Old Book of the Week The Car Thief by Theodore Weesner First published in 1972, The Car Thief was greeted by acclaim from a diverse range of reviewers, including postmodern maximalist Joseph McElroy and contemporary literary gothicist Joyce Carol Oates. All of them, whatever their usual tastes, found something in it as compelling as a thriller, and despite the book's understated style, I discovered exactly the same thing. The book follows alienated teenager Alex Housman as he drifts from one dicey situation into another, only occasionally monitored by those whose care he's in, among them impersonal institutional officers and his affectionate but alcoholic single father. It's fascinating to observe Alex's struggle to access and understand his own motivations, which reminded me of the existential classics of the mid-twentieth century, as if Camus's The Stranger had been rewritten to take place in Flint, Michigan. —James

Old Book of the Week

The Car Thief

by Theodore Weesner

First published in 1972, The Car Thief was greeted by acclaim from a diverse range of reviewers, including postmodern maximalist Joseph McElroy and contemporary literary gothicist Joyce Carol Oates. All of them, whatever their usual tastes, found something in it as compelling as a thriller, and despite the book's understated style, I discovered exactly the same thing. The book follows alienated teenager Alex Housman as he drifts from one dicey situation into another, only occasionally monitored by those whose care he's in, among them impersonal institutional officers and his affectionate but alcoholic single father. It's fascinating to observe Alex's struggle to access and understand his own motivations, which reminded me of the existential classics of the mid-twentieth century, as if Camus's The Stranger had been rewritten to take place in Flint, Michigan. —James

Old Book of the Week The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner Who knew that NunLit was a genre with a passionately devoted following? Not me, until I read this unique story about a medieval convent, considered one of its classics. Townsend writes brilliantly about the momentous and mundane with the period detail typical of historical fiction, but without the novelistic reins of character hierarchy or narrative arc to steer your mind in a particular direction. When I started to contemplate (quite nunnishly) her authorial choice, I had an epiphany! She recreates for the reader the same sense of distance with which the nuns experienced life! The sisters are concerned with worldly things but they take the eternally long view: events ebb and flow and everybody and everything are significant and inconsequential at the same time. My favorite of the nuns, Dame Isabel, summed up what I think is the crux of the book: “The world was deeply interesting and a convent was the ideal place in which to meditate on the world. She was twenty-three. If she should live to forty, to sixty, her love of thinking would not be satiated.” NunLit has a new convert! (Sorry, couldn’t stop myself.) —Liz (from the Phinney Books newsletter)

Old Book of the Week

The Corner That Held Them

by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Who knew that NunLit was a genre with a passionately devoted following? Not me, until I read this unique story about a medieval convent, considered one of its classics. Townsend writes brilliantly about the momentous and mundane with the period detail typical of historical fiction, but without the novelistic reins of character hierarchy or narrative arc to steer your mind in a particular direction. When I started to contemplate (quite nunnishly) her authorial choice, I had an epiphany! She recreates for the reader the same sense of distance with which the nuns experienced life! The sisters are concerned with worldly things but they take the eternally long view: events ebb and flow and everybody and everything are significant and inconsequential at the same time. My favorite of the nuns, Dame Isabel, summed up what I think is the crux of the book: “The world was deeply interesting and a convent was the ideal place in which to meditate on the world. She was twenty-three. If she should live to forty, to sixty, her love of thinking would not be satiated.” NunLit has a new convert! (Sorry, couldn’t stop myself.) —Liz (from the Phinney Books newsletter)

Kids' Book of the Week Warhead: The True Story of One Teen Who Almost Saved the World by Jeff Henigson After being diagnosed with brain cancer as a teen, Seattle writer Jeff Henigson made an unconventional Starlight Children’s Foundation wish. He wanted to (and did) travel to Moscow to talk with Gorbachev about nuclear disarmament. But this memoir is less about cancer and the Cold War than it is about surviving high school and searching for love, affection, and praise from a formal, distant father. As a fiction reader, this is my favorite type of nonfiction: it reads like a novel. A heart-wrenching yet humorous and inspirational page-turner. (ages 12 and up) —Cindy

Kids' Book of the Week

Warhead: The True Story of One Teen Who Almost Saved the World

by Jeff Henigson

After being diagnosed with brain cancer as a teen, Seattle writer Jeff Henigson made an unconventional Starlight Children’s Foundation wish. He wanted to (and did) travel to Moscow to talk with Gorbachev about nuclear disarmament. But this memoir is less about cancer and the Cold War than it is about surviving high school and searching for love, affection, and praise from a formal, distant father. As a fiction reader, this is my favorite type of nonfiction: it reads like a novel. A heart-wrenching yet humorous and inspirational page-turner. (ages 12 and up) —Cindy

New Book of the Week The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú If you're hoping for better outcomes for Latinx people crossing the border, joining Customs & Border Patrol as an officer doesn't make sense as the way to go. But that's what Cantú did, and there's no doubt that he offered the people he picked up at the border a better experience than some of his colleagues. That he left and wrote a book about his experiences and the corruption of the patrol is redeeming, the anecdotes harrowing, and the need for action—by all of us—urgent. Cantú dedicates the book to "All those who risk their souls to traverse or patrol an unnatural divide." —Erica

New Book of the Week

The Line Becomes a River

by Francisco Cantú

If you're hoping for better outcomes for Latinx people crossing the border, joining Customs & Border Patrol as an officer doesn't make sense as the way to go. But that's what Cantú did, and there's no doubt that he offered the people he picked up at the border a better experience than some of his colleagues. That he left and wrote a book about his experiences and the corruption of the patrol is redeeming, the anecdotes harrowing, and the need for action—by all of us—urgent. Cantú dedicates the book to "All those who risk their souls to traverse or patrol an unnatural divide." —Erica

New Book of the Week Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann No getting around it, this sounds like a tough sell: 1000 pages of unbroken thought, not a stream of consciousness but a torrential river scouring a mental landscape. But that's how you produce something as deep and broad and beautiful and American as the Grand Canyon. Because this torrent spills from the mind of one ordinary woman (an Ohioan, a wife, a mom, a baker of pies), because she's hilarious, because her doubts and deprecations, her fondnesses and fears, are so mundane and relatable, because she exists as one of the truest-to-life fictional characters you could ever hope to meet, this book probably won't get the credit it deserves, credit for originality, insight, and literary excellence. Which is a shame, because Ducks, Newburyport is a domestic national epic to set beside Moby-Dick , a corrosive comic cultural indictment to compare with William Gaddis's National Book Award-winning J R . Read it and weep from laughter and righteous anger. —James

New Book of the Week

Ducks, Newburyport

by Lucy Ellmann

No getting around it, this sounds like a tough sell: 1000 pages of unbroken thought, not a stream of consciousness but a torrential river scouring a mental landscape. But that's how you produce something as deep and broad and beautiful and American as the Grand Canyon. Because this torrent spills from the mind of one ordinary woman (an Ohioan, a wife, a mom, a baker of pies), because she's hilarious, because her doubts and deprecations, her fondnesses and fears, are so mundane and relatable, because she exists as one of the truest-to-life fictional characters you could ever hope to meet, this book probably won't get the credit it deserves, credit for originality, insight, and literary excellence. Which is a shame, because Ducks, Newburyport is a domestic national epic to set beside Moby-Dick, a corrosive comic cultural indictment to compare with William Gaddis's National Book Award-winning J R. Read it and weep from laughter and righteous anger. —James

New Book of the Week The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Unlike most new releases, this isn't one we independent booksellers had the opportunity to read ahead of publication. It's embargoed, as we like to say. Other than the people at the publishing company, the only ones who were allowed to see copies were the Booker Prize judges, and they thought highly enough of it to put it on this year's shortlist, confirming our suspicions that this sequel to The Handmaid's Tale will be one of the most relevant and important books of the year. —James

New Book of the Week

The Testaments

by Margaret Atwood

Unlike most new releases, this isn't one we independent booksellers had the opportunity to read ahead of publication. It's embargoed, as we like to say. Other than the people at the publishing company, the only ones who were allowed to see copies were the Booker Prize judges, and they thought highly enough of it to put it on this year's shortlist, confirming our suspicions that this sequel to The Handmaid's Tale will be one of the most relevant and important books of the year. —James

New Book of the Week The Red Thread: 20 Years of NYRB Classics edited by Edwin Frank I'd never want to restrict myself to reading books from only one publishing imprint, but should some ultra-powerful, literary-minded aliens descend on earth and force me to choose, I'm going with NYRB Classics. Since their inception they've been an inexhaustible source for amazing writing, resuscitating out-of-print works from every era and from almost everywhere around the world. To celebrate their 20th anniversary (and their 500th title), NYRB has collected excerpts from the best of the best in the series, including one suggested by yours truly. Am I excited about this anthology? I'll play it cool and understate drastically—this is one of the books I'm most looking forward to in 2019. In an effort to make you as enthusiastic as I am, Madison Books is making a special offer: Every prepaid preorder we get for The Red Thread in advance of its 9/24 release date will be discounted 20% . Order early and often! —James

New Book of the Week

The Red Thread: 20 Years of NYRB Classics

edited by Edwin Frank

I'd never want to restrict myself to reading books from only one publishing imprint, but should some ultra-powerful, literary-minded aliens descend on earth and force me to choose, I'm going with NYRB Classics. Since their inception they've been an inexhaustible source for amazing writing, resuscitating out-of-print works from every era and from almost everywhere around the world. To celebrate their 20th anniversary (and their 500th title), NYRB has collected excerpts from the best of the best in the series, including one suggested by yours truly. Am I excited about this anthology? I'll play it cool and understate drastically—this is one of the books I'm most looking forward to in 2019. In an effort to make you as enthusiastic as I am, Madison Books is making a special offer: Every prepaid preorder we get for The Red Thread in advance of its 9/24 release date will be discounted 20%. Order early and often! —James

New Book of the Week Terrarium: New and Selected Stories by Valerie Trueblood What can I say about the stories in this book? They're "about" ordinary people experiencing ordinary joys and sorrows—marriage, divorce, birth, death—but it's not what they're about that makes them so good. I think it's the exquisite care they take in the telling, attentive to the details of life and language, never ostentatious but always on point. Alice Munro won her Nobel Prize for a career built on exactly the same foundation, and that's not hyperbole. Stockholm may not know Trueblood's name yet, but Seattle should. —James

New Book of the Week

Terrarium: New and Selected Stories

by Valerie Trueblood

What can I say about the stories in this book? They're "about" ordinary people experiencing ordinary joys and sorrows—marriage, divorce, birth, death—but it's not what they're about that makes them so good. I think it's the exquisite care they take in the telling, attentive to the details of life and language, never ostentatious but always on point. Alice Munro won her Nobel Prize for a career built on exactly the same foundation, and that's not hyperbole. Stockholm may not know Trueblood's name yet, but Seattle should. —James

New Book of the Week Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell Orange World is Russell's newest collection of stories. Like her other two brilliant collections, it falls solidly into the genre of magical realism, imagining tornado auctions and partnerships separated by thousands of years. In grappling with our sense of reality, though, Russell makes sharp commentary on the future of our planet, the biases we can choose to leave in the past, and the urgent choices we must make right now. —Erica

New Book of the Week

Orange World and Other Stories

by Karen Russell

Orange World is Russell's newest collection of stories. Like her other two brilliant collections, it falls solidly into the genre of magical realism, imagining tornado auctions and partnerships separated by thousands of years. In grappling with our sense of reality, though, Russell makes sharp commentary on the future of our planet, the biases we can choose to leave in the past, and the urgent choices we must make right now. —Erica

Old Book of the Week The Monkey's Wedding: And Other Stories by Joan Aiken Joan Aiken started publishing in 1955 and continued as a working writer until her death in 2004, producing over one hundred novels for children and adults along with copious shorter works that appeared in slicks and pulps of both general and genre interest, even employing pseudonyms on occasion. She was part of a story‐telling tradition that predates MFA programs and quiet epiphanies, and she concerned herself with a snappier brand of narrative entertainment. Her fiction draws on folk and fairy tale traditions but adds a strong dash of irony to freshen the taste, very much like the work of John Collier. In the opening story, a sailor brings home a mermaid in a jar as a gift to his girlfriend, only to find that his exotic treasure is a mere inconvenience: “[Y]ou know I can’t stand things in captivity, I’d never have a canary or a goldfish.” Perhaps the finest stories here are those that feature young couples in conflict/love with each other, including “Red‐Hot Favorite” and “Octopi in the Sky.” They’re exceedingly witty and imaginative, and so lively I couldn’t believe how economical they are. It’s Aiken’s remarkable facility for dialogue that allows her to draw rounded characters with minimal strokes of her brush. William Powell and Myrna Loy needed only ninety minutes to sparkle in The Thin Man , and the good‐natured, prevaricating, meet‐cute stars of “Spur of the Moment” require just twelve pages to showcase their equally impressive bantering skills. —James

Old Book of the Week

The Monkey's Wedding: And Other Stories

by Joan Aiken

Joan Aiken started publishing in 1955 and continued as a working writer until her death in 2004, producing over one hundred novels for children and adults along with copious shorter works that appeared in slicks and pulps of both general and genre interest, even employing pseudonyms on occasion. She was part of a story‐telling tradition that predates MFA programs and quiet epiphanies, and she concerned herself with a snappier brand of narrative entertainment. Her fiction draws on folk and fairy tale traditions but adds a strong dash of irony to freshen the taste, very much like the work of John Collier. In the opening story, a sailor brings home a mermaid in a jar as a gift to his girlfriend, only to find that his exotic treasure is a mere inconvenience: “[Y]ou know I can’t stand things in captivity, I’d never have a canary or a goldfish.” Perhaps the finest stories here are those that feature young couples in conflict/love with each other, including “Red‐Hot Favorite” and “Octopi in the Sky.” They’re exceedingly witty and imaginative, and so lively I couldn’t believe how economical they are. It’s Aiken’s remarkable facility for dialogue that allows her to draw rounded characters with minimal strokes of her brush. William Powell and Myrna Loy needed only ninety minutes to sparkle in The Thin Man, and the good‐natured, prevaricating, meet‐cute stars of “Spur of the Moment” require just twelve pages to showcase their equally impressive bantering skills. —James

New Book of the Week The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead You probably don't need me to introduce you to Colson Whitehead (he was on the cover of Time magazine , for gosh sakes) but I'd be remiss if I didn't add to the chorus of praise for his most recent novel. It's that good, that essential. Nickel Boys is set in a barely-fictional Southern reform school during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, and it's a story you slip easily into via the relatable character of Elwood Curtis, a boy with a future as promising as young America itself. Seeing his progress thwarted by a false accusation of car theft and witnessing the cruelties worked on him by an abominably racist institution is incredibly emotional without for one moment seeming overdramatized. This is a potent indictment of our benighted past that just as powerfully confronts our racist present. —James

