, hunger . . . all gone.

But there's a price to pay for this new "utopia," which fourteen-year-old Kellen is all too familiar with. Every day, he deals with life as part of a tiny minority that is purposefully kept subservient and small in numbers. His career choices and relationship options are severely limited and controlled. He also lives under the threat of scattered recurrences of the plague, which seem to pop up wherever small pockets of men begin to regroup and grow in numbers.

And then one day, his mother's boss, an iconic political figure, shows up at his home. Kellen overhears something he shouldn't--another outbreak seems to be headed for Afterlight, the rural community where his father and a small group of men live separately from the female-dominated society. Along with a few other suspicious events, like the mysterious disappearances of Kellen's progressive teacher and his Aunt Paige, Kellen is starting to wonder whether the plague recurrences are even accidental. No matter what the truth is, Kellen cares only about one thing--he has to save his father.

Pure by Juliana Baggott

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back. 

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba’s unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization. 

With all these fabulous, new books, it's a dystopian reader's dream right now!

And in the meantime, check out this funny site that re-imagines The Hunger Games poster if the movie had been directed by someone else.  My personal favorite is Woody Allen.

Confessions of a Reader

I have always felt a slightly out of step with my fellow booksellers.  You see, I have a rule that when I tell it to co-workers or other readers they usually look at me like I'm crazy.  I only keep 50-75 books in my house at one time, that number has grown a bit because of all the unread books I keep. But if it starts to creep up, I purge. I don't have fancy shelves, I don't have any emotional attachment to the physical book.  I'm not a regular e-reader, I just view the books themselves as vessels, and once I read a book...the story is with me.

This picture is my 'bookshelf'.  I have made a few exceptions, sentimentality can't be completely routed out.  My first copy of Little Women, it's broken in half, but I can't imagine parting with it.  Various different editions of The Confederacy of Dunces, The Basement by Kate Millet...the most chilling book I have ever read, a handful of exercise reference books, a signed copy of Henry Rollins latest book, a copy of Rubyfruit Jungle that is signed to a girl I dated (we broke up before I could give it to her, and selling it or donating it feels weird).  And a bucket full of kids books for my boyfriend's son, and he can only have the one bucket.

I'm surrounded by people that have stacks & stacks of books at home, they brodart the covers, they dust them probably (hopefully?) and when they move everyone hates helping them because they have 50 back breaking boxes.  I'm just not that kind of reader.  BUT I AM A READER!

I've been reading since I was three, I stayed up way past bedtime with the best of them, reading by flashlight.  I even read in the SHOWER...that's right, with a sandwich bag over a mass market...BOO YA.

But, I feel like my 'book person' status comes into question when it's discovered how few books I own, and that I fold corners.  YUP, you heard me.

Don't get me wrong, I think books are beautiful,  I love a particularly clever cover - and the feel of delicate pages is wonderful. (side note -  enough with the covers that feel like synthetic human skin already...) I don't want people to stop buying them, I certainly haven't and can't imagine the day.  I bought curator shelves to display books I feel have risen to the level of artwork, it's a great way to switch out my art as often as I like.  I have an appreciation.


Maybe I feel a bit defensive when I work in an industry where most of my peers talk about rooms they can't access in their house anymore because they're filled with books.  It feels as if I must prove my passion for books by hoarding.  Well, I'm here to say that I am a book lover, I will surround myself with the stories I love for the rest of my life AND will stand proud by my small pile and bucket.

The other place I have books in my house, since clearly there aren't 75 books shown above - are my nightstands.  The majority of the books I have in my house are books I haven't read.  It's an assortment of advance reader copies, some Russian absurdist lit (Daniil Kharms..xoxox), books I read about in reviews of other books,  a bit of Gore Vidal and a vampire novel.  Crafting this post  I've decided that before I start another book I will finish each of these books! (Even as I type that I know I won't make it....) I am a very fickle reader, feeling the grass is always greener with the books I DON'T have in front of me.

