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Bernice is new to our shop but well known to a generation of young readers on the island. Known as the Reading Buddies Lady for 10 years at the public library, Bernice has helped out at KRL, Blakely library, and Sakai library. She loves matching readers young and old with the perfect book! Along with her two outrageously fun teenagers and their big black lab, she delights in exploring nature, doing crafts of all sorts, and enjoying the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.
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Recently escaped from Azkaban, this Browncoat enjoys beers, books and bumming through local areas playing at tourist. Her reading interests are constantly at war, from trenchant historical and science works to the bewitching allure of YA fantasy and science fiction.
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Dave and his wife Jane own the bookstore. Unlike everyone else there, he knows nothing about the business - but from constantly asking questions, he’s trying to learn. The staff very much hopes he’ll succeed before he starts coming up with ideas he’d like them to implement. A trial lawyer in his prior life and now a part-time human rights lawyer focusing on Africa, he’s looking at the ways in which the bookstore can be a forum for critical issues. Examples include increasing diversity on the island, confronting xenophobia, racism, and considering the distinction between freedom of speech and hate speech.
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Pacific Northwest native, David Perry joined us in September 2019 after teaching practical ethics in undergrad and grad schools for 24 years. He's published a book, Partly Cloudy: Ethics in War, Espionage, Covert Action, and Interrogation (2nd ed. 2016), and over 50 articles. His eclectic musical tastes range from Debussy to Ella Fitzgerald to Fountains of Wayne, and his favorite cartoons are Invader Zim and Bob's Burgers. (The photo shows him with a distant relative at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.)
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For nearly 10 years before she owned the bookstore with her husband Dave, she’s been a bookseller here. Her previous gigs included serving as the Events Manager, management committee member, and becoming a journeyman book buyer. At least, almost one. She focuses on our body, mind, soul and religions collections. She’s been involved in hosting events, and becoming pals with all of the weird and wonderful people who make this community great. She loves nothing more than to be astonished by the latest brilliant novel. But buyer beware, stop her from telling you a book’s ending that you’re thinking about buying since she has somewhat of a problem controlling her blood/sugar balance when she gets excited about the book in question. That said, it’s nothing compared to her passion for all things relating to baseball.
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Jenna is the store's Albus Dumbledore, who does for us what Hogwarts' principal did for Harry Potter and his pals. She comes to our rock from Florida, a faraway land where a magical park opens its doors to muggles and turns them into wizards. Even though she's developing a Wizarding World museum at home, she actually reads adult books. And in 2020, she plans on voting for the presidential candidate who gets both the majority of the votes and actually becomes the President.
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An Island Treasure and award-winning poet, John also runs our Poetry Section. He takes our various staff recommendations and polishes them till they shine. Ever since he was hired in 1991, he’s been championing the works of his favorite poets (Sharon Olds, Wislawa Szymborska, Ted Kooser, Theodore Roethke, Gary Snyder) and assorted authors (Cormac McCarthy, Kate Atkinson, Ian McEwan, Ruth Ozeki, etc.). He also has led a poetry workshop on the island since 1992. Otherwise, he cooks, hikes and makes sure all of us newcomers don’t unduly mess with the bookstore’s storied traditions and its culture.z
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Kathie's formative years were as a school secretary and library assistant, making her transition to nearly any of the various jobs in the bookstore a natural fit; Book Group Coordinator, Sideline assistant and a helping hand in the world of displays. She likes reading historical fiction and if you see her in the children’s section most likely she will remind you how wonderful Stuart Little is and how to this day she can remember reading Island of the Blue Dolphins on the floor of her public library. Funny she should end up living on an island herself.
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Her comfort book is Jane Austen's Persuasion, and when not feeding that obsession, tilts towards our staff rec’s section for her next read. Apparently drawing on Sir Edmund Hillary’s reason for climbing Mt. Everest, she’s decided to learn Polish. After sort of becoming an adult in Michigan, she’s been slowly migrating west ever since. She claims no current plan to end up in Neah Bay.
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Book reader, tea drinker, and animal lover. A local of the island since she was tiny, she ventured south to California for college but the northwest called her home. She is fully immersed in fantasy books and it can be hard to pull her out. Her other reading tastes include mystery, historical fiction, and YA. She collects weird fun facts, goes world traveling, solves British mystery shows, and enjoys watching Bainbridge wildlife
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Not every bookstore employs a graduate of the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. Her retired librarian chops, though, may be more what you’re looking for as you seek refuge from Winslow Way. She’s also the pit crew boss of our Mystery Book and Readers’ Circle Book groups, coordinates our consignment program and will send you towards a pulse-pounding thriller if you let her.
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Her patch of turf at the bookstore is directly off the front desk so Victoria can hover, hover, hover over everything that’s happening; liaising with authors in her capacity as our Events Manager, engaging in every in and off-site store activity, and discharging her informal bookstore hostess duties. She survived Columbia Journalism graduate school and living on the east coast for 30 years nicely, and returned home 8 years ago. She’s also our e-book and audiobook expert, and is passionate about non-fiction and social justice issues. Just don’t even try to keep her attention with any of that, however, if she hears anyone in the store mention the word “bird” in a sentence.
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Kathleen
