Chuckanut Reader, Spring 2010

The Chuckanut

Reader Spring 2010

A Magazine for the Northwest’s Most Avid Readers A Village Books Publication Vol. 17, Issue 1

WHAT WHATCOM

was READING in 2009

VB’s Top Sellers

T

hough national bestselling authors represent a pretty good chunk of our own bestseller list from last year, one quickly notices that regional authors and books have captured half of the top ten spots and quite a few more spots below. The local influence is obvious. And four local books that were published late in the year would likely have been bestsellers if published earlier––My Darling Anna by Brian Griffin & Neelie Nelson and three books by our own imprint, Chuckanut Editions: Impressions of the North Cascades by John Miles, The Birth, Death and Resurrection of Fairhaven by George Hunsby, and Village Books’ Guide to Self-publishing by Rod Burton and VB’s own Lindsey McGuirk.

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (paperback) 2. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 3. The Art of Racing in the Rain

by Garth Stein 4. Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

by Annie Barrows & Mary Shaffer 5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery 6. Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald by Joe Moser 7. Three Cups of Tea

by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin 8. Where the Locals Go Coupon Book

by Sustainable Connections 9. Bellingham Impressions by Mark Turner 10. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson (trade paperback) 11. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 12. Weather of the Pacific NW by Cliff Mass 13. Hiking Whatcom County by Ken Wilcox 14. B is for Beer by Tom Robbins 15. Old School by Tobias Wolff (2009/2010 Big Read/Whatcom Reads) 16. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer 17. My Life in France by Julia Child 18. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer 19. The Shack by William P. Young 20. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

2

Spring 2010

21. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (hardcover) by Sherman Alexie (2008/2009 Whatcom Reads) 22. Animal ,Vegetable, Miracle

by Barbara Kingsolver 23. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay 24. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson (mass market paperback) 25. The Mysterious Benedict Society

by Trenton Stewart 26. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan 27. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith 28. Tide Guide 2009 by Evergreen Press 29. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall 30. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell 31. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown 32. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer 33. The Big Picture by David Suzuki 34. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan 35. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer 36. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman 37. Three Cups of Tea (Young Readers’ Edition)

by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin 38. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz 39. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

by Jeff Kinney 40. City of Thieves by David Benioff

Building Book11am-7pm at a Time Mon-Sat:Community 10am-9pmOne • Sun:

In This Issue...

What Whatcom Was Reading 2010 - Top Sellers!

Dear Reader Fun Fairhaven Events Fiction (book highlights & reviews) What You Need to Publish a Book NOW Writing, Literature, Essays (highlights & reviews) History (book highlights) Celebrate National Poetry Month!

Get Gardeing with the help of Village Books Biographies/Memoirs & Travel (highlights & reviews) VB's Top Ten Stories of 2009 Experience Northwest with Deb Slater Cooking, Food, & Home (highlights & reviews) Literature Live! Author Events at VB Nature, Science, and Art (highlights & reviews) Your Generosity Broke Records - thank you!

Religion/Spirituality (book highlights) Cultural Commentary (book highlights & reviews) VB Reads... VB book Discussion Groups Books & More for Kids (highlights & reviews) Children's Book Week 2010 - LOTS going on!

A Great Chucknut Radio Hour Spring line-up PNBA Book Awards 2010 VB is Turning 30 this Year!

2 3 4-6 7-11 13-14 15-16 17 18-19 21 22-24 25-26 27 28-29 30-33 34-37 38 39 40-42 44-45 47-49 50-51 53-54 55 56

VILLAGE BOOKS

The Chuckanut Reader Spring 2010

Publishers: Chuck and Dee Robinson Production Design: Kelly Heese

Contributors: Robert Gruen, Alex Hatch, Sarah Hutton, Nan Macy, Donna Marcantonio, Lindsey McGuirk, Jory Mickelson, Jennifer Morrison, Laura Picco, Lori Richardson, Chuck Robinson, Dee Robinson, Rem Ryals, Joan Terselich, Jonica Todd, Sheri Toomey, Cindi Williamson Cover: Spring is in the air! VB has unique t-shirts in all sizes.

Model: Winslow Anne Carbert, Kelly's daughter & VB's latest addition. content except art & book covers ©Village Books 2010 Printed by the Lynden Tribune on paper made from 50% post-consumer waste

360.671.2626 800.392.BOOK (US & Canada) fax: 360.734.2573

browse & shop anytime!

Dear Reader, We’re into a new year, a new decade and the year in which we’ll celebrate the 30th anniversary of Village Books. It’s all pretty mind-boggling.

2009 is a year most folks are happy to leave behind, though for us, the holiday season––sans snow––was much more palatable than the year before. We are excited about some things that began last year, however––our new Espresso Book Machine, selling far more ebooks online and download cards in the store, and seeing the incredible philanthropic response of the community to the Giving Tree and the tragic fire at Whatcom Middle School.

In this issue of the Reader you’ll find a rundown of what we think the top ten stories were for Village Books in 2009. You’ll also find a listing of our top 40 best selling books last year.

Lori Richardson shares some reasons you might want to write a book––and why you should use our Espresso Book Machine to publish it––and there is a lot of information about a lot of events, including Chuckanut Radio Hour programs from March through June.

We hope you are as excited about the new year and decade as we are. We wish you health, happiness, prosperity and, of course, good reading.

And, we thank you for your continued patronage.

–Chuck & Dee

and the Entire Village Books Family

VillageBooks.com

Village Books in Historic Fairhaven 1200 11th St., Bellingham, WA 98225

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

3

Friday, April 2nd

Literacy Trivia Bee and Silent Auction

?

?

?

?

Have you heard the buzz?

The Whatcom Literacy Council’s Annual Trivia Bee is happening on Friday, April 2!

The Trivia Bee is the Literacy Council’s annual spring fund-raiser for know-it-alls, know-a-little-bits, and fun lovers of every stripe. More than 28 teams, sponsored by local businesses––including Village Books’ team, The Village Idiots––converge at Bellingham High School and compete against each other while the witty remarks of host Dave Walker of KAFE Radio provoke laughter and competitive spirit.

The evening begins with a Silent Auction offering more than 200 great items. Bidding in the Silent Auction begins at 6pm and the Trivia Bee starts promptly at 7pm. You’ll have a great night of fun and you’ll be helping the WLC to help others. All proceeds go to support the Whatcom Literacy Council’s efforts to provide literacy tutoring to adults in Whatcom County.

Tickets are $8 - or $20 for a family - and will be available at Village Books or at the door. For more information regarding the 13th Annual Trivia Bee and Silent Auction or to learn more about other ways you can promote literacy, call Rachel at the Whatcom Literacy Council at (360)647-3264 or visit www.whatcomliteracy.org.

Saturday, March 27th, 10am - 4pm The 22nd Annual

Fairhaven Neighbors

PLANT SALE

Getting well into its second decade of operation, the plant sale that the Fairhaven Neighbors stage each year has become a real community tradition. With more than a dozen vendors, the sale provides a wide variety of plant material from bedding plants to trees, and includes bamboo and exotic plants.

But beyond the gardening aspects, the event also gives folks a chance to get together and it raises some money for some very good causes. The plant sale will take place on Saturday, March 27th in the parking lot across Mill from the Fairhaven Village Green, adjacent to the South Bay Trail. For more information about the event or about being a vendor, call Vince Biciunas at 671-1559.

Saturday, April 3rd, 10am noon

?

Your Chance to

VOLUNTEER!

South Bay Trail Work Party

You are invited to join the Village Books-sponsored trail work party on the South Bay Trail. Every few months Village Books holds a work party on this section of the trail that we adopted in 2001. We’ll meet at the trailhead at the corner of 10th Street and Douglas Avenue (towards Fairhaven from the Chrysalis). Tools and gloves will be provided. We recommend you wear long sleeves and bring drinking water. We’ll be picking up debris, weeding, grubbing out noxious plants, and taking care of some of the native shrubs we’ve planted in the past. You’ll be surprised at how satisfying it is. Really! Join us and find out for yourself. For more information, email chuck@villagebooks.com.

4

Spring 2010

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

Spring into Action!

Fairhaven & Beyond...

Saturday & Sunday, April 24th - 25th

Dirty Dan Days

Daniel Jefferson Harris, known as “Dirty Dan”–presumably for his hygienic habits–was the founder of Fairhaven in 1883 and is celebrated each year in April with Dirty Dan Days.

This year’s festivities will begin Saturday, April 24th with a Seafood Festival. Booths around the Village Green will feature food, demonstrations, and other activities. Included in the activities are a salmon toss contest, a cupcake eating contest, toy boat building, felting, a pro fish filet contest, a Dirty Dan look-a-like & 1800's dress contest, and cooking demos by the Big Fat Fish Co. On Sunday, April 25th, there will be a rowing race on the waterfront, the ever-popular chowder cook-off, and the grand finale piano race. Both days will feature live music on the Green. The festivities are free to attend and take place primarily on the Fairhaven Village Green.

For a schedule and details visit www.fairhaven.com.

Sponsored by: Haggen, Avenue Bread, Bornstein Seafoods, Vis Seafoods, & Bellingham Cold Storage.

• April 24th: Seafood Festival with food and activities for the whole family!

• April 25th: rowing races, chowder cook-off, and the grand finale piano race!

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Girls Night Out

in Fairhaven Thursday, May 6th, 4-10pm

Save the Date as Girls Night Out goes “Hollywood” The fun begins with a bra parade, starting at 12th and Harris, and ends with a fashion show and comedy hour at Fairhaven Pub and Martini Bar. In between these activities, businesses throughout Fairhaven will host the popular Girls Night Out passport program--just visit 7 participating businesses and then enter to win prizes at the fashion show. The passports will cost $10 this year, with all proceeds going to St. Joseph’s Cancer Research Center. The $10 passport will include 5 raffle tickets, which can be deposited at any participating business; the passport is also good for admission to the fashion show and comedy hour at The Fairhaven Pub. Stop and shop at those participating businesses, and for every $10 you spend you’ll earn a raffle ticket and another chance to win door prizes. Village Books and Paper Dreams will each have a raffle, so stop by and try your luck! For more info about Girls Night Out, go to Fairhaven.com and search under events.

Spring 2010

5

Sa

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

y, June 19 a rd u t

Village Books & Fairhaven Runners

Anniversary

5K Walk/Run for Literacy including a Free Kids’ (10 & under) 1/2 mile Run

Pre-Register at Village Books or Fairhaven Runners!

We hope all runners, walkers, readers, and literacy advocates Chuckanut Reader will come and participate in the Size:Walk/Run 3.325 x 4.5 11th Annual Anniversary for Literacy.

Registration forms will be available at both stores AND on-line at VillageBooks.com and FairhavenRunners.com by April.

VOLUNTEER! If you’re not up for walking or running and still want to help the cause, join us as a volunteer!

Contact Steve Roguski at Fairhaven Runners or VB’s Nan Macy for more information.

“The menu...keeps so closely abreast of the garden that it’s hard to imagine one that’s more local or seasonal.”

Gourmet Magazine

Willows Inn 2010 Wine Dinners Where Celebrity Guest Chefs are paired with local Winemakers for unforgettable fine dining!

March 25 Greg Higgins from Higgins in Portland and Cameron Wines from Dundee, WA. April 22 John Sundstrom from Lark in Seattle, and Buty Wines from Walla Walla, WA. May 20 Fundraiser for Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Assoc.

(NSEA) with Lost River Wines, Methow Valley, WA. June 17 Vitaly Paley from Paley’s Place in Portland, and Ken Wright Cellars from Carlton, OR. July 15 Matt Costello from the Inn at Langley with DeLille Cellars in Walla Walla, WA.

360-758-2620 | 888-294-2620 www.willows-inn.com

6

Spring 2010

Dinners are served ThursdaySunday for our guests and Friday-Saturday for the public Call for Reservations Taproot Cafe – Light meals & beverages: Open 11a.m. Call ahead for hours 360-758-2930

Train Smarter...Not Harder!

My metabolic training plan gave me specific workouts based on my heart rate zones. I was able to train smarter instead of overtraining…and meeting my stretch goal in the Bellingham Bay Marathon proves it!

Club Member David Penrose

Metabolic Assessments for: • Weight Loss • Fitness Plans • Performance Athletics

Exclusively at Bellingham Tennis Club!

360-733-5050 | www.bellinghamtennis.com Shop 24 hours a day at www.VillageBooks.com

The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers

by Thomas Mullen (available now, hardcover, Random House)

This is the story of the Depression-era adventures and exploits of Jason and Whit Fireson-celebrity bank robbers known as "The Firefly Brothers" by the press, the authorities, and those who worship their acts as brazen, heroic counterpunches thrown at a broken system. It begins in August 1934 with a police barricade and showdown at a barn in Points North, Indiana, following a yearlong crime spree across the Midwest––and the night they died... the first time. Complete with kidnappings and gangsters, heiresses and speakeasies, this is an imaginative and mythical saga that raises serious questions about justice, fate, and mortality.

Alice I Have Been: A Novel

by Melanie Benjamin (available now, hardcover, Delacorte Press) “Benjamin draws on one of the most enduring relationships in children’s literature in her excellent debut, spinning out the heartbreaking story of Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Her research into the lives of Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and the family of Alice Liddell is apparent as she takes circumstances shrouded in mystery and colors in the spaces to reveal a vibrant and passionate Alice. Born into a Victorian family of privilege, free-spirited Alice catches the attention of family friend Dodgson and serves as the muse for both his photography and writing. Their bond, however, is misunderstood by Alice’s family, and though she is forced to sever their friendship, she is forever haunted by their connection as her life becomes something of a chain of heartbreaks. As an adult, Alice tries to escape her past, but it is only when she finally embraces it that she truly finds the happiness that eluded her. Focusing on three eras in Alice’s life, Benjamin offers a finely wrought portrait of Alice that seamlessly blends fact with fiction. This is book club gold.” –Publishers Weekly

Union Atlantic: A Novel

by Adam Haslett (available now, hardcover, Nan A. Talese) At the heart of Union Atlantic lies a test of wills between a young banker, Doug Fanning, and a retired schoolteacher, Charlotte Graves, whose two dogs have begun to speak to her. When Doug builds an ostentatious mansion on land that Charlotte’s grandfather donated to the town of Finden, Massachusetts, she determines to oust him in court. As a senior manager of Union Atlantic bank, a major financial conglomerate, Doug is embroiled in the company’s struggle to remain afloat.

It is Charlotte’s brother, Henry Graves, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, who must keep a watchful eye on Union Atlantic and the entire financial system. Drawn into Doug and Charlotte’s intensifying conflict is Nate Fuller, a troubled high-school senior who unwittingly stirs powerful emotions in each of them.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

FICTION The Unnamed

by Joshua Ferris (now available, hardcover, Reagan Arthur Books) There is something so unnerving about this book-–– almost as though there is a darkness that surrounds it.

Joshua Ferris does a tremendous job making a far-fetched illness-––the sudden onset of having to walk until your body lets you stop-––believable. It’s a book containing sad and unforgivable actions and it left me unable to truly explain how amazing it is. ––Lindsey

The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi

by Elif Shafak (available now, hardcover, Viking)

Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Sham’s search for Rumi and the dervish’s role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love.

She is also taken with Shams’s lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi’s story mirrors her own and that Zahara—like Shams—has come to set her free.

