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2010-04-29T08:58:00.001-07:00

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending Feb. 14, 2010

2010-02-18T12:42:00.000-08:00

Northwest Bestsellers, wk of Jan. 24, 2010

2010-01-28T14:19:00.000-08:00

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Help
Kathryn Stockett, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, $24.95, 9780399155345
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire
Stieg Larsson, Knopf, $25.95, 9780307269980
3. The Lacuna
Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $26.99, 9780060852573
4. Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel, Holt, $27, 9780805080681
5. Noah's Compass
Anne Tyler, Knopf, $25.95, 9780307272409
6. The Swan Thieves
Elizabeth Kostova, Little Brown, $26.99, 9780316065788
7. War Dances
Sherman Alexie, Grove, $23, 9780802119193
8. Half Broke Horses
Jeannette Walls, Scribner, $26, 9781416586289
9. The First Rule
Robert Crais, Putnam, $26.95, 9780399156137
10. Remarkable Creatures
Tracy Chevalier, Dutton, $26.95, 9780525951452

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Stones Into Schools
Greg Mortenson, Viking, $26.95, 9780670021154
2. Committed
Elizabeth Gilbert, Viking, $26.95, 9780670021659
3. Born to Run
Christopher McDougall, Knopf, $24.95, 9780307266309
4. Game Change
John Heilemann, Mark Halperin, Harper, $27.99, 9780061733635
5. The Big Burn
Timothy Egan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9780618968411
6. What the Dog Saw
Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown, $27.99, 9780316075848
7. Half the Sky
Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Knopf, $27.95, 9780307267146
8. The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
Norton, $24.95, 9780393061024
9. The Checklist Manifesto
Atul Gawande, Metropolitan, $24.50, 9780805091748
10. The Collector
Jack Nisbet, Sasquatch, $23.95, 9781570616136

MASS MARKET

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $7.99, 9780307473479
2. Dear John
Nicholas Sparks, Grand Central, $7.99, 9780446567336
3. The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold, Little Brown, $7.99, 9780316044400
4. Ender in Exile
Orson Scott Card, Tor, $7.99, 9780765344151
5. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition
Merriam-Webster, $7.50, 9780877799290
6. The Road
Cormac McCarthy, Vintage, $7.99, 9780307476319
7. Dead Until Dark
Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99, 9780441016990
8. Anathem
Neal Stephenson, Harper, $7.99, 9780061474101
9. Outlander
Diana Gabaldon, Dell, $8.99, 9780440212560
10. The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger, Warner, $6.99, 9780316769488

CHILDREN'S INTEREST

1. When You Reach Me
Rebecca Stead, Wendy Lamb, $15.99, 9780385737425
2. The Book Thief
Markus Zusak, Knopf, $11.99, 9780375842207
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie, Ellen Forney (Illus.), Little Brown, $8.99, 9780316013697
4. Listen to the Wind
Greg Mortenson, Susan L. Roth, Dial, $16.99, 9780803730588
5. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time
Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin, Puffin, $8.99, 9780142414125
6. Graceling
Kristin Cashore, Graphia, $9.99, 9780547258300
7. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Jacqueline Kelly, Holt, $16.99, 9780805088410
8. A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle, Square Fish, $6.99, 9780312367541
9. Impossible
Nancy Werlin, Speak, $9.99, 9780142414910
10. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide
Rick Riordan, Hyperion, $12.99, 9781423121718

Northwest Bestsellers, wk ending Jan. 10, 2010

2010-01-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

Mariposa by Greg Bear

2009-12-14T16:44:00.000-08:00

In an America driven to near bankruptcy with crushing foreign debt, the Talos Corporation stands out as a major success story?training soldiers and security forces from around the world and providing logistics and troops for nearly all branches of the United States government. But Talos has another plan in mind?the destruction of the federal system and constitutional law.

Three FBI agents are all that stands between Talos?s CEO Axel Price and the subversion of our nation. Fouad Al-Husam is working undercover in Lion City, Texas, on the Talos Campus - but he may have just overplayed his hand. Agent William Griffin will engage in a desperate diversion to try to rescue Al-Husam, and the top-secret information he literally carries in his blood.