So, I may not care if any of my books are signed, I may not care about maintaining the value of the books I do have,  but what I care about has remained the same from my first foray into the world of  Nancy Drew...the story!  My head and heart are filled with characters that have shaped who I am today.

Big stuffed and messy shelves or not...I AM READER! rawr.

-Wendy

Christopher Walken Reads You a Bedtime Story

This is absolutely worth the nine minutes if only to hear Christopher Walken ruminate on why Maurice Sendak puts "bug ears" on the flowers. Thanks to Emily for digging this up. Might not be suitable for the kiddies...

Lorax vs Lorax

Having been an avid reader for most of my life, I have slowly come to understand, acccept, and sometimes even welcome the changes that Hollywood makes to my favorite books.  It wasn't until the Harry Potter movies that I was really able to embrace the idea of a movie as a new and different incarnation of a book I loved.  Until then, I found myself leaving movie theaters, often steam issuing from my ears for the changes that producers and directors would dare to make to my beloved books.  At any rate, nowadays I seldom find myself angry at a movie for going "off-book".  Until now.

I grew up reading the Lorax.  To be honest, it's the only Seuss besides the Grinch that I really adore.  So when the teaser posters and trailers started appearing for the movie, I was more than a little excited. And then reality set in.  This current movie incarnation isn't the Lorax.  It doesn't even resemble the Lorax save for a few similar characters.  And when I say a few, I mean it...the book has three basic characters, the movie seems to have about 57.

Now I understand that things need to be added to a children's picture book in order to turn it into a feature length film...but the Lorax already had a lot to go on...a lot.  There is some pretty heavy plot in that bad boy, industrialization, environmental depletion, and hermit-induced depression.  But hey, you know what this book really needs, a pre-teen love story, gender-based stereotypes, and turning the wise hero into a bathroom joke-spewing, curmudgeon.  Box Office Gold!

So while I already have my tickets to see the Hunger Games, I'll be sitting the Lorax out. Read the book, I can guarantee it's much better, and the brown barbaloots will thank you for it.

Posted by Erin B.

Reading with Cats

Books and cats just seem to go hand in hand.  Perhaps it's the calm and stillness of a napping cat that makes them the ideal lap companion when snuggling into that new favorite read.  We know a lot of you out there love your cats... almost as much as you love reading so here are some fun, kitty tidbits.

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We've got a great event coming up on Sunday, March 18th at 5:30 PM.  Come meet Carolyn Banguero, author of Paolo's Adventures : The Tale of a Very Brave Kitty.  Banguero tells the story of Paolo, a brave little cat who finds himself at MEOW (Mercer Island Eastside Orphans and Waifs) Cat Rescue.  Follow Paolo's journey in this sweet tale about a cat on the mend and the people who help him.  And best of all, a percentage of the net proceeds will be donated to MEOW.

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Do you love kitties but struggle with allergies?  Well, do we have the answer for you!  Knit your own cat with Knit Your Own Cat : Easy-to-follow Patterns for 16 Frisky Felines by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne.  This book is packed with a litter of woolly cats to cuddle and love.  Fantastic photos and clear instructions make this a great idea for the cat-lover OR the knitter in your life.  

Or would you like to take your crafting to another level?  Are you clamoring to include your kitty in your crafting pastimes?  Well, look no further than Crafting with Cat Hair : Cute Handicrafts to Make With Your Cat.  Kaori Tsutaya has put together a  crazy collection of crafts made from...that's right, cat hair.  Tsutaya has found a way to transform every cat-lovers curse into crafts fit for any stylish, crafty boutique. You've got to see these adorable creations to believe them.    

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Third place staffers certainly know that cats make the ultimate reading companion.  A while back we did a poll  and counted a number of those purr-fect pals among the staff.  Here is one of the newest editions to the reading family.  It's Zipper, and he loves cuddling up for a good read with his human companion, Steve.

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And finally, check out this pretty awesome cat/book sculpture from Catsparella.

