Weathered Pages . He has also received the prestigious Pushcart Prize and awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, the Artist Trust of Washington and the King County Arts Commission. John leads a poetry writing workshop through the Bainbridge Island Park District and would like to note that Cormac McCarthy is the greatest living American novelist.
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780865471184
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Published: North Point Press, 1/1982
Beryl Markham was a pioneering bush pilot in Africa and an aviatrix who set global distance marks. It wasn’t just her daring that earned this memoir number eight on National Geographic’s list of The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time. What also makes Markham’s book an engrossing read are the grace, lyricism, and vividness of her writing as she recounts her coming of age in Africa, her love of horses and flying, and her feelings of affinity for the land and its people. Highly recommended for fans of the wild or those with an African itinerary. ~ John
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781400082773
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Published: Broadway, 8/2004
Barack Obama is a marvelous and inspiring writer and his gifts with language are engaging and profound. I really enjoyed the extra reward of “hearing” his voice as I read this memoir. With a fine sense of detail and dialogue, he tells of his youth in Hawaii, his further education on the mainland at institutions of higher learning and as an organizer and social activist on the gritty streets of Chicago, and his difficulties and breakthroughs in searching out his roots in Africa and the mystery of his father. This is a great work in the American vein, yet one that reveals the origins of global consciousness he brought to the White House. ~ John
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9780060504083
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Published: Harper Perennial, 4/2003
In these beautifully powerful and wide-ranging essays, Kingsolver brings her passion to bear on large issues—globalism, war and genocide, genetically engineered foods, hunger and homelessness—while embracing the virtues of conservation, wild places, buying organic and locally grown foods, biodiversity, sustainable living, poetry, basic human kindness, and, yes, independent bookstores. Yet she writes as though she's speaking to you over coffee, and her words spring from the ground of specific observations in the places where she lives and visits: a bobcat seen outside a window of her home in the Tucson hills, scarlet macaws spotted in a Costa Rican jungle, a clutch of eggs gathered from her daughter Lily's chicken coop. How fortunate we are to have a brilliant novelist whose keyboard clicks every bit as lively for her nonfiction. ~ John
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780140263350
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Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 3/1998
This story of a Korean mother and her Korean-American daughter conveys in beautiful, gently powerful prose, the essence of how a mother and daughter can be intimate yet impossibly estranged by ghosts and the demons of history. I was tremendously moved by the graceful melding of brutality and tenderness, madness and magic, in one of the finest first novels I have read. ~John
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9781400076536
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Published: Vintage, 9/2004
A terrible beauty permeates this epic novel of Haiti's revolution in the 1790s. Sweeping in scope, at times bloody, violent and terrifying, it unfolds the event's complexity from all levels of Haitian society, and in so doing throws light on unresolved issues of slavery in our own country. A stunning success. ~John
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780802139252
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Published: Atlantic Monthly Press, 8/2002
Not since Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain have I longed to recommend a novel to almost everyone I know, for the sheer magic of its story-telling. Having as its main characters an asthmatic eleven-year-old boy, his nine-year-old sister who writes heroic verse set in the Old West, and their father, a high school janitor whose faith bears remarkable powers, the story revolves around their search for a lost older brother in the Badlands of North Dakota. Along the way, through beautifully descriptive and figurative language and a narrative voice that possesses both humor and wisdom, the author gives us glimpses into the true nature of miracles, forgiveness, and difficult decisions. This moving page-turner is a true wonder, and gave me goose bumps at its conclusion. ~ John
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9780375701238
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Published: Vintage, 7/1998
Published two years after the author's death, this novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957, and remains one of the most beautiful works in the American language. Death and family-Agee renders the collision of these in the most intimate, tender, and eloquent terms. His book is unparalleled for the sheer brilliance of its poetry, for its nuanced evocations of affection, grief, and the ways we think and feel, and for its loving attention to the gestures of everyday life.