Rebecca Rose is called into action to partner with an unlikely hero: Nathan Trace, one of a team of four who created and programmed the thinking machines that are about to help Axel Price in his plans for domination. Trace and his colleagues were caught up in a violent incident in the Middle East several years ago, and experienced Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. All of them were forcibly enrolled in a treatment program sponsored by Talos Corporation, code-named Mariposa - which supposedly cured their PTSD. But now they are beginning to notice unexpected side effects. The Mariposa subjects are being liberated from nearly all human emotions and concerns - and all mental limits - to become brilliant sociopaths. They are out of control and they must die.

About the Author

Greg Bear is the author of more than thirty books of science fiction and fantasy, including Quantico, Blood Music, The Forge of God, and Darwin?s Radio. Awarded two Hugos and five Nebulas for his fiction, one of two authors to win a Nebula in every category, Bear has been called the ?best working writer of hard science fiction? by The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. His stories have been collected into an omnibus volume by Tor Books. Bear has served on political and scientific action committees and has advised Microsoft Corporation, the U.S. Army, the CIA, Sandia National Laboratories, Callison Architecture, Inc., and other groups and agencies. His novels The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars have been optioned by Warner Brothers, and Darwin?s Radio and Darwin?s Children have been optioned by Michael DeLuca and Howard Braunstein. He lives in Washington with his wife, Astrid Anderson Bear, and children, Erik and Alexandra.

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The Collector by Jack Nisbet

2009-12-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

Jack Nisbet first told the story of British explorer David Thompson, who mapped the Columbia River, in his acclaimed Sources of the River. That book 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 other areas of western North America. Douglas' discoveries include hundreds of western plants ? most notably the Douglas Fir.

The Collector tracks Douglas' fascinating history, from his humble birth in Scotland in 1799 to his botanical training under the famed William Jackson Hooker to his adventures in North America discovering "exotic" new plants for the English and European market. The book takes readers along on Douglas' journeys into a literal "brave new world" of then-obscure realms from Puget Sound to the Sandwich Islands. In telling Douglas' story, Nisbet evokes a lost world of early exploration, pristine nature, ambition, and cultural and class conflict with surprisingly modern resonances.

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Bestsellers, wk ending Dec. 6, 2009

2009-12-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

The Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by northwest-books.com, IndieBound and PNBA, is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and IndieBound. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest. Titles shown with a mark (�) before the name are not listed on the comparable National Independent Bestseller List for the same week.

Week ending December 6, 2009

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Lacuna
Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $26.99, 9780060852573
2. Half Broke Horses
Jeannette Walls, Scribner, $26, 9781416586289
3. The Help
Kathryn Stockett, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, $24.95, 9780399155345
*4. War Dances
Sherman Alexie, Grove, $23, 9780802119193
5. Too Much Happiness
Alice Munro, Knopf, $25.95, 9780307269768
6. Under the Dome
Stephen King, Scribner, $35, 9781439148501
7. U Is for Undertow
Sue Grafton, Putnam, $27.95, 9780399155970
8. Last Night in Twisted River
John Irving, Random House, $28, 9781400063840
9. The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown, Doubleday, $29.95, 9780385504225
10. The Girl Who Played With Fire
Stieg Larsson, Knopf, $25.95, 9780307269980
11. Pirate Latitudes
Michael Crichton, Harper, $27.99, 9780061929373
12. Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel, Holt, $27, 9780805080681
*13. Trial by Fire
J. A. Jance, Touchstone, $25.99, 9781416563808
14. I, Alex Cross
James Patterson, Little Brown, $27.99, 9780316018784
*15. The Gathering Storm
Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Tor, $29.99, 9780765302304

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Stones Into Schools
Greg Mortenson, Viking, $26.95, 9780670021154
2. The Big Burn
Timothy Egan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9780618968411
3. Where Men Win Glory
Jon Krakauer, Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385522267
4. Going Rogue
Sarah Palin, Harper, $28.99, 9780061939891
*5. The Collector
Jack Nisbet, Sasquatch, $23.95, 9781570616136
6. Half the Sky
Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Knopf, $27.95, 9780307267146
7. What the Dog Saw
Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown, $27.99, 9780316075848
8. Born to Run
Christopher McDougall, Knopf, $24.95, 9780307266309
*9. Rustic Fruit Desserts
Cory Schreiber, Julie Richardson, Ten Speed Press, $22, 9781580089760
10. True Compass
Edward M. Kennedy, Twelve, $35, 9780446539258
11. The Imperial Cruise
James Bradley, Little Brown, $29.99, 9780316008952
12. SuperFreakonomics
Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, Morrow, $29.99, 9780060889579
*13. The Elements
Theodore Gray (Ed.), Black Dog & Leventhal, $29.95, 9781579128142
14. Have a Little Faith
Mitch Albom, Hyperion, $23.99, 9780786868728
15. Open
Andre Agassi, Knopf, $28.95, 9780307268198