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So, as winter winds give way to a sometimes fickle Northwest spring, curl up with your favorite, feline friend and enjoy a fabulous book.

Pulse It & Wattpad Writing Contest!

Know any teen writers who would love to know more about the publishing industry?

Pulse It has partnered with Wattpad.com for a teen writing contest featuring bestselling author Lisa McMann. Wattpad, “the world’s most popular e-book community”, is an online & mobile social networking site where members are able write and share their stories & novels. Members can also rate stories and create a library. 

Wattpad’s Stats:

10 Million members worldwide

100,000 story submissions per month

Over 1 million app downloads per month 

39,000 Facebook Fans

6,600 Twitter followers

The Contest: 

To enter teens must to become a member of the Pulse It and Wattpad communities. Lisa McMann has written a prompt—the first few lines of a story—that users must finish in 2,500 words or less. The contest runs from July 15th to September 15th and the winner will be chosen & announced by Lisa McMann through Wattpad.com and Pulse It. Throughout the promotion, additional content will be released, including videos and excerpts from Lisa McMann’s books: The Unwanteds and Dead To You.  The winner will be flown to NYC and visit the S&S offices to get the inside scoop on publishing.  

If you know any teen writers, let them know about this awesome opportunity!

Musicals Based on Books... and an Upcoming Author Visit!

At 6:30 PM this Friday, July 29th, we will be visited by Misha Berson, author of "Something's Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination." As luck would have it, TPB staffer Kestrel recently read an article all about musicals! Read what she had to say below: 

A great way to really immerse yourself into a reading experience is to read a book, then listen to (or go see live) the musical adapted from it. Last week, wordandfilm.com put together a great list of the 10 best musicals based on books. A few personal favorites are mentioned, including Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which is a lovely book and a smashing Stephen Schwartz musical, and the memoir of Seattle's own Gypsy Rose Lee, adapted by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents into one of the greatest musicals of all time, Gypsy. The list mentions more great shows, but here are a few they forgot:

Voltaire's hilarious Candide was transformed into an equally entertaining musical by the great Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein's overture is probably the greatest in all of musical theater, and then of course there is the nearly impossible-to-sing “Glitter and be Gay” (Kristen Chenoweth does a pretty awesome job though) but my absolute favorite is the finale “Make Our Garden Grow.”

And how could they forget Show Boat?! The classic show by Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern based on the novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. I'm sure most anyone could hum the tune of “Ol' Man River,” (though maybe not in the original key!) but I also love “Can't Help Loving That Man.”

Seattle’s Intiman developed Elizabeth Spencer’s short story “The Light in the Piazza” into a Tony Award winning musical that features some of the most beautiful music in modern musical theater (in my opinion).

Andrew Lloyd Weber converted Wilkie Collins’ novel The Woman in White into a walloping flop of a musical, but the original novel is a wonderful example of a Victorian thriller, from one of the world’s first crime novelists. 

And let’s not forget Mary Poppins, based on the children’s stories by P.L. Travers, and of course The Wizard of Oz, based on L. Frank Baum’s beloved books. And I must mention Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls, based on the short stories of Damon Runyon. Can you think of any others? Comment here, on Facebook, or send us a tweet @ThirdPlaceBooks!

Make sure to come see Misha Berson discuss her book on Friday!

Young Adult Summer Extravaganza!

On July 31st, we will be hosting six local YA authors: Kimberly Derting, Lisa Schroeder, Mandy Hubbard, Suzanne Young, Eileen Cook, and Cat Patrick. Each will discuss her latest novel and we'll have treats and prizes, too! Check out the exciting trailers below or click on each book title to read more on our website.

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder

Ripple by Mandy Hubbard

A trailer was unavailable for this book, but read an awesome review at http://blog.figment.com/2011/07/21/ripple-by-mandy-hubbard/

A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

The Education of Hailey Kendrick by Eileen Cook

A trailer was unavailable for this book, but read more about the book at the author's website: http://www.eileencook.com/

Forgotten by Cat Patrick

Come see these authors at Third Place on July 31st at 4PM! 