New Book of the Week

The Nickel Boys

by Colson Whitehead

You probably don't need me to introduce you to Colson Whitehead (he was on the cover of Time magazine, for gosh sakes) but I'd be remiss if I didn't add to the chorus of praise for his most recent novel. It's that good, that essential. Nickel Boys is set in a barely-fictional Southern reform school during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, and it's a story you slip easily into via the relatable character of Elwood Curtis, a boy with a future as promising as young America itself. Seeing his progress thwarted by a false accusation of car theft and witnessing the cruelties worked on him by an abominably racist institution is incredibly emotional without for one moment seeming overdramatized. This is a potent indictment of our benighted past that just as powerfully confronts our racist present. —James

New Book of the Week History: A Mess by Sigrun Palsdottir (translated by Lytton Smith) To anyone interested in intellectual mystery, the premise is irresistible: a young academic finds evidence in a 17th-century manuscript that will overturn her entire field of study, but as her star rises and her thesis is nearly complete, she discovers it's all based on a misunderstanding. Back home to Iceland from England she goes, frantic to hide her mistake, save her career, and avoid disappointing her friends and family. I expected this to be a broad, juicy social comedy, but was intrigued to find instead a darkly witty investigation of a fragmenting personality. —James

New Book of the Week

History: A Mess

by Sigrun Palsdottir (translated by Lytton Smith)

To anyone interested in intellectual mystery, the premise is irresistible: a young academic finds evidence in a 17th-century manuscript that will overturn her entire field of study, but as her star rises and her thesis is nearly complete, she discovers it's all based on a misunderstanding. Back home to Iceland from England she goes, frantic to hide her mistake, save her career, and avoid disappointing her friends and family. I expected this to be a broad, juicy social comedy, but was intrigued to find instead a darkly witty investigation of a fragmenting personality. —James

New Book of the Week The Ghosts of Eden Park by Karen Abbott Avarice, lust, revenge, and courtroom theatrics all combine in Abbott’s spirited account of George Remus, a German immigrant who became one of the most successful—and eccentric—criminal celebrities during America’s Prohibition era of the 1920s. A pharmacist turned lawyer turned “King of the Bootleggers,” Remus (a lifelong teetotaler) exploited loopholes in the 1919 Volstead Act to purchase Midwestern distilleries and peddle illegal liquor widely, earning a fortune that he spent on bribes to politicians and Prohibition agents, a gaudy mansion in Cincinnati, and his second wife, Imogene. Remus was finally imprisoned, though, by Mabel Walker Willebrandt, a U.S. assistant attorney general aggressively prosecuting Volstead Act violations. While locked up, Remus learned that Imogene and Willebrandt’s ace investigator, Franklin Dodge, had begun an affair and were robbing him blind—betrayals that led Remus to later murder his spouse, and then defend himself in a high-profile court case questioning his own sanity. A deeply researched work, dramatically presented. —Jeff

New Book of the Week

The Ghosts of Eden Park

by Karen Abbott

Avarice, lust, revenge, and courtroom theatrics all combine in Abbott’s spirited account of George Remus, a German immigrant who became one of the most successful—and eccentric—criminal celebrities during America’s Prohibition era of the 1920s. A pharmacist turned lawyer turned “King of the Bootleggers,” Remus (a lifelong teetotaler) exploited loopholes in the 1919 Volstead Act to purchase Midwestern distilleries and peddle illegal liquor widely, earning a fortune that he spent on bribes to politicians and Prohibition agents, a gaudy mansion in Cincinnati, and his second wife, Imogene. Remus was finally imprisoned, though, by Mabel Walker Willebrandt, a U.S. assistant attorney general aggressively prosecuting Volstead Act violations. While locked up, Remus learned that Imogene and Willebrandt’s ace investigator, Franklin Dodge, had begun an affair and were robbing him blind—betrayals that led Remus to later murder his spouse, and then defend himself in a high-profile court case questioning his own sanity. A deeply researched work, dramatically presented. —Jeff

New Book of the Week Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman Edgar Award winner Lippman brings to life 1960s-era Baltimore, and all of the corrosive inequities of that time, in this richly crafted portrayal of Madeline Schwartz, a white, late-30s Jewish housewife who leaves her small family in search of individual identity, only to take up with an African-American cop and become involved in multiple murders. After parlaying her luck at finding the corpse of a missing schoolgirl into an editorial assistant’s job at the local afternoon newspaper, Maddie determines to win a reporter’s post there by investigating the largely ignored death of cocktail waitress Cleo Sherwood, whose body was dumped in a city park lake. Lippman alternates Maddie’s first-person self-discovery story with vivid chapters told from the viewpoints of others, including Cleo’s “ghost.” A sophisticated crime novel that’s as much about female ambition, racism, and newspaper culture as it is about criminality. —Jeff

New Book of the Week

Lady in the Lake

by Laura Lippman

Edgar Award winner Lippman brings to life 1960s-era Baltimore, and all of the corrosive inequities of that time, in this richly crafted portrayal of Madeline Schwartz, a white, late-30s Jewish housewife who leaves her small family in search of individual identity, only to take up with an African-American cop and become involved in multiple murders. After parlaying her luck at finding the corpse of a missing schoolgirl into an editorial assistant’s job at the local afternoon newspaper, Maddie determines to win a reporter’s post there by investigating the largely ignored death of cocktail waitress Cleo Sherwood, whose body was dumped in a city park lake. Lippman alternates Maddie’s first-person self-discovery story with vivid chapters told from the viewpoints of others, including Cleo’s “ghost.” A sophisticated crime novel that’s as much about female ambition, racism, and newspaper culture as it is about criminality. —Jeff

Old Book of the Week Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns Like Downton Abbey , this novel is a rich ensemble piece, taking a democratic interest in everyone from the least respected servant to the lord of the manor, but it’s far stranger and funnier than the highly groomed and polished TV series. The Willoweed estate is a decaying wreck ruled by an ancient, tyrannous matriarch, and the entire village is rife with toadying, backstabbing, infidelity, and worse. The book opens with a flood—“The ducks swam through the drawing room windows”—and the crises mount from there. Comyns doesn’t set out to shock, though. She’s so clear in her language and frank about confronting the terrible things that can happen in life (especially when a ridiculous monster like Grandmother Willoweed is in charge) that a sense of absurdity, not horror, wins the day. Macabre it may be, but in a friendly way, like the Addams Family or a fairy tale. —James

Old Book of the Week

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

by Barbara Comyns

Like Downton Abbey, this novel is a rich ensemble piece, taking a democratic interest in everyone from the least respected servant to the lord of the manor, but it’s far stranger and funnier than the highly groomed and polished TV series. The Willoweed estate is a decaying wreck ruled by an ancient, tyrannous matriarch, and the entire village is rife with toadying, backstabbing, infidelity, and worse. The book opens with a flood—“The ducks swam through the drawing room windows”—and the crises mount from there. Comyns doesn’t set out to shock, though. She’s so clear in her language and frank about confronting the terrible things that can happen in life (especially when a ridiculous monster like Grandmother Willoweed is in charge) that a sense of absurdity, not horror, wins the day. Macabre it may be, but in a friendly way, like the Addams Family or a fairy tale. —James

Audiobook of the Week On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong I'm not sure if Ocean Vuong's first novel is more intense on the page or in your ear. I took it in the latter way, read in Vuong's own soft, quavering, and forceful voice, which he keeps at such a pitch of high, vulnerable emotion that even his reading of the copyright notice at the end could bring you to tears. But so could any note of his character's story, written as a letter to his immigrant mother in a language she could never read, recounting the losses and fleeting joys (see the title) of their lives with an almost unbearably tender exactness for physical details—the toxins of nail salons, the brush of a farmer's son's teen mustache as they embrace in the barn—and the metaphors they spawn. The traditional immigrant's story charts a growing assimilation in the new culture and estrangement from the old; Vuong's follows no such arc but hovers in the anguish of the middle, sung like a bluesy, bitter lullaby, one of those in which down comes baby, cradle and all. (Order the audiobook from our partners at Libro.fm) —Tom (via the Phinney Books newsletter)

Audiobook of the Week

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

by Ocean Vuong

I'm not sure if Ocean Vuong's first novel is more intense on the page or in your ear. I took it in the latter way, read in Vuong's own soft, quavering, and forceful voice, which he keeps at such a pitch of high, vulnerable emotion that even his reading of the copyright notice at the end could bring you to tears. But so could any note of his character's story, written as a letter to his immigrant mother in a language she could never read, recounting the losses and fleeting joys (see the title) of their lives with an almost unbearably tender exactness for physical details—the toxins of nail salons, the brush of a farmer's son's teen mustache as they embrace in the barn—and the metaphors they spawn. The traditional immigrant's story charts a growing assimilation in the new culture and estrangement from the old; Vuong's follows no such arc but hovers in the anguish of the middle, sung like a bluesy, bitter lullaby, one of those in which down comes baby, cradle and all. (Order the audiobook from our partners at Libro.fm) —Tom (via the Phinney Books newsletter)

New/Old Book of the Week Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury by Sigrid Nunez It was just over twenty years ago that Sigrid Nunez first published this small treasure of a book about the smallest member of a storied literary household. For a few years in the 1930s, the Bloomsbury home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf contained, along with a legendary collection of itinerant writers and artists of genius, a resident marmoset, rescued from imprisonment in a shop window and lovingly nursed back to health. For several seasons, she was a constant companion and the toast of London society, sharing all her family's joys and griefs. By describing the time and place through Mitz's wide animal eyes, Nunez humanizes the Woolfs like nothing else I've ever read. Mitz is a most welcome re-release, a delight for all readers, regardless of how many pages of Mrs. Dalloway they have or haven't turned. —James

New/Old Book of the Week

Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury

by Sigrid Nunez

It was just over twenty years ago that Sigrid Nunez first published this small treasure of a book about the smallest member of a storied literary household. For a few years in the 1930s, the Bloomsbury home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf contained, along with a legendary collection of itinerant writers and artists of genius, a resident marmoset, rescued from imprisonment in a shop window and lovingly nursed back to health. For several seasons, she was a constant companion and the toast of London society, sharing all her family's joys and griefs. By describing the time and place through Mitz's wide animal eyes, Nunez humanizes the Woolfs like nothing else I've ever read. Mitz is a most welcome re-release, a delight for all readers, regardless of how many pages of Mrs. Dalloway they have or haven't turned. —James

New Book of the Week Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton Prepare yourself for a wild ride! Told (mostly) from the point of view of a domesticated crow, this is the funny-as-heck, yet also thought-provoking, story of how animals fare during a zombie apocalypse. S.T. is living in Seattle with his human friend, Big Jim, and Big Jim’s hound, Dennis. They watch a lot of bad TV together and enjoy a lot of bad food, including S.T.’s favorite, Cheetos. Then the zombification begins—Big Jim's eyeball falls out and he murderously turns on his corvid companion. S.T. sensibly decides it's time to venture out with Dennis in search of answers. Along with an assortment of other animals both domesticated and wild, they use cunning, teamwork, diligence, and their own super-cool communication methods to navigate their new, post-human world. I laughed, I cried, I cheered. This is one you don’t want to miss. You’ll never look at a crow the same way again! —Cindy

New Book of the Week

Hollow Kingdom

by Kira Jane Buxton

Prepare yourself for a wild ride! Told (mostly) from the point of view of a domesticated crow, this is the funny-as-heck, yet also thought-provoking, story of how animals fare during a zombie apocalypse. S.T. is living in Seattle with his human friend, Big Jim, and Big Jim’s hound, Dennis. They watch a lot of bad TV together and enjoy a lot of bad food, including S.T.’s favorite, Cheetos. Then the zombification begins—Big Jim's eyeball falls out and he murderously turns on his corvid companion. S.T. sensibly decides it's time to venture out with Dennis in search of answers. Along with an assortment of other animals both domesticated and wild, they use cunning, teamwork, diligence, and their own super-cool communication methods to navigate their new, post-human world. I laughed, I cried, I cheered. This is one you don’t want to miss. You’ll never look at a crow the same way again! —Cindy

New Book of the Week Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda Princely Umbiligoda appears to have it all—a great job as the leading expert on marine imagery in Canadian literature; a loving family consisting of a wife and four Disney-obsessed daughters; and a strong spiritual connection to his Catholic faith. But underneath there's trouble. Trouble at home, trouble at work, trouble in the newspapers, and trouble with his prostate, troubles that lead to troubling doubts about God. And the disturbing reappearance of an old girlfriend. And a career change to . . . suicide bomber? Did I mention this is a comedy? Well, it is, a great comedy with a brisk pace and a delightfully hapless protagonist the likes of whom I've never met before. Original Prin left me eager to read many more of his exploits. Secondary Prin? Tertiary Prin? Bring 'em on. —James

New Book of the Week

Original Prin

by Randy Boyagoda

Princely Umbiligoda appears to have it all—a great job as the leading expert on marine imagery in Canadian literature; a loving family consisting of a wife and four Disney-obsessed daughters; and a strong spiritual connection to his Catholic faith. But underneath there's trouble. Trouble at home, trouble at work, trouble in the newspapers, and trouble with his prostate, troubles that lead to troubling doubts about God. And the disturbing reappearance of an old girlfriend. And a career change to . . . suicide bomber? Did I mention this is a comedy? Well, it is, a great comedy with a brisk pace and a delightfully hapless protagonist the likes of whom I've never met before. Original Prin left me eager to read many more of his exploits. Secondary Prin? Tertiary Prin? Bring 'em on. —James

New Book of the Week The Salt Path by Raynor Winn A bad investment causes fifty-year-old Raynor Winn and her husband Moth to lose their family farm and livelihood. Around the same time, Moth is diagnosed with a terminal degenerative illness that leaves him depressed and in constant pain. Homeless and hopeless, the couple decides to embark on the 630-mile South West Coast Path along the English coast with no preparations and hardly any gear besides a cheap tent and thin sleeping bags. The long walk tests everything they have, including their 32-year relationship, but ultimately changes their lives in ways they never could have expected when they took that first step. Along the way, strangers they meet demonstrate the best and worst qualities in humanity. This uplifting memoir is a great summer read for anyone dreaming of far-off travel adventures. —Haley (via the Phinney Books newsletter )

