David Scherer Water: Making Sense of Olympia

Tuesday, May 7, 2019 – 7:00pm

There are five primary forces that created modern Olympia.

If you only understood the history of these five forces, and how they continue to play out in strikingly unique and weird ways, you’ll be well on your way to making sense of Olympia (and better equipped to change it).

Join us on Tuesday, May 7 at 7:00 PM as we welcome local historian, activist and comedian David Scherer Water to discuss his book: MAKING SENSE OF OLYMPIA. 

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Scherer Water has spent the last 28 years in Olympia. He spent the last two writing this book, an offering to the place that has sustained and encouraged him. This is essential reading for activists, tourists, long-time residents, and newcomers. This book follows two others, The Writer’s Handbook, a self-help guide for aspiring authors and Twenty-Three, a collection of humorous poems written under the pen name Fezdak Clamchopbreath.

May Notes

We had such a full, lovely weekend at the store – both Arts Walk and Independent Bookstore Day were successful AND enjoyable. We think over 1,000 people came through the store on Friday night alone! Thank you for coming downtown, for supporting Browsers and local businesses in general. Our Arts Walk artist, Jimmy Ulvenes, will have his work upstairs through the end of May so please stop by and see it! There are still a few unsold paintings.

Last Sunday, after two full days at the store, I spent much of my day outside reading Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl, a memoir of the author’s time running Gourmet magazine. The book is generous and warm and includes recipes which is about my favorite thing in a book. It feels so good to read a whole book in a day. To add to the amazingness of Sunday we watched the third episode of the last season of Game of Thrones. WHOA. We had to pause it several times for me to do some deep breathing. So stressful but so good!

After a packed April, May is a really chill month at the store. I am not sorry about it! I plan to read a ton. I am looking forward to finishing Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (really good so far) and then dive into Spring by Ali Smith (the third novel in her Seasons Quartet) and How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. April was busy but I still read and loved Women Talking by Miriam Toews, based on a real-life situation in a Mennonite community, this novel is unlike anything I have read before and absolutely worth your time. On a lighter note, I loved  the personal essays by cartoonist and bookseller,  I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott.

      

Hope you are reading something good,
Andrea

Links We Love: May

We finally have copies in the store of the Mueller report with commentary by The Washington Post: A Book Critic Reviews the Mueller Report as Literature. [Slate]

Earth Day was last week but really, Every Day is Earth Day: 365 Books to Start Your Climate Change Library.[LitHub]

This is thoughtful and interesting: To understand the #MeToo movement, turn to the novel. [NYTimes]

Northwood: A Novella

Kathryn’s Staff Pick:

Northwood: A Novella by Maryse Meijer

This book is haunting and beautiful. A novella told via poetic entries of varying length and form, it details the formation, rise, and fall of a violent affair between an isolated woman and an older, married man. I love the cover and pages of this book too!

No Mud No Lotus

Clare’s Staff Pick:

No Mud No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh

Here, Thich Nhat Hanh shares his knowledge of welcoming suffering and pain as friend and teacher. Instead of running or hiding from bad feelings, Hanh suggests that we acknowledge them. Instead of pushing them away, we can sit with them to understand what feeds them, and in doing so, generate compassion and understanding for our own suffering and the suffering of others. Instead of dreading bad feelings, we can welcome them because they are what make good feelings feel good. This is at the heart of the title, for we cannot have the beautiful, fragrant lotus flower without the ugly, smelly mud, which sweetly feeds roots. Hanh offers meditations, breathing exercises, and poetic wisdom that will leave you softly smiling and joyfully present.