Race Weekend!

On Saturday, July 16^th, Third Place Books staffers Emily, Wendy and Erin participated in two local events, the Chelan Man and Warrior Dash. 

Emily's race, The Chelan Man, is a weekend full of racing activities held at Lakeside Park in Chelan. The challenges range from a Splash'N'Dash to a Half Ironman. Read more about the race at http://chelanman.com/ 

Emily completed the Olympic Triathalon in 3 hours, 8 minutes and 9 seconds. She went with 20 other people that had also raced with her in Hawaii. This was a great addition, she says, since “both the bike leg and the run were out and back so I got to see everyone I knew multiple times.” One annoyance? “It rained. That was wrong, since it's not supposed to rain in Chelan in July.”

Emily poses for the camera

While Emily was racing in the rain, Wendy and Erin were at the Warrior Dash, an annual 3.5 mile obstacle course race held in North Bend. (Read more at http://warriordash.com/ ) They made their way past fences, braved barbed wire, jumped over cars, dodged hanging tires, crab walked over nets, navigated a balance beam and slogged through a dark pit of “horrible mud that almost sucked your shoes off.” There was even one section of jumping over flames! Amazing.

Wendy (r) with two fellow racers

Erin's favorite aspect of the race was “being really, really dirty,” saying that it was the muddiest she's ever been. Wendy would have liked tougher obstacles. “It'd be cool if they had five walls back to back,” she explained. “The wall was my favorite, for sure.”

Erin (l) gets ready to rock and roll

Wendy summed up by saying, “the race had people from all walks of life, all age ranges, all fitness levels – it was more about personal achievement.” Personal achievement, indeed!

We love having superstar athletes in our midst. Great job, you three!

LFP Reads: Karl Marlantes

Author and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award winner Karl Marlantes will be at Third Place Books on July 25^th for the LFP Reads program. The Third Place Literary Book Club will be discussing his book at 7 pm. LFP Reads will be hosting additional events on July 28th and August 4th.

Author Karl Marlantes with Third Place Books staff member Robert

Staff member Emily reviewed Marlantes' previous book, Matterhorn:

"Thirty years in the making, this novel of the Vietnam combat experience is gritty, intense, and captivating from the first page. The riveting narrative takes the reader up and down the chain of command, creating empathy with nearly every character. Marlantes deftly demonstrates the ripple effect that small decisions can have, often to the detriment of those they were meant to help." - Emily

If you would like to pre-order Karl Marlantes' upcoming book, What It Is Like to Go to War, head over to the Third Place website. Karl Marlantes will be at Third Place on July 25th - mark your calendars!

Charles Yu Interview

Charles Yu's debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, now in paperback from Vintage, is a creative and evocative time travel story, about a young man searching for his missing father. Along for
the journey are a fictional dog and a time machine with attitude problem. It's a book that equally investigates human nature as it does quantum physics. Charles Yu stopped by Third Place Books to sign books and chat with
Vladimir over at Third Place Press.

V: HTLSIASFU is one of those books that, when you start to talk to someone who's read it, or is reading it, suddenly you end up finding all these different facets to the book. We talk about some of the narrative dynamics, we also talk about some of the world-building; there's so much stuff that we can explore each time, it's kind of prismatic, we all come up with a new thing. And for me, being a life-long science fiction fan, it's amazing: your book is very concise, and with all the ideas that you have in it you could write a book five times bigger. How did you stop yourself from making your book so detailed?