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The Art of Racing in the Rain
Garth Stein, Harper, $14.99, 9780061537967
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $14.95, 9780307454546
3. Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $14, 9780812971835
4. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Muriel Barbery, Europa Editions, $15, 9781933372600
5. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Jamie Ford, Ballantine, $15, 9780345505347
6. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, Dial, $14, 9780385341004
7. The Road
Cormac McCarthy, Vintage, $14.95, 9780307476302
8. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
David Wroblewski, Ecco, $16.99, 9780061374234
9. The Piano Teacher
Janice Y.K. Lee, Penguin, $15, 9780143116530
10. Precious (Push Movie Tie-In Edition)
Sapphire, Vintage, $13, 9780307474841
*11. People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks, Penguin, $15, 9780143115007
12. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen, Quirk, $12.95, 9781594743344
13. The Private Patient
P.D. James, Vintage, $15, 9780307455284
14. The Shack
William P. Young, Windblown, $14.99, 9780964729230
*15. City of Thieves
David Benioff, Plume, $15, 9780452295292

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Three Cups of Tea
Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin, Penguin, $15, 9780143038252
*2. Winetrails of Washington
Steve Roberts, Lisa Pettit (Illus.), Winetrails Northwest, $19.95, 9780979269806
3. My Life in France
Julia Child, Anchor, $15, 9780307277695
4. The Omnivore's Dilemma
Michael Pollan, Penguin, $16, 9780143038580
*5. Winetrails of Oregon
Steve M. Roberts, Lisa Pettit (Illus.), Winetrails Northwest, $24.95, 9780979269813
6. I Am America (and So Can You!)
Stephen Colbert, Grand Central, $15.99, 9780446582186
*7. Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest
Steve Trudell, Joe Ammirati, Timber, $27.95, 9780881929355
8. In Defense of Food
Michael Pollan, Penguin, $15, 9780143114963
*9. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Barbara and Camille Kingsolver, Steven Hopp, Harper Perennial, $15.99, 9780060852566
10. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls, Scribner, $15, 9780743247542
11. Alex & Me
Irene M. Pepperberg, Harper, $13.99, 9780061673986
12. Freakonomics
Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, Harper Perennial, $15.99, 9780060731335
13. Nightlight
The Harvard Lampoon, Vintage, $13.95, 9780307476104
14. Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0
Thomas L. Friedman, Picador, $16, 9780312428921
*15. Give a Little
Wendy Smith, Hyperion, $14.99, 9781401323400

MASS MARKET

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $7.99, 9780307473479
2. The Road
Cormac McCarthy, Vintage, $7.99, 9780307476319
3. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition
Merriam-Webster, $7.50, 9780877799290
*4. Outlander
Diana Gabaldon, Dell, $7.99, 9780440212560
*5. Dead to the World
Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99, 9780441012183
*6. The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger, Warner, $6.99, 9780316769488
*7. Cruel Intent
J.A. Jance, Pocket Star, $7.99, 9781416566359
8. Exit Music
Ian Rankin, Little Brown, $7.99, 9780316018876
9. Santa Clawed
Rita Mae Brown, Bantam, $7.99, 9780553591590
*10. Club Dead
Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99, 9780441010516

CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATED

1. Waddle!
Rufus Butler Seder, Workman, $12.95, 9780761151128
2. Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas
Jane O'Connor, Robin Preiss Glasser (Illus.), Harper, $17.99, 9780061235900
3. Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.), Harper, $8.99, 9780694003617
4. The Christmas Magic
Lauren Thompson, Jon J Muth, Scholastic, $16.99, 9780439774970
5. Where the Wild Things Are
Maurice Sendak, Harper, $17.95, 9780060254926
6. Gallop!
Rufus Butler Seder, Workman, $12.95, 9780761147633
*7. The Spirit of Christmas
Nancy Tillman, Feiwel & Friends, $16.99, 9780312549657
8. Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice
Judy Schachner, Dutton, $16.99, 9780525479659
9. Carl's Snowy Afternoon
Alexandra Day, FSG, $12.99, 9780374310868
*10. Jan Brett's Snowy Treasury
Jan Brett, Putnam, $29.99, 9780399254017