Spring 2010

7

FICTION

More Great

Bloodroot

by Amy Greene (available now, hardcover, Knopf) Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today. The novel is told in a kaleidoscope of seamlessly woven voices and centers around an incendiary romance that consumes everyone in its path: Myra Lamb, a wild young girl with mysterious, haint blue eyes who grows up on remote Bloodroot Mountain; her grandmother Byrdie Lamb, who protects Myra fiercely and passes down “the touch” that bewitches people and animals alike; the neighbor boy who longs for Myra yet is destined never to have her; the twin children Myra is forced to abandon but who never forget their mother’s deep love; and John Odom, the man who tries to tame Myra and meets with shocking, violent disaster. Against the backdrop of a beautiful but often unforgiving country, these lives come together––only to be torn apart––as a dark, riveting mystery unfolds.

At Village Books!

Jo Nesbø

Tuesday, March 23rd, 7pm

The Devil’s Star

by Jo Nesbø (March, hardcover, HarperCollins) From one of the most celebrated crime writers in Europe and the awardwinning author of The Redbreast comes an epic thriller featuring Police Detective Harry Hole. In the vein of the crime novels of James Patterson and Dennis Lehane, Jo Nesbø’s The Devil’s Star is an intricately plotted and suspenseful thrill-ride from beginning to end. “Astonishingly confident. . . . The Devil’s Star scores with an intriguing plot and Nesbø's mastery of pace and tension.” —The Times (London)

8

Spring 2010

The Winter Thief: A Kamil Pasha Novel

by Jenny White (March, hardcover, Norton)

December 1888. Vera Arti carries The Communist Manifesto in Armenian through Istanbul’s streets, unaware of the men following her. When the police discover a shipload of guns and the Imperial Ottoman Bank is blown up, suspicion falls on a socialist commune Arti’s friends organized in the eastern mountains. Special Prosecutor Kamil Pasha is called in to investigate. Kamil must stop the massacre, but he finds himself on the wrong side of the law, framed for murder and accused of treason, his family and the woman he loves threatened. Exploring the dark obsessions of the most powerful and dangerous men of the dying Ottoman Empire, The Winter Thief also reflects the mad idealism of those turbulent times.

I, Alex Cross

by James Patterson (available now, hardcover, Little Brown & Co.) Fans of James Patterson rejoice, this is by far his most fast paced Alex Cross novel to date. The story begins with Alex Cross at a family celebration when he learns one of his beloved family members has been murdered.

Cross goes on a manhunt to find this killer. He learns that his family member was involved with Washington’s wild underground scene and that she was not the killer’s only victim. Cross gets help from his girlfriend Detective Stone to catch this murdering psychopath. The book is full of suspense and shocking twists and turns that will leave readers on the edge of their seats. This is not your average dime detective novel and it is a great read for any Patterson fan or if you are just looking for a terrific mystery novel to sink your teeth into. ––Alex

Building Community One Book at a Time

More Great

FICTION The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: A Novel

by B. Traven (March, paperback, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)

Little is known for certain about B. Traven. Evidence suggests that he was born Otto Feige in Schlewsig-Holstein and that he escaped a death sentence for his involvement with the anarchist underground in Bavaria. Traven spent most of his adult life in Mexico, where, under various names, he wrote several bestsellers and was an outspoken defender of the rights of Mexico’s indigenous people. First published in 1934, The Treasure of Sierra Madre is Traven’s most famous and enduring work, the dark, savagely ironic, and riveting story of three down-and-out Americans hunting for gold in Sonora.

The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection

by Martin Page, translated by Bruce Benderson (available now, paperback, Penguin)

A funny yet poignant tour of one young man’s existential crisis, The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection is another short novel from France’s Martin Page. Virgil comes home from work one day to a message on his answering machine—his girlfriend is breaking up with him. This news should be devastating, but instead it’s deeply troubling, because Virgil doesn’t know the woman and doesn’t have any memory of being in a relationship with her.

The event sends Virgil into a tailspin of unrelenting self-analysis, causing him to question his memory, his sanity, even his worth as a lover. The seamless translation by Bruce Benderson perfectly capture’s Page’s delicate, witty style, bringing this audacious gem of a novel to English-speaking audiences.

Carpentaria: A Novel

by Alexis Wright (April, paperback, Atria)

In the sparsely populated northern Queensland town of Desperance, loyalties run deep and battle lines have been drawn—between the powerful Phantom family, leaders of the Westend Pricklebush people, and Joseph Midnight’s renegade Eastend mob—and their disputes with the white officials of the neighboring towns.

By turns operatic and everyday, surreal and sensational, Carpentaria teems with extraordinary, larger-than life characters. From the outcast savior Elias Smith, religious zealot Mossie Fishman, murderous May Bruiser to activist Will Phantom and ruler of the family, Normal Phantom, these unforgettable characters transcend their circumstances and challenge assumption about the downtrodden “other.”

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs (available now, paperback, Grove Press)

The title may disgust or intrigue you, but there is no turning away from the fact that Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs wrote a book together.

Written in 1945 before Kerouac wrote On the Road and became the face of the “Beat Generation” and long before Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch, it tells the story of two men living in New York City in the mid-forties and their daily lives involving sex, drugs, friendship, and New York near the end of World War II. Each chapter is from one character's point of view, Kerouac being Mike Ryko and Burroughs being Will Dennison. As each chapter progresses you begin to see the writing styles of both authors take shape. This book is excellent for any Kerouac or Burroughs fan. ––Alex

Home Schooling: Stories

by Carol Windley (March, paperback, Grove Press)

Set in the temperate rain forests of Vancouver Island and Puget Sound, the stories in Home Schooling uncover the hidden freight of families as they dissolve and reform in new and startling configurations. Windley has an eye for the telling detail, and at times an almost hypnotic voice that is reminiscent of Henry James and Alice Munro. In fact, Munro herself says of Windley’s writing that it “has a unique power, a perfect combination of delicacy, intensity, and fearless imagination.”

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

9

Mornings in Jenin: A Novel

by Susan Abulhawa (available now, paperback, Bloomsbury) Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp. There, exiled from his beloved olive groves, the family patriarch languishes of a broken heart, his eldest son fathers a family and falls victim to an Israeli bullet, and his grandchildren struggle against tragedy toward freedom, peace, and home. This is the Palestinian story told through four generations of a single family. The very precariousness of existence in the camps quickens life itself. Amal, the patriarch’s bright granddaughter, feels this with certainty when she discovers the joys of young friendship and first love and especially when she loses her adored father who read to her daily as a young girl in the quiet of the early dawn. Amal’s own dramatic story threads between the major Palestinian-Israeli clashes of three decades; it is one of love and loss, of childhood, marriage, and parenthood, and finally of the need to share her history with her daughter, to preserve the greatest love she has.

The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel

by Zachary Mason (available now, hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Zachary Mason’s brilliant and beguiling debut novel reimagines Homer’s classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer’s original that open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations. The Lost Books of the Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.

The Book of Night Women

by Marlon James (available now, paperback, Riverhead)

The Book of Night Women rings with both profound authenticity and a distinctly contemporary energy. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they—and she—will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings, desires, and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman, and risks becoming the conspiracy’s weak link. “Beautifully written and devastating…An undeniable success.”—The New York Times Book Review

Horns: A Novel

by Joe Hill (available now, hardcover, Morrow) The second son of a renowned musician and doting mother, Ig Perrish has a privileged life and expectations of a bright future with his childhood sweetheart, Merrin Williams. But life takes an unexpected dark turn when Merrin is brutally killed and suspicion falls hard on Ig. A year passes, but Ig is nowhere near over his grief or his rage . . . feelings that come to a head in a lost evening of alcohol and hate. When he wakes the next morning he discovers that he has undergone a surreal transformation, and is in possession of an incredible power. It isn’t long before he turns his terrible new abilities towards vengeance. Unfortunately Ig is about to learn that when it comes to revenge, the devil is in the details.

10

Spring 2010

In the Company of Angels: A Novel

by Thomas E. Kennedy (March, hardcover, Bloomsbury)

In the Company of Angels is the first novel of the Copenhagen Quartet to appear in the United States, a powerful story of two damaged souls struggling from darkness to light. Imprisoned for teaching political poetry to his students, Bernardo Green has been tortured for months in Pinochet’s Chile when he is visited by two angels who promise that he will survive to experience beauty and love once again. Months later, in Copenhagen, where he has come for treatment, the Chilean exile befriends Michela Ibsen, herself a survivor of domestic abuse. In the long nights of summer, the two of them struggle to heal, to forgive those who have left them damaged, and to trust themselves to love.

Building Community One Book at a Time

Shadow and Light: A Novel

by Jonathan Rabb (April, paperback, Picador)

FICTION

Berlin, 1927. When a studio executive at Ufa—the home of German Cinema—is found dead in his office bathtub, Herr Kriminal Oberkomissar Nikolai Hoffner is determined to uncover the truth behind what he firmly believes is murder. With the help of Fritz Lang, and Alby Pimm, the leader of the most powerful crime syndicate in Berlin, Hoffner finds his case taking him beyond the world of film and into the far more treacherous landscape of Berlin’s sex and drug trade, the rise of Hitler’s Brownshirts, and the even more astonishing attempts by onetime monarchists to rearm a post-Versailles Germany.

Tigana: 10th Anniversary Edition

by Guy Gavriel Kay (available now, paperback, Roc) Tigana is an epic fantasy novel that challenges the genre. The nuanced characters evolve throughout the story and the lines between good and evil blur. I didn’t think a fantasy world based on medieval Italy could teach me so much about what it means to be human right now. –Jory

Blackout

Call Me By Your Name

by André Aciman (available now, paperback, Picador)

Coming of age in Italy, 17 yearold Elio is drawn to Oliver, a writer in residence at his father’s Mediterranean villa. The story navigates the rocky territory of firstlove and longing with a beauty and lushness that continues to haunt the reader long after the book is closed. Aciman moves beyond the well-worn narrative of coming-out with his deep insight into the characters he creates. ––Jory

SCIENCE FICTION

by Connie Willis (available now, hardcover, Spectra) In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds--great and small--of ordinary people who shape history. Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill’s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz.

And seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can “catch up” to her in age. But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments for no apparent reason and switching around everyone’s schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

11

RE Sources presents the 8th Annual

Who’s your HERO?

Environmental Heroes Award Celebration Friday, April 23rd, 5:30pm at The Bellwether Ballroom

Join us as we honor individuals in our community for their hard work and dedication to the environment.

For more information or to reserve seats, visit

www.re-sources.org

or call Megan Artz at (360) 733-8307 We thank our sponsors:

The Market at Fairhaven The Market at Birch Bay Whatcom Educational Credit Union Bellingham Community Food Co-op

12

Spring 2010

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

Experts, Trainers, and Consultants:

WHY YOU NEED TO PUBLISH A BOOK NOW

By Lori Richardson

A

s a long time consultant, speaker, trainer, and blogger, I “poo-pooed” the idea of getting published because it seemed silly to me that people treat you differently once you have a book with your name on it. Silly me––I was not thinking very broadly or in a big way. So I started looking into the idea. There were lots of questions I didn’t have answers for, such as: How do I feel about self-publishing? What are the revenue reasons to publish a book? How exactly does one go about getting a book published? Over time, I researched, talked to a lot of experts, and learned about what I pass on to you here. Since things are evolving so much in publishing, this is a snapshot in time with exciting news about quality, local printing-on-demand.

VANITY PUBLISHING?

Lindsey McGuirk, VB’s Digital Publishing Manager, is happy to talk with you about getting your book into print. And, if you’ve already published a book and have it in a digital format, we’ll print a copy of your book for $25 for you to compare and decide about doing future printing on our Espresso Book Machine. Contact Lindsey at (360)733-1599 or lindsey@villagebooks.com.

That’s what self-publishing used to be called. If you couldn’t get a book published through the “real” publishing channels, you’d pay an exorbitant fee to have books printed with your name on them. As time has passed and technology has evolved, we now have print-on-demand and what is aptly called, “indie publishing.” It is now widely accepted to selfpublish, and if you are like me, there are compelling reasons to do so.

REVENUE REASONS There are three that I focus on: 1) If you have skills and knowledge about a specific subject, publishing a book on it will further help you to become recognized as a subject matter expert. That can assist you in gaining more visibility and catching the eye of potential prospective customers. Potential customers mean more sales opportunities, and that means more money.

2) When you speak at an event––business or otherwise, you can now be less concerned about getting an honorarium or speaking fee assuming you are permitted to have your book for sale at the back of the room. Most speakers go from speaking for free to speaking for a fee––and by having a book published you can create additional possibilities. One idea is to agree to speak at no charge, and ask the organization to “package” your book into the event price. All attendees receive your book, you make book sales and get a fee while the organization receives a great presentation without spending all their funds.

3) A book by you about your subject-matter expertise becomes your new calling card. Forget sending a note with your business card inside––instead, send your book along with a one-pager on how you could solve Company X’s turnover issue, or improve their quality assurance program with your expertise. The book included may (Continued on pg 14)

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

13

(Continued from pg 13)

not even get read, but it adds immediate credibility to your assertion that you can solve your prospective customer’s problems. This also means greater odds to bring business to closure.

HOW TO BEGIN The new Espresso Book Machine makes it extremely simple to get your book done–– finally––once and for all. You don’t even need to be creative––just get your content together and turn it over to a capable writer or layout person. For me, I work with a graphic designer who lays out my books, and gets them in the correct format for the EBM. Then I send my PDF files to Village Books, and voila….. books can be printed in small quantities.

Now that you know it is that easy, what are you waiting for? You can be a published author in no time––just put a plan in place to pull your content together, get it formatted, and you are ready to print.

Lori Richardson speaks, trains, teaches and consults on increasing revenues through sales growth and on fundraising throughout the U.S. She is author of “50 Ways in 50 Days to Score More Sales” book and workbook as well as co-author of “360 Degrees of the Customer” with her third and fourth books in the works.

Follow her “Fabulous 50-50-50-50” project at www.scoremoresales.com

PAINT, BRUSHES, CANVAS, BOOKS, PAPER, PASTELS, DRAWING, CHILDREN’S ART & CRAFT SUPPLIES, AND MORE

Classes and Demos Coming Soon to our Bellingham store!

1415 Cornwall Ave. Bellingham 360-676-8918 9:00 - 6:00 Monday - Saturday 12:00 - 5:00 Sunday

Quality Art Materials. Great Prices. Expert Help.

Expand your creativity with a class in the beautiful Skagit Valley at the Laconner Art Workshops.

Adult Art Instruction in Pastel, Watercolor, Oil, Collage, Encaustic, Studio and Plein Air www.laconnerartworkshops.com www.dakotaartstore.com www.dakotaartcatalog.com

You can now follow Village Books on Twitter.

Each day we “tweet” about book events, new books, and book-related topics.

We are @VillageBksBham.

14

Spring 2010

Facebook

If you haven’t visited our Facebook page and become a fan, please do. You’ll find our events listed there, and there are discussions of books and other book-related topics as well.

Go to Facebook.com/VillageBooks.

Shop 24 hours a day at www.VillageBooks.com

WRITING • LITERATURE • ESSAYS The Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook edited by Daniel Alarcon (April, paperback, Holt)

Drawing back the curtain on the mysterious process of writing novels, The Secret Miracle brings together the foremost practitioners of the craft to discuss how they write. Paul Auster, Roddy Doyle, Allegra Goodman, Aleksandar Hemon, Mario Vargas Llosa, Susan Minot, Rick Moody, Haruki Murakami, George Pelacanos, Gary Shteyngart, and others take us step by step through the alchemy of writing fiction, answering everything from nuts-and-bolts queries—“Do you outline?”—to perennial questions posed by writers and reader alike: “What makes a character compelling?”

From Stephen King's deadpan distinction between novels and short stories (“Novels are longer and have more s**t in them”) to Colm Toibin’s anti-romanticized take on his characters (“They are just words”) to Jose Manuel Prieto’s mature perspective on the anxieties of influence (“Influences are felt or weigh you down more when young”), every page contains insights found nowhere else.