$12.95
ISBN-13: 9780874806441
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Published: University of Utah Press, 2/2000
Holding this selection of poems published in The Amicus Journal between 1990 and 2000, you can dip into it anywhere and come face to face with a clear-eyed, accessible, luminously intimate encounter taking place in the realm of nature. In this welcoming volume you will find William Stafford on gulls, Wendell Berry up a cedar tree, Philip Booth rescuing a bumblebee, and a generous handful of poems by Mary Oliver, who provides the book's generous introduction. Composed of transcendent yet well grounded moments, this book will serve as your friend for the back yard, the study, the city or the forest. ~John
$20.95
ISBN-13: 9780671526726
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Published: Pocket Books, 3/1997
This beautiful novel, written through the eyes of a Toshi, a young Tokyo cartoonist who grew up in a remote Japanese village, deftly interweaves the meanings of friendship, love, identity, and family. Toshi's often bewildering relationships with Americans offer cross-cultural glimpses, which are by, turns funny, tender, and sad. I loved this book. ~John
$9.00
ISBN-13: 9780679783336
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Published: Modern Library, 11/2000
This turn-of-the-century novel of Edna Pontellier's struggles with sensual and spiritual self-discovery remains a classic to this day, elegant and delicious, every bit as liberating now as it was then, though it was widely banned when first published. Set in New Orleans and the Gulf resort of Grand Isle, it offers an intimate view of Southern life along with Edna's encounters with love, art, and unnamable longing. It was a joy to re-read this gem from my college curriculum. ~John
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780140280494
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Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 9/1999
Yet another lyrical, moving book by a tremendously gifted writer. The voice of Amabelle, the Haitian narrator, is deft, hypnotic, and gentle, yet cuts like a machete to the marrow of the horror during a tragic conflict between the people of her homeland and the Dominican Republic. The ensuing sadness and loss are redeemed by utterly beautiful language that transforms this novel into a profound meditation on love and the meaning of home. ~John
$10.95
ISBN-13: 9781565122208
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Published: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 9/1998
Many of you are by now aware of my belief regarding Lewis Nordan as one of the most singularly brilliant writers working today. He only gets better. Set on a Mississippi llama farm, this coming of age novel, achingly tender and hilariously surreal, remains true to the human spirit. It spins a landscape of wonder and magic, rendered in prose that sings right off the page. ~John
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9781573228282
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Published: Riverhead Trade, 10/2000
The narrator of this elegantly written, exquisitely heartbreaking novel is an upper middle class Japanese man of Korean birth, a successful small businessman living in upstate New York. His outer calm and quiet voice mask inner conflicts centering on memories of his relationship with a Korean comfort woman while serving as a medic in a WWII Japanese army camp. This, in turn, comes to bear on his relationship with his adopted daughter. With deft understatement and restraint, the author unfolds issues of race, identity, community, the experience of being a stranger to oneself, and the hunger for love and forgiveness. This poignantly beautiful book was one of my top five favorites of 1999. ~John
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9780767903387
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Broadway, 3/1999
This toothsome and affectionate memoir, punctuated by some of the author's favorite recipes, opens with "The Queen of Mold"-a mother dangerously inventive in the kitchen-and unfolds, memory by memory, with dishes richly infusing Reichel's life experiences. Thoroughly engaging, funny and wise, this book is a delight. ~John
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781400034291
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Published: Vintage, 3/2005
THE DEW BREAKER
$18.00
ISBN-13: 9780312276973
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Published: Picador, 10/2001
I loved this hot, tightly wound and wild novel about a sister and brother named Abilene and Austin who train at a deserted Texas bomber base so that he can become a "fireballer" pitcher like their hero, Nolan Ryan. Weaving baseball and manic depression into a harrowing and heartrending love story, it kept me wondering how it would all end. Fast-paced, finely written, and terrifically unlike anything I have ever read.
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780140296402
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Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 11/2000
Never have I been more compelled by a novel whose main character?s traits and ethics I have every reason to abhor. This 1999 winner of Britain?s Booker Prize opens with the sexual exploits of a university professor in Johannesburg, then moves, as a consequence of his actions, to his daughter?s rural landholding and a single terrifying incident. At every step along the way, it tears at distinctions between good and evil, right and wrong, until the whole question of morality becomes an unknowable puzzle. It also offers keen insights on the land and people of post-apartheid South Africa, the legacy of race, and the nature of human dignity. I feel truly grateful for this difficult yet intensely engaging work. ~ John
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780684838465
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Published: Simon & Schuster, 10/2000
This is one of those I-can't-believe-I'm-reading-this novels: intensely imaginative, gripping, potent, and funny all at once. Definitively 60s noir in its essence, it's a no-holds-barred night journey told in horrifying detail, from the perspectives of Roberta Rohbeson at ages 11 (1967) and 16 (1971). The younger Roberta is on a yearlong, darkly crazy road trip with her dangerous, dementedly wise father. Roberta's odyssey at 16 takes her through a bleak landscape pocked with Seattle landmarks, having as her companions a couple of acid-tripping youths who introduce her to a more sinister hallucinogen called Creeper. Short chapters punctuated by the author's evocative illustrations enhance the power of this blood-spattered tale. An awesome trip in every sense of the word, this is a book I couldn't put down. ~John
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780385312370
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Published: Delta, 8/1994
Never have I met a character at once so chilling and endearing as young Francie in this brilliantly written novel. McCabe transfixes us through Francie's interior voice, and thus we become intimate with his keen observations, with his sorrow and hallucinatory humor, his pain and heart breaking love. This is an utterly astonishing work. ~John
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780553381542
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Published: Dial Press Trade Paperback, 3/2002
What a great story! Conroy is passionate about his characters-the tumultuous Wingo family in the lowcountry of South Carolina-and the landscape of coastal islands and salt marshes against which their lives are played out. Of the Wingo twins, one, a poet named Savannah, gravitates to New York City. Her brother Tom comes to her aid when tragedy enters her life, and thus begins a series of flashbacks beginning with their childhood. Their affection for each other, and for their older brother Luke, and their relationship with their strong-willed parents, form the nucleus of a plot that propelled me like no other. I couldn't spend enough time reading this novel, and I can't imagine a more perfect read for the airplane or the beach. ~ John
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780140280463
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Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 3/1999
This first novel beautifully melds the stories of two women-a Japanese housewife, and a Japanese-American documentary film maker whose job it to market beef to Japanese households with a television series called "My American Wife!" By turns hilarious, warm, and eye opening, it affected my relationship with beef and my outlook on life itself. The wonder of this book made it very difficult to put down. ~John
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780142003893
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Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 3/2004
All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki.