CHILDREN'S INTEREST

1. The Book Thief
Markus Zusak, Knopf, $11.99, 9780375842207
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie, Ellen Forney (Illus.), Little Brown, $8.99, 9780316013697
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illus.), Puffin, $6.99, 9780142414552
4. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood
David Benedictus, Mark Burgess (Illus.), Dutton, $19.99, 9780525421603
5. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time
Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin, Puffin, $8.99, 9780142414125
6. The Magician's Elephant
Kate DiCamillo, Yoko Tanaka (Illus.), Candlewick, $16.99, 9780763644109
7. Graceling
Kristin Cashore, Graphia, $9.99, 9780547258300
8. Peter and the Sword of Mercy
Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Hyperion, $18.99, 9781423121343
*9. Open Me Up
DK Publishing, $24.99, 9780756655327
*10. Listen to the Wind
Greg Mortenson, Susan L. Roth, Dial, $16.99, 9780803730588

CHILDREN'S FICTION SERIES TITLES

1. Twilight
Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $10.99, 9780316038386
2. The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins, Scholastic, $17.99, 9780439023481
3. Eclipse
(Twilight, Book 3)
Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $9.99, 9780316027656
4. The Fourth Apprentice
(Warriors: Omen of the Stars, #1)
Erin Hunter, Harper, $16.99, 9780061555091
5. The Mysterious Benedict Society
Trenton Lee Stewart, Little Brown, $6.99, 9780316003957
6. New Moon
(Twilight, Book 2)
Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $10.99, 9780316024969
7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $13.95, 9780810983915
8. The Lightning Thief
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)
Rick Riordan, Miramax, $7.99, 9780786838653
9. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #2)
Trenton Lee Stewart, Little Brown, $6.99, 9780316036733
10. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $12.95, 9780810993136

Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye by Tony Angell

2009-12-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

For nearly fifty years Tony Angell has used Puget Sound's natural diversity as his artist's palette. In this book, he describes the living systems within the Sound and shares his observations and encounters with the species that make up the complex communities of the Sound's rivers, tidal flats, islands, and beaches: the fledging flight of a young peregrine, an otter playfully herding a small red rockfish, the grasp of a curious octopus.

Angell goes on to explain the methods he uses in his art. The shapes, movements, patterns, and even temperatures and smells that he experiences in the field are all brought to bear on his work. His drawings bring clarity to his visual and emotional memories, and his sculptures allow him to approach a memory from many directions and retain that memory in his hands. In all of his work, he lets the passion and excitement of his discoveries drive his artistic expression.

Angell augments his descriptions of the wildlife of the Puget Sound region and his working methods with two appendices listing guides and references to this and other regions by other artists and naturalists. These resources not only put wildlife viewers in touch with the times and places to view particular species, but also speak to the patience and willingness to be delighted that are necessary to increasing the understanding of our wild neighbors.

About the Author

Tony Angell is an illustrator, sculptor, and author. Angell has won numerous writing and artistic awards for his work, including the prestigious Master Wildlife Artist Award of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and the 2006 International Victoria and Albert Museum Illustration Grant Award. His sculptural forms celebrating nature are to be found in public and private collections throughout the country. In 2002, Angell retired as Washington State Director of Environmental Education after thirty years of service. A devout conservationist, he received The Oak Leaf Award, the highest recognition given by the national office of The Nature Conservancy. He is author of Ravens, Crows, Magpies, and Jays and Owls. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two daughters.

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Trial by Fire by J.A. Jance

2009-12-07T15:48:00.000-08:00

In the heat of the Arizona desert, a raging fire pushes temperatures to a deadly degree, and one woman is left to burn. Pulled naked and barely breathing from the fire, the victim has no idea who she is, let alone who would do this to her -- or why. In her hospital bed she drifts in and out of consciousness, her only means of communicating a blink of the eye. And then an angel appears.