Imagination in Place Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses (2010) edited by Bill Henderson (available now, paperback, Pushcart Press)

Small presses are producing some of the very best literature, essays and poetry in America. Unfortunately, many of them aren’t able to market their excellent authors as widely as the bigger publishing houses. Thanks to the Pushcart Prize anthology, I can keep up on what is happening in American literature. Best of the Small Presses features over fifty short stories, essays and poems published in 2010. There is something here for everyone. ––Jory

by Wendell Berry (available now, hardcover, Counterpoint)

In this varied and vibrant collection of new writings, seven years in the making, Berry brings us up to date on such essential concerns as agriculture, sustainability, and the economy. For example, “Faustian Economics,” previously published in Harper’s, seems especially prescient given our country’s current challenges with late capitalism. There are also beautiful essays of tribute, wherein Berry offers insights into the lives and works of writers such as Wallace Stegner, Gary Snyder, and Jane Kenyon. Taken altogether, readers both new and old to Berry’s work will find the essays here full of extraordinary hope and power.

A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx

by Elaine Showalter (available now, paperback, Vintage)

A Jury of Her Peers is an unprecedented literary landmark: the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to 2000. In a narrative of immense scope and fascination––brimming with Elaine Showalter’s characteristic wit and incisive opinions-––we are introduced to more than 250 female writers. These include not only famous and expected names (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Willa Cather, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Connor, Gwendolyn Brooks, Grace Paley, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult among them), but also many who were once successful and acclaimed yet now are little known, from the early American best-selling novelist Catherine Sedgwick to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell.

A Jury of Her Peers is an irresistible invitation to discover long-lost great writers, and to return to familiar titles with a deeper appreciation. It is a monumental work that will greatly enrich our understanding of American literary history and culture.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

15

LITERATURE/ESSAYS Silk Parachute: Essays

by John McPhee (March, hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux) The brief, brilliant essay “Silk Parachute,” which first appeared in The New Yorker a decade ago, has become John McPhee’s most anthologized piece of writing. In the nine other pieces here, McPhee ranges with his characteristic humor and intensity through lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods he has sometimes been served in the course of his reportorial travels, a U.S. Open golf championship, and a season in Europe “on the chalk” from the downs and sea cliffs of England to the Maas valley in the Netherlands and the champagne country of Northern France. Each piece, on whatever theme, contains somewhere a personal aspect in which McPhee suggests why he was attracted to write about the subject, and each opens like a silk parachute, lofted skyward and suddenly blossoming with color and form.

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

by Elif Batuman (available now, paperback, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)

Batuman’s first article, “Babel in California,” told the true story of various human destinies intersecting at Stanford University during a conference about the enigmatic writer Isaac Babel. Over the course of several pages, Batuman managed to misplace Babel’s last living relatives at the San Francisco airport, uncover Babels’ secret influence on the making of King Kong, and introduce her readers to a new voice that was unpredictable, comic, humane, ironic, charming, poignant, and completely, unpretentiously full of love for literature. Love and the novel, the individual in history, the existential plight of the graduate student; all find their place in The Possessed. Literally and metaphorically following the footsteps of her favorite authors, Batuman searches for the answers to the big questions in the details of lived experience, combining fresh readings of the great Russians, from Pushkin to Platanov, with the sad and funny stories of the lives they continue to influence—including her own.

WHATCOM READS Announces Next Author Whatcom Reads, now entering its third year, has announced that Jim Lynch will be the 2010/2011 author for the program.

The critically acclaimed and wildly popular Border Songs will be the adult title for the program and Lynch’s earlier book, The Highest Tide, has been chosen as the young adult book. Jim will come to Bellingham in early 2011 for three days of special programming with school and public appearances. Check WhatcomReads.org for updated information.

16

Spring 2010

Building Community One Book at a Time

From Lower BC...

HISTORY The Pacific

by Hugh Ambrose (March, hardcover, NAL) In The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose focuses on the real-life stories of five men who put their lives on the line for our country. To deepen the story revealed in the HBO miniseries and go beyond it, the book dares to chart a great ocean of enmity known as The Pacific and the brave men who fought. Some considered war a profession, others enlisted as citizen soldiers. Each man served in a different part of the war, but their respective duties required every ounce of their courage and their strength to defeat an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender. The medals for valor which were pinned on three of them came at a shocking price—a price paid in full by all.

c

a

s

c

a

d

i

a

Arts & entertainment coverage that knows no borders.

On newstands every wednesday

The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West

by Christopher Corbett (available now, hardcover, Atlantic Monthly Press)

Christopher Corbett tells the legend of Polly, a Chinese concubine lost in a poker game in Idaho, as a focal point to tell the story of Chinese immigrants in the West during the gold rush. It’s the story of San Francisco, where a labyrinthine Chinatown sprang up, full of exotic foods and drugs like opium, and where the laws were made by “hatchett men.” As the gold rush receded, it took with it the Chinese miners––or their bones, which were disinterred and shipped back to their homeland. But it left behind Polly, who made headlines when she emerged from the Idaho hills a half century later to tell her story. Peppered with characters like Mark Twain and the legendary newswoman Cissy Patterson, this is a fascinating story that, as Erik Larson says, “links a thousand pearls of fact and lore and whatever you call those fragments of story that lie somewhere in between.”

To Whidbey Island and everything between.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

17

POETRY The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry

edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris of Words Without Borders (March, paperback, Ecco) In The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry poetic visions from the 20th century will be reinforced and in many ways revised. Alongside renowned masters, there will be many new discoveries—internationally celebrated poets who have rarely, if ever, been translated into English. In conjunction with the organization Words Without Borders—an online haven for international literature and an ally to writers all over the world—Ecco presents a paperback anthology that will surely serve as a canonical touchstone in the field of poetics, bringing voices from afar to American readers. As aptly put in Words Without Borders’ mission statement, this collection also serves as part of “the ultimate aim to introduce exciting international writing to the general and literary public—travelers, teachers, students, publishers, and a new generation of eclectic readers—by presenting international literature not as a static, elite phenomenon, but a portal through which to explore the world.”

Many Miles: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver

by Mary Oliver (April, Compact Disc, Beacon Press)

Steep some tea, curl up on the couch, and listen. Listen as Mary Oliver bears witness to grace and wonder within and without.

Savor her words. Let them wash over you, buoy you, remind you what truly matters. Packaged as a cd-sized hardcover book, this exquisite audio collection is a perfect gift–for oneself or another– inspiring us to live from the heart of wonder, to stand where we are and be blessed. –Nan

The Best of It: New and Selected Poems

by Kay Ryan (March, hardcover, Grove)

Kay Ryan’s appointment as the Library of Congress’s sixteenth poet laureate was just the latest in an amazing array of accolades for this widely loved poet. Salon had compared her poems to “Faberge eggs, tiny, ingenious devices that inevitably conceal some hidden wonder.” The two hundred poems in Ryan’s new and selected collection offer a stunning retrospective of her work, as well as a swath of never-before-published poems––all of which will appeal to longtime fans and new readers.

18

Spring 2010

Song of Myself: And Other Poems by Walt Whitman

selected and introduced by Robert Hass (available now, hardcover, Counterpoint) Robert Hass and Paul Ebenkamp’s rich annotation and lexicon walks us through Whitman’s greatest poem. In their footsteps, much is revealed about the words Whitman chose in 1855––their inflections, meanings, and native usages we wouldn’t otherwise know. We are made to understand, perhaps truly for the first time, Whitman’s query in “Song of Myself”: “Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?”

The second part of the book includes poems from across the span of Whitman’s career, that give us a fresh look at the beauty, authority, and sweep of Whitman’s work.

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

NATIONAL

P O E T RY

MONTH APRIL t

www.poets.org

I

naugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events. Here at Village Books several poets will be presenting their work during the month (see the Literature Live schedule on pg's 30-33) , you can save 20% on all poetry books, and folks may receive our Poem-a-Day by email. To sign up for the Poem-a-Day go to VillageBooks.com and, if you don’t already receive our emails, sign up and check the box for April Poetry Month. If you already subscribe to our email newsletter, simply go to the website, enter your email address in the sign-up box and you’ll be prompted on updating your profile.

F F O % 0 2 ETRY PO ! l i r p A L L A

Receive a POEM-A-DAY all April!

POETRY

Question:

TRIVIA

What poet had the nickname “Possum”?

T.S. Eliot. Ezra Pound gave him the name, which appears in “Pisan Canto 74.” (“Yet say this to the Possum, a bang, not a whimper / with a bang not with a whimper.”) Eliot took up the name for his final work, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.”

Answer : 360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

19

Providing Whatcom County with special Places for our future readers.

WLT protection project - Stimpson Family Nature Reserve

Join us in our work.

WHATCOM LAND TRUST

360-650-9470

www.whatcomlandtrust.org

Fairhaven HOMETOWN COINS

In December, 2009, the Fairhaven Hometown Coin program was launched throughout the Fairhaven Historic District. Both Village Books and Paper Dreams are proud participants in offering discounts to customers using the coins, which can be obtained from many local businesses. How coins are earned and for what they may be spent is determined by each business and will change from time to time. More information about the program, a link to all participating businesses and the current offers from Village Books and Paper Dreams is available on our website - villagebooks.com.

20

Spring 2010

Tickle your toes with our great selection of unique yarns from around the world.

Visit us on the web at www.appleyarns.com for the latest class calendar!

In Barkley Village across from Starbucks! 360.756.9992 M - F: 10 - 6 Sat: 10 - 5 Sun: 12 - 4 | www.appleyarns.com

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

GET GARDENING

2010 Event series - Once a month, every month April through September Get local, get outside, get to Village Books, and Get Gardening!

Village Books is excited to announce that we will host our popular Get Gardening series again in 2010. Timber Press, Storey Publishing, and Workman are sending a batch of their seasoned gardening authors to preach the gospel of green here at Village Books and we want YOU to join us!

Once a month, April through September we’ll offer a series event designed to spark your creativity and get you digging. Whether you garden in the county or in town, in containers or in the ground, there’s something for you in this series. There will be tips on successful planning so you can save time and enjoy your beautiful garden, inspiration for using a full palette of colors--including black!--in your patch, and growing herbs that heal.

Whether you’re pro with a spade or you’re hankering to dig in the dirt for the first time, you won’t want to miss the hottest horticultural events in town.

Tuesday, April 6th, 7:00 pm VAL EASTON

Series Kick-Off Event!

–The New Low-Maintenance Garden: How to Have a Beautiful Productive Garden And The Time To Enjoy It Saturday, May 8th, 7:00 pm PAUL BONINE

–Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden Friday, June 11th, 7:00 pm TOM FISCHER

–The Gardener’s Color Palette: Paint Your Garden with 100 Extraordinary Flower Choices Thursday, July 8th, 7:00 pm TAMMI HARTUNG

–Growing 101 Herbs That Heal: Gardening Techniques, Recipes, and Remedies

Look for more fun and informative Get Gardening events in the months to come!

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

21

MEMOIRS & BIOGRAPHIES Imperfect Endings: A Daughter's Tale of Life & Death

by Zoe Fitzgerald Carter (March, hardcover, Simon & Schuster)

This author’s memoir is about her old mother (past 80) who is dying slowly of Parkinsons’ disease and decides to accelerate her own death, to avoid endless suffering, by the means of starvation. Using methods from the Hemlock Society, and inviting her daughters to her own deathbed, this story will touch you and reveal a rarely discussed topic: death with dignity.

Two thumbs up for being provacative. –Cindi

Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee

By Allen Barra (March, paperback, Norton) Yogi Berra is one of the most popular former athletes in American history, and the most quoted American since Abraham Lincoln. Part clown, part feisty competitor, Berra is also the winningest player (fourteen pennants, ten World Series, 3 MVPs) in baseball history. In this revelatory biography, Allen Barra presents Yogi’s remarkable life as never seen before with nearly one hundred photos and countless “Yogi-isms,” and offers hilarious insights into many of baseball’s greatest moments. From calling Don Larsen’s perfect game, to managing the 1973 “You Gotta Believe” New York Mets, Yogi’s life and career are a virtual cutaway view of our national pastime in the twentieth century.

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing But True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother, and Friend to Man & Dog

by Diana Joseph (available now, paperback, Berkley)

Surrounded by dysfunctional men–– from her fourteen-year-old son to her high-maintenance boss––Diana Joseph did what she had to do: survive. I’m Sorry You Feel That Way is an honest, hilarious, and instantly recognizable memoir of a truly modern woman. Funny, fearless, and warmhearted, it is a portrait of a woman in all her endless complexities and contradictions, and of the people she has come to love in spite of––or rather because of––theirs.

Lit

by Mary Karr (available now, hardcover, HarperCollins) I love Mary Karr’s tough wit and humor. As another ex-Texan, I appreciate how she can have the reader laughin’, cryin’ and cussin’ in one paragraph.

That’s how brilliant her writing is. How can alcoholism be funny? Well it isn’t, but told by Mary Karr, it can be hysterical! This is the third book in her trilogy of memoirs, in which she finally triumphs over her childhood pain and addictions. Her previous memoirs are The Liar’s Club and Cherry. I love this author. I think you will too! –Cindi

22

Spring 2010

Building Community One Book at a Time

BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIRS Making Toast: A Family Story

by Roger Rosenblatt (available now, hardcover, Ecco)

When his daughter, Amy—a gifted doctor, mother, and wife—collapsed and died from an asymptomatic heart condition, Roger Rosenblatt and his wife, Ginny, left their home on the South Shore of Long Island to move in with their son-in-law, Harris, and their three young grandchildren: six-year-old Jessica, four-year-old Sammy, and one year-old James, known as Bubbies. Long past the years of diapers, homework, and recitals, Roger and Ginny—Boppo and Mimi to the kids—quickly reaccustomed themselves to the world of small children: bedtime stories, talking toys, playdates, nonstop questions, and nonsequential thought. Though still reeling from Amy’s death, they carried on, reconstructing a family, sustaining one another, and guiding three lively, alert, and tenderhearted children through the pains and confusions of grief.

Claiming Ground

Mark Your Calendar!

by Laura Bell (March, hardcover, Knopf) Upon graduating from college a young woman discovers that she has no idea where to go, what to do. On a camping trip out west with her sister she meets a sheepherder who believes there might be a place for her watching sheep in Wyoming. At first she scoffs at the idea, but then changes her mind and enters a world of horses and dogs, sheep, and solitude. Daily she learns the contours of the land intimately and delves deeply into the pain and beauty of living this raw life. –Sheri

March 25th, 7pm

in the Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold

Laura Bell will join Mark Spragg as the featured authors of the next Chuckanut Radio Hour!

See page 53 for more information.

Tickets $5 - receive one FREE ticket with each pre-event purchase of Claiming Ground

I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth

by Brenda Peterson (available now, hardcover, Da Capo Press)

In this unusual memoir, which is garnering rave early reviews from publisher insiders, fundamentalism meets deep ecology. The Seattle author’s childhood with a forest ranger father led her to embrace the natural world, while her Southern Baptist relatives prepared eagerly and busily to leave the world. Peterson survived fierce “sword drill” competitions demanding total recall of the Scriptures, and awkward dinner table questions (“Will Rapture take the cat, too?”); but she also discovered that environmentalists with prophecies of doom can be Endtimers too. Peterson paints an hilarious, loving portrait of both worlds. The Los Angeles Times calls her “a hauntingly funny writer...the balance she strikes is almost hypnotic.”

I Want to be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth

Brenda Peterson juxtaposes growing up a Southern Baptist while simultaneously learning to love the earth and animals. She finds out the two don’t always mix, but finds a way to cherish her family while still holding on to her own beliefs.