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780060557553
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Published: Amistad, 6/2004
The premise of this compelling page-turner-a black man who owns slaves in 19th-century Virginia plantation country-serves as the springboard for a masterful exploration of the pivotal American issue of race. The stately beauty, authority and authenticity of Jones' writing lay the groundwork for an intricate yet accessible tale that involves a mosaic of memorable characters-overseer, slaves, masters black and white, free blacks, and whites of various stations and means. Vivid language that unveils without compromise the nuances, complexities, and profound truths of the peculiar American institution makes this a must-read for anyone interested in great literature. A novel for the ages. ~ John
$28.99
ISBN-13: 9780060899196
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Published: William Morrow, 12/2005
Wow! I was wrapping this for a customer as a gift, took a peek inside, and now I have a growing list of those to whom I'd like to give it. The editor of this book handed out post cards to strangers and also left them in public places, inviting people to write down a secret they had never told anyone and mail it to Warren anonymously. This collection is diverse and complex, capturing a huge spectrum of emotions. The messages originate in situations that range from mundane (page 29 top) to dire (page 211.) Though some entries disquiet me, I find the whole a moving demonstration of healing through art. As I read each card I ask myself, "What would my PostSecret be?" What would yours be? -- John
$18.95
ISBN-13: 9780743258074
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Published: Simon & Schuster, 6/2004
I have had a life-long fantasy of hosting one of my heroes, Benjamin Franklin, on a tour of the modern world. Given his imaginative curiosity about the processes of nature and the ways knowledge of that realm could be put to practical use, I believe he would by fascinated yet not surprised at where some of his discoveries have led. Isaacson's engaging biography takes us beyond the image of the kite-flying inventor of the lightning rod, bifocals and swim fins, beyond the spinner of adages about fish and house guests and pennies earned, to the whole, complicated Franklin. This unsparing yet appreciative look at "the most accomplished American of his age," in Isaacson's words, shows Franklin in the light of his times and our own. In so doing, it gives us a vivid portrait of a man whose virtues seem to be growing rare in public figures, virtues including pragmatism, tolerance-religious and otherwise-respect for the individual, humility, lack of pretense, and opposition to arbitrary authority. ~ John
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9780812973433
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Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 6/2006
A novel of the Oregon Trail that richly details the westward odyssey, and a moving portrait of the collisions and confluences of European and Indian cultures.
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780553381900
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Published: Dial Press Trade Paperback, 8/2003
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy.
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780802141675
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Published: Grove Press, 3/2005
By turns poetic, gritty, poignant, ironic, and outrageously funny, a fiction collection that gives us life on the Spokane Indian Reservation through mythic and contemporary eyes.
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780140089370
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Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 11/1987
A modern classic whose masterful imagery placed me directly in a camp of Montana Blackfeet at a turning point in their civilization.
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780802142221
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Published: Grove Press, 8/2005
These poems-each a distinct marvel and an invention in the finest sense of the word-are tight bundles of idea, image, and rhyme, bearing initial surprises like sparks, then offering much to ponder on successive readings. Thought-provoking in their brevity, plain-spoken yet often surreal, they derive their imagery and pleasure, their odd truths and their playfulness, from the everyday life that surrounds us.
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780142004418
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Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 7/2004
Quite likely the most delightful book I've ever read and destined to be an all-time favorite, Durrell's memoir of his youth as a budding naturalist on the Greek isle of Corfu is a joy and a balm to one's cares. As lyrically insightful describing flora and fauna as he is detailing the comedic foibles of his family and the local population, he infuses his tale with warmth and a sense of wonder. Save this enormously satisfying book for your next vacation.