Misguidedly known around town as the "Angel of Death," Sister Anselm has devoted her life to working as an advocate for unidentified patients. To her burn patient, she is a savior. But to this Jane Doe's would-be killer, Sister Anselm's efforts pose a serious threat. Ali Reynolds is on the scene as the new media relations consultant for the Yavapai County Police Department, keeping reporters at bay and circumventing questions about arson and a link to a domestic terrorist group called Earth Liberation Front. But her job quickly becomes much more.

As Ali struggles to help Sister Anselm uncover the helpless woman's identity, they realize that by locating the missing relatives they may be exposing the victim once more to a remorseless killer determined to finish the job. Faced with the possibility of putting all three of their lives in jeopardy, Ali fearlessly pursues justice -- and what she discovers is a secret even darker and more twisted than she ever could have imagined.

About the Author

J.A. Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and Ali Reynolds series. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona. Please visit her website, jajance.com.

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Double Take by Kevin Michael Connolly

2009-11-30T08:23:00.000-08:00

Double take: A rapid or surprised second look, either literal or figurative, at a person or situation whose significance has not been completely grasped at first.

Kevin Michael Connolly is a twenty-three-year-old man who has seen the world in a way most of us never will. Whether swarmed by Japanese tourists at Epcot Center as a child or holding court at the X Games on his mono-ski, Kevin Connolly has been an object of curiosity since the day he was born without legs. Growing up in rural Montana, he was raised like any other kid (except, that is, for his father?s MacGyver-like contraptions such as the ?butt boot?). As a college student, Kevin traveled to seventeen countries on his skateboard, including Bosnia, China, Ukraine, and Japan. In an attempt to capture the stares of others, he took more than 33,000 photographs of people staring at him. In this dazzling memoir, Connolly casts the lens inward to explore how we view ourselves and what it is to truly see another person. We also get to know his quirky and unflappable parents and his girlfriend. From the home of his family in Helena, Montana, to the streets of Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur, Kevin?s remarkable journey will change the way you look at others, and the way you see yourself.

About the Author

Kevin Michael Connolly was born in Helena, Montana, in 1985. Born without legs, Kevin was an otherwise healthy baby and grew up like any other Montana kid: getting dirty, running in the woods, and getting dirty some more. Funded by a second-place finish at the 2006 Winter X Games, Kevin took a skateboard and backpack on a tour around the world to more than seventeen countries including Malaysia, Japan, Ukraine, and China. Along the way he captured over 33,000 photographs of people staring at him. These images evolved into a photo collection entitled The Rolling Exhibition, which has garnered international media attention and been featured at museums and galleries around the

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When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge

2009-11-30T08:19:00.000-08:00

A new novel about family, faith, and finding the courage to do the right thing from the author of Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe. Police officer Jessica Villareal has always played by the book and tried to do the right thing. But now, she finds herself approaching midlife divorced, estranged from her daughter, alone, and unhappy. And she's wondering if she ever made a right choice in her life.

But then Jess discovers a girl and her Iraq-vet father living off the radar in the Oregon woods, avoiding the comforts-and curses-of modern life. Her colleagues on the force are determined to uproot and separate them, but Jess knows the damage of losing those you love. She recognizes her chance to make a difference by doing something she's never dared. Because even though she's used to playing by the rules, there are times when they need to be broken...

About the Author Seattle author Jennie Shortridge juggles her time between writing novels and working in the community to foster literacy.

From the Author

In 2004, I lived in Portland, OR, where a Vietnam vet was found living in the forest and raising his young daughter. When police went in, what transpired was not what you might expect, and I've wanted to write a fictional story inspired by these events ever since. When She Flew is that novel, and has at its heart 13-year-Lindy, a feral but articulate and intelligent girl, and police officer Jessica Villareal, the cop who goes in after her and comes out changed forever.

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The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

2009-10-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

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.

On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in an eyeblink. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men -- college boys, day-workers, immigrants from mining camps -- to fight the fires. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them.

Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force, through the eyes of the people who lived it. Equally dramatic, though, is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen. The robber barons fought him and the rangers charged with protecting the reserves, but even as TR's national forests were smoldering they were saved: The heroism shown by those same rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of theforest service with consequences felt in the fires of today.

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The Fires of Edgarville by Craig Joseph Danner

2009-10-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hank Davenport is a man in search of his life. Born just days after the first anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he is a Japanese-American raised in the Pacific Northwest by Caucasian parents. A respected and successful pediatrician, his reputation is destroyed when he is accused of mercy-killing a young patient.