New Book of the Week

The Salt Path

by Raynor Winn

A bad investment causes fifty-year-old Raynor Winn and her husband Moth to lose their family farm and livelihood. Around the same time, Moth is diagnosed with a terminal degenerative illness that leaves him depressed and in constant pain. Homeless and hopeless, the couple decides to embark on the 630-mile South West Coast Path along the English coast with no preparations and hardly any gear besides a cheap tent and thin sleeping bags. The long walk tests everything they have, including their 32-year relationship, but ultimately changes their lives in ways they never could have expected when they took that first step. Along the way, strangers they meet demonstrate the best and worst qualities in humanity. This uplifting memoir is a great summer read for anyone dreaming of far-off travel adventures. —Haley (via the Phinney Books newsletter)

New Book of the Week The Road to Grantchester By James Runcie Now, during PBS-TV’s latest run of the British mystery series Grantchester , is an ideal time to dive into this prequel novel, which recalls the circuitous path protagonist Sidney Chambers took from being a Cambridge classics student to becoming an Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth. As World War II consumes Europe, Chambers and his irrepressible friend Robert Kendall join the Scots Guards and are sent to the Italian front, where their ability to maintain optimism amid unrelenting carnage is sorely tested. Crucial to Chambers’ efforts is “Rev Nev” Finnie, an Episcopal chaplain with whom he engages in philosophical discussions—talks that prepare him for Kendall’s subsequent battlefield death and his own return home. Back in England, Chambers finds himself guilt-ridden for having survived, and at a loss to deal with Kendall’s coquettish younger sister, Amanda. Others expect Chambers to become a teacher or diplomat, but his search for peace leads him instead into the priesthood. There’s little crime-solving here, but author Runcie excels at evoking the climate of warfare, and his investigations of the human mind and heart will feel familiar to any Grantchester fan. —Jeff

New Book of the Week

The Road to Grantchester

By James Runcie

Now, during PBS-TV’s latest run of the British mystery series Grantchester, is an ideal time to dive into this prequel novel, which recalls the circuitous path protagonist Sidney Chambers took from being a Cambridge classics student to becoming an Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth. As World War II consumes Europe, Chambers and his irrepressible friend Robert Kendall join the Scots Guards and are sent to the Italian front, where their ability to maintain optimism amid unrelenting carnage is sorely tested. Crucial to Chambers’ efforts is “Rev Nev” Finnie, an Episcopal chaplain with whom he engages in philosophical discussions—talks that prepare him for Kendall’s subsequent battlefield death and his own return home. Back in England, Chambers finds himself guilt-ridden for having survived, and at a loss to deal with Kendall’s coquettish younger sister, Amanda. Others expect Chambers to become a teacher or diplomat, but his search for peace leads him instead into the priesthood. There’s little crime-solving here, but author Runcie excels at evoking the climate of warfare, and his investigations of the human mind and heart will feel familiar to any Grantchester fan. —Jeff

Kids' Book of the Week The Poison Jungle by Tui Sutherland What is probably the best-selling series for young readers that we carry at Madison Books has reached lucky number 13. What more do you need to know? About the only thing we can think to add is a reminder that Tui Sutherland will be a headlining author at the Seattle Children's Book Festival at the end of September. —James

Kids' Book of the Week

The Poison Jungle

by Tui Sutherland

What is probably the best-selling series for young readers that we carry at Madison Books has reached lucky number 13. What more do you need to know? About the only thing we can think to add is a reminder that Tui Sutherland will be a headlining author at the Seattle Children's Book Festival at the end of September. —James

New Book of the Week Edgar: An Autobiography by Edgar Martínez As I'm putting Edgar's book into this week's newsletter, I'm suddenly aware that I may have gone a bit heavy on baseball content over the past few weeks. In my defense, 1) it's summer, so when else am I going to talk about these books?, and 2) this is the week that the greatest DH in history finally made it into the Hall of Fame. There's no better time to celebrate our city's humblest sports superstar. Co-written with longtime Seattle sports columnist Larry Stone, with a foreword by Ken Griffey, Jr., this is the perfect gift for the fan in your life, and it's the perfect excuse for me to watch a replay of The Double for the thousandth time. —James

New Book of the Week

Edgar: An Autobiography

by Edgar Martínez

As I'm putting Edgar's book into this week's newsletter, I'm suddenly aware that I may have gone a bit heavy on baseball content over the past few weeks. In my defense, 1) it's summer, so when else am I going to talk about these books?, and 2) this is the week that the greatest DH in history finally made it into the Hall of Fame. There's no better time to celebrate our city's humblest sports superstar. Co-written with longtime Seattle sports columnist Larry Stone, with a foreword by Ken Griffey, Jr., this is the perfect gift for the fan in your life, and it's the perfect excuse for me to watch a replay of The Double for the thousandth time. —James

Old Book of the Week The Transylvanian Trilogy by Miklós Bánffy Though written in the 1930s, the trilogy is both in style and substance the last of the great 19th-century novels, grand and stately and ambitious and utterly immersive. The characters, including the upright Count Abady, the captivating Adrienne with her “flame-colored shift,” and the doomed artist Laszlo, are playthings of their omniscient author but also fully dimensional, and the set pieces they occupy will not soon be forgotten by anyone with the leisure to read them. Hunting parties, parliamentary debates, duels, intrigues, stolen moments of romance, midnight sledge rides through the snow … it’s positively sumptuous. The lush surface enraptures, but there’s also an underlying seriousness that appeals, an insistent moral drumbeat that asks What Is the Right Way to Live? There’s simply too much to this epic to do it proper justice here, so I’ll flippantly call it a cross between Gone with the Wind and War and Peace with an added dash of paprika. —James

Old Book of the Week

The Transylvanian Trilogy

by Miklós Bánffy

Though written in the 1930s, the trilogy is both in style and substance the last of the great 19th-century novels, grand and stately and ambitious and utterly immersive. The characters, including the upright Count Abady, the captivating Adrienne with her “flame-colored shift,” and the doomed artist Laszlo, are playthings of their omniscient author but also fully dimensional, and the set pieces they occupy will not soon be forgotten by anyone with the leisure to read them. Hunting parties, parliamentary debates, duels, intrigues, stolen moments of romance, midnight sledge rides through the snow … it’s positively sumptuous. The lush surface enraptures, but there’s also an underlying seriousness that appeals, an insistent moral drumbeat that asks What Is the Right Way to Live? There’s simply too much to this epic to do it proper justice here, so I’ll flippantly call it a cross between Gone with the Wind and War and Peace with an added dash of paprika. —James

Old Book of the Week Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald Born in England in 1916, Penelope Fitzgerald didn’t begin publishing fiction until she was in her sixties, but still produced nine classic novels along with several works of non-fiction and a pair of story collections. Every one is excellent, but I'm particularly fond of Human Voices , her 1980 novel depicting emotional entanglements on the home front during World War Two. London is beset by bombers, and BBC Radio establishes a shelter for its employees so that they can safely continue the work of “saving Britain from despondency and panic” without ever leaving the office. Did I mention that it’s a co-ed shelter? Romance blooms for some, annoyances build between others, and small moments of human interaction stand out against the larger historical backdrop. It’s a can’t-miss winner to please just about anyone. —James

Old Book of the Week

Human Voices

by Penelope Fitzgerald

Born in England in 1916, Penelope Fitzgerald didn’t begin publishing fiction until she was in her sixties, but still produced nine classic novels along with several works of non-fiction and a pair of story collections. Every one is excellent, but I'm particularly fond of Human Voices, her 1980 novel depicting emotional entanglements on the home front during World War Two. London is beset by bombers, and BBC Radio establishes a shelter for its employees so that they can safely continue the work of “saving Britain from despondency and panic” without ever leaving the office. Did I mention that it’s a co-ed shelter? Romance blooms for some, annoyances build between others, and small moments of human interaction stand out against the larger historical backdrop. It’s a can’t-miss winner to please just about anyone. —James

New Book of the Week Joe Country by Mick Herron In Herron’s succession of clever, modern spy thrillers, London’s Slough House is where British intelligence agents who’ve botched missions or otherwise disgraced themselves are sent to be forgotten. Jackson Lamb, the politically incorrect and flagrantly flatulent head of that department, is supposed to keep his moping band of misfits in line. Yet they still manage to make trouble. Joe Country , the series’ sixth entry, finds Louisa Guy, one of Lamb’s “slow horses,” searching for Lucas Harper, the missing teenage son of her former married lover—a mission that will lead her and her colleagues into a dicey, protracted chase across frigid Welsh countryside, one step ahead of a rogue American spook. Meanwhile, Slough House has a new member: a putative child-porn addict who may hold the key to exposing a German intelligence operation in the UK. Herron’s waggish dialogue, eccentric players, and political insights have earned him a loyal following. —Jeff

New Book of the Week

Joe Country

by Mick Herron

In Herron’s succession of clever, modern spy thrillers, London’s Slough House is where British intelligence agents who’ve botched missions or otherwise disgraced themselves are sent to be forgotten. Jackson Lamb, the politically incorrect and flagrantly flatulent head of that department, is supposed to keep his moping band of misfits in line. Yet they still manage to make trouble. Joe Country, the series’ sixth entry, finds Louisa Guy, one of Lamb’s “slow horses,” searching for Lucas Harper, the missing teenage son of her former married lover—a mission that will lead her and her colleagues into a dicey, protracted chase across frigid Welsh countryside, one step ahead of a rogue American spook. Meanwhile, Slough House has a new member: a putative child-porn addict who may hold the key to exposing a German intelligence operation in the UK. Herron’s waggish dialogue, eccentric players, and political insights have earned him a loyal following. —Jeff

Old Book of the Week The Iconoclast's Journal by Terry Griggs Set among the ramshackle boom-and-bust towns of the late nineteenth century, The Iconoclast's Journal kicks off with a literal bolt of lightning. Would-be bridegroom Griffith Smolders is shocked out of his hotel room and onto the road, taking the blast as a portent telling him marriage is not in the cards. In hot pursuit is his former fiancee Avice Drinkwater, bent on punishing Griffith but also reveling in her newfound independence. Separately encountering various con-men, zealots, and other grotesques, the two eventually wash up together on the shores of a new century, caught in the light of a newfangled contraption called a motion picture projector. It’s not all high jinks, though. The linguistic pyrotechnics and unexpected plot twists are the vessel for a complex parable about the difficulty and essential strangeness of romance. By the end the two young lovers know themselves and each other a good bit better than they did at the beginning, but it’s Griggs’s readers who learn the most. —James

Old Book of the Week

The Iconoclast's Journal

by Terry Griggs

Set among the ramshackle boom-and-bust towns of the late nineteenth century, The Iconoclast's Journal kicks off with a literal bolt of lightning. Would-be bridegroom Griffith Smolders is shocked out of his hotel room and onto the road, taking the blast as a portent telling him marriage is not in the cards. In hot pursuit is his former fiancee Avice Drinkwater, bent on punishing Griffith but also reveling in her newfound independence. Separately encountering various con-men, zealots, and other grotesques, the two eventually wash up together on the shores of a new century, caught in the light of a newfangled contraption called a motion picture projector. It’s not all high jinks, though. The linguistic pyrotechnics and unexpected plot twists are the vessel for a complex parable about the difficulty and essential strangeness of romance. By the end the two young lovers know themselves and each other a good bit better than they did at the beginning, but it’s Griggs’s readers who learn the most. —James

Kids’ Book of the Week A Ticket to the Pennant by Mark Holtzen Every true fan knows that the Golden Age of Baseball is whenever you’re nine years old. That’s when you’re mature enough to understand the sport but young enough to love it unconditionally. Every adult should try to watch a game through those eyes at least occasionally. That’s why I, an alleged grownup, am so fond of A Ticket to the Pennant , written by Seattle’s Mark Holtzen. In just 32 pages he tells the tale of Huey, a ’50s kid who wants nothing more than to get into Sicks Stadium and cheer for his hometown Rainiers. All he needs to do to make it through the turnstiles is find his missing ticket. Thus starts a search through the vibrant, diverse neighborhood around the park, a place brought to life by the incredibly accurate nouveau-retro illustrations of John Skewes, creator of Larry Gets Lost . (ages 4 to 9) —James

Kids’ Book of the Week

A Ticket to the Pennant

by Mark Holtzen

Every true fan knows that the Golden Age of Baseball is whenever you’re nine years old. That’s when you’re mature enough to understand the sport but young enough to love it unconditionally. Every adult should try to watch a game through those eyes at least occasionally. That’s why I, an alleged grownup, am so fond of A Ticket to the Pennant, written by Seattle’s Mark Holtzen. In just 32 pages he tells the tale of Huey, a ’50s kid who wants nothing more than to get into Sicks Stadium and cheer for his hometown Rainiers. All he needs to do to make it through the turnstiles is find his missing ticket. Thus starts a search through the vibrant, diverse neighborhood around the park, a place brought to life by the incredibly accurate nouveau-retro illustrations of John Skewes, creator of Larry Gets Lost. (ages 4 to 9) —James

New Book of the Week Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg Given how much readers loved Bee Season , I'm not sure why more of a fuss isn't being made about this new novel from Myla Goldberg. It's been almost a decade since she's published one, people! Feast Your Eyes is inventively framed as a series of catalogue notes for an exhibition of photography by the controversial (and completely fictional) Lillian Preston. She's sort of an amalgam of real-life figures Vivian Maier and Sally Mann, working as both a surreptitious street artist and a chronicler of intimate domestic life—her frank depictions of her own daughter see her branded as both America's greatest photographer and worst mother. Goldberg's creative architecture alone would make this worth a look, but it's the portrait of Preston and the emotional legacy she leaves behind that truly compel. —James

New Book of the Week

Feast Your Eyes

by Myla Goldberg

Given how much readers loved Bee Season, I'm not sure why more of a fuss isn't being made about this new novel from Myla Goldberg. It's been almost a decade since she's published one, people! Feast Your Eyes is inventively framed as a series of catalogue notes for an exhibition of photography by the controversial (and completely fictional) Lillian Preston. She's sort of an amalgam of real-life figures Vivian Maier and Sally Mann, working as both a surreptitious street artist and a chronicler of intimate domestic life—her frank depictions of her own daughter see her branded as both America's greatest photographer and worst mother. Goldberg's creative architecture alone would make this worth a look, but it's the portrait of Preston and the emotional legacy she leaves behind that truly compel. —James

New Book of the Week The Need by Helen Phillips It's a commonplace (at least with me) to say that sometimes the best way to describe reality is to distort, enhance, or otherwise defamiliarize it through fantasy and speculation. Helen Phillips seems to agree with me, at least to judge by her intense, somewhat surrealistic fiction. The Need , a thriller about the anxieties of parenthood with more useful things to say on the subject than Dr. Spock, has all the claustrophobia and existential dread of Kafka, but considerably more heart. —James