Hal Schrieve: Out of Salem

Monday April 22, 2019 – 7:00pm

Join us as we celebrate the Olympia launch of Hal Schrieve’s debut novel, Out of Salem on Monday, April 22 at 7:00 PM. Hal grew up in Olympia and will talk about and sign hir first novel.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Z Chilworth, a genderqueer fourteen-year-old witch, has just been killed in a car crash, along with their parents and sisters. Yet, somehow, Z has woken up—this time as a zombie. Struggling to adjust to their newfound status as a member of the undead, Z also finds that their ability to use witchcraft has begun todecay along with the rest of their body. Faced with rejection from their remaining family members and old friends, Z moves in with an elderly witch named Mrs. Dunnigan, and befriends a loud would-be-goth classmate (and fellow loner) Aysel. While Z struggles to repair the broken magical seal holding their body together, Aysel fears that her classmates will discover her status as an unregistered werewolf. Then a local psychiatrist is murdered, and the primary culprit is a pack of werewolves. In the ensuing investigation, the small town of Salem, Oregon becomes even more hostile to these so-called monsters.

Driven together by circumstance, Z and Aysel fight to survive in a place where most people wish that neither of them existed, and make it to the 10th grade.

“Tension burns hot until the explosive conclusion, which begs for a sequel. On fire with magic and revolution.” —Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“Schrieve’s queer vision of a monster-infested ‘90s is rich in metaphor and rife with meaning.” —Kyle Lukoff, librarian and author of When Aidan Became A Brother

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
HAL SCHRIEVE grew up in Olympia, Washington, and is competent at making risotto and setting up a tent. Xie has worked as an after-school group leader, a summer camp counselor, a flower seller, a tutor, a grocer, and a babysitter. Hir current ambition is to become a librarian. Xie has a BA in history with a minor in English from University of Washington and studies library science at Queens College, New York. Xie lives in Brooklyn, New York, and hir poetry has appeared in Vetch magazine. This is hir first novel.

Quote of the Week

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Poetry Night: Jeff Hansen + Mary Kasimor + Alejandro de Acosta

Thursday, April 11, 2019 – 7:00pm

Please join us for our quarterly poetry reading at Browsers Bookshop. Our spring reading will feature both local and visiting poets: Jeff Jansen from Minneapolis who currently writes asemic style poetry, local poet Mary Kasimor experiments with the visual in her poems, and a special group reading of Seattle poet Joshua Beckman’s “Mechanical Poems” lead by local poet Alejandro de Acosta. This is sure to be an engaging and imaginative evening.

Jefferson Hansen is the author, most recently, of 100 Hybrids (Post-Asemic Press). He is also the author of a book of short stories, Cruelty, and a novel, And Beefheart Saved Craig. He lives in Minneapolis.

Mary Kasimor who has been writing poetry for many years, considers her work experimental. Her recent poetry collections are The Landfill Dancers (BlazeVox Books 2014),Saint Pink (Moria Books 2015), The Prometheus Collage (Locofo Press 2017), and Nature Store (Dancing Girl Press 2017). Her poetry has been published in many journals, including Word For/Word, Touch the Donkey, Posit, Human Repair Kit, Arteidolia (collaboration with Susan Lewis), and Otoliths.

Alejandro de Acosta will be leading a collective reading of Joshua Beckman’s “Mechanical Poems”, a form of poetry invented by Beckman for groups to share and enjoy. He is a teacher, writer, and translator, in no particular order; he also works in publishing. In Austin, Texas he founded mufa::poema, a micropress that freely distributed a dozen poetry and prose chapbooks. His poetry translations include Micrograms by Jorge Carrera Andrade and Five Meters of Poems by Carlos Oquendo de Amat. He is currently working on a series of philosophy talks and a cycle of moral and gnomic sonnets.

 

TRL Event: J.A. Jance at Capital Event Center

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 – 2:00pm

Capital Event Center

6005 Tyee Drive SW

Tumwater, WA 98512

 

Browsers is selling books at this Tumwater Timberland Library event held at the Capital Event Center.

Come and join author J.A. Jance as she discusses her latest book The A List at the Capital Event Center. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ali Reynolds series, the J.P. Beaumont series, and the Joanna Brady series, as well as five interrelated Southwestern thrillers featuring the Walker family. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona. Visit her online at JAJance.com.