Seeking refuge on his adoptive mother's remote and dilapidated orchard, Hank discovers that she is rapidly succumbing to Alzheimer's. Long an outcast from her Mormon family, Myrna herself has only recently returned to the now-failed homestead her father and brothers built and planted when she was a child. As her dementia progresses, her long-held secrets are revealed, and Hank becomes entwined in the mystery of a phantom arsonist plaguing a community that holds the slowly turning key to his past and his future.

Tracing the evolution of a small Oregon lumber town and its connection to the Japanese internment during World War II, The Fires of Edgarville is a spellbinding story told with authentic detail and unexpected humor. Craig Danner's second novel is fast-paced and unflinching in its honesty, while filled with compassion for its original and endearing characters.

The Fires of Edgarville is a daring and enthralling novel with the power to surprise anyone who picks it up. Craig Joseph Danner takes a tiny Northwestern town and two unlikely protagonists -- a defamed Japanese-American doctor and an irascible senile woman -- and somehow turns out high drama. This novel is slender and fast-paced, but the story is rich and artfully woven with dazzling crescendos of action and original characters in search of elusive truths. -- Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide

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The Mom & Pop Store by Robert Spector

2009-10-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

Business journalist Robert Spector grew up working in his family?s butcher shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where he learned invaluable lessons about the independent retail business?and about life. Mom & pop stores have always brought people together, fostering a sense of neighborhood identity and camaraderie, and are the glue that connects people in big cities and small towns alike. The Mom & Pop Store reflects the story of this country, for it embraces and cross-references every ethnic group and virtually every element of our society.

Long fascinated by the ?direct connection? people feel as merchants and customers when they do business in neighborhood shops, and responding to the growing ?buy local? movement across the country, Spector sets out to discover the state, and the state of mind, of independent retailing in America. From a specialty soda pop shop in Los Angeles to a florist shop in Dayton, Ohio, from a bakery in Chicago to a bookstore in Bellingham, Washington, mom & pop store owners shared their stories with him, revealing the spirit and tenacity of the small business owner, dealing with frustration and defeat as well as triumph and success. Spector also interweaves the history of independent retailing. The Mom & Pop Store reflects the story of this country, for it embraces and cross-references every ethnic group and virtually every element of our society.

About the Author

Robert Spector is author of The Nordstrom Way, The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence, Amazon. Com: Get Big Fast, and Category Killers. He has appeared on C NN, C NBC, ABC, Fox News, PBS, Bloomberg Business, NPR?s Marketplace Report, and numerous other radio shows, and has written on business for the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He lives in Seattle. Visit his Web site at www.robertspector.com.

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The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

2009-10-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter ("a ridiculously talented writer"?New York Times) painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties of their times. Now, in his warmest, funniest, and best novel yet, Walter offers a story as real as our own lives: a tale of overstretched accounts, misbegotten schemes, and domestic dreams deferred.

A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse. When his big idea?and his wife's eBay resale business? ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams. One morning Matt wakes up to find himself jobless, hobbled with debt, spying on his wife's online flirtation, and six days away from losing his home. Is this really how things were supposed to end up for me, he wonders: staying up all night worried, driving to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night to get milk for his boys, and falling in with two local degenerates after they offer him a hit of high-grade marijuana?

Or, he thinks, could this be the solution to all my problems?

Following Matt in his weeklong quest to save his marriage, his sanity, and his dreams, The Financial Lives of the Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin?and how we can begin to make our way back.

About the Author

Jess Walter is the author of The Zero, a finalist for the National Book Award; Citizen Vince, a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel; Land of the Blind; and Over Tumbled Graves, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Also the author of the nonfiction book Ruby Ridge, Walter lives in Spokane, Washington, with his family.