C: Every book starts with fear. I was a little afraid--I would also describe myself as a science fiction fan, I'm still confident in my fandom. I read Asimov when I was in eighth grade and I became hooked--and I wanted to touch on all of these things and then when I got to some of the world-building and, as you said, some of the meta-science fiction stuff and then the
science fiction stuff itself, as I would get too far down the road in any one area, I would get a little afraid that I was getting in over my head. I didn't want to start building a world and then suddenly realize I didn't

Author Charles Yu

have all the tools to make this what it should be. So I would consciously stop myself as say, "O.K. I'm making my world simpler, I'm going to make this smaller," and then on a large scale that's really what I did; the universe in which the book takes place is Minor Universe 31, and I really did want to get the feeling of a place that was pretty compact; it was easier for me to manage and feel like I could do a small world justice, I'll
try for a bigger world sometime in the future.
 

  V: It's interesting because by the very fact that you didn't have confidence in your world-building, you actually made the book much more accessible to people who don't usually read genre, because sometimes I think when people who don't read genre approach it, they're put off by all the meticulous details. Your book comes off a lot more similar in tone to certain poetry like Alan Lightman's "Einstein's Dreams". I don't know if you've read it-- 

C: Yes, yes I have. I appreciate at comparison. I love that book.

Vlad

V:--  [your book] is so hard to describe and I had to find a starting point so that people could access the book. It's worked out in your favor in that it will have a broader appeal, because of the fact that you restricted
yourself. You mentioned earlier Asimov; are there any other influences that went into making your book?

C: The other big influence-- Asimov, because in the Foundation series he invents a science called Psychohistory, which was an inspiration for me creating Chronodiegetics- this fake science my book. The other major influence that I kept going back to was Nicholson Baker whose very first book, "The Mezzanine", is a book that takes place basically, during the course of a guy riding an escalator one level. The very first words in the book--I'm afraid I might get is wrong--are 'At almost one o'clock.' So he's already indicating to you that this is a book about being stuck between levels, stuck between moments; it's a book filled with footnotes, digressions, it's a book made from digressions essentially. And it's kind of about thought itself and what it's like to be in-between, and keep slicing more and more finely and more and more thin, the moment, and really look at something so closely. It's a book that takes place entirely in this guy's head. And as strange as it sounds, I wanted to write a book about an entire universe that in a sense, is an interior space. 

V: your thoughts on genre-- some people might say that this is a cross-genre book, but you were heavily influence by genre. How do feel about genre distinctions, how do they apply to writers and the industry. Any thoughts you have on that? 

C: I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I'm going to go ahead and try.
My guess is that a lot of writers who are not hard and fast in the genre,
don't approach the book at all--in terms of thinking in genre. They're
approaching it from a very one-off stance; they're saying, " what is *this*
book going to be?" and from book to book they can go wildly in one direction
or another. So unless you're writing Noir or Hard SF, or Fantasy, you're
probably not super-comfortable with labels. That said, I've now written two
books--the short story collection [Third Rate Superhero], and this novel,
and both have elements of speculative fiction, and I'm working on something
now and if I had to guess, it will also end up having many speculative
fiction elements in it. I don't know why, I'm not really trying to get away
from it, and I'm not trying to do it consciously.

V: They're essentially writer's tools rather than something that people think of as genre: convention-goers and such. It seems like a lot of writers outside of genre seem to be embracing these tools because they make stories more creative.

C: That's a great way to put it. I think with these tools you get to have
the benefit of lots of other stories as reference. There are symbols,
markers that I get to put in the background while you're reading my story,
and I get to cheat, I get to piggyback on some of those other stories.
Science Fiction is very rich with conventions, and I don't mean with
'rules'; people know how to read SF, they are expecting certain things, or
they know that there's this universe of stories told already, so that you
have this mental library of what's been done. And because of that it's
actually not limiting, it's more freeing, because people can go and read
your brand-new story having had some kind of instruction on how to read a
story like it but not exactly like it Did that make sense?

V: Yes, yes it did. That's a great way of putting it. 

Order your copy at Third Place Books.com

Goat Days!

We are very proud to be a sponsor of this community event : Goat Days. If you haven't made it up to the park to see the goats there are still 2 days left. Today there is also a goat petting area for kids from noon-2pm.

Robert Sindelar, Managing Partner of Third Place Books

The Running of the Goats