New Book of the Week

The Need

by Helen Phillips

It's a commonplace (at least with me) to say that sometimes the best way to describe reality is to distort, enhance, or otherwise defamiliarize it through fantasy and speculation. Helen Phillips seems to agree with me, at least to judge by her intense, somewhat surrealistic fiction. The Need, a thriller about the anxieties of parenthood with more useful things to say on the subject than Dr. Spock, has all the claustrophobia and existential dread of Kafka, but considerably more heart. —James

New Book of the Week Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki A classic of European literature unavailable in English for decades, Three Summers is perfectly timeless and perfectly seasonal. Set in the countryside of prewar Greece, it traces the doings and developing identities of a trio of sisters growing into adulthood, each of whom finds a different way to balance her desires for love and freedom. The lush atmosphere of gardens and orchards transports as the best vacation reads do, but the characters, as archetypal in their way as the March girls in Little Women , will make a permanent home in your head. —James

New Book of the Week

Three Summers

by Margarita Liberaki

A classic of European literature unavailable in English for decades, Three Summers is perfectly timeless and perfectly seasonal. Set in the countryside of prewar Greece, it traces the doings and developing identities of a trio of sisters growing into adulthood, each of whom finds a different way to balance her desires for love and freedom. The lush atmosphere of gardens and orchards transports as the best vacation reads do, but the characters, as archetypal in their way as the March girls in Little Women, will make a permanent home in your head. —James

New Book of the Week Deep River by Karl Marlantes It's been nearly a decade since the release of Marlantes's acclaimed Vietnam War novel Matterhorn , and as of this week readers can at last see what he's been working on all these years. Like its predecessor, Deep River is a massive piece of fiction, heavy when you pick it up but growing lighter in your hands the more the pages turn. It will carry you away immediately as it tells of Scandinavian immigrants, driven out of their homeland by violence and oppression, who wash up on American shores and carve out new lives in the logging camps and growing towns of the Pacific Northwest. The historical interest is obvious—these are the people who built the state we live in today and this is how they did it—but the story has immense relevance to the present day. Dealing with radical politics, religious freedom, women's rights, and the idea of America as a refuge, however imperfect, this novel is perhaps more timely than Marlantes expected when he began it. —James

New Book of the Week

Deep River

by Karl Marlantes

It's been nearly a decade since the release of Marlantes's acclaimed Vietnam War novel Matterhorn, and as of this week readers can at last see what he's been working on all these years. Like its predecessor, Deep River is a massive piece of fiction, heavy when you pick it up but growing lighter in your hands the more the pages turn. It will carry you away immediately as it tells of Scandinavian immigrants, driven out of their homeland by violence and oppression, who wash up on American shores and carve out new lives in the logging camps and growing towns of the Pacific Northwest. The historical interest is obvious—these are the people who built the state we live in today and this is how they did it—but the story has immense relevance to the present day. Dealing with radical politics, religious freedom, women's rights, and the idea of America as a refuge, however imperfect, this novel is perhaps more timely than Marlantes expected when he began it. —James

Old Book of the Week The Dig by Cynan Jones Two characters on their own in the rural landscape of Wales, one a violent, lifelong misfit and the other a humble farmer and would-be family man, are drawn unknowingly toward each other by fate in this brief novel. “Fate” in this case is really the guiding intelligence of author Cynan Jones, who has the knack for getting under the skin of a story and imparting truth about the fundamental nature of things. Brutal and tender by turns, The Dig proceeds at an inexorable pace and once begun, all but insists that the reader follow it all the way to the end. —James

Old Book of the Week

The Dig

by Cynan Jones

Two characters on their own in the rural landscape of Wales, one a violent, lifelong misfit and the other a humble farmer and would-be family man, are drawn unknowingly toward each other by fate in this brief novel. “Fate” in this case is really the guiding intelligence of author Cynan Jones, who has the knack for getting under the skin of a story and imparting truth about the fundamental nature of things. Brutal and tender by turns, The Dig proceeds at an inexorable pace and once begun, all but insists that the reader follow it all the way to the end. —James

Old Book of the Week Rock 'n' Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League by Ian Plenderleith The success of the US Women's National Team in this year's World Cup has me thinking a lot about soccer and remembering a favorite read from a few years back. This is a far more substantive book than you’d expect from something with such a sensationalist title, but then the NASL was a far more substantive operation than history has acknowledged. If it’s remembered at all these days, it’s for garish disco-era uniforms, gimmicky promotions, and overpaid, over-the-hill stars from overseas. All of that is at best only partly true, as author Ian Plenderleith shows. In fact, the NASL was in many ways well ahead of its time, a league run by visionaries who set the fuse for a later explosion of soccer popularity. Anyone with an interest in the sport, but especially fans of the Northwest’s own Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders, and Vancouver Whitecaps, will want to read Rock 'n' Roll Soccer to learn how this part of the world caught football fever. —James

Old Book of the Week

Rock 'n' Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League

by Ian Plenderleith

The success of the US Women's National Team in this year's World Cup has me thinking a lot about soccer and remembering a favorite read from a few years back. This is a far more substantive book than you’d expect from something with such a sensationalist title, but then the NASL was a far more substantive operation than history has acknowledged. If it’s remembered at all these days, it’s for garish disco-era uniforms, gimmicky promotions, and overpaid, over-the-hill stars from overseas. All of that is at best only partly true, as author Ian Plenderleith shows. In fact, the NASL was in many ways well ahead of its time, a league run by visionaries who set the fuse for a later explosion of soccer popularity. Anyone with an interest in the sport, but especially fans of the Northwest’s own Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders, and Vancouver Whitecaps, will want to read Rock 'n' Roll Soccer to learn how this part of the world caught football fever. —James

New Book of the Week Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl A brief and beautiful debut work, Late Migrations is, like its cover painting, both an assemblage of intricate pieces and a complete artistic whole. Margaret Renkl's discrete memories of her Alabama childhood are interspersed with adult observations about family and the natural world, each chapter perfectly setting off the next and building an intense emotional effect. Modeling the stillness of the life around her, she becomes an ideal observer ("Every day the world is teaching me what I need to know to be in the world") and her book a perfect restorative. —James

New Book of the Week

Late Migrations

by Margaret Renkl

A brief and beautiful debut work, Late Migrations is, like its cover painting, both an assemblage of intricate pieces and a complete artistic whole. Margaret Renkl's discrete memories of her Alabama childhood are interspersed with adult observations about family and the natural world, each chapter perfectly setting off the next and building an intense emotional effect. Modeling the stillness of the life around her, she becomes an ideal observer ("Every day the world is teaching me what I need to know to be in the world") and her book a perfect restorative. —James

New Book of the Week The Five by Hallie Rubenhold What has long been considered common knowledge about the women murdered in London by Jack the Ripper during the autumn of 1888—that they were all “just prostitutes”—is wrong, according to British historian Rubenhold. In fact, she writes, only one of those five “canonical victims” set out to make her living in the sex trade. The others harbored loftier goals, and even enjoyed respectable lives, before they were brought low by circumstances disastrous to Victorian-age women: divorce, widowhood, homelessness, and alcoholism. Although the Ripper was never identified, he became an infamous figure of enduring mystery; his victims, meanwhile, have always received considerably less attention. Until now. In this impressively researched book, Rubenhold fleshes out the histories of those unfortunates, as she also examines the cultural challenges facing all women of that time. —Jeff

New Book of the Week

The Five

by Hallie Rubenhold

What has long been considered common knowledge about the women murdered in London by Jack the Ripper during the autumn of 1888—that they were all “just prostitutes”—is wrong, according to British historian Rubenhold. In fact, she writes, only one of those five “canonical victims” set out to make her living in the sex trade. The others harbored loftier goals, and even enjoyed respectable lives, before they were brought low by circumstances disastrous to Victorian-age women: divorce, widowhood, homelessness, and alcoholism. Although the Ripper was never identified, he became an infamous figure of enduring mystery; his victims, meanwhile, have always received considerably less attention. Until now. In this impressively researched book, Rubenhold fleshes out the histories of those unfortunates, as she also examines the cultural challenges facing all women of that time. —Jeff

Kids' Book of the Week Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire by John August The scout troop everyone wishes they could be in! Twelve-year-old Arlo has just moved to a new, tiny town near the mystical Long Woods and joins the local Rangers. But these scouts don’t just learn how to tie knots and build fires, they learn to harness the magic of the Long Woods, creating snapfires and thunderclaps, studying NightMares as well as bears. But there is also danger in the parallel world and that danger seems to be focused on Arlo. He and his two new friends, Wu and Indra, find adventures that test their Ranger Vows of loyalty, bravery, kindness, and truth. This is one of the best middle-grade fantasy books out there, smartly written, fun, and a real page-turner. (ages 8 to 12) —Cindy

Kids' Book of the Week

Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire

by John August

The scout troop everyone wishes they could be in! Twelve-year-old Arlo has just moved to a new, tiny town near the mystical Long Woods and joins the local Rangers. But these scouts don’t just learn how to tie knots and build fires, they learn to harness the magic of the Long Woods, creating snapfires and thunderclaps, studying NightMares as well as bears. But there is also danger in the parallel world and that danger seems to be focused on Arlo. He and his two new friends, Wu and Indra, find adventures that test their Ranger Vows of loyalty, bravery, kindness, and truth. This is one of the best middle-grade fantasy books out there, smartly written, fun, and a real page-turner. (ages 8 to 12) —Cindy

New Book of the Week The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo A long, bright summer day might be the best time to crack open this novel of darkness and dreams. Set in colonial Malaysia before the second world war, it follows the eventually intertwining exploits of a houseboy and a dance hall girl, both of whom are drawn into a murderous mystery. It's a lush and steamy tale infused with Asian myth and legend, about which NPR's Nancy Pearl says, "This is the kind of book that when you read it, you really are transported back to that time and place… [Choo has] captured, in a very atmospheric way, the time period and the superstitions. It’s a pretty wonderful book." —James

New Book of the Week

The Night Tiger

by Yangsze Choo

A long, bright summer day might be the best time to crack open this novel of darkness and dreams. Set in colonial Malaysia before the second world war, it follows the eventually intertwining exploits of a houseboy and a dance hall girl, both of whom are drawn into a murderous mystery. It's a lush and steamy tale infused with Asian myth and legend, about which NPR's Nancy Pearl says, "This is the kind of book that when you read it, you really are transported back to that time and place… [Choo has] captured, in a very atmospheric way, the time period and the superstitions. It’s a pretty wonderful book." —James

New Book of the Week The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason What begins as a story about attempted assassination—Queen Victoria is shot at during an 1860 coach ride through London—quickly becomes a knotty but witty mystery involving Charles Darwin’s recently publicized theory of evolution, high-level political conspiracies, and an elusive, diabolically brutal killer. Responsible for defusing these volatile elements is Scotland Yard Inspector Charles Field, the oft-impetuous inspiration for Charles Dickens’ Inspector Bucket in Bleak House in (as Field is so often reminded). Supported both by his resourceful spouse and by Victoria’s science-minded husband, Prince Albert, Field must confront Karl Marx and other historical luminaries as he struggles to figure out who’s behind efforts to suppress the democratizing potential of Darwin’s postulations. This may be Mason’s first novel, but it bears the polish of greater experience. —Jeff

New Book of the Week

The Darwin Affair

by Tim Mason

What begins as a story about attempted assassination—Queen Victoria is shot at during an 1860 coach ride through London—quickly becomes a knotty but witty mystery involving Charles Darwin’s recently publicized theory of evolution, high-level political conspiracies, and an elusive, diabolically brutal killer. Responsible for defusing these volatile elements is Scotland Yard Inspector Charles Field, the oft-impetuous inspiration for Charles Dickens’ Inspector Bucket in Bleak House in (as Field is so often reminded). Supported both by his resourceful spouse and by Victoria’s science-minded husband, Prince Albert, Field must confront Karl Marx and other historical luminaries as he struggles to figure out who’s behind efforts to suppress the democratizing potential of Darwin’s postulations. This may be Mason’s first novel, but it bears the polish of greater experience. —Jeff

Kids' Book of the Week This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews Everyone always says that the lanterns they set off during the annual Autumn Equinox Festival eventually turn into stars. This year Ben and a group of friends, accompanied by unwanted tag-along Nathaniel, make a pact to follow the lanterns down the river further than anyone has before to find out if it's true. Only Ben and Nathaniel keep their word to "never look back" and together they embark on an enchanting adventure that is both funny and heartwarming. This Was Our Pact is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel for anyone who loves the quiet kind of magic you can typically find only in a Ghibli movie (ages 10 to 14) —Gabi

Kids' Book of the Week

This Was Our Pact

by Ryan Andrews

Everyone always says that the lanterns they set off during the annual Autumn Equinox Festival eventually turn into stars. This year Ben and a group of friends, accompanied by unwanted tag-along Nathaniel, make a pact to follow the lanterns down the river further than anyone has before to find out if it's true. Only Ben and Nathaniel keep their word to "never look back" and together they embark on an enchanting adventure that is both funny and heartwarming. This Was Our Pact is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel for anyone who loves the quiet kind of magic you can typically find only in a Ghibli movie (ages 10 to 14) —Gabi

Old Books of the Week Wild Life by Molly Gloss Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler Tom mentioned Molly Gloss in the most recent Phinney Books newsletter , which reminded me of two things. First, that more people should be reading Molly Gloss, and second, that more people should be reading Karen Joy Fowler. I think of these authors together because both have written about the historic Northwest in riveting fashion, treating with special care the lives of women on what we used to call the frontier. They're also both fully cognizant that said frontier was Main Street for some: neither is neglectful of the non-Western populations that also called the place home. These are already sufficient reasons to take an interest in their novels, but what I particularly love about them is that they aren't afraid to heighten the reality that they work with so well. Gloss's book takes the legend of the Sasquatch as seriously as it does the other elements in her story, and as for Fowler's title character … let's just say she may have come to the Washington territory from much, much farther away than you'd expect. Wild Life and Sarah Canary are perfect mixtures of the made-up and the true. —James