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending Sept. 20, 2009

2009-09-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Just 2 books from Northwest authors on this week's bestseller's list and they're both from Sherman Alexie. War Dances and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian are on this week's Northwest Bestseller lists. Week ending Sept. 20, 2009.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
3. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
4. A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore
5. The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks
6. War Dances, Sherman Alexie
7. That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo
8. Homer & Langley, E.L. Doctorow
9. The Host, Stephenie Meyer

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. True Compass, Edward M. Kennedy
2. Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer
3. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, Julia Child, et al.
4. Nurtureshock, Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman
5. Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
6. Strength in What Remains, Tracy Kidder
7. The Healing of America, T.R. Reid
8. Half the Sky, Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn
9. Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford
10. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers

MASS MARKET

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
2. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
3. Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris
4. Julie & Julia, Julie Powell
5. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
6. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
7. Fearless Fourteen, Janet Evanovich
8. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
9. Club Dead, Charlaine Harris
10. From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris

CHILDREN'S INTEREST

1. The Magician's Elephant, Kate DiCamillo, Yoko Tanaka (Illus.)
2. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Ellen Forney (Illus.)
4. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
5. Impossible, Nancy Werlin
6. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
7. Graceling, Kristin Cashore
8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
9. Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
10. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (Illus.)

War Dances by Sherman Alexie

2009-09-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

Fresh off his National Book Award win, Alexie delivers a heartbreaking, hilarious collection of stories that explores the precarious balance between self-preservation and external responsibility in art, family, and the world at large. With unparalleled insight into the minds of artists, laborers, fathers, husbands, and sons, Alexie populates his stories with ordinary men on the brink of exceptional change. In a bicoastal journey through the consequences of both simple and monumental life choices, Alexie introduces us to personal worlds as they transform beyond return.

In the title story, a famous writer must decide how to care for his distant father who is slowly dying a ?natural Indian death? from alcohol and diabetes, just as he learns that he himself may have a brain tumor. Alexie dissects a vintage-clothing store owner?s failing marriage and his courtship of a married photographer in various airports across the country; what happens when a politician?s son commits a hate crime; and how a young boy discovers his self-worth while writing obituaries for his local newspaper. Brazen and wise, War Dances takes us to the heart of what it means to be human. This provocative new work is Alexie at the height of his powers.

About the Author

Sherman J. Alexie, Jr., was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Wash., about 50 miles northwest of Spokane, Wash.

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Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel

2009-09-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

by Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett

Meet Boilerplate, the world?s first robot soldier?not in a present-day military lab or a science-fiction movie, but in the past, during one of the most fascinating periods of U.S. history. Designed by Professor Archibald Campion in 1893 as a prototype, for the self-proclaimed purpose of "preventing the deaths of men in the conflicts of nations," Boilerplate charged into combat alongside such notables as Teddy Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia. Campion and his robot also circled the planet with the U.S. Navy, trekked to the South Pole, made silent movies, and hobnobbed with the likes of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla.

You say you?ve never heard of Boilerplate before? That?s because this book is the fanciful creation of a husbandand-wife team who have richly imagined these characters and inserted them into accurate retellings of history. This full-color chronicle is profusely illustrated with graphics mimicking period style, including photos, paintings, posters, cartoons, maps, and even stereoscope cards. Part Jules Verne and part Zelig, it?s a great volume for a broad range of fans of science fiction, history, and robots.

About the Authors

Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett have been collaborating on comics and graphic novels since 1989, including the Eisner Award?nominated science-fiction comic series Heartbreakers. Paul is an artist and writer whose clients include the History Channel and the Cartoon Network. Anina is a writer and editor who has worked with Dark Horse Comics and international publisher Egmont. They live in Portland, Oregon.

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New Northwest Books

2009-09-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Boilerplate is what you might call a graphic novel or a graphic comic. In other words, it's an unusual book. Part Jules Verne and part Zelig, Boilerplate is a great volume for a broad range of fans of science fiction, history, and robots. Hardcover. Around $18. And, Sherman Alexie is back with War Dances. His last book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, still shows up on bestseller lists. Hardcover. Around $16.

Speaking of Bestsellers, both of Alexie's books, War Dances and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian are on this week's Northwest Bestseller lists.

Find both at northwest-books.com.

Hannah's Dream by Diane Hammond

2009-09-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

An elephant never forgets . . . but can she dream?

For forty-one years, Samson Brown has been caring for Hannah, the lone elephant at the down-at-the-heels Max L. Biedelman Zoo. Having vowed not to retire until an equally loving and devoted caretaker is found to replace him, Sam rejoices when smart, compassionate Neva Wilson is hired as the new elephant keeper. But Neva quickly discovers what Sam already knows: that despite their loving care, Hannah is isolated from other elephants and her feet are nearly ruined