This book is a blessing for animals and humans alike. –Sheri

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

23

TRAVEL Frommer’s Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands & the San Juan Islands (2nd edition)

by Chris McBeath (March, paperback, Wiley)

The lowdown on experiencing the island’s most exhilarating outdoor adventures, refreshing day spas and resorts, and outstanding culinary offerings. Outspoken opinions on what’s worth your time and what’s not. Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget. Off-thebeaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World

by Seth Stevenson (April, paperback, Riverhead)

In this age of globalism and high-speed travel, Seth Stevenson, the witty, thoughtful Slate travel columnist, takes us back to a time when travel meant putting one foot in front of the other, racing to make connections between trains and buses in remote transit stations, and wading through the chaos that most long-haul travelers float 35,000 feet above. Stevenson winds his way around the world by biking, walking, hiking, riding in rickshaws, freight ships, cruise ships, ancient ferries, buses, and the Trans-Siberian Railway—but never gets on a plane. He finds that from the ground, one sees the world anew—with a deeper understanding of time, distance, and the vastness of the earth. In this sensational travelogue, each step of the journey is an adventure, full of unexpected revelations in every new port, at every bend in the railroad tracks, and around every street corner.

our finest selection

Haggen Premier Gourmet Potato Chips Made right here in the Northwest!

www.haggen.com Barkley Village • Sehome Village • Meridian & Illinois • Fairhaven Market • Ferndale • Burlington 24

Spring 2010

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

Top Ten Stories for 2009 Everyone’s All A-Twitter

#10

It’s likely that some readers just scratch their heads when they hear folks talk about Twitter and tweeting but, Village Books began regularly tweeting in 2009 and does several posts each day. Some are about events or news at the store. Others are Retweets of interesting book information we’ve come across. You can follow us on Twitter at VillageBksBham.

#9

Chuckanut Radio Hour Wraps Up Third Year

It’s hard to believe but we’ve been doing the Chuckanut Radio Hour for three full years and just launched our fourth in January. Guests this year included Bellingham’s own and national bestselling author Chelsea Cain, and a number of other bestselling authors, including Jim Lynch, Stephanie Kallos, Garth Stein, and Tom Robbins. The next show will be on Thursday, March 25th, at the Leopold’s Crystal Ballroom.

See pg 53 for more information.

#8

ebooks Come to Village Books

Chuck remembers sitting in a meeting nearly a dozen years ago with publishing CEO’s and folks from the premier business consulting firm McKinsey & Company, discussing ebooks. Well, they’ve finally arrived at VB. There are a couple of ways you can get them.

We now have some racks of cards in the store for ebooks (and audiobooks). You can choose a card and when it’s purchased, it’s activated. Then you easily download the ebook to your reading or listening device. You may also go to our website and click on the link for ebooks, choose a book and order and download right there.

#7

#6

Whatcom Reads Has Successful Launch Village Books has been a proud participant and sponsor of the county-wide program, Whatcom Reads. We were thrilled to have Sherman Alexie as our first author for his book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. He spent three days doing events. Our second year just completed in February with the visit of Tobias Wolff and the county-wide reading of his book, Old School. The 2011 guest for Whatcom Reads will be Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide, which will be the young adult read for the year, and Border Songs, the adult title.

Sarah Becomes Store Manager As Village Books began its thirtieth year last spring we decided it was finally time to have a store manager. Looking back at what Sarah Hutton has done in the past year we wonder why we waited so long or how we survived without her. Sarah is also the store’s children’s and young adult book buyer.

Continued on pg 26

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

25

#5

Continued from pg 25

Richard Retires

It won’t seem quite the same around the bookshelves since Richard Taber retired after the fourth longest tenure ever at the store––nearly 18 years. Many of you know him from his engaging manner and great sense of humor. In addition to being an avid reader and reviewer, Richard also served in a number of other roles in the store. He was one of our original used book buyers and continued in that role until his retirement. He also managed our book consignment program for a number of years until recently handing off that task. Those of us at the store will miss him. We’re sure many of you will too.

#4

Next on Experience NW, Footnotes with Village Books For an entire year we’ve now been producing a weekly segment on the KVOS television program, Experience NW, with host Deb Slater (see story about Deb on pg 27). Each week one of us from the store talks about books––new books, special genres, gift ideas, kids’ books or whatever strikes our fancy and we think will strike yours. The program is seen each Saturday at 5:00pm and replays on the following Monday and Wednesday mornings at 7:30am.

#3

A Much Better Holiday Season

A year ago we wrote about the nightmare that weather created for all businesses, including Village Books, during that previous holiday season. Thankfully, we don’t have to rerun that story. Though the first week and a half of December began very slowly and had us a bit concerned, things began kicking on the 11th and never stopped. And, although this was not the best holiday season we’ve ever had (we understand there are some economic issues out there) it was a good one and certainly topped last year by a mile. Thanks!

#2

#1

VB Customers Win Philanthropy Award OK, this may be the first you’ve heard about it but, we’ve decided that YOU, our customers, deserve to be recognized for your generosity. A year ago we reported that Village Books had been recognized as the Outstanding Philanthropic Small Business in Washington. Well, we’ve decided that you are the Outstanding Philanthropic Customers of the World. Not only did you respond to an overloaded Giving Tree, but you also donated books and money to help restore the collection of the Whatcom Middle School Library (see story on pg 38). You are truly outstanding. Thank you!

Village Books is First Bookstore on West Coast to Have Espresso Book Machine In early October Village Books became the first bookstore on the West Coast to install the Espresso Book Machine, a print-on-demand machine that prints and binds books. We’re still among fewer than a dozen locations with this model machine in the entire world. Since its installation we’ve published some books under our own Chuckanut Editions imprint, printed some public domain and in-print books for folks that are available through our network, and helped some authors get their own books into print (see story on pgs 13-14). You are now able to search on our website for books that are available to print on the machine. Lindsey will also be happy to talk with you about getting your own book into print.

26

Spring 2010

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

Deb Slater

BRINGS HER EXPERIENCE to Experience

EXPERIENCE NORTHWEST

ENW airs Saturdays at 5pm and Monday & Wednesdays at 7:30am on KVOS TV Channel 12. Show segments are available 24/7 on KVOS.com.

F

NW

or more than a decade before Deb Slater became the host of Experience NW and began working for KVOS full-time she had worked as a freelance voice-over and on-camera talent and had lots of experience in radio. But when she had the opportunity to regularly work with folks she already knew and to meet a wide variety of people in the community, she jumped at the chance. Deb says that as the producer and host of Experience NW she “not only gets the chance to choose the content of the program but to figure out a way to present it in an entertaining and insightful way.”

When asked why she chose to add the “Footnotes from Village Books” segment to each of her weekly shows she says, “I knew I wanted to align myself with people who were very involved in the community. Who better than Village Books and specifically Chuck and Dee and their staff? Every week they bring great information to ENW, whether it be the latest great book in paperback, a good stocking stuffer gift, or the best cookbook available. Even if you don’t consider yourself a reader, chances are you’ll get something out of each ‘Footnotes’ segment.”

We hope you’ll tune in!

But Deb herself is a reader. She counts herself a “huge C.S. Lewis fan” and still has her original set of the Narnia series. She also includes among her favorite books Bryce Courtenay’s novel, The Power of One, which she read after returning from a trip to South Africa. When queried about her favorite book this past year she responds, “Well, Chuck kept talking about this book called The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. I finally picked it up. I remember laughing and crying in the first ten minutes. Great book.”

In addition to her work on ENW, Deb continues to freelance. She has recently been cast for an on-line demo for Krusteaz Bread Mix and her continuing work for Hasbro’s Magic: The Gathering Pro Tours has taken her to Honolulu, Kyoto and Rome.

Deb likes to spend her spare time with family, most of whom live in Whatcom County and, in addition to her travel for work, loves to travel for pleasure. She says that when she’s “in town and off the clock, I’m usually on my way to Bellingham Athletic Club, Boundary Bay Brewery (or some other happy hour spot), or to Woods Coffee.” And, because music is pretty important to her, she’s still trying to learn to play the guitar. Who would she most like to interview? Susan Boyle of England’s Got Talent fame. You can see Deb (and “Footnotes from Village Books”) every week on Experience NW and you can learn more about her and her work at www.debslater.com.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

27

COOKING Vegan Brunch: Homestyle Recipes Worth Waking Up For-From Asparagus Omelets to Pumpkin Pancakes

by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (available now, paperback, Da Capo)

The word vegan can be a turn-off, but this cookbook is for everyone who enjoys a good brunch. It is also for vegans who are sick of having to settle for a tofu scramble. From Swiss Chard Frittata to Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs to Tomato Rosemary Scones, each recipe is flavorful and failsafe. Take a walk on the egg-free wild side and whip up something new. –Jory

Double Take: One Fabulous Recipe, Two Finished Dishes, Feeding Vegetarians and Omnivores Together

by A. J. Rathbun and Jeremy Holt (available now, hardcover, Harvard Common Press)

Bring your omnivorous and vegetarian friends to the same table with the fabulous meals in Double Take. Each recipe produces two versions of the same dish: one vegetarian and one containing meat. A.J. Rathbun and Jeremy Holt cook up such tantalizing fare as Pâté Your Way, Bacon and Cheese Tartlets, Chicken or No-Chicken Noodle Soup, Double Standards Caesar Salad, Po’Boys, Polenta Gorgonzola with Mushrooms and Sopressata, Grilled Stuffed Radicchio, and Corny Corn Pudding. Double Take is a doubly delicious solution to a modern dining dilemma.

Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And How You Can Too

by Shauna James Ahern (available now, paperback, Wiley)

An entire generation was raised to believe that cooking meant opening a box, ripping off the plastic wrap, adding water, or popping it in the microwave. Gluten-Free Girl, with its gluten-free healthful approach, seeks to bring a love of eating back to our diets. Living gluten-free means having to give up traditional bread, beer, pasta, as well as the foods where gluten likes to hide—such as store-bought ice cream, chocolate bars, even nuts that might have been dusted with flour. However, Gluten-Free Girl shows readers how to say yes to the foods they can eat.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking

by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoë François (available now, hardcover, Thomas Dunne Books) AND

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients

by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoë François (available now, hardcover, Thomas Dunne Books)

With these books as guides, you really can whip up crusty, toothsome loaves in less time than it takes to race to the store. The first book covers traditional European-style hearth breads, while the second expands into whole grain and gluten free recipes. Also included are quick, simple meals made from fresh ingredients to accompany your hot-from-the-oven bread. –Donna

28

Spring 2010

Building Community One Book at a Time

FOOD Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato

Gristle: Why You Should Think Twice About Meat

by Arthur Allen (March, hardcover, Counterpoint)

As savory as any vegetable, as sweet as its fellow fruits, this red ball of juicy love inspires a cultlike devotion from food lovers on all continents. Journalist Arthur Allen understands the spell of the tomato, and is your guide in telling its dramatic story. He introduces the man who prospected for wild tomato genes in South America and made them available to breeders. He tells the baleful story of enslaved Mexican Indians in the Florida tomato fields, the conquest of the canning tomato by the Chinese army, and the struggle of Italian tomato producers to maintain a way of life. It’s a lively and mouthwatering narrative that, seen through the lens of a global market, will resonate from the greenhouse to the dinner table.

edited by Moby and Miyun Park (March, paperback, The New Press)

An information-packed, lively, and informative little guide, Gristle tackles the American industrial livestock farming system head-on. Musician Moby brings together ten of the country’s leading foodies, policy makers, food-business leaders, and food activists, who lay out how and why the over consumption of industrially produced meat unnecessarily harms agricultural workers, communities, the environment, and human health—as well as animals. In the tradition of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Gristle combines hard-hitting facts with a light touch and includes fascinating charts and illustrations depicting the stark realities of America’s industrial food system.

Eating Animals

by Jonathan Safran Foer (available now, hardcover, Little Brown & Co.) From Everything is Illuminated to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer has taken readers by storm with funny yet dramatic novels. Eating Animals tells why people eat meat and don’t eat meat. Foer himself spent much of his life being omnivore and then switching to vegetarian.He discusses reasons for our eating habits: religion, pop culture, family traditions. This book reads like a novel and is very funny and informative. This book is a wonderful read for any Foer fan. ––Alex

Your HOME More Not So Big Solutions for Your Home

by Sarah Susanka (March, paperback, Taunton)

Here’s another inspiring collection of articles from architect Sarah Susanka, the visionary author who has sparked a movement toward “better, not bigger” homes. Practical solutions abound in this creative reference––everything from how to use color and unify an interior with trim to finding space for an “away room” and designing a laundry room that works. Susanka poses ––and clearly answers––such questions as “How much space do you really need?” and “Where does the garage belong?”

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

29

Literature LIVE!

EVENTS

haunting narrative that explores the complicated bond between siblings and proves that not all tragedies have a hero.

VB’s Literary Events Program

Additions & changes to this schedule will occur so check out

www.VillageBooks.com

to stay updated–or even better, let us come to you! Register online for the VB e-vent newsletter!

So far in

MARCH

Tues., March 2, 7pm CHARLES LEWARNE –The Love Israel Family: Urban Commune, Rural Commune With both sympathy and balance, LeWarne tells the compelling story of a group of idealistic seekers whose quest for a communal life grounded in love, service, and obedience to a charismatic leader foundered when that leader’s power distanced him from his followers.

Thurs. March 4, 7pm ELLEN WALKER –I Don’t Have Kids!

The Guide to Great Childfree Living Written by a childfree psychologist for those considering whether to have children, this book features highly personal stories of others facing this decision and the psychological processes that influence them. The reader will gain useful, unbiased information on how to deal with the problems and possibilities faced as a result of being childfree, and ideas for how to have the richest, most fulfilling life possible. Ellen L. Walker is a Clinical Psychologist practicing in Bellingham.

Sat., March 6, 7pm KIDS! POLLY HORVATH –My One Hundred Adventures & Northward to the Moon You don’t want to miss this amazing author! Read about her and her fantastic books on page 51.

Sun., March 7, 4pm ELIZABETH ANN SCARBOROUGH –Catalyst (Barque Cats Tales #1) Pilot, navigator, engineer, doctor, scientist—ship’s cat? All are essential to the well-staffed space vessel, as we see in Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s Catalyst.

Elizabeth, winner of the Nebula Award for her novel The Healer’s War, is the author of numerous fantasy novels and has co-authored ten other novels with Anne McCaffrey. She lives on the Olympic Peninsula.

Thurs., March 11, 7pm MIRIAM GERSHOW –The Local News An honest look at how a crisis affects the daily life of one family in suburban America, The Local News is a

30

Spring 2010

Sat., March 13, note special 4pm time PRESTON SINGLETARY Includes Slide Show!

–Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire, and Shadows Seattle glass artist Preston Singletary has straddled two unique cultures, melding his Tlingit ancestry with the dynamism of the Studio Glass Movement. In the process, he has created an extraordinarily distinctive and powerful body of work that depicts cultural and historical images in richly detailed, beautifully hued glass, a material historically associated with Native peoples through an extensive network of trading routes.

Tues., March 16, 7pm CAROL KEARNS –Sugar Cookies and a Nightmare When her 7-year-old daughter was swept out to sea by a rogue wave in 1976, Carol Kearns thought she would lose her sanity. Trying to be strong for her 9-year-old son, she met with the late Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who taught Carol a new concept called “grief therapy” and encouraged her to become a psychologist. In this uplifting memoir, Carol recalls her 24 years as a grief specialist, corrects a misguided radio host she calls “Dr. Expert,” and reveals her own battle with post-traumatic stress disorder after her son was deployed to Iraq.