Old Books of the Week

Wild Life
by Molly Gloss
Sarah Canary
by Karen Joy Fowler

Tom mentioned Molly Gloss in the most recent Phinney Books newsletter, which reminded me of two things. First, that more people should be reading Molly Gloss, and second, that more people should be reading Karen Joy Fowler. I think of these authors together because both have written about the historic Northwest in riveting fashion, treating with special care the lives of women on what we used to call the frontier. They're also both fully cognizant that said frontier was Main Street for some: neither is neglectful of the non-Western populations that also called the place home. These are already sufficient reasons to take an interest in their novels, but what I particularly love about them is that they aren't afraid to heighten the reality that they work with so well. Gloss's book takes the legend of the Sasquatch as seriously as it does the other elements in her story, and as for Fowler's title character … let's just say she may have come to the Washington territory from much, much farther away than you'd expect. Wild Life and Sarah Canary are perfect mixtures of the made-up and the true. —James

New Book of the Week Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson The inimitable Neal Stephenson makes a welcome reappearance with Fall , a book that links in certain ways to his earlier Reamde , but stands solidly upright on its own. All his books do, I suppose, massive as they are—this one clocks in at a characteristic 896 pages. But you'd be hard pressed to decide where you'd want to cut, since Stephenson can make you think (and make you laugh) whether he's talking about eating breakfast cereal or about the social ramifications of radical new technologies. This time around he focuses on an insanely rich game designer who becomes the first person to have his entire self uploaded into the cloud, thereby cheating death. As the tagline says, "An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem …" Well, it wouldn't be much fun to read about if it was, now would it? —James

New Book of the Week

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell

by Neal Stephenson

The inimitable Neal Stephenson makes a welcome reappearance with Fall, a book that links in certain ways to his earlier Reamde, but stands solidly upright on its own. All his books do, I suppose, massive as they are—this one clocks in at a characteristic 896 pages. But you'd be hard pressed to decide where you'd want to cut, since Stephenson can make you think (and make you laugh) whether he's talking about eating breakfast cereal or about the social ramifications of radical new technologies. This time around he focuses on an insanely rich game designer who becomes the first person to have his entire self uploaded into the cloud, thereby cheating death. As the tagline says, "An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem …" Well, it wouldn't be much fun to read about if it was, now would it? —James

New Book of the Week Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald As a Lisa Grunwald fan, Jeff is very keen on her newest novel, Time After Time , about a relationship between a railroad worker from Queens and a Manhattan socialite of a different social stratum and generation. Joe Reynolds and Nora Lansing fall for each other in Grand Central Station in 1937, a site that becomes their only possible meeting place as the years go by. Theirs is a magical tale about "a love affair that defies age, class, place, and even time." —James

New Book of the Week

Time After Time

by Lisa Grunwald

As a Lisa Grunwald fan, Jeff is very keen on her newest novel, Time After Time, about a relationship between a railroad worker from Queens and a Manhattan socialite of a different social stratum and generation. Joe Reynolds and Nora Lansing fall for each other in Grand Central Station in 1937, a site that becomes their only possible meeting place as the years go by. Theirs is a magical tale about "a love affair that defies age, class, place, and even time." —James

New Book of the Week Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane This isn't the first time I've talked about Underland and it won't be the last ; while 2019 isn't even halfway done, I'm already sure that this will be one of the very best things I read all year. As I've said before (and will say again): "From book to book, Robert Macfarlane has moved from strength to strength, bettering himself every time out. Now he's reached a new peak by delving deep into the earth, exploring literal and metaphorical underworlds both natural and human-built. Fans of history, science, adventure, travel, sociology, and memoir will all latch onto Macfarlane's accessible brilliance."

New Book of the Week

Underland: A Deep Time Journey

by Robert Macfarlane

This isn't the first time I've talked about Underland and it won't be the last; while 2019 isn't even halfway done, I'm already sure that this will be one of the very best things I read all year. As I've said before (and will say again): "From book to book, Robert Macfarlane has moved from strength to strength, bettering himself every time out. Now he's reached a new peak by delving deep into the earth, exploring literal and metaphorical underworlds both natural and human-built. Fans of history, science, adventure, travel, sociology, and memoir will all latch onto Macfarlane's accessible brilliance."

New Book of the Week The Great Eastern by Howard Rodman The Great Eastern tells the true story of the SS Great Eastern , a technological marvel of the Victorian Age. Designed and built under the direction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (yes, his real name), it was, at the time of its 1858 launch and for decades afterward, the biggest ship ever to sail. The details of its construction, the disaster of its launch, and its eventual triumphant role in laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable make for a gripping read. There’s much more to the novel, though. In addition to being a sober historical account, The Great Eastern is also a fanciful tribute to the greatest tales of adventure from the 19th century. Wrapped around the reality of the monumental steamship is a rip-roaring plot that sees the anti-heroes of Moby-Dick and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea do battle with the fate of civilization at stake. So wait, you’re saying. An obscure English engineer describes his love for metallurgy and manufacturing for pages at a time while Captains Ahab and Nemo make grandiloquent speeches and engage in all manner of creative steampunk-inspired violence? Yes, and it works . Remember how the players in Hamlet said they could perform any kind of drama, discretely or in combination? Author Howard Rodman has taken up their challenge and danced with exquisite grace along the knife edge separating fact and speculation to produce an incomparable tragical-comical-historical-industrial, a brand-new fictional genre of his own devising. He's as fascinating a character himself as the ones in his book, as I found out when I conducted an interview with him via email. You can read our conversation on the Madison Books blog, The Pavilion . —James

New Book of the Week

The Great Eastern

by Howard Rodman

The Great Eastern tells the true story of the SS Great Eastern, a technological marvel of the Victorian Age. Designed and built under the direction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (yes, his real name), it was, at the time of its 1858 launch and for decades afterward, the biggest ship ever to sail. The details of its construction, the disaster of its launch, and its eventual triumphant role in laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable make for a gripping read. There’s much more to the novel, though. In addition to being a sober historical account, The Great Eastern is also a fanciful tribute to the greatest tales of adventure from the 19th century. Wrapped around the reality of the monumental steamship is a rip-roaring plot that sees the anti-heroes of Moby-Dick and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea do battle with the fate of civilization at stake. So wait, you’re saying. An obscure English engineer describes his love for metallurgy and manufacturing for pages at a time while Captains Ahab and Nemo make grandiloquent speeches and engage in all manner of creative steampunk-inspired violence? Yes, and it works. Remember how the players in Hamlet said they could perform any kind of drama, discretely or in combination? Author Howard Rodman has taken up their challenge and danced with exquisite grace along the knife edge separating fact and speculation to produce an incomparable tragical-comical-historical-industrial, a brand-new fictional genre of his own devising. He's as fascinating a character himself as the ones in his book, as I found out when I conducted an interview with him via email. You can read our conversation on the Madison Books blog, The Pavilion. —James

New Book of the Week The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell "1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond." If that doesn't get your reader's blood pumping, I don't know what will. A sprawling, magical, multigenerational saga with echoes of Midnight's Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude . —James

New Book of the Week

The Old Drift

by Namwali Serpell

"1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond." If that doesn't get your reader's blood pumping, I don't know what will. A sprawling, magical, multigenerational saga with echoes of Midnight's Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude. —James

New Book of the Week Lanny by Max Porter A family of three (mom, dad, and small son) resides in an English hamlet, a site with historic roots that's now a commuter suburb of London. All the mod cons, but with room for a creative kid to roam in nature and get his hands dirty. Idyllic, except for the old prejudices that some of the inhabitants still harbor, and the ancient mythic spirit who monitors everything best kept hidden. Lanny is contemporary writing that's already timeless, a song, an incantation, a poem of people, place, and power. Porter's village is a world, his characters are all-too-human archetypes, and his novel is a glorious verbal artifact. —James

New Book of the Week

Lanny

by Max Porter

A family of three (mom, dad, and small son) resides in an English hamlet, a site with historic roots that's now a commuter suburb of London. All the mod cons, but with room for a creative kid to roam in nature and get his hands dirty. Idyllic, except for the old prejudices that some of the inhabitants still harbor, and the ancient mythic spirit who monitors everything best kept hidden. Lanny is contemporary writing that's already timeless, a song, an incantation, a poem of people, place, and power. Porter's village is a world, his characters are all-too-human archetypes, and his novel is a glorious verbal artifact. —James

Kids Book of the Week The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez Malu finds herself caught between a Mexican mother who wants her to be the perfect señorita and a music-loving father who helped foster her love of all things punk. After their divorce, Malu and her mother move to Chicago from Florida, where Malu has to start a new school and find her place, ultimately discovering that it’s okay not to fit into a specific box. Follow spunky and rebellious Malu as she navigates middle school, forms a band with her fellow misfits, and creates zines to express herself! This book will remind anyone to embrace your eccentricities and love yourself for all of the things that make you unique. You are guaranteed to fall in love with Malu! (ages 9 to 12) —Gabi

Kids Book of the Week

The First Rule of Punk

by Celia C. Pérez

Malu finds herself caught between a Mexican mother who wants her to be the perfect señorita and a music-loving father who helped foster her love of all things punk. After their divorce, Malu and her mother move to Chicago from Florida, where Malu has to start a new school and find her place, ultimately discovering that it’s okay not to fit into a specific box. Follow spunky and rebellious Malu as she navigates middle school, forms a band with her fellow misfits, and creates zines to express herself! This book will remind anyone to embrace your eccentricities and love yourself for all of the things that make you unique. You are guaranteed to fall in love with Malu! (ages 9 to 12) —Gabi

New Book of the Week The Book of Delights by Ross Gay Poet Ross Gay tasked himself with what sounds like a job for a Hallmark greeting card writer: he spent a year looking for things that gave him joy, be they people, places, or events big or small. Unlike the sentiments usually found on schmaltzy greeting cards, though, the brief prose essays that Gay has written are rich and real, expressed with humor, charm, and immense verbal dexterity. Whether he's savoring a cup of strong coffee, enjoying the labors of his garden, or celebrating the pleasures of high-fiving a stranger, he cuts right to the heart of the matter with the tenderest scalpel. Benign biopsies of perfect moments? That may sound strange, but I think the author would appreciate the description. (Note for audiobook listeners: don't pass up the chance to hear Ross Gay read aloud. Hop over to our partner site at libro.fm/madisonbooks and download post haste.) —James

New Book of the Week

The Book of Delights

by Ross Gay

Poet Ross Gay tasked himself with what sounds like a job for a Hallmark greeting card writer: he spent a year looking for things that gave him joy, be they people, places, or events big or small. Unlike the sentiments usually found on schmaltzy greeting cards, though, the brief prose essays that Gay has written are rich and real, expressed with humor, charm, and immense verbal dexterity. Whether he's savoring a cup of strong coffee, enjoying the labors of his garden, or celebrating the pleasures of high-fiving a stranger, he cuts right to the heart of the matter with the tenderest scalpel. Benign biopsies of perfect moments? That may sound strange, but I think the author would appreciate the description. (Note for audiobook listeners: don't pass up the chance to hear Ross Gay read aloud. Hop over to our partner site at libro.fm/madisonbooks and download post haste.) —James

New Book of the Week The Heavens by Sandra Newman For whatever reason (having nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that publishing is dominated by intellectually aspirant professionals who live in Manhattan and Brooklyn), the New York novel is a fixture of every publishing season. Some people can’t get enough of them, some find them insufferable, and never the twain shall meet. Until now. In The Heavens , Sandra Newman has finally written one that will satisfy both camps. The meet-cute opening that takes place on an apartment rooftop is quintessentially I❤NY, but brown-skinned Ben and Kate aren’t typical WASPy protagonists, and alert readers will notice that the romantic metropolis they occupy isn’t exactly the one we know and love (or loathe). And then Ben learns about Kate’s recurring dream, in which she’s an Elizabethan noblewoman caught up in a tortuous relationship with a certain obscure playwright. As her nocturnal life grows more and more vivid, the familiar becomes strange and the couple’s grip on daily life weakens. Is Kate going mad, or can her dream actually be altering reality? Beneath its glittering surface, The Heavens asks profound questions about what kind of world we want to live in and what lengths we'll go to change it. —James

New Book of the Week

The Heavens

by Sandra Newman

For whatever reason (having nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that publishing is dominated by intellectually aspirant professionals who live in Manhattan and Brooklyn), the New York novel is a fixture of every publishing season. Some people can’t get enough of them, some find them insufferable, and never the twain shall meet. Until now. In The Heavens, Sandra Newman has finally written one that will satisfy both camps. The meet-cute opening that takes place on an apartment rooftop is quintessentially I❤NY, but brown-skinned Ben and Kate aren’t typical WASPy protagonists, and alert readers will notice that the romantic metropolis they occupy isn’t exactly the one we know and love (or loathe). And then Ben learns about Kate’s recurring dream, in which she’s an Elizabethan noblewoman caught up in a tortuous relationship with a certain obscure playwright. As her nocturnal life grows more and more vivid, the familiar becomes strange and the couple’s grip on daily life weakens. Is Kate going mad, or can her dream actually be altering reality? Beneath its glittering surface, The Heavens asks profound questions about what kind of world we want to live in and what lengths we'll go to change it. —James

Old Book of the Week John Crow's Devil by Marlon James The ferocious energy of Marlon James's prose, the first sign of the literary genius that the Booker judges later recognized in A Brief History of Seven Killings, is immediately evident in this debut novel, which summons into being the Jamaican village of Gibbeah, a community put to the scourge by conflict between two rival preachers. With its rich language and biblical cadence, John Crow's Devil is a Miltonic epic of unrelenting spiritual darkness, but with James's ear for dialogue and knack for earthy humor it flashes with light on a human level. Rarely has a writer's career been announced with a trumpet blast this pure and powerful. —James

Old Book of the Week

John Crow's Devil

by Marlon James

The ferocious energy of Marlon James's prose, the first sign of the literary genius that the Booker judges later recognized in A Brief History of Seven Killings, is immediately evident in this debut novel, which summons into being the Jamaican village of Gibbeah, a community put to the scourge by conflict between two rival preachers. With its rich language and biblical cadence, John Crow's Devil is a Miltonic epic of unrelenting spiritual darkness, but with James's ear for dialogue and knack for earthy humor it flashes with light on a human level. Rarely has a writer's career been announced with a trumpet blast this pure and powerful. —James

New Book of the Week Man with a Seagull on His Head by Harriet Paige Ray Eccles is leading a modest, unassuming existence when he's abruptly struck on the head by a falling bird and finds his whole life changing course. Read Harriet Paige's new novel and you may find yourself similarly affected. The opening of Man with a Seagull on His Head tempts you with its brisk prose and summery seaside setting to pick it up as a momentary diversion, but it quickly establishes powerful links among its many characters, connecting hearts and minds across distance, time, and cultural barriers. By the end it takes them, and you, much further than you'd have ever expected. —James