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9781556592010
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Published: Copper Canyon Press, 1/2004
The locales of Kooser's poems are familiar: a garage sale (page 80), a cancer clinic (page 7), a kitchen ("Apple Sauce," page 32). Yet through their clarity, their plainspoken heart, and figurative language that borders on the miraculous-see the central metaphor in "A Rainy Morning," page 15-we view this world in ways that both startle and welcome us. A closely observed, evocative collection, this was an excellent companion on a backpacking trip in the Olympic Mountains, where I read it all the way through-a rare occurrence for me and poetry books. Bravo, Mr. Kooser, for being named U.S. Poet Laureate! ~ John
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780684846941
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Published: Scribner, 5/1998
Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price. So many great writers come from the American South, and Reynolds Price is among the greatest. Rising to one of literature's greatest challenges for a man-writing from a female perspective-he gives voice to a heroine who tells us her story as though we were seated comfortably with her in the same parlor. And what a story it is, marked by tragedy, loss, and hard-earned wisdom in her early teens and extending into the present of her mid-fifties. Kate has a terrific way with similies- "deaf as a biscuit," "mean as a cold axe," "tired as a wheel," "blind as bricks," "dead as a plow"-and she weaves passion, personal philosophy, survival and unforgettable characters into a compelling fabric. This recipient of the 1986 National Book Critics Circle Award is a winner in every sense of the word ~ John
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780812967586
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Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 6/2007
This novel possesses the beauty that places Frazier in the top rank of American fiction writers-indelible vividness of imagery in scene after marvelous scene; breathtaking lyricism; sterling humor, irony and wit; and a voice that places us on intimate terms with characters and the landscapes in which they move. Will, the protagonist, makes certain fateful decisions that delineate him sharply in relation not only to Claire, the love of his life, but to the character of early America, the force of westward expansion, and the near-annihilation of American Indian peoples and ways. Through Will and two compelling Indian figures-Bear, a chief who adopts Will at an early age; and Featherstone, a some-time adversary and friend-we gather insights into the Cherokee vision of the world, concepts of land and its ownership, and the complex border regions between Indian, white, and mixed-blood peoples. The sweep of this work held me through two consecutive readings. ~ John
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780449006153
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Published: Ballantine Books, 5/2000
This startling and vivid novel seamlessly traces a Union sharpshooter's encounters during the Civil War, and his dark journeys as a disfigured businessman in post-war Manhattan. Scene after memorable scene, with authentic diction and a stunning, cinematic style that puts you right in the line of fire and on the squalid urban scene, this book sparks the historical imagination. It's a profound look into the impact of wars and why we fight them, into the meaning of slavery and freedom, into America's dark heart. One of my favorite books of '99.
$19.99
ISBN-13: 9780060930172
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Published: Harper Perennial, 5/1999
This cornucopia, celebrating the senses as avenues toward Eros, teems with gustatory pleasures. Lavishly illustrated and augmented by recipes, it embodies the ways that food and cooking are gifts of love. Life is too short for Kitchen Table Wisdom--take these luscious delights instead! ~John
$13.00
ISBN-13: 9780380797639
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Harper Perennial, 4/1999
This endearing and highly engaging novel revolves around the written correspondence between a precocious, persistent and ingenious Brooklyn youth named Joey Margolis and Charlie Banks, star hitter and third baseman for the New York Giants. Their relationship begins to unfold in 1940, and as time passes we get glimpses of developments in the nation and the world through news headlines and Joey's periodic letters of advice to Franklin D. Roosevelt. A unique reading experience with a quirky sense of humor and great heart, this book is one-of-a-kind. Take it on your next flight, take it to the beach, take it to the nearest Adirondack chair on a sunny lawn. It's the perfect summer read. ~ John
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780812973013
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Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1/2004
Beautifully written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Home Town, The Soul of a New Machine, and Among Schoolchildren, this book tells the story of a remarkable and inspiring doctor who has fought tuberculosis and AIDS epidemics in some of the most wretched places on earth, including the central plateau of Haiti, a slum in Lima, Peru, and in Siberian prisons. Mountains Beyond Mountains, like a bracing ray of light in a dark and cynical time, gave me perspectives not only on global health crises, but also on the power of the individual to change the world. -- John
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780375713040
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Vintage, 3/2002
Having as their setting Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, a place caught between modernization and the pull of traditional culture, these haunting, quietly moving and elegiac stories evoke themes of loss, exile, dislocation, and the search for identity; and find redemption in family, clan, and the handing down of stories through generations and across the span between old and new worlds. Stunning in its beauty albeit almost heart-breakingly sad, this is the strongest short story collection I have read. ~ John