Wed., March 17, 7pm STEVEN HILL –Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is The Best Hope in An Insecure Age Europe’s Promise masterfully conveys how Europe has taken the lead in a world challenged by a worldwide economic crisis and global warming. Here Hill shows how Europe’s leadership manifests in five major areas: economics; the best health care and other workfare supports; widespread use of renewable energy technologies and conservation; the world’s most advanced democracies; and regional networks of trade, foreign aid, and investment that link one-third of the world to the European Union. Steven Hill is Director of the Political Reform Program for the New America Foundation and author of 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy and other books on politics.

Fri., March 19, 7pm SARA DONATI –The Endless Forest Under the pen name of Sara Donati, Rosina Lippi delivers the final installment in the enthralling historical wilderness series.

In the spring of 1824, a flood devastates the village of Paradise. As the Bonner family struggles to rebuild, their way of life is threatened. The Bonners must stand together to protect both heart and home. Sara Donati weaves a rich and multilayered portrayal of family strength. Rosina Lippi is a winner of the prestigious PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction and was short-listed for Britain’s coveted Orange Prize for Fiction.

Tues., March 23, 7pm JO NESBØ –The Devil’s Star From its very first haunting scene, where Nesbø describes the old world bricklaying technique of using blood in mortar, you’ll be hooked. The Devil’s Star, in which Detective Harry Hole follows the trail of a serial killer on the sweltering summer streets of Oslo, is the perfect introduction to Jo Nesbø’s work. Nesbø is regarded as one of Europe’s most important writers. Read more about this book on pg 8.

There is no charge for most Village Books Literature Live events. Event costs are offset by customer book purchases; in order to maintain our robust program, we urge you to purchase those event books that interest you.

See pages 44-45 for information on our book groups!

Thur., March 25, 6:30pm THE CHUCKANUT RADIO HOUR Featuring MARK SPRAGG, author of Bone Fire & LAURA BELL, author of Claiming Ground Venue: The Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold Retirement Residence, 1224 Cornwall Ave. Tickets: $5.00, available at Village Books or on-line at brownpapertickets.com Receive one free ticket with each pre-event, in-store purchase of either Bone Fire or Claiming Ground at Village Books.

The Chuckanut Radio Hour is a monthly radio variety show which is recorded live and features live music, the poetry corner, author interviews, and humorous skits. The March 25th edition will have a real Western theme. Guest authors Mark Spragg and Laura Bell hale from Wyoming and their books are strong evocations of the Western landscape. Ron Hardesty brings his own style of western music and we’ll have Cowboy Poetry in the Poet’s Corner. Co-sponsored by the Leopold Residence

Fri., March 26, 7pm REINHARD STETTLER –Cottonwood and the River of Time: On Trees, Evolution, and Society With a lifetime of work in forestry and genetics to guide him, Reinhard Stettler celebrates both what has been learned and what still remains a mystery as he examines not only cottonwoods but also trees more generally, their evolution, and their relationship to society. By offering lessons in how nature works, as well as how science can help us understand it, he illuminates connections between the physical, biological, and social worlds.

Sat., March 27, 7pm CAROLINE FRASER Includes Slide Show!

–Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution Around the world, biologists and environmental activists are fighting back against the biodiversity crisis, empowered by a visionary idea that is transforming conservation: rewilding. Caroline Fraser’s report from the front lines is the first comprehensive account of the rewilding revolution. This stirring story of scientific discovery offers hope for a richer, wilder future. A Native Seattleite, Fraser was formerly on the editorial staff of the New Yorker, and has written for numerous publications including The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Review of Books.

Mon. March 29, 7pm OPEN MIC WITH LAUREL LEIGH Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their written words. Not published? No worries. Feel free to share some of your own writing! Sign up at our main counter on the first floor. Laurel Leigh, story writing instructor at Whatcom Community College, will host.

So far in

APRIL

Fri., April 2, 7pm KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE –Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature In the spirit of Rachel Carson and Annie Dillard, Moore chronicles her experiences in nature while struggling with the grief of the consecutive deaths of three loved ones. Moore sees death as change, not catastrophe—a force of unceasing renewal that should inspire hope rather than sorrow. Wild Comfort is a book about how in seeking condolence from the earth, we find countless reasons to be grateful. Moore lives in Oregon. Read more on page 35.

Events take place in the Readings Gallery of Village Books and are FREE unless otherwise noted.

Tues., April 6, 7pm GET GARDENING SERIES KICK-OFF EVENT! VALERIE EASTON –The New Low-Maintenance Garden: How to Have a Beautiful, Productive Garden and the Time to Enjoy It We’ve all seen those rare gardens that feel well-tended yet relaxed, cared for yet unfussy, both beautiful and comfortable. Valerie Easton makes these gardens accessible with this one-stop guide to creating a stylish, sustainable, and simple garden that requires less maintenance and fewer resources. Valerie Easton is a weekly garden columnist for Pacific Northwest Magazine of the Seattle Times .

Wed., April 7, 7pm DIANE HAMMOND –Seeing Stars From the author of Hannah’s Dream comes a new novel of hope, dreams, love, and ambition.

Thur., April 8, 7pm POETRY! JESSICA LOHAFER –What Remains To Be Done Jessica Lohafer proves that with dedication, craft grows exponentially to age. Her long lines and phrases that stretch each breath contain the urgency with which a young woman enters her twenties. She explores themes with a mature and humane perspective that merits attention. Jessica has a previous book, Good Posture¸ and a spoken word album, One Thing We Are Sure Of. She directs Poetry in Public Education, a program that brings poets into public schools.

Fri., April 9, 7pm HUGH RAFFLES –The Illustrated Insectopedia This is an exploration of the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, and unfathomably different species with which we share this world—insects—those that eat our food, share our beds, live in our homes. Weaving together vignettes, meditations, and essays, Raffles deftly combines the anecdotal and the scientific, and uses the prisms of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics and popular culture to show how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our fears, and beguiled our imaginations.

Sat., April 10, 4pm at Bellingham High School FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ –Getting a Grip2: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want Bestselling author of the much-loved Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé invites readers to try on a new, invigorating way of seeing the world in Getting a Grip 2. Read more on page 41.

Sun., April 11, 4pm SUE MILLER –The Lake Shore Limited Four unforgettable characters beckon you into this spellbinding new novel from the author of last year’s explosive New York Times best seller The Senator’s Wife. Every word counts in this tour de force about how accidents of fate cause dislocation in our lives, and about how we try to make peace with whom we become when facing circumstances beyond our control. Sue Miller is the best-selling author of numerous books including Lost in the Forest, The World Below, While I Was Gone, The Good Mother, and The Story of My Father.

Mon., April 12, 7pm POETRY! OLIVER DE LA PAZ –Requiem for the Orchard Far from merely channeling the narratives of lost innocence, these poems bear the weight of a distant self in the small towns of the past, where farm labor was a rite of passage and where brutality was commonplace. Amidst the violence and

If you can’t make it to an event, just call us to arrange for autographed copies!

More eventsSpring on the next two pages!

2010

31

... events continued from the previous two pages calamity of the speaker’s burgeoning adulthood in the rural West, these poems find the space to look back to the past with tenderness and grace. Oliver de la Paz is the author Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby, and Requiem for the Orchard, winner of the 2009 Akron Prize for poetry. He teaches English and creative writing at WWU.

Fri., April 16, 7pm SIBYL JAMES -Pistols & Hearts

POETRY!

Sibyl James is the author of eight books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, including China Beats and most recently Pistols and Hearts, a collection of poems based on James’ adventures while teaching and traveling in Mexico.

James has also taught in the U.S., China, and—as Fulbright professor—Tunisia and Cote d’Ivoire. Pistols and Hearts was first finalist in the Codhill Press poetry chapbook contest and was published with support from Artist Trust Foundation.

Mon., April 19, 7pm POETRY! MICHAEL DALEY –Moonlight in the Redemptive Forest Poet Gary Snyder called Michael Daley’s first collection of poetry, The Straits, “superb, elegant poetically and fresh with the Northwest world.” Michael’s newest poetry collection includes a CD of the poems with music arranged and performed by Brad Killion. Michael has an MFA from the UW, and is the author of Horace: Eleven Odes and Rosehip Plum Cherry; Way Out There: Lyrical Essays; and To Curve.

Michael and Brad Killion will also appear on the Chuckanut Radio Hour on May 20th. See page 53 for information about that event.

Tues., April 20, 7pm RICHARD BACH –Hypnotizing Maria Join Richard Bach for a reading from Hypnotizing Maria, a dramatic story of discovery, a “story tale how-to” for un-hypnotizing ourselves and for catching a glimpse, now and then, of the one reality behind the kaleidoscope inventions of space and time.

Richard Bach is the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions, One, and many other books. He still flies his own planes.

Thurs., April 22, 6:30pm THE CHUCKANUT RADIO HOUR Special Guest, DAVID BOYD, author of Dodging the Toxic Bullet: How to Protect Yourself from Everyday Environmental Health Hazards Venue: The Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold,1224 Cornwall Ave. Tickets: $5.00, available at Village Books or on-line at brownpapertickets.com, or get a free ticket with each pre-event, in-store purchase at Village Books of Dodging The Toxic Bullet.

The Chuckanut Radio Hour is a monthly radio variety show which is recorded live and features live music, the poetry corner, author interviews, and humorous skits. Join us in celebrating Earth Day, and in welcoming David Boyd to our April show. Dodging the Toxic Bullet presents practical and empowering strategies for identifying and avoiding health hazards. This is a must-have guide, especially for parents of infants and children.

Co-sponsored by the Leopold Residence

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS TO THIS SCHEDULE WILL OCCUR SO...

Literature

LIVE!

Fri., April 23, 7pm POETRY! JORN AKE –Boys Whistling like Canaries Haunted by the grim history of the twentieth century and by how its legacy continues to so troublesomely endure, Ake tackles the most vexing subjects and recalls the work of two of the finest poets of social conscience, George Oppen and Thomas McGrath. Ake’s first collection of poems, Asleep in the Lightning Fields, won the 2001 X. J. Kennedy Poetry prize. He began writing Boys Whistling like Canaries in Prague, where he lived for three years.

THREE POETS, Sun., April 25, 4pm ONE AFTERNOON Nicole Hardy, –This Blonde Marjorie Manwaring, –Magic Word Jeremy Voigt, –Neither Rising nor Falling Seattle poet Nicole Hardy is the author of Mud Flap Girl’s XX Guide to Facial Profiling. She was nominated for a 2007 Pushcart Prize.

Nicole’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Margie, Eclipse, The Red Wheelbarrow, and The Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry.

Marjorie Manwaring lives in Seattle, where she is a freelance writer and an editor for the online poetry and art journal, The DMQ Review.

Her publications include 5 AM, Sentence, Crab Creek Review, and Floating Bridge Review. Several of her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Jeremy Voigt’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Willow Springs, Washington Square, and other magazines. His chapbook Neither Rising nor Falling was published by Finishing Line Press fall 2009. He has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac.

Mon., April 26, 7pm OPEN MIC WITH LAUREL LEIGH Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their written words. Not published? No worries. Feel free to share some of your own writing! Sign up at our main counter on the first floor. Laurel Leigh, story writing instructor at Whatcom Community College, will host.

Thurs., April 29, 7pm CALEB BARBER –Beasts and Violins

POETRY!

This collection of American narrative poetry addresses themes of life and work in the western U.S. The poems read like broken country songs sung from a paved farm: dead deer and train trips, a dog at the edge of the fire. Beasts and Violins begins with a dark birth and finishes at peace on the water, with the necessary stops in between. Caleb Barber earned an MFA in poetry and currently lives in Bellingham. He has been widely published in literary magazines, most notably with a feature in Poet Lore. He also has a poem in the anthology, Best American Poetry 2009.

Fri., April 30, 7pm POETRY! SUSAN RICH –The Alchemist’s Kitchen Poetry and photography. What could be better? Tonight, the art and photographs of Myra Albert Wiggins will be presented alongside the poems from Rich’s third collection. Brian Turner

Go to www.VillageBooks.com for up-to-date Lit Live info!

32

Spring 2010

See pages 44-45 for information on our book groups!

writes, “these are poems of praise and wonder graced by a delicate touch. Rich examines and recognizes the constructed geography of our interior lives.”

Carolyn Forché agrees, “This is art in the light of conscience.” Susan Rich’s poems have received awards from the Academy of American Poets, Artist Trust, and PEN USA.

So far in

MAY

Tues., May 4, 7pm Includes Slide Show!

DAN NELSON –Best Hikes with Dogs Western Washington, 2nd Edition In this completely updated guide, Dan Nelson adds twentyfive new hikes to sixty of the region’s most canine-compatible routes. Each trail is carefully selected for its scenic value, its lack of crowds, and its safety for dogs. Nelson covers everything from first aid for canines to detailed directions and a comparison chart of the difficulty level, best season to go, and scenic highlights of every hike. Nelson is an outdoor columnist for The Seattle Times and a contributor to Backpacker. He is the author of three regional Day Hiking guides.

Wed., May 5, 7pm IRA SUKRUNGRUANG –Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy This richly told account takes us into an immigrant’s world imbued with Thai spices and the sensibilities of an American coming of age. Talk Thai provides generous portions of a stillmysterious culture while telling the story of an American boyhood with humor, playfulness, and uncompromising honesty. Sukrungruang has published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in numerous periodicals, and co-edited What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology and Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology.

Thurs., May 6, 4-10pm Save the Date as Girls Night Out goes “Hollywood” A Benefit for St. Joseph’s Cancer Research Center The fun begins with a bra parade, starting at 12th and Harris, and ends with a fashion show at Fairhaven Pub and Martini Bar. For more info about Girls Night Out, see page 5.

Sat., May 8, 7pm Get Gardening PAUL BONINE Series Event –Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden Black Plants profiles 75 of the most alluring black annuals, perennials, bulbs, and shrubs, including devil’s tongue, cobra lily, dracula orchid, bat flower, mourning widow, and snakeshead iris. With plants like these, you’ll find that a garden with a dark side is a beautiful thing. In addition to consulting for NPR, various newspapers, radio, and television, Paul has written for several national gardening publications.

Tues., May 11, 7pm Official 2010 LAILA LALAMI Seattle Reads selection!

–Secret Son Raised by his mother in Casablanca’s slums, Youssef has always had big dreams of living another life in another world.

Suddenly his dreams are within reach when he discovers that his father—whom he’d been led to believe was dead—is alive. Secret Son examines the struggle for identity, the need for love and family, and the desperation that grips ordinary lives in a world divided by class, politics, and religion. Laila Lalami is a Fulbright fellow whose work has appeared in the LA Times, the Nation, the NY Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere.

Get the Latest

VB NEWS & EVENTS delivered to your inbox every week

Stop by the store or go to VillageBooks.com

CHILDREN’S BOOK WEEK EVENTS Read more on pages 50-51!

Fri., May 14, 7pm CRAIG ORBACK –The Can Man

KIDS!

Join illustrator Craig Orback as he shares his process of illustrating this touching picture book, reads the book, and offers an art exercise for kids of all ages.

Bring a canned food item to donate to the food bank.

Sat., May 15, 2pm DEBORAH HOPKINSON –The Humblebee Hunter: Inspired by the Life and Experiments of Charles Darwin and his Children The Humblebee Hunter recounts a fictionalized version of one of Darwin’s experiments: counting the number of flowers a humblebee (bumblebee) visits in a minute. Deborah Hopkinson is the author of many award-winning books.

Sun., May 16, 2pm Includes Slide Show!

PAM FLOWERS –Big Enough Anna: The Little Sled Dog Who Braved The Arctic Anna may be the smallest dog in the litter, but she’s surely the most determined.