New Book of the Week

Man with a Seagull on His Head

by Harriet Paige

Ray Eccles is leading a modest, unassuming existence when he's abruptly struck on the head by a falling bird and finds his whole life changing course. Read Harriet Paige's new novel and you may find yourself similarly affected. The opening of Man with a Seagull on His Head tempts you with its brisk prose and summery seaside setting to pick it up as a momentary diversion, but it quickly establishes powerful links among its many characters, connecting hearts and minds across distance, time, and cultural barriers. By the end it takes them, and you, much further than you'd have ever expected. —James

Kids Book of the Week The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris We had heard about this book for a while—it was wildly popular and a "book of the year" in the UK, and Macfarlane, Britain's leading nature writer, is becoming beloved in the States too. But seeing it in person is something else entirely. Macfarlane and Morris have set about reclaiming basic words of nature ("acorn," "heron") that, they noticed, have been taken out of children's dictionaries in favor of tech terms like "broadband." But the book they made is not a dictionary—it's a thing of exquisite beauty, celebrating both these simple, evocative words (with poems of Macfarlane's) and the animals and plants they represent (with Morris's glorious paintings). It's a giant book, and one that both kids and grown-ups are likely to cherish. (Age 3 and up) —Tom

Kids Book of the Week

The Lost Words

by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

We had heard about this book for a while—it was wildly popular and a "book of the year" in the UK, and Macfarlane, Britain's leading nature writer, is becoming beloved in the States too. But seeing it in person is something else entirely. Macfarlane and Morris have set about reclaiming basic words of nature ("acorn," "heron") that, they noticed, have been taken out of children's dictionaries in favor of tech terms like "broadband." But the book they made is not a dictionary—it's a thing of exquisite beauty, celebrating both these simple, evocative words (with poems of Macfarlane's) and the animals and plants they represent (with Morris's glorious paintings). It's a giant book, and one that both kids and grown-ups are likely to cherish. (Age 3 and up) —Tom

New Book of the Week The Alehouse at the End of the World by Stevan Allred This is a tough one to describe, because as soon as I start I'm afraid I'll scare some of you off. Avian demigods? Fertility goddesses? An epic journey to the Isle of the Dead to recover a lost love? Sure, fantasy fans will hear me out, but the rest of you should, too. Drawing on European, Asian, and North American folk traditions, Stevan Allred plows the oldest narrative field there is, the open commons that existed before anyone thought of subdividing it with genre fences. Pure story, in other words, once-upon-a-time stuff that doesn't seem fringy at all. Turns out that a modern version of ancient myth involving love, death, and talking birds is exactly what we need in these trying times. —James

New Book of the Week

The Alehouse at the End of the World

by Stevan Allred

This is a tough one to describe, because as soon as I start I'm afraid I'll scare some of you off. Avian demigods? Fertility goddesses? An epic journey to the Isle of the Dead to recover a lost love? Sure, fantasy fans will hear me out, but the rest of you should, too. Drawing on European, Asian, and North American folk traditions, Stevan Allred plows the oldest narrative field there is, the open commons that existed before anyone thought of subdividing it with genre fences. Pure story, in other words, once-upon-a-time stuff that doesn't seem fringy at all. Turns out that a modern version of ancient myth involving love, death, and talking birds is exactly what we need in these trying times. —James

New Book of the Week The Order of the Day by Éric Vuillard The Prix Goncourt is France's highest award for fiction, and the most recent recipient was Éric Vuillard for The Order of the Day . It's an interesting choice for at least three reasons. First, it's really good, like prize-winning good, written in crystalline sentences ably translated by Mark Polizzotti. Second, it's not a bog-standard war story about generals and infantrymen or even suffering civilians. Instead it focuses on the bureaucrats and businessmen who quietly and cravenly capitulated to a Fascist regime that in the 1930s didn't yet have a stranglehold on power. Over and over again in Vuillard's account, civility outweighs principle, as in the chilling scene where Chamberlain and Ribbentrop linger over a diplomatic dinner while Nazi forces drive unopposed across the German-Austrian border. Every detail marshaled here is devastatingly accurate, which brings us to a final point of interest: this isn't really fiction. Sure, there's creative description on every page, but at its heart, The Order of the Day is history as it was made. As fact-based as it is, it probably wouldn't be eligible for an American fiction prize, but the French don't worry about categories, just beautiful writing. In this case, I'm on their side. —James

New Book of the Week

The Order of the Day

by Éric Vuillard

The Prix Goncourt is France's highest award for fiction, and the most recent recipient was Éric Vuillard for The Order of the Day. It's an interesting choice for at least three reasons. First, it's really good, like prize-winning good, written in crystalline sentences ably translated by Mark Polizzotti. Second, it's not a bog-standard war story about generals and infantrymen or even suffering civilians. Instead it focuses on the bureaucrats and businessmen who quietly and cravenly capitulated to a Fascist regime that in the 1930s didn't yet have a stranglehold on power. Over and over again in Vuillard's account, civility outweighs principle, as in the chilling scene where Chamberlain and Ribbentrop linger over a diplomatic dinner while Nazi forces drive unopposed across the German-Austrian border. Every detail marshaled here is devastatingly accurate, which brings us to a final point of interest: this isn't really fiction. Sure, there's creative description on every page, but at its heart, The Order of the Day is history as it was made. As fact-based as it is, it probably wouldn't be eligible for an American fiction prize, but the French don't worry about categories, just beautiful writing. In this case, I'm on their side. —James