Record-breaking Arctic explorer Pam Flowers will read from Big Enough Anna, and share slides and stories from her 11-month, 2,500 mile solo dog-mushing expedition across the Arctic, a journey on which Anna played a pivotal role.

Mon., May 17, 7pm GORDON EDGAR –Cheese Monger: A Life on the Wedge Witty and irreverent, informative and provocative, this is the highly readable story of Edgar’s unlikely career as a cheesemonger at San Francisco’s worker-owned Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, the country’s largest retail worker co-op. There he developed a deep understanding and respect for the styles, producers, animals, and techniques that go into making great cheese.

Thurs., May 20, 7pm THE CHUCKANUT RADIO HOUR Special Guest: KURT HOELTING, author of –The Circumference of Home: One Man’s Yearlong Quest for a Radically Local Life Venue: The Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold, 1224 Cornwall Ave. Tickets: $5.00, available at Village Books or on-line at brownpapertickets.com The Chuckanut Radio Hour is a monthly radio variety show which is recorded live and features live music, the poetry corner, author interviews, and skits.

After realizing the gaping hole between his convictions about environmentalism and his own carbon footprint, our guest, Zen wilderness guide Kurt Hoelting, embarked on a yearlong experiment: he traded in his car and air transportation for a kayak, a bike, and his own feet. Co-sponsored by the Leopold Residence, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit RE-Sources, tonight’s other co-sponsor.

Fri., May 21, 7pm ANA MARIA SPAGNA –Test Ride on the Sunnyland Express: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey Winner of the 2009 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize, Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey melds memoir and history to chronicle the story of an American family against the backdrop of one of the civil rights movement’s lesser-known stories. Author Ana Maria Spagna lives and writes in Stehekin, Washington.

the VBjustE-Newsletter If you Register can’t make itfor to an event, call us to arrangetoday! for autographed copies!

Spring 2010

33

SCIENCE Titan Unveiled: Saturn’s Mysterious Moon Explored

by Ralph Lorenz & Jacqueline Mitton (March, paperback, Princeton)

Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton take readers behind the scenes of this mission. Launched in 1997, Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in summer 2004. Its formidable payload included the Huygens probe, which successfully parachuted down through Titan’s atmosphere in early 2005, all the while transmitting images and data. Scientists were startled by what they saw. One of those researchers was Lorenz, who gives an insider’s account of the scientific community’s first close encounter with an alien landscape of liquid methane seas and turbulent orange skies. Amid the challenges and frayed nerves, new discoveries are made, including methane monsoons, equatorial sand seas, and Titan’s polar hood. Lorenz and Mitton describe Titan as a world strikingly like Earth and tell how Titan may hold clues to the origins of life on our own planet and possibly to its presence on others.

An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World

The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics: A Math-Free Exploration of the Science That Made Our World

by Anders Halverson (March, hardcover, Yale)

by James Kakalios (March, hardcover, Gotham)

In the 1950s, newsstands were full of comics and sci-fi magazines that predicted a utopian future of flying cars and jetpacks. Those never came to be, but the technology we do have, such as cell phones and iPods, is, at a technical level, far more impressive. In The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, physicist James Kakalios reveals how this was made possible through the quantum mechanics revolution, and explains this complicated science through examples from pop culture.

“Writing with tongue firmly planted in cheek, Kakalios looks at classic comics with a physicist’s eye. And what he finds should make this book required reading for every high school and college science instructor….Outstanding.” –Orlando Sentinel

Anders Halverson provides an exhaustively researched and grippingly rendered account of the rainbow trout and why it has become the most commonly stocked and controversial freshwater fish in the United States. Discovered in the remote waters of northern California, rainbow trout have been artificially propagated and distributed for more than 130 years by government officials eager to present Americans with an opportunity to get back to nature by going fishing. Proudly dubbed “an entirely synthetic fish” by fisheries managers, the rainbow trout has been introduced into every state and province in the United States and Canada and to every continent except Antarctica, often with devastating effects on the native fauna. Ultimately, the story of the rainbow trout is the story of our relationship with the natural world—how it has changed and how it startlingly has not.

Einstein’s God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit by Krista Tippett (available now, paperback, Penguin)

Drawn from American Public Media’s Peabody Award-winning program Speaking of Faith, the conversations in this profoundly illuminating book reach for a place too rarely explored in our ongoing exchange of ideas—the nexus of science and spirituality. In fascinating interviews with such luminaries as Freeman Dyson, Paul Davies. V.V. Raman, Serwin Nuland, and Mehmet Oz, Tippett revels in the connections between the two, showing how even those most wedded to hard truths find spiritual enlightenment. The result is a theologically evocative dialogue on the changing way we think about science, medicine, and the expansive realm of belief.

34

Spring 2010

Building Community One Book at a Time

NATURE The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot (available now, hardcover, Crown)

“Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about ‘faith, science, journalism, and grace.’ It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different women-––Skloot and Deborah Lacks––-sharing an obsession to learn about Deborah’s mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell line-––known as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henrietta’s death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children. Writing in plain, clear prose, Skloot avoids melodrama and makes no judgments. Letting people and events speak for themselves, Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society’s most vulnerable people.” –Publishers Weekly

At Village Books!

Kathleen Dean Moore Friday, April 2nd, 7pm

The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons for Expanding Our Compassion Footprint

by Marc Bekoff (February, paperback, New World Library)

The author of The Emotional Lives of Animals presents a provocative scientific and moral argument for improving our relationship with animals.

For too long people have believed there is no middle ground between being vegans who swear off all animal products and being unthinking carnivores. No more, Bekoff says. Demonstrating that animals have a rich range of emotions, and outlining our pressing environmental realities, he offers 10 compelling reasons for changing the way we treat animals––those we raise for food, those we use in labs, those that are wild and endangered. The result is an inspirational, informative guide for all who care about life in its many forms.

Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness

by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (available now, hardcover, Little Brown & Co.)

A naturalist by habit and wilderness lover by disposition, the author finds herself living, by necessity, in Seattle. What emerges from this somewhat reluctant residence are some thoughtful observations and reflections on urban ecology, and one of its most familiar, intelligent and resilient denizens, the American Crow. ––Donna

Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature

by Kathleen Dean Moore (March, paperback, Shambhala Publications)

In an effort to make sense of the deaths in quick succession of several loved ones, Kathleen Dean Moore turned to the comfort of the wild, making a series of solitary excursions into ancient forests, wild rivers, remote deserts, and windswept islands to learn what the environment could teach her in her time of pain. This book is the record of her experience.

It’s a stunning collection of carefully observed accounts of her life, but it is also a profound meditation on the healing power of nature. In the wonder of the rush of water over rocks, in the joy over the sight of a cougar in a cow field, Moore finds the solace that comes from connection to the natural world, and from that astonishingly intimate connection arise hope and courage, healing and gratitude.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

35

ART The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution

by Denis Dutton (available now, paperback, Bloomsbury)

Denis Dutton’s lively, controversial The Art Instinct combines two contentious disciplines—art and evolutionary science—in a provocative new approach to how we think about art, from painting to literature to movies to pottery. Human tastes in the arts, Dutton argues, are evolutionary traits, not social constructs. Using forceful logic and hard evidence, Dutton overturns a century of art theory and criticism and restores the place of beauty, pleasure, and skill as artistic values.

“Read Dutton’s book: his masterful knowledge of art and his compelling prose make it a thing of beauty.” –Newsweek

How To Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Art Life Museum

by Keri Smith (available now, paperback, Perigee Books)

This is the book for every adolescent and adult who wants to “do something artistic,” but doesn’t feel they have a creative bone in their body. The part do-it-yourself project book and part inspirational guide will help you view the world in a whole new way. No expensive supplies are needed; you can use this book anywhere and at anytime. ––Jory

36

Spring 2010

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

THE READINGS

GVALLERY B IN

illage ooks

March and April –A Certain Slant of Light works by Mary Gregg Byrne In celebration of National Poetry Month, Mary Gregg Byrne will present works incorporating watercolor, calligraphy, and some of her favorite poems. Mary is a master watercolor artist, also skilled in drawing, calligraphy, printmaking, illustration, and portraiture painting. Come see how beautiful poetry can look.

“It helped make a great life even better.”

The Readings Gallery is a monthly showcase for regional art with an emphasis on making a connection between the visual and print arts. Do you have something you’d like to show? Please send pertinent proposals to jonica@villagebooks.com.

May and June Altered Stuff –3rd Annual Altered Show works by VB Staff and Friends To alter something is to change beyond its original use or purpose, or to use it in a new and different way. It can also imply a new way of thinking about commonly held beliefs. Come see what staff has to say about STUFF, from an altered point of view.

Make your car hum.

Servicing most European & Japanese models in Bellingham for over 31 years.

Chuck & Dee Robinson

ReSet for Excellence will help you and yours • Go beyond your current level of performance • Communicate more effectively • Shape the course of your life rather than letting life “happen” to you • Live life to your fullest by unleashing your potential • Make choices that align with what’s really most important to you )

Two can attend the April 8-11 ReSet for Excellence for the $650 price for one!

(Find a partner and your price is only $325)

Call us to learn more: (360) 715-0105 www.ExcellenceNW.org

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

360 671.2420

Spring 2010

37

Bellingham Customers Broke All Records in 2009!

Donations to the Giving Tree and Whatcom Middle School in November and December exceeded all previous years in need–-and generosity. And you, the customers and citizens of Bellingham and Whatcom County, deserve heartfelt THANKS for stepping up to the plate and hitting a home run.

2,000 books were given to local kids who would not otherwise receive a book during the holidays from the annual Giving Tree Project. The local organizations and groups that made sure these children received a book are: Blue Skies for Children, Catholic Community Services, Early Intervention, Homeless Students in the schools, Interfaith Coalition, Lummi Head Start, Lummi Birth to Three, Lydia House, Opportunity Council Head Start, Readiness to Learn Program, SeaMar Visions, & Womencare.

1,000 books were also given to the PTSA of Whatcom Middle School–– which was ruined by fire and water damage in November––for the library and teacher's classrooms. This need continues, and Village Books is still collecting books for the students. We are also selling a $4 note pad which we created and printed on our Espresso Book Machine, available at VB and other stores in Fairhaven, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Library Fund.

To each and every one of you who gave a book, Thank you!

Cindi Williamson, Giving Tree Project Coordinator, and the Staff at Village Books

IED ce F I T C E R c P r o d uo p ! ani e Cog r O m th fresh fr o

Visit our website for special deals updated every month!

LO CA L

organic

FAMILY GETAWAYS

&DIAbLo DoWnTIME with NORth CASCADES iNStitUtE

May - NoveMber 2010

p InformatIon and regIstratIon at

www.ncascades.org/get_outside or

(360) 854-2599 Downtown—

1220 N. Forest St. at Holly St. Open every day 7 am–10 pm

38

Spring 2010

Cordata—

315 Westerly Rd. at Cordata Pkwy.

Open every day 7 am–9 pm

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith

Towards a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together

by The Dalai Lama (March, hardcover, Doubleday Religion)

In Toward a True Kinship of Faiths the Dalai Lama addresses one of the most important issues of our time: the polarization of the world along religious lines. The Dalai Lama feels strongly that this is a message of urgency that he wants to share with the world, recognizing that it is religious difference that has been a powerful negative force across the globe. His exploration of a possible kinship of faiths is hopeful, recognizing commonalities but at the same time fully mindful of the significant differences that will continue to exist between the world’s traditional religions. It is a work that will have widespread, interreligious support and can be read and appreciated by a wide audience, particularly readers who are not familiar with Buddhism.

by Stephanie Saldana (available now, hardcover, Doubleday) In 2004, twenty-seven-year-old Stephanie Saldana traveled to Damascus, Syria, on a Fulbright fellowship to study the role of the prophet Jesus in Islam. She was also fleeing a broken heart. It was not an ideal time to be an American in the Middle East; the United States had recently invaded Iraq, refugees were flooding into Damascus, and dark rumors swirled that Syria might be next to come under American attack. Miserable and lonely, Stephanie left Damascus to visit an ancient Christian monastery carved into the desert cliffs. In that beautiful, austere setting, she confronted her wavering faith and met Frederic, a young French novice monk. As they set out to explore the mysteries entwining Christianity and Islam, Stephanie slowly realized that she had found God again––and that she was in love with Frederic. But would Frederic choose God or Stephanie?

Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference

by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu (March, hardcover, HarperOne)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has witnessed some of the world’s darkest moments, for decades fighting the racist government policy of apartheid and since then being an ambassador of peace amidst political, diplomatic, and natural disasters. Yet people continue to find him one of the most joyful and hopeful people they have encountered. In Made for Goodness, Tutu shares his source of strength and optimism.

Written with his daughter, Mpho, who is also an ordained Anglican minister, Tutu argues that God has made us for goodness, and when we simply start walking in the direction of this calling, God is there to meet us, encourage us, embrace us. God has made the world as a grand theater for us to work out this call to goodness; it is up to us to live up to this calling, but God is there to help us every step of the way. Tackling our worst problems takes on new meaning and is bolstered with hope and the expectation that that is exactly where God will show up.

Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

by Geneen Roth (March, hardcover, Scribner)

Roth’s approach to eating is the same as any addiction—it is an activity to avoid feeling emotions.

From the first page, readers will be struck by Roth’s intelligence, humor, and sensitivity, as she traces the path of overeating from its subtle beginning through its logical end. Whether the drug is booze or brownies, the problem is the same; opting out of life. Roth’s premier advice is eat anything you want. She powerfully argues for personal investigation and urges readers to pay attention to what they truly need—and it usually cannot be found at the supermarket. She provides seven basic guidelines for eating (the most important is to never diet) and shares reassuring, practical advice that has over the years helped thousands of women who have attended her highly successful seminars and workshops.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

39

Mornings at the Market are Better!

Early Riser Breakfast Served Daily - 7 am to 10 am

Choose from Any One:

Homemade Biscuits & Gravy

Homemade Biscuits & Gravy Breakfast Scrambler: Eggs, Bacon or Ham and Hashbrowns, scrambled together, topped with cheese and served with a slice of fresh in-store baked sourdough toast.

OR Pancake Stack with Syrup

Breakfast Scrambler

1.99

Ea.

Pancake Stack

Senior Discount Special Monday - Thursday 7 am to 10 am Receive

5

% OFF

must be

55

Entire Purchase

or older

some restrictions apply--see store for details

the

markets

L.L.C. Fairhaven • Birch Bay • Anacortes

Thirteen Bankers: The Wallstreet Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

by Simon Johnson and James Kwak (April, hardcover, Pantheon)

In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, the largest banks at its center have emerged bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation, even as they continue to wield power in Washington.

Without an effective government crackdown on their deleterious, conventional practices, these banks––-too big to fail and holding the global economy hostage–– threaten to create yet another crippling economic downturn. The choice that our political and economic system faces is stark: accede to the vested interests of an unfettered financial sector that runs up profits in good years and dumps its losses on taxpayers in lean years, or reform, through stringent regulation, the banking system as an engine of economic growth. To restore health and balance to our economy, the authors argue, we must confront the political force of big finance and reverse the inside-the-Beltway consensus that what is good for Wall Street is good for Main Street.

Political Awakenings: Conversations with History–Interviews with Twenty of the World’s Most Influential Writers, Political Leaders, and Activists

by Harry Kreisler (March, paperback, New Press)

In this rousing and often funny volume, a group of impressive thinkers reflect on their own political awakenings. As a kid, Noam Chomsky handed out the Daily Mirror at his uncle’s newsstand on 72nd Street, inadvertently finding himself in a buzzing intellectual and political hub for European immigrants in New York. Elizabeth Warren set out to expose those frauds declaring bankruptcy–– only to discover, in her research, a very different story of hardworking middle-class families facing economic collapse in the absence of a social safety net. While studying at Oxford, a young Tariq Ali made a bet with a friend that he could work the Vietnam War into every single answer on his final exams. This fascinating book reveals links between the personal and the political, and will engage readers across generations.

www.themarketsllc.com 40

Spring 2010

Building Community One Book at a Time

CULTURAL COMMENTARY Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

by Randy Frost & Gail Steketee (March, hardcover, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Stuff is the first book to explore compulsive hoarding, a disorder that affects as many as six million people. Using the latest research, much of which they pioneered in their decade of study, along with vivid case histories of a range of hoarders (animal collectors, compulsive shoppers, elderly packrats, scavengers), Frost and Steketee describe the various causes of hoarding - psychological and biological--and the traits by which you can identify a hoarder. In a portrait that disproves many of our assumptions about the often-hidden disease (for example, most hoarders aren’t reacting to childhood poverty or deprivation), they also examine the forces behind a hoarder’s behavior and the ways in which they affect all of us, whether it’s the passion of a collector, the rigor of someone whose desk is always clean, or the sentimentality of the person who saves ticket stubs.

Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do

By Albert-László Barabási (April, hardcover, Dutton)

Predicting human behavior patterns from the abundance of statistical records now available in our information economy has become the cutting-edge, moneymaking, hard science of the modern world. Based on seven years of groundbreaking research, Bursts proves that, as a species, we are not simply predictably irrational—we are predictably “bursty.” We act in bursts of activity that can be predicted with mathematical precision.

Barabási’s astonishingly wide range of examples from seemingly unrelated areas include how dollar bills move around the United States, the pattern everyone follows in writing e-mail, the spread of epidemics, the history of wars, and even the flight patterns of albatross. We shouldn’t merely expect the unexpected—we should expect burst. Written with an elegant, lively, easy-tounderstand style, Bursts will change the way we think about “random” behavior.

FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger

by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (available now, hardcover, Bloomsbury)

The Spirit Level shows that there is one common factor that links the healthiest and happiest societies: the degree of equality among their members. Not wealth; not resources; not culture, climate, diet, or system of government.

Furthermore, more-unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them—the well off as well as the poor. Almost every modern social problem—ill-health, violence, lack of community life, teen pregnancy, mental illness—is more likely to occur in a less-equal society. This is why America, by most measures the richest country on earth, has per capita shorter average lifespan, more cases of mental illness, more obesity, and more of its citizens in prison that any other developed nation. Wilkinson and Pickett do not simply provide a diagnosis of our woes––they offer readers a way toward a new political outlook, shifting from self-interest consumerism to a friendlier, more sustainable society.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Saturday, April 10th, 4pm at Bellingham High School

–Getting a Grip2: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want

by Frances Moore Lappé (March, paperback, Small Planet Media)

Bestselling author of the muchloved Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé invites readers to tr y on a new, invigorating way of seeing the world in Getting a Grip 2. This thoroughly revised and updated edition responds to Obama’s presidency and the global financial collapse.

With her characteristic boldness, she takes on a set of disempowering ideas driving economic and ecological crises, challenging readers to rethink the meaning of power, democracy, and hope itself.

Village Books is pleased to sponsor Frances Moore Lappé's talk as part of Transition Whatcom's The Great Unleashing.

Find more information at transitionwhatcom.ning.com

Spring 2010

41

On The ROAD The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today

by Ted Conover (available now, hardcover, Knopf)

Roads have unparalleled power to impact communities, unite worlds and sunder them, and reveal the hopes and fears of those who travel them. The Routes of Man explores six of these key byways worldwide. In Peru, Conover traces the journey of a load of rare mahogany over the Andes to its origin, an untracked part of the Amazon basin soon to be traversed by a new east-west route across South America. In East Africa, he visits truckers whose travels have been linked to the worldwide spread of AIDS. In the West Bank, he monitors highway checkpoints with Israeli soldiers and then passes through them with Palestinians, witnessing the injustices and danger borne by both sides. He shuffles down a frozen riverbed with teenagers escaping their Himalayan valley to see how a new road will affect the now-isolated Indian region of Ladakh. From the passenger seat of a new Hyundai piling up the miles, he describes the exuberant upsurge in car culture as highways proliferate across China. And from inside an ambulance, he offers an apocalyptic but precise vision of Lagos, Nigeria, where congestion and chaos on freeways signal the rise of the global megacity.

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory

by Peter Hessler (available now, hardcover, HarperCollins)

In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver’s license, and for the next seven years he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile and improved transport were transforming China.

Country Driving begins with Hessler’s 7,000-mile drive across northern China, following the Great Wall from the East China Sea to the Tibetan plateau. He investigates an historically important rural region being abandoned as young people migrate to jobs in the southeast. Next, Hessler spends five years in Sancha, a small farming village in the mountains north of Beijing, which changes dramatically after the local road is paved and the capital’s auto boom brings new tourism. Finally, he turns his attention to urban China, researching development over a period of three years in Lishui, a small southeastern city where officials hope that a new government-built expressway will transform a farm region into a major industrial center.

42

Spring 2010

Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry’s Road from Glory to Disasters

by Paul Ingrassia (available now, hardcover, Random House)

This is the epic saga of the American automobile industry’s rise and demise, a compelling story of hubris, denial, missed opportunities, and self-inflicted wounds that culminates with the president of the United States ushering two of Detroit’s Big Three car companies--once proud symbols of prosperity--through bankruptcy. The cost to American taxpayers topped $100 billion--enough to buy every car and truck sold in America in the first half of 2009. With unprecedented access, Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Ingrassia takes us from factory floors to smalltown dealerships to Detroit’s boardrooms to the inner sanctums of the White House. He reveals why President Barack Obama personally decided to save Chrysler when many of his advisors opposed the idea. Ingrassia provides the dramatic story behind Obama’s dismissal of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and the angry reaction from GM’s board––the same people who had watched idly while the company plunged into penury.

In Crash Course, Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was Detroit’s self-destruction inevitable? What were the key turning points? Why did Japanese automakers manage American workers better than the American companies themselves did?

The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History

by Jason Vuic (March, hardcover, Hill and Wang)

Six months after its American introduction in 1985, the Yugo was a punch line; within a year, it was a staple of late-night comedy. By 2000, NPR’s Car Talk declared it “the worst car of the millennium.” And for most Americans that’s where the story begins and ends. Hardly. The short, unhappy life of the car, the men who built it, the men who imported it, and the decade that embraced and discarded it is rollicking and astounding, and one of the greatest untold business-cummorality tales of the 1980s. Mix one rabid entrepreneur, several thousand “good” communists, a willing U.S. State Department, the shortsighted Detroit auto industry, and improvident bankers, shake vigorously, and you’ve got The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History. Brilliantly re-creating the amazing confluence of events that produced the Yugo, Yugoslav expert Jason Vuic uproariously tells the story of the car that became an international joke.

Building Community One Book at a Time

PAPER

DREAMS New & Exciting SPRING Merchandise

Call Bob Lodder for your printing or 1:1 integrated marketing campaign.

Office: 354-4444 Cell: 319-1320

Vera Bradley & So Much More!

1206 11th St in Fairhaven • 676.8676

J.S. Stockburger, M.D. Accepting New Patients

738-8100 www.villagefamilyhealth.com

Angela Belcaster ARNP

Your family doctor in Fairhaven from birth through retirement from the office to the hospital.

adults u children u prenatal care & childbirth u urgent care u walk-in 1000 McKenzie Ave

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

u

738-8100

u

StockburgerMD.com

Spring 2010

43

Join a VB Book Club!

Building Community One Book at at Time

Unless otherwise noted, authors do not usually attend VB Reads

VB Reads...General Lit

Discuss books from a variety of genres with Cindi at 7pm the 1st Monday of each month.

This group is open to anyone and everyone who enjoys reading and discussing books.

March 1st, 7pm –Wandering Star by J.M.G. Le Clezio

From the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature, Wandering Star is the story of two young women, one uprooted by the Holocaust and the other by the founding of the state of Israel.

by Barbara Kingsolver

April 5th, 7pm –Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in American and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

In her first full-length nonfiction narrative, bestselling author Kingsolver opens readers’ eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: you are what you eat. The bestselling author returns with a wise and compelling celebration of family, food, nature, and community.

VB Reads... Business

Book Group

VB Reads... Lesbian

Book Group

A young Iranian-American journalist returns to Tehran and discovers not only the oppressive and decadent life of her Iranian counterparts who have grown up since the revolution, but the pain of searching for a homeland that may not exist.

Join Janet Ott the 1st Wednesday of each month at noon for a discussion of books related to the world of business.

Everyone is welcome and brownbag lunches are encouraged!

March 3rd, noon –Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

The author of Blink and The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of outliers — the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

April 7th, noon –The Power of Intuition: How to Use Your Gut Feelings in Making Decisions at Work

by Gary Klein

Through a three-tiered process called the “Exceleration Program,” Klein provides readers with the tools they need to build the intuitive skills that will help them make tough choices, spot potential problems, manage uncertainty, and size up situations quickly in the workplace.

May 5th, noon –The Courage to Teach Guide for Reflection & Renewal (Anniversary Edition)

by Parker Palmer

A welcome resource that includes a DVD featuring an interview with Parker Palmer discussing the crisis in education, the heart of a teacher, ways of knowing, and more.

44

May 3rd, 7pm –Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Spring 2010

Join Gabrielle for discussions of literary books by & about lesbians. Meetings are the 1st Sunday of every month at 2pm.

March 7th, 2pm –Olivia by Dorothy Strachey

Considered one of the most subtle and beautifully written lesbian novels of the century, this 1949 classic captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent.

April 4th, noon –Poems From the Women’s Movement edited by Honor Moore

Here, brought together for the first time, are the poems that gave voice to a revolution, including works by Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Sharon Olds, & many others.

May 2nd, noon –American Romances

by Rebecca Brown

New England Puritanism meets West Coast hedonism in an inventive remix of America's cultural history.This collection of mordant, poignant and playful essays shows Rebecca Brown at the height of her imaginative and intuitive powers.

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

VB Reads...

Afternoon Book Chat Come discuss contemporary literature with Sittrea the second Wednesday of each month at 1pm. Open to all!

March 10th, 1pm –Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall “Haunting, lyrical, entirely absorbing, Sweeping Up Glass deserves a place on the shelf next to classics like True Grit and To Kill a Mockingbird.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

April 14th, 1pm –City of Thieves by David Benioff From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival––and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.

May 10th, 1pm –Let the Great World Spin

by Colum McCann

National Book Award Winner!

Let the Great World Spin is this critically acclaimed international bestselling author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

VB Reads...

Engaged Citizens Book Group 3rd Wednesdays of the month at noon Join Mary Dumas for a thought-provoking lunch hour discussing books that ask us to consider how we, as community members, can more skillfully contribute to the creation of a civilly engaged community.

March 17th, noon – The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict into Cooperation

by Daniel Yankelovich

In this groundbreaking work, famed social scientist and world-famous public opinion expert Daniel Yankelovich reinvents the ancient art of dialogue.

April 21st, noon –Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank by Robert W. Fuller Somebodies and Nobodies introduces rank-based discrimination–or “rankism”–a form of injustice that everyone knows, but no one sees.

May 19th, noon – The Impossible Will Take a Little While

by Paul Rogat Loeb

In this “Chicken Soup for the Liberal Soul,” the most eloquent writers of our time offer words of inspiration and hope.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

VB Reads...

VB Reads...

Feminist Book Group

Open to anyone who wants to discuss and explore feminism in a fun, empowering environment. Meet with Jen the LAST Sunday of every month at 2pm.

March 28th, 2pm –Passing

by Nella Larsen

First published in 1929, this sophisticated story is about two girlhood friends who are reunited unexpectedly to find that they have made opposite choices. Larsen shows the limits placed on those who are “too black” and “too feminine” to be recognized by any of the powerful in 1920 Chicago.

April 25th, 2pm –Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy Could Ariel Levy have the answer for how feminism went awry? Using Girls Gone Wild, Sex in the City, and Playboy as examples of how objectifying women has been accepted into culture, she interviews women to look at the progress––or lack of progress––of gender equality in U.S. culture.

May 30th, 2pm –Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

by Azar Nafisi

Every week for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, the women in Nafisi’s living room spoke not only of the books they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams, and disappointments.

VB Reads...

Spring 2010

45

DEMOCRACY NOW 8 9 . 3 F M

KUGS . ORG STREAMING LIVE

FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS

35TH ANNIVERSARY

STUDENT OPERATED RADIO NEWS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Shows Every Thurs, Fri & Sat Night 8 and 10pm Celebrating fifteen years of stimulating presentations about topics that are important to our community.

Real people.

Real issues.

Meetings are from 12 to 1:30 p.m. on the 4th Wednesday of each month at Northwood Hall.

For more information, visit

www.bellinghamcityclub.org

theupfront.com

www.

46

Spring 2010

(360) 733-8855

We Look Forward to Seeing You

Shop 24 hours a day at www.VillageBooks.com

KIDS & TEACHERS Parents • Librarians • Grandparents The Wonder Book

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Paul Schmid (available now, hardcover, HarperCollins)

PICTURE BOOKS

Reminiscent of Shel Silverstein, The Wonder Book is a delightful mix of puzzles, poems, and pictures. Questions are asked such as, “Who put something under the Tooth Fairy’s pillow when she was a little girl?” and “Can the meaning of life fit into a poem?” Kids will enjoy leafing through and finding a surprise on every page, and adults will enjoy the thoughts and questions presented too.

We Planted a Tree

by Diane Muldrow, illustrated by Bob Staake (March, hardcover, Golden) In this simple poem illustrated by award winner Bob Staake, two young families in two very different parts of the world plant a tree. As the trees flourish, so do the families . . . while trees all over the world help clean the air, enrich the soil, and give fruit and shade. With a nod to Kenya’s successful Green Belt Movement, Diane Muldrow’s elegant text celebrates the life and hope that every tree--from Paris to Brooklyn to Tokyo--brings to our planet.

Princesses Are Not Perfect

by Kate Lum, illustrated by Sue Hellard (March, hardcover, Bloomsbury) Princesses Allie, Mellie, and Libby each have a special talent, but are tired of having just one hobby. So when it’s time to prep for the kingdom’s famous Summer Party, they decide to switch places. Although their hearts are in the right place, their decision turns out to be a disaster. Only with a little bit of help from each other can they salvage the big party plans.

Animal Crackers Fly the Coop

written and illustrated by Kevin O’Malley (March, hardcover, Walker) Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share was one of my favorite, snort-your-milk picture books in a long time and Animal Crackers is the same way. Four farm animals part ways and “egg-splore” their artistic sides but end up saving the day by foiling some robbers and finding a great club in the process. Featuring a mad “comedi-hen,” this book is sure to be another “egg-cellent” offering! ––Sarah

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

47

Middle Readers Freefall

by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams (available now, hardcover, Chicken House) In the follow-up to Deeper and Tunnels, Will and Chester are tumbling through the subterranean Pore with the evil Rebecca twins in hot pursuit, both toting phials of the lethal Dominion virus. Just when the drop seems infinite, the boys hit bottom, and find themselves in a realm of near-zero gravity atop a giant spongy fungus stuffed with artifacts from some lost golden age. But they are not alone.

Dragonbreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs

by Ursula Vernon (available now, hardcover, Dial)

The Dreamer

written by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sis (April, hardcover, Scholastic) Neftali finds beauty and wonder everywhere: in the oily colors of mud puddles; a lost glove, sailing on the wind; the music of birds and language. He loves to collect treasures, daydream, and write––pastimes his authoritarian father thinks are for fools. Against all odds, Neftali prevails against his father’s cruelty and his own crippling shyness to become one of the most widely read poets in the world, Pablo Neruda. This moving story about the birth of an artist is also a celebration of childhood, imagination, and the strength of the creative spirit. Sure to inspire young writers and artists.

Danny Dragonbreath knew girls were trouble. But the new foreign exchange student, Suki the Salamander, is beyond trouble. Not only has she reduced his best friend, Wendell, to a blithering, lovesick tadpole, but she’s apparently the object of an elaborate ninja frog kidnapping plot. Danny is never one to pass up an adventure, so he and Wendell and Suki set out on a dangerous quest through the mythical Japanese bamboo forests to find out what the frogs want. Danny may not be able to breathe fire like a normal dragon, but he and Wendell have watched lots of kung fu movies and can totally take on a bunch of ninja frogs. Or, um, so he hopes . . .

Now (or soon) in PAPERBACK!

Savvy

by Ingrid Law (March, Puffin Books)

The Willoughbys

by Lois Lowry (March, Yearling Books)

White Sands, Red Menace

by Ellen Klages (April, Puffin Books)

Waiting for Normal

by Leslie Connor (available now, Katherine Tegen Books)

48

Spring 2010

If I Stay

by Gayle Forman (April, Speak) Building Community One Book at a Time

Young Adult Reads Party

by Tom Leveen (April, hardcover, Random House) It’s Saturday night in Santa Barbara and school is done for the year. Everyone is headed to the same party. Or at least it seems that way. The place is packed. The beer is flowing. Simple, right? But for 11 different people the motives are way more complicated. As each character takes a turn and tells his or her story, the eleven individuals intersect, and reconnect, collide, and combine in ways that none of them ever saw coming.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

by John Green and David Levithan (April, hardcover, Dutton) So I super-love John Green and I super-love David Levithan so when I heard that they were doing a book together, I almost swooned. And the book is indeed swoonworthy. Two guys, both named Will Grayson, end up in each other’s lives for all the weirdest reasons. And somehow, they both end up learning a little something about Will Grayson along the way. I know that sounds cheesy but, like me, you may get a little misty-eyed at the end of this one––if you don’t keel over from laughter first. ––Sarah

The Prince of Mist

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (May, hardcover, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) I didn’t read The Shadow of the Wind, even though I’ve had many people tell me I need to.

After reading The Prince of Mist, though, it may be time I do.

With some truly terrifying scenes (things crawling on ceilings that should not be crawling on ceilings is scary!) and clever, chilling details, this book is begging to be made into a movie. Read it before it is! ––Lindsey

The Line

by Teri Hall (March, hardcover, Dial) An invisible, uncrossable physical barrier encloses the Unified States.

The Line is the part of the border that lopped off part of the country, dooming the inhabitants to an unknown fate. It’s said that bizarre creatures and superhumans live on the other side, in Away. Nobody except old Ms. Moore would ever live next to the Line. Nobody but Rachel and her mother, who went to live there after Rachel’s dad died in the last war. It’s a safe, quiet life until Rachel finds a mysterious recorded message that can only have come from Away. Written by a Bellingham author!

Incarceron

by Catherine Fisher (available now, hardcover, Dial) I’m usually not a big sci-fi person but Incarceron sucked me in and then spat me out a few hundred pages later. Finn is on the inside of this Panopticonbased prison. Claudia is outside, and is also the warden’s daughter.

When Finn is determined to escape, he finds himself on a journey of epic proportions, foretelling the future and living out a prophecy, while Claudia is forced into a marriage for political gains. There’s no way of knowing who is pulling the strings in this one! ––Sarah

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

49

National

Children’s May Book 10 -16 Week th

th

A week dedicated to celebrating children’s books!

VB donates 10% of all kids’ book purchases made during Book Week to the children’s departments of the city and county libraries!

Friday, May 14, 7pm

Craig Orback Bring a canned food item to donate to the food bank.

Check out these awesome events!

–The Can Man Join illustrator Craig Orback as he shares his process of illustrating this touching picture book, reads the book, and offers an art exercise for kids of all ages.

Money is tight, and Tim’s family can’t afford to buy him a skate board for his birthday. Watching a local homeless man called The Can Man collect empty soft drink cans gives Tim the idea to collect cans too, and cash them in for the redemption money. Soon Tim has reached his goal—until a couple of chance encounters with The Can Man change everything. Award-winning children’s book illustrator, Craig Orback, teaches a children’s book illustration class at WCC. The Can Man is his 16th kid’s book.

Saturday, May 15, 2pm

Deborah Hopkinson

–The Humblebee Hunter Inspired by the Life and Experiments of Charles Darwin and his Children

The Humblebee Hunter recounts a fictionalized version of one of Darwin’s experiments: counting the number of flowers a humblebee (bumblebee) visits in a minute. Deborah Hopkinson is the author of award-winning books including Stagecoach Sal, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009; Keep On!, winner of a 2009 Oregon Book Award; and Apples to Oregon, winner of the Golden Kite Award. Like Darwin, she did research involving her family, bending over flowers to watch bees at work. So, how many blossoms does a bumblebee visit in one minute?

Sunday, May 16, 2pm

Pam Flowers

Includes Slide Show!

–Big Enough Anna

The Little Sled Dog Who Braved The Arctic

Anna may be the smallest dog in the litter, but she’s surely the most determined.

Record-breaking Arctic explorer Pam Flowers will read from Big Enough Anna, and share slides and stories from her 11-month, 2,500 mile solo dog-mushing expedition across the Arctic, a journey on which Anna played a pivotal role. Arctic adventurer Pam Flowers shares Anna’s amazing story in classrooms and auditoriums all over North America. Children learn that even the smallest, seemingly most powerless among us, are big enough to try their best.

In 1991, Outside magazine named Pam “Outsider of the Year.” Pam has completed the 1049 mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race, reached the Magnetic North Pole three times, traveled north over the frozen Arctic Ocean farther north than any other solo woman, and completed the longest solo dog sled journey on record by a woman.

50

Spring 2010

Building Community One Book at a Time

National

Children’s Book Week

“Reading makes me...”

Poster Contest

Celebrate your creativity for Children’s Book Week!

Our poster contest is back!

There’s no special form to use, simply draw a poster following the theme “Reading makes me...” and adding any word or phrase to complete that sentence. Then illustrate that idea. Posters must be hand-drawn (not computer generated), must be on white 8 1/2 by 11 paper, and may be drawn in full color. The poster must include the phrase created by the entrant that begins, “Reading makes me...” The name, age, school and grade, phone number, address, and email of the person creating the poster must be written on the back of the poster (we would recommend this be in pencil so that it does not bleed through to the other side). Posters must be submitted to Village Books by 9pm on Friday, April 9. They will be reviewed by a panel of judges and scored on creativity and how well they illustrate the phrase the entrant has created. Winning entrants in four age categories will be printed, in full color, and distributed to area schools and libraries.

Each winner will also receive a framed copy of his or her poster at a special celebration on Saturday, May 16 at 2pm - in conjunction with the Pam Flowers event!

Watch villagebooks.com or sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to find out about any additional Children’s Book Week events!

Saturday, March 6, 7pm

POLLY HORVATH Among Horvath’s many books are The Canning Season (recipient of the National Book Award and the YA Canadian Book of the Year), Everything on a Waffle (a Newbery Honor Book), and The Trolls (a National Book Award Finalist).

Another Event You Don’t Want to Miss...

–My One Hundred Adventures & –Northward to the Moon

Polly Horvath is one of the most highly acclaimed authors writing today. In My One Hundred Adventures, join the spirited and memorable Jane, a 12-year-old who discovers what lies at the heart of all great adventures: that it’s not what happens to you that matters, but what you learn about yourself. In Northward to the Moon, follow Jane and her family as they embark on a series of new adventures.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

51

Photo: Robin Bartholick

the premier guide to arts and entertainment happenings in the region

WAT C H O U T !

A DAY at the FIG might change your perspective.

Whatcom Museum’s Family Interactive Gallery (FIG) — fun for kids and their grownups.

Open noon-5, Tuesday — Sunday at the Lightcatcher building, Grand & Flora www.whatcommuseum.org

harris avenue CAFE

EVERY DAY 8AM - 2PM

1101 HARRIS AVENUE IN FAIRHAVEN

CLASSIC FAVORITES BEST MIMOSAS IN TOWN

PLAN, HOST, AND CATER YOUR PRIVATE PARTIES OR COMPANY GATHERINGS AT HARRIS AVENUE CAFE!

E-MAIL ROBIN

FOR MORE INFO PALADINRESTINC@GMAIL.COM

52

Spring 2010

visit www.ennw.info for distribution sites and advertising info

Are YOU Receiving VB E-vent mail Updates?

Once a week, Village Books sends out email newsletters packed full of store and book information including our latest LitLive events, sale dates, and coming soon, store coupons! If you’re not currently receiving these updates and would like to, you may sign up in the store or, even easier, do it on VillageBooks.com.

Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-9pm • Sun 11am-7pm

The

Chuckanut Radio Hour

The Chuckanut Radio Hour is a monthly radio variety show which is recorded live and features live music, the Poets’ Corner, author interviews, and an episode of the “Bellingham Bean.”

Thursday, March 25th

in the Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold

MARK SPRAGG & LAURA BELL The March 25th edition of the Chuckanut Radio Hour will have a real Western theme. Our guest authors, Mark Spragg and Laura Bell, hale from Wyoming and their books are strong evocations of the Western landscape. Ron Hardesty will bring his own style of music with a distinctive Western flavor and we’ll have Cowboy Poetry in the Poet’s Corner.

Tickets $5.00

Receive one free ticket with each pre-event, in-store purchase of either Bone Fire or Claiming Ground at Village Books.

Co-sponsored by The Leopold Retirement Residence

Thursday, April 22nd in the Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold

DAVID BOYD Event Tickets are available at Village Books & BrownPaperTickets.com

Join us in celebrating Earth Day, and in welcoming David Boyd, author of Dodging the Toxic Bullet: How to Protect Yourself from Everyday Environmental Health Hazards, to this Chuckanut Radio Hour! Dodging the Toxic Bullet presents practical and empowering strategies for identifying and avoiding health hazards. This is a must-have guide, especially for parents of infants and children. You'll also enjoy music by Whatcom Sound (a women’s vocal jazz group) and poetry by Jeremy Voight.

Receive one free ticket with each pre-event, in-store Tickets $5.00 purchase at Village Books of Dodging The Toxic Bullet.

Co-sponsored by the Leopold Retirement Residence

Thursday, May 20th

Our special Guest this month will be Kurt Hoelting, the author of The Circumference of Home: One Man’s Yearlong Quest for a Radically Local Life.

After realizing the gaping hole between his convictions about environmentalism and his own carbon footprint, Zen wilderness guide Kurt Hoelting embarked on a yearlong experiment: he traded in his car and air transportation for a kayak, a bike, and his own feet.

We will have live music by Brad Killion and the poet will be Michael Daley.

The Chuckanut Radio Hour can be heard every Saturday at 6pm and every Sunday at 9pm on...

KURT HOELTING in the Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold

Tickets $5.00 Co-sponsored by the Leopold Residence, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit RE-Sources, tonight’s other co-sponsor.

KMRE FM 102.3

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Turn the page to read about our special Anniversary Show in June!

Spring 2010

53

Thursday, June 17th, 7pm

at Boundary Bay Brewery

Chuckanut Radio Hour Celebrates 30 Years of a Bookstore and a Band On Thursday, June 17, the Chuckanut Radio Hour will celebrate thirty years of Village Books and the ever-popular Atlantics, who play––by their own description––boogie, pop rock, and good ol’ blues.

That’s right, 1980 was a great year for beginning bookstores and bands.

We’ll record the show in Boundary Bay’s beer garden beginning at 7pm, following the regular Thursday evening Happy Hour Barbecue.

The featured author will be none other than Chuckanut Radio Hour host, Chuck Robinson, who will be interviewed about his book, It Takes a Village Books: 30 Years of Building Community, One Book at a Time, the story of thirty years in a community bookstore. The Atlantics will play during the show and the audience is invited to stay around and listen and dance to the band after the show. The show will also include its usual comedy and poetry. And, you can sample Boundry Bay’s “Anniversary Ale,” brewed specially for this occasion.

Admission is FREE!

Enjoy great meals at these independently owned restaurants!

AW Asian Bistro Enjoy the fine art of Asian Dining!

•Chinese • Vietnamese •Thai • Sushi Bar open daily for Lunch & Dinner 12th & Mill in Historic Fairhaven • 715-3028

PA S TA & P I Z Z A

offering now PIZZ Barkley Village 54

Spring 2010

! zz a zz

a A with P 360.714.1168

Shop 24 hours a day at www.VillageBooks.com

PNBA BOOK AWARDS 2009 PACIFIC NORTHWEST BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNERS

Each year since 1965, the PNBA Awards have celebrated exceptional books written

by Northwest authors. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

2009 The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire that Saved America

by Timothy Egan of Seattle, Washington In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with the Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America and the tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt’s legacy in the land.

Boneshaker

by Cherie Priest of Seattle, Washington In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born. But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

All in a Day

by Cynthia Rylant of Lake Oswego, Oregon illustrated by Nikki McClure of Olympia, Washington

The Collector:

David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest by Jack Nisbet of Spokane, Washington

Jack Nisbet first told the story of British explorer David Thompson, who mapped the Columbia River, in his acclaimed book Sources of the River, which set the standard for research and narrative biography for the region. Now Nisbet turns his attention to David Douglas, the premier botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest and throughout other areas of western North America. Douglas’s discoveries include hundreds of western plants--most notably the Douglas Fir.

The Crying Tree

by Naseem Rakha

of Silverton, Oregon

Irene and Nate Stanley are living a quiet and contented life with their two children, Bliss and Shep, on their family farm in southern Illinois when Nate suddenly announces he’s been offered a job as a deputy sheriff in Oregon. Irene fights her husband. She does not want to uproot her family and has deep misgivings about the move.

Nevertheless, the family leaves, and they are just settling into their life in Oregon’s high desert when the unthinkable happens. Fifteen-yearold Shep is shot and killed during an apparent robbery in their home.

The accused murderer, a young mechanic with a history of assault, robbery, and drug-related offenses, is caught, tried and sentenced to death.

This lovely book illuminates all the possibilities a day offers -- the opportunities and chances that won’t ever come again -- and also delivers a gentle message of good stewardship of our planet. Newbery Medal winner Cynthia Rylant’s poetic text, alongside Nikki McClure’s stunning, meticulously crafted cut-paper art, makes this picture book not only timeless but appealing to all ages, from one to one hundred.

360-671-2626 • 800-392-BOOK • www.villagebooks.com

Spring 2010

55

1200 11th St. Bellingham, WA 98225 360.671.2626 www.VillageBooks.com

Whatcom County’s Favorite Bookstore since 1980 Building Community One Book at a Time

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 200 BELLINGHAM WA

VB About to Celebrate Thirty Years People, especially older folks, often comment on how quickly the years pass and, as we get ready to celebrate VB’s 30th Anniversary, we have to nod in agreement. Though it has whizzed by, “what a long strange trip it’s been,” to quote the Grateful Dead. We’ve seen huge changes in the publishing and bookselling business, not to mention the technological breakthroughs of the past three decades.

One of the ways we’ll celebrate our 30th is with a book that Chuck is writing that captures some of the changes and some of the stories of the first 30 years of Village Books.

We’ll publish the book just before the anniversary on our Espresso Book Machine. We’re also planning quite a number of events so stay tuned for more details.

As we’ve often said through the years, we certainly couldn’t have done this without your unflagging support. Thank you!