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Old Book of the Week The Car Thief by Theodore Weesner First published in 1972, The Car Thief was greeted by acclaim from a diverse range of reviewers, including postmodern maximalist Joseph McElroy and contemporary literary gothicist Joyce Carol Oates. All of them, whatever their usual tastes, found something in it as compelling as a thriller, and despite the book's understated style, I discovered exactly the same thing. The book follows alienated teenager Alex Housman as he drifts from one dicey situation into another, only occasionally monitored by those whose care he's in, among them impersonal institutional officers and his affectionate but alcoholic single father. It's fascinating to observe Alex's struggle to access and understand his own motivations, which reminded me of the existential classics of the mid-twentieth century, as if Camus's The Stranger had been rewritten to take place in Flint, Michigan. —James
Old Book of the Week The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner Who knew that NunLit was a genre with a passionately devoted following? Not me, until I read this unique story about a medieval convent, considered one of its classics. Townsend writes brilliantly about the momentous and mundane with the period detail typical of historical fiction, but without the novelistic reins of character hierarchy or narrative arc to steer your mind in a particular direction. When I started to contemplate (quite nunnishly) her authorial choice, I had an epiphany! She recreates for the reader the same sense of distance with which the nuns experienced life! The sisters are concerned with worldly things but they take the eternally long view: events ebb and flow and everybody and everything are significant and inconsequential at the same time. My favorite of the nuns, Dame Isabel, summed up what I think is the crux of the book: “The world was deeply interesting and a convent was the ideal place in which to meditate on the world. She was twenty-three. If she should live to forty, to sixty, her love of thinking would not be satiated.” NunLit has a new convert! (Sorry, couldn’t stop myself.) —Liz (from the Phinney Books newsletter)
Kids' Book of the Week Warhead: The True Story of One Teen Who Almost Saved the World by Jeff Henigson After being diagnosed with brain cancer as a teen, Seattle writer Jeff Henigson made an unconventional Starlight Children’s Foundation wish. He wanted to (and did) travel to Moscow to talk with Gorbachev about nuclear disarmament. But this memoir is less about cancer and the Cold War than it is about surviving high school and searching for love, affection, and praise from a formal, distant father. As a fiction reader, this is my favorite type of nonfiction: it reads like a novel. A heart-wrenching yet humorous and inspirational page-turner. (ages 12 and up) —Cindy
New Book of the Week The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú If you're hoping for better outcomes for Latinx people crossing the border, joining Customs & Border Patrol as an officer doesn't make sense as the way to go. But that's what Cantú did, and there's no doubt that he offered the people he picked up at the border a better experience than some of his colleagues. That he left and wrote a book about his experiences and the corruption of the patrol is redeeming, the anecdotes harrowing, and the need for action—by all of us—urgent. Cantú dedicates the book to "All those who risk their souls to traverse or patrol an unnatural divide." —Erica
New Book of the Week Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann No getting around it, this sounds like a tough sell: 1000 pages of unbroken thought, not a stream of consciousness but a torrential river scouring a mental landscape. But that's how you produce something as deep and broad and beautiful and American as the Grand Canyon. Because this torrent spills from the mind of one ordinary woman (an Ohioan, a wife, a mom, a baker of pies), because she's hilarious, because her doubts and deprecations, her fondnesses and fears, are so mundane and relatable, because she exists as one of the truest-to-life fictional characters you could ever hope to meet, this book probably won't get the credit it deserves, credit for originality, insight, and literary excellence. Which is a shame, because Ducks, Newburyport is a domestic national epic to set beside Moby-Dick , a corrosive comic cultural indictment to compare with William Gaddis's National Book Award-winning J R . Read it and weep from laughter and righteous anger. —James
New Book of the Week The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Unlike most new releases, this isn't one we independent booksellers had the opportunity to read ahead of publication. It's embargoed, as we like to say. Other than the people at the publishing company, the only ones who were allowed to see copies were the Booker Prize judges, and they thought highly enough of it to put it on this year's shortlist, confirming our suspicions that this sequel to The Handmaid's Tale will be one of the most relevant and important books of the year. —James
New Book of the Week The Red Thread: 20 Years of NYRB Classics edited by Edwin Frank I'd never want to restrict myself to reading books from only one publishing imprint, but should some ultra-powerful, literary-minded aliens descend on earth and force me to choose, I'm going with NYRB Classics. Since their inception they've been an inexhaustible source for amazing writing, resuscitating out-of-print works from every era and from almost everywhere around the world. To celebrate their 20th anniversary (and their 500th title), NYRB has collected excerpts from the best of the best in the series, including one suggested by yours truly. Am I excited about this anthology? I'll play it cool and understate drastically—this is one of the books I'm most looking forward to in 2019. In an effort to make you as enthusiastic as I am, Madison Books is making a special offer: Every prepaid preorder we get for The Red Thread in advance of its 9/24 release date will be discounted 20% . Order early and often! —James
New Book of the Week Terrarium: New and Selected Stories by Valerie Trueblood What can I say about the stories in this book? They're "about" ordinary people experiencing ordinary joys and sorrows—marriage, divorce, birth, death—but it's not what they're about that makes them so good. I think it's the exquisite care they take in the telling, attentive to the details of life and language, never ostentatious but always on point. Alice Munro won her Nobel Prize for a career built on exactly the same foundation, and that's not hyperbole. Stockholm may not know Trueblood's name yet, but Seattle should. —James
New Book of the Week Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell Orange World is Russell's newest collection of stories. Like her other two brilliant collections, it falls solidly into the genre of magical realism, imagining tornado auctions and partnerships separated by thousands of years. In grappling with our sense of reality, though, Russell makes sharp commentary on the future of our planet, the biases we can choose to leave in the past, and the urgent choices we must make right now. —Erica
Old Book of the Week The Monkey's Wedding: And Other Stories by Joan Aiken Joan Aiken started publishing in 1955 and continued as a working writer until her death in 2004, producing over one hundred novels for children and adults along with copious shorter works that appeared in slicks and pulps of both general and genre interest, even employing pseudonyms on occasion. She was part of a story‐telling tradition that predates MFA programs and quiet epiphanies, and she concerned herself with a snappier brand of narrative entertainment. Her fiction draws on folk and fairy tale traditions but adds a strong dash of irony to freshen the taste, very much like the work of John Collier. In the opening story, a sailor brings home a mermaid in a jar as a gift to his girlfriend, only to find that his exotic treasure is a mere inconvenience: “[Y]ou know I can’t stand things in captivity, I’d never have a canary or a goldfish.” Perhaps the finest stories here are those that feature young couples in conflict/love with each other, including “Red‐Hot Favorite” and “Octopi in the Sky.” They’re exceedingly witty and imaginative, and so lively I couldn’t believe how economical they are. It’s Aiken’s remarkable facility for dialogue that allows her to draw rounded characters with minimal strokes of her brush. William Powell and Myrna Loy needed only ninety minutes to sparkle in The Thin Man , and the good‐natured, prevaricating, meet‐cute stars of “Spur of the Moment” require just twelve pages to showcase their equally impressive bantering skills. —James
New Book of the Week The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead You probably don't need me to introduce you to Colson Whitehead (he was on the cover of Time magazine , for gosh sakes) but I'd be remiss if I didn't add to the chorus of praise for his most recent novel. It's that good, that essential. Nickel Boys is set in a barely-fictional Southern reform school during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, and it's a story you slip easily into via the relatable character of Elwood Curtis, a boy with a future as promising as young America itself. Seeing his progress thwarted by a false accusation of car theft and witnessing the cruelties worked on him by an abominably racist institution is incredibly emotional without for one moment seeming overdramatized. This is a potent indictment of our benighted past that just as powerfully confronts our racist present. —James
New Book of the Week History: A Mess by Sigrun Palsdottir (translated by Lytton Smith) To anyone interested in intellectual mystery, the premise is irresistible: a young academic finds evidence in a 17th-century manuscript that will overturn her entire field of study, but as her star rises and her thesis is nearly complete, she discovers it's all based on a misunderstanding. Back home to Iceland from England she goes, frantic to hide her mistake, save her career, and avoid disappointing her friends and family. I expected this to be a broad, juicy social comedy, but was intrigued to find instead a darkly witty investigation of a fragmenting personality. —James
New Book of the Week The Ghosts of Eden Park by Karen Abbott Avarice, lust, revenge, and courtroom theatrics all combine in Abbott’s spirited account of George Remus, a German immigrant who became one of the most successful—and eccentric—criminal celebrities during America’s Prohibition era of the 1920s. A pharmacist turned lawyer turned “King of the Bootleggers,” Remus (a lifelong teetotaler) exploited loopholes in the 1919 Volstead Act to purchase Midwestern distilleries and peddle illegal liquor widely, earning a fortune that he spent on bribes to politicians and Prohibition agents, a gaudy mansion in Cincinnati, and his second wife, Imogene. Remus was finally imprisoned, though, by Mabel Walker Willebrandt, a U.S. assistant attorney general aggressively prosecuting Volstead Act violations. While locked up, Remus learned that Imogene and Willebrandt’s ace investigator, Franklin Dodge, had begun an affair and were robbing him blind—betrayals that led Remus to later murder his spouse, and then defend himself in a high-profile court case questioning his own sanity. A deeply researched work, dramatically presented. —Jeff
New Book of the Week Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman Edgar Award winner Lippman brings to life 1960s-era Baltimore, and all of the corrosive inequities of that time, in this richly crafted portrayal of Madeline Schwartz, a white, late-30s Jewish housewife who leaves her small family in search of individual identity, only to take up with an African-American cop and become involved in multiple murders. After parlaying her luck at finding the corpse of a missing schoolgirl into an editorial assistant’s job at the local afternoon newspaper, Maddie determines to win a reporter’s post there by investigating the largely ignored death of cocktail waitress Cleo Sherwood, whose body was dumped in a city park lake. Lippman alternates Maddie’s first-person self-discovery story with vivid chapters told from the viewpoints of others, including Cleo’s “ghost.” A sophisticated crime novel that’s as much about female ambition, racism, and newspaper culture as it is about criminality. —Jeff
Old Book of the Week Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns Like Downton Abbey , this novel is a rich ensemble piece, taking a democratic interest in everyone from the least respected servant to the lord of the manor, but it’s far stranger and funnier than the highly groomed and polished TV series. The Willoweed estate is a decaying wreck ruled by an ancient, tyrannous matriarch, and the entire village is rife with toadying, backstabbing, infidelity, and worse. The book opens with a flood—“The ducks swam through the drawing room windows”—and the crises mount from there. Comyns doesn’t set out to shock, though. She’s so clear in her language and frank about confronting the terrible things that can happen in life (especially when a ridiculous monster like Grandmother Willoweed is in charge) that a sense of absurdity, not horror, wins the day. Macabre it may be, but in a friendly way, like the Addams Family or a fairy tale. —James
Audiobook of the Week On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong I'm not sure if Ocean Vuong's first novel is more intense on the page or in your ear. I took it in the latter way, read in Vuong's own soft, quavering, and forceful voice, which he keeps at such a pitch of high, vulnerable emotion that even his reading of the copyright notice at the end could bring you to tears. But so could any note of his character's story, written as a letter to his immigrant mother in a language she could never read, recounting the losses and fleeting joys (see the title) of their lives with an almost unbearably tender exactness for physical details—the toxins of nail salons, the brush of a farmer's son's teen mustache as they embrace in the barn—and the metaphors they spawn. The traditional immigrant's story charts a growing assimilation in the new culture and estrangement from the old; Vuong's follows no such arc but hovers in the anguish of the middle, sung like a bluesy, bitter lullaby, one of those in which down comes baby, cradle and all. (Order the audiobook from our partners at Libro.fm) —Tom (via the Phinney Books newsletter)
New/Old Book of the Week Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury by Sigrid Nunez It was just over twenty years ago that Sigrid Nunez first published this small treasure of a book about the smallest member of a storied literary household. For a few years in the 1930s, the Bloomsbury home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf contained, along with a legendary collection of itinerant writers and artists of genius, a resident marmoset, rescued from imprisonment in a shop window and lovingly nursed back to health. For several seasons, she was a constant companion and the toast of London society, sharing all her family's joys and griefs. By describing the time and place through Mitz's wide animal eyes, Nunez humanizes the Woolfs like nothing else I've ever read. Mitz is a most welcome re-release, a delight for all readers, regardless of how many pages of Mrs. Dalloway they have or haven't turned. —James
New Book of the Week Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton Prepare yourself for a wild ride! Told (mostly) from the point of view of a domesticated crow, this is the funny-as-heck, yet also thought-provoking, story of how animals fare during a zombie apocalypse. S.T. is living in Seattle with his human friend, Big Jim, and Big Jim’s hound, Dennis. They watch a lot of bad TV together and enjoy a lot of bad food, including S.T.’s favorite, Cheetos. Then the zombification begins—Big Jim's eyeball falls out and he murderously turns on his corvid companion. S.T. sensibly decides it's time to venture out with Dennis in search of answers. Along with an assortment of other animals both domesticated and wild, they use cunning, teamwork, diligence, and their own super-cool communication methods to navigate their new, post-human world. I laughed, I cried, I cheered. This is one you don’t want to miss. You’ll never look at a crow the same way again! —Cindy
New Book of the Week Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda Princely Umbiligoda appears to have it all—a great job as the leading expert on marine imagery in Canadian literature; a loving family consisting of a wife and four Disney-obsessed daughters; and a strong spiritual connection to his Catholic faith. But underneath there's trouble. Trouble at home, trouble at work, trouble in the newspapers, and trouble with his prostate, troubles that lead to troubling doubts about God. And the disturbing reappearance of an old girlfriend. And a career change to . . . suicide bomber? Did I mention this is a comedy? Well, it is, a great comedy with a brisk pace and a delightfully hapless protagonist the likes of whom I've never met before. Original Prin left me eager to read many more of his exploits. Secondary Prin? Tertiary Prin? Bring 'em on. —James
New Book of the Week The Salt Path by Raynor Winn A bad investment causes fifty-year-old Raynor Winn and her husband Moth to lose their family farm and livelihood. Around the same time, Moth is diagnosed with a terminal degenerative illness that leaves him depressed and in constant pain. Homeless and hopeless, the couple decides to embark on the 630-mile South West Coast Path along the English coast with no preparations and hardly any gear besides a cheap tent and thin sleeping bags. The long walk tests everything they have, including their 32-year relationship, but ultimately changes their lives in ways they never could have expected when they took that first step. Along the way, strangers they meet demonstrate the best and worst qualities in humanity. This uplifting memoir is a great summer read for anyone dreaming of far-off travel adventures. —Haley (via the Phinney Books newsletter )
New Book of the Week The Road to Grantchester By James Runcie Now, during PBS-TV’s latest run of the British mystery series Grantchester , is an ideal time to dive into this prequel novel, which recalls the circuitous path protagonist Sidney Chambers took from being a Cambridge classics student to becoming an Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth. As World War II consumes Europe, Chambers and his irrepressible friend Robert Kendall join the Scots Guards and are sent to the Italian front, where their ability to maintain optimism amid unrelenting carnage is sorely tested. Crucial to Chambers’ efforts is “Rev Nev” Finnie, an Episcopal chaplain with whom he engages in philosophical discussions—talks that prepare him for Kendall’s subsequent battlefield death and his own return home. Back in England, Chambers finds himself guilt-ridden for having survived, and at a loss to deal with Kendall’s coquettish younger sister, Amanda. Others expect Chambers to become a teacher or diplomat, but his search for peace leads him instead into the priesthood. There’s little crime-solving here, but author Runcie excels at evoking the climate of warfare, and his investigations of the human mind and heart will feel familiar to any Grantchester fan. —Jeff
Kids' Book of the Week The Poison Jungle by Tui Sutherland What is probably the best-selling series for young readers that we carry at Madison Books has reached lucky number 13. What more do you need to know? About the only thing we can think to add is a reminder that Tui Sutherland will be a headlining author at the Seattle Children's Book Festival at the end of September. —James
New Book of the Week Edgar: An Autobiography by Edgar Martínez As I'm putting Edgar's book into this week's newsletter, I'm suddenly aware that I may have gone a bit heavy on baseball content over the past few weeks. In my defense, 1) it's summer, so when else am I going to talk about these books?, and 2) this is the week that the greatest DH in history finally made it into the Hall of Fame. There's no better time to celebrate our city's humblest sports superstar. Co-written with longtime Seattle sports columnist Larry Stone, with a foreword by Ken Griffey, Jr., this is the perfect gift for the fan in your life, and it's the perfect excuse for me to watch a replay of The Double for the thousandth time. —James
Old Book of the Week The Transylvanian Trilogy by Miklós Bánffy Though written in the 1930s, the trilogy is both in style and substance the last of the great 19th-century novels, grand and stately and ambitious and utterly immersive. The characters, including the upright Count Abady, the captivating Adrienne with her “flame-colored shift,” and the doomed artist Laszlo, are playthings of their omniscient author but also fully dimensional, and the set pieces they occupy will not soon be forgotten by anyone with the leisure to read them. Hunting parties, parliamentary debates, duels, intrigues, stolen moments of romance, midnight sledge rides through the snow … it’s positively sumptuous. The lush surface enraptures, but there’s also an underlying seriousness that appeals, an insistent moral drumbeat that asks What Is the Right Way to Live? There’s simply too much to this epic to do it proper justice here, so I’ll flippantly call it a cross between Gone with the Wind and War and Peace with an added dash of paprika. —James
Old Book of the Week Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald Born in England in 1916, Penelope Fitzgerald didn’t begin publishing fiction until she was in her sixties, but still produced nine classic novels along with several works of non-fiction and a pair of story collections. Every one is excellent, but I'm particularly fond of Human Voices , her 1980 novel depicting emotional entanglements on the home front during World War Two. London is beset by bombers, and BBC Radio establishes a shelter for its employees so that they can safely continue the work of “saving Britain from despondency and panic” without ever leaving the office. Did I mention that it’s a co-ed shelter? Romance blooms for some, annoyances build between others, and small moments of human interaction stand out against the larger historical backdrop. It’s a can’t-miss winner to please just about anyone. —James
New Book of the Week Joe Country by Mick Herron In Herron’s succession of clever, modern spy thrillers, London’s Slough House is where British intelligence agents who’ve botched missions or otherwise disgraced themselves are sent to be forgotten. Jackson Lamb, the politically incorrect and flagrantly flatulent head of that department, is supposed to keep his moping band of misfits in line. Yet they still manage to make trouble. Joe Country , the series’ sixth entry, finds Louisa Guy, one of Lamb’s “slow horses,” searching for Lucas Harper, the missing teenage son of her former married lover—a mission that will lead her and her colleagues into a dicey, protracted chase across frigid Welsh countryside, one step ahead of a rogue American spook. Meanwhile, Slough House has a new member: a putative child-porn addict who may hold the key to exposing a German intelligence operation in the UK. Herron’s waggish dialogue, eccentric players, and political insights have earned him a loyal following. —Jeff
Old Book of the Week The Iconoclast's Journal by Terry Griggs Set among the ramshackle boom-and-bust towns of the late nineteenth century, The Iconoclast's Journal kicks off with a literal bolt of lightning. Would-be bridegroom Griffith Smolders is shocked out of his hotel room and onto the road, taking the blast as a portent telling him marriage is not in the cards. In hot pursuit is his former fiancee Avice Drinkwater, bent on punishing Griffith but also reveling in her newfound independence. Separately encountering various con-men, zealots, and other grotesques, the two eventually wash up together on the shores of a new century, caught in the light of a newfangled contraption called a motion picture projector. It’s not all high jinks, though. The linguistic pyrotechnics and unexpected plot twists are the vessel for a complex parable about the difficulty and essential strangeness of romance. By the end the two young lovers know themselves and each other a good bit better than they did at the beginning, but it’s Griggs’s readers who learn the most. —James
Kids’ Book of the Week A Ticket to the Pennant by Mark Holtzen Every true fan knows that the Golden Age of Baseball is whenever you’re nine years old. That’s when you’re mature enough to understand the sport but young enough to love it unconditionally. Every adult should try to watch a game through those eyes at least occasionally. That’s why I, an alleged grownup, am so fond of A Ticket to the Pennant , written by Seattle’s Mark Holtzen. In just 32 pages he tells the tale of Huey, a ’50s kid who wants nothing more than to get into Sicks Stadium and cheer for his hometown Rainiers. All he needs to do to make it through the turnstiles is find his missing ticket. Thus starts a search through the vibrant, diverse neighborhood around the park, a place brought to life by the incredibly accurate nouveau-retro illustrations of John Skewes, creator of Larry Gets Lost . (ages 4 to 9) —James
New Book of the Week Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg Given how much readers loved Bee Season , I'm not sure why more of a fuss isn't being made about this new novel from Myla Goldberg. It's been almost a decade since she's published one, people! Feast Your Eyes is inventively framed as a series of catalogue notes for an exhibition of photography by the controversial (and completely fictional) Lillian Preston. She's sort of an amalgam of real-life figures Vivian Maier and Sally Mann, working as both a surreptitious street artist and a chronicler of intimate domestic life—her frank depictions of her own daughter see her branded as both America's greatest photographer and worst mother. Goldberg's creative architecture alone would make this worth a look, but it's the portrait of Preston and the emotional legacy she leaves behind that truly compel. —James
New Book of the Week The Need by Helen Phillips It's a commonplace (at least with me) to say that sometimes the best way to describe reality is to distort, enhance, or otherwise defamiliarize it through fantasy and speculation. Helen Phillips seems to agree with me, at least to judge by her intense, somewhat surrealistic fiction. The Need , a thriller about the anxieties of parenthood with more useful things to say on the subject than Dr. Spock, has all the claustrophobia and existential dread of Kafka, but considerably more heart. —James
New Book of the Week Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki A classic of European literature unavailable in English for decades, Three Summers is perfectly timeless and perfectly seasonal. Set in the countryside of prewar Greece, it traces the doings and developing identities of a trio of sisters growing into adulthood, each of whom finds a different way to balance her desires for love and freedom. The lush atmosphere of gardens and orchards transports as the best vacation reads do, but the characters, as archetypal in their way as the March girls in Little Women , will make a permanent home in your head. —James
New Book of the Week Deep River by Karl Marlantes It's been nearly a decade since the release of Marlantes's acclaimed Vietnam War novel Matterhorn , and as of this week readers can at last see what he's been working on all these years. Like its predecessor, Deep River is a massive piece of fiction, heavy when you pick it up but growing lighter in your hands the more the pages turn. It will carry you away immediately as it tells of Scandinavian immigrants, driven out of their homeland by violence and oppression, who wash up on American shores and carve out new lives in the logging camps and growing towns of the Pacific Northwest. The historical interest is obvious—these are the people who built the state we live in today and this is how they did it—but the story has immense relevance to the present day. Dealing with radical politics, religious freedom, women's rights, and the idea of America as a refuge, however imperfect, this novel is perhaps more timely than Marlantes expected when he began it. —James
Old Book of the Week The Dig by Cynan Jones Two characters on their own in the rural landscape of Wales, one a violent, lifelong misfit and the other a humble farmer and would-be family man, are drawn unknowingly toward each other by fate in this brief novel. “Fate” in this case is really the guiding intelligence of author Cynan Jones, who has the knack for getting under the skin of a story and imparting truth about the fundamental nature of things. Brutal and tender by turns, The Dig proceeds at an inexorable pace and once begun, all but insists that the reader follow it all the way to the end. —James
Old Book of the Week Rock 'n' Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League by Ian Plenderleith The success of the US Women's National Team in this year's World Cup has me thinking a lot about soccer and remembering a favorite read from a few years back. This is a far more substantive book than you’d expect from something with such a sensationalist title, but then the NASL was a far more substantive operation than history has acknowledged. If it’s remembered at all these days, it’s for garish disco-era uniforms, gimmicky promotions, and overpaid, over-the-hill stars from overseas. All of that is at best only partly true, as author Ian Plenderleith shows. In fact, the NASL was in many ways well ahead of its time, a league run by visionaries who set the fuse for a later explosion of soccer popularity. Anyone with an interest in the sport, but especially fans of the Northwest’s own Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders, and Vancouver Whitecaps, will want to read Rock 'n' Roll Soccer to learn how this part of the world caught football fever. —James
New Book of the Week Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl A brief and beautiful debut work, Late Migrations is, like its cover painting, both an assemblage of intricate pieces and a complete artistic whole. Margaret Renkl's discrete memories of her Alabama childhood are interspersed with adult observations about family and the natural world, each chapter perfectly setting off the next and building an intense emotional effect. Modeling the stillness of the life around her, she becomes an ideal observer ("Every day the world is teaching me what I need to know to be in the world") and her book a perfect restorative. —James
New Book of the Week The Five by Hallie Rubenhold What has long been considered common knowledge about the women murdered in London by Jack the Ripper during the autumn of 1888—that they were all “just prostitutes”—is wrong, according to British historian Rubenhold. In fact, she writes, only one of those five “canonical victims” set out to make her living in the sex trade. The others harbored loftier goals, and even enjoyed respectable lives, before they were brought low by circumstances disastrous to Victorian-age women: divorce, widowhood, homelessness, and alcoholism. Although the Ripper was never identified, he became an infamous figure of enduring mystery; his victims, meanwhile, have always received considerably less attention. Until now. In this impressively researched book, Rubenhold fleshes out the histories of those unfortunates, as she also examines the cultural challenges facing all women of that time. —Jeff
Kids' Book of the Week Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire by John August The scout troop everyone wishes they could be in! Twelve-year-old Arlo has just moved to a new, tiny town near the mystical Long Woods and joins the local Rangers. But these scouts don’t just learn how to tie knots and build fires, they learn to harness the magic of the Long Woods, creating snapfires and thunderclaps, studying NightMares as well as bears. But there is also danger in the parallel world and that danger seems to be focused on Arlo. He and his two new friends, Wu and Indra, find adventures that test their Ranger Vows of loyalty, bravery, kindness, and truth. This is one of the best middle-grade fantasy books out there, smartly written, fun, and a real page-turner. (ages 8 to 12) —Cindy
New Book of the Week The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo A long, bright summer day might be the best time to crack open this novel of darkness and dreams. Set in colonial Malaysia before the second world war, it follows the eventually intertwining exploits of a houseboy and a dance hall girl, both of whom are drawn into a murderous mystery. It's a lush and steamy tale infused with Asian myth and legend, about which NPR's Nancy Pearl says, "This is the kind of book that when you read it, you really are transported back to that time and place… [Choo has] captured, in a very atmospheric way, the time period and the superstitions. It’s a pretty wonderful book." —James
New Book of the Week The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason What begins as a story about attempted assassination—Queen Victoria is shot at during an 1860 coach ride through London—quickly becomes a knotty but witty mystery involving Charles Darwin’s recently publicized theory of evolution, high-level political conspiracies, and an elusive, diabolically brutal killer. Responsible for defusing these volatile elements is Scotland Yard Inspector Charles Field, the oft-impetuous inspiration for Charles Dickens’ Inspector Bucket in Bleak House in (as Field is so often reminded). Supported both by his resourceful spouse and by Victoria’s science-minded husband, Prince Albert, Field must confront Karl Marx and other historical luminaries as he struggles to figure out who’s behind efforts to suppress the democratizing potential of Darwin’s postulations. This may be Mason’s first novel, but it bears the polish of greater experience. —Jeff
Kids' Book of the Week This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews Everyone always says that the lanterns they set off during the annual Autumn Equinox Festival eventually turn into stars. This year Ben and a group of friends, accompanied by unwanted tag-along Nathaniel, make a pact to follow the lanterns down the river further than anyone has before to find out if it's true. Only Ben and Nathaniel keep their word to "never look back" and together they embark on an enchanting adventure that is both funny and heartwarming. This Was Our Pact is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel for anyone who loves the quiet kind of magic you can typically find only in a Ghibli movie (ages 10 to 14) —Gabi
Old Books of the Week Wild Life by Molly Gloss Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler Tom mentioned Molly Gloss in the most recent Phinney Books newsletter , which reminded me of two things. First, that more people should be reading Molly Gloss, and second, that more people should be reading Karen Joy Fowler. I think of these authors together because both have written about the historic Northwest in riveting fashion, treating with special care the lives of women on what we used to call the frontier. They're also both fully cognizant that said frontier was Main Street for some: neither is neglectful of the non-Western populations that also called the place home. These are already sufficient reasons to take an interest in their novels, but what I particularly love about them is that they aren't afraid to heighten the reality that they work with so well. Gloss's book takes the legend of the Sasquatch as seriously as it does the other elements in her story, and as for Fowler's title character … let's just say she may have come to the Washington territory from much, much farther away than you'd expect. Wild Life and Sarah Canary are perfect mixtures of the made-up and the true. —James
New Book of the Week Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson The inimitable Neal Stephenson makes a welcome reappearance with Fall , a book that links in certain ways to his earlier Reamde , but stands solidly upright on its own. All his books do, I suppose, massive as they are—this one clocks in at a characteristic 896 pages. But you'd be hard pressed to decide where you'd want to cut, since Stephenson can make you think (and make you laugh) whether he's talking about eating breakfast cereal or about the social ramifications of radical new technologies. This time around he focuses on an insanely rich game designer who becomes the first person to have his entire self uploaded into the cloud, thereby cheating death. As the tagline says, "An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem …" Well, it wouldn't be much fun to read about if it was, now would it? —James
New Book of the Week Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald As a Lisa Grunwald fan, Jeff is very keen on her newest novel, Time After Time , about a relationship between a railroad worker from Queens and a Manhattan socialite of a different social stratum and generation. Joe Reynolds and Nora Lansing fall for each other in Grand Central Station in 1937, a site that becomes their only possible meeting place as the years go by. Theirs is a magical tale about "a love affair that defies age, class, place, and even time." —James
New Book of the Week Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane This isn't the first time I've talked about Underland and it won't be the last ; while 2019 isn't even halfway done, I'm already sure that this will be one of the very best things I read all year. As I've said before (and will say again): "From book to book, Robert Macfarlane has moved from strength to strength, bettering himself every time out. Now he's reached a new peak by delving deep into the earth, exploring literal and metaphorical underworlds both natural and human-built. Fans of history, science, adventure, travel, sociology, and memoir will all latch onto Macfarlane's accessible brilliance."
New Book of the Week The Great Eastern by Howard Rodman The Great Eastern tells the true story of the SS Great Eastern , a technological marvel of the Victorian Age. Designed and built under the direction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (yes, his real name), it was, at the time of its 1858 launch and for decades afterward, the biggest ship ever to sail. The details of its construction, the disaster of its launch, and its eventual triumphant role in laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable make for a gripping read. There’s much more to the novel, though. In addition to being a sober historical account, The Great Eastern is also a fanciful tribute to the greatest tales of adventure from the 19th century. Wrapped around the reality of the monumental steamship is a rip-roaring plot that sees the anti-heroes of Moby-Dick and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea do battle with the fate of civilization at stake. So wait, you’re saying. An obscure English engineer describes his love for metallurgy and manufacturing for pages at a time while Captains Ahab and Nemo make grandiloquent speeches and engage in all manner of creative steampunk-inspired violence? Yes, and it works . Remember how the players in Hamlet said they could perform any kind of drama, discretely or in combination? Author Howard Rodman has taken up their challenge and danced with exquisite grace along the knife edge separating fact and speculation to produce an incomparable tragical-comical-historical-industrial, a brand-new fictional genre of his own devising. He's as fascinating a character himself as the ones in his book, as I found out when I conducted an interview with him via email. You can read our conversation on the Madison Books blog, The Pavilion . —James
New Book of the Week The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell "1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond." If that doesn't get your reader's blood pumping, I don't know what will. A sprawling, magical, multigenerational saga with echoes of Midnight's Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude . —James
New Book of the Week Lanny by Max Porter A family of three (mom, dad, and small son) resides in an English hamlet, a site with historic roots that's now a commuter suburb of London. All the mod cons, but with room for a creative kid to roam in nature and get his hands dirty. Idyllic, except for the old prejudices that some of the inhabitants still harbor, and the ancient mythic spirit who monitors everything best kept hidden. Lanny is contemporary writing that's already timeless, a song, an incantation, a poem of people, place, and power. Porter's village is a world, his characters are all-too-human archetypes, and his novel is a glorious verbal artifact. —James
Kids Book of the Week The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez Malu finds herself caught between a Mexican mother who wants her to be the perfect señorita and a music-loving father who helped foster her love of all things punk. After their divorce, Malu and her mother move to Chicago from Florida, where Malu has to start a new school and find her place, ultimately discovering that it’s okay not to fit into a specific box. Follow spunky and rebellious Malu as she navigates middle school, forms a band with her fellow misfits, and creates zines to express herself! This book will remind anyone to embrace your eccentricities and love yourself for all of the things that make you unique. You are guaranteed to fall in love with Malu! (ages 9 to 12) —Gabi
New Book of the Week The Book of Delights by Ross Gay Poet Ross Gay tasked himself with what sounds like a job for a Hallmark greeting card writer: he spent a year looking for things that gave him joy, be they people, places, or events big or small. Unlike the sentiments usually found on schmaltzy greeting cards, though, the brief prose essays that Gay has written are rich and real, expressed with humor, charm, and immense verbal dexterity. Whether he's savoring a cup of strong coffee, enjoying the labors of his garden, or celebrating the pleasures of high-fiving a stranger, he cuts right to the heart of the matter with the tenderest scalpel. Benign biopsies of perfect moments? That may sound strange, but I think the author would appreciate the description. (Note for audiobook listeners: don't pass up the chance to hear Ross Gay read aloud. Hop over to our partner site at libro.fm/madisonbooks and download post haste.) —James
New Book of the Week The Heavens by Sandra Newman For whatever reason (having nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that publishing is dominated by intellectually aspirant professionals who live in Manhattan and Brooklyn), the New York novel is a fixture of every publishing season. Some people can’t get enough of them, some find them insufferable, and never the twain shall meet. Until now. In The Heavens , Sandra Newman has finally written one that will satisfy both camps. The meet-cute opening that takes place on an apartment rooftop is quintessentially I❤NY, but brown-skinned Ben and Kate aren’t typical WASPy protagonists, and alert readers will notice that the romantic metropolis they occupy isn’t exactly the one we know and love (or loathe). And then Ben learns about Kate’s recurring dream, in which she’s an Elizabethan noblewoman caught up in a tortuous relationship with a certain obscure playwright. As her nocturnal life grows more and more vivid, the familiar becomes strange and the couple’s grip on daily life weakens. Is Kate going mad, or can her dream actually be altering reality? Beneath its glittering surface, The Heavens asks profound questions about what kind of world we want to live in and what lengths we'll go to change it. —James
Old Book of the Week John Crow's Devil by Marlon James The ferocious energy of Marlon James's prose, the first sign of the literary genius that the Booker judges later recognized in A Brief History of Seven Killings, is immediately evident in this debut novel, which summons into being the Jamaican village of Gibbeah, a community put to the scourge by conflict between two rival preachers. With its rich language and biblical cadence, John Crow's Devil is a Miltonic epic of unrelenting spiritual darkness, but with James's ear for dialogue and knack for earthy humor it flashes with light on a human level. Rarely has a writer's career been announced with a trumpet blast this pure and powerful. —James
New Book of the Week Man with a Seagull on His Head by Harriet Paige Ray Eccles is leading a modest, unassuming existence when he's abruptly struck on the head by a falling bird and finds his whole life changing course. Read Harriet Paige's new novel and you may find yourself similarly affected. The opening of Man with a Seagull on His Head tempts you with its brisk prose and summery seaside setting to pick it up as a momentary diversion, but it quickly establishes powerful links among its many characters, connecting hearts and minds across distance, time, and cultural barriers. By the end it takes them, and you, much further than you'd have ever expected. —James
Kids Book of the Week The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris We had heard about this book for a while—it was wildly popular and a "book of the year" in the UK, and Macfarlane, Britain's leading nature writer, is becoming beloved in the States too. But seeing it in person is something else entirely. Macfarlane and Morris have set about reclaiming basic words of nature ("acorn," "heron") that, they noticed, have been taken out of children's dictionaries in favor of tech terms like "broadband." But the book they made is not a dictionary—it's a thing of exquisite beauty, celebrating both these simple, evocative words (with poems of Macfarlane's) and the animals and plants they represent (with Morris's glorious paintings). It's a giant book, and one that both kids and grown-ups are likely to cherish. (Age 3 and up) —Tom
New Book of the Week The Alehouse at the End of the World by Stevan Allred This is a tough one to describe, because as soon as I start I'm afraid I'll scare some of you off. Avian demigods? Fertility goddesses? An epic journey to the Isle of the Dead to recover a lost love? Sure, fantasy fans will hear me out, but the rest of you should, too. Drawing on European, Asian, and North American folk traditions, Stevan Allred plows the oldest narrative field there is, the open commons that existed before anyone thought of subdividing it with genre fences. Pure story, in other words, once-upon-a-time stuff that doesn't seem fringy at all. Turns out that a modern version of ancient myth involving love, death, and talking birds is exactly what we need in these trying times. —James
New Book of the Week The Order of the Day by Éric Vuillard The Prix Goncourt is France's highest award for fiction, and the most recent recipient was Éric Vuillard for The Order of the Day . It's an interesting choice for at least three reasons. First, it's really good, like prize-winning good, written in crystalline sentences ably translated by Mark Polizzotti. Second, it's not a bog-standard war story about generals and infantrymen or even suffering civilians. Instead it focuses on the bureaucrats and businessmen who quietly and cravenly capitulated to a Fascist regime that in the 1930s didn't yet have a stranglehold on power. Over and over again in Vuillard's account, civility outweighs principle, as in the chilling scene where Chamberlain and Ribbentrop linger over a diplomatic dinner while Nazi forces drive unopposed across the German-Austrian border. Every detail marshaled here is devastatingly accurate, which brings us to a final point of interest: this isn't really fiction. Sure, there's creative description on every page, but at its heart, The Order of the Day is history as it was made. As fact-based as it is, it probably wouldn't be eligible for an American fiction prize, but the French don't worry about categories, just beautiful writing. In this case, I'm on their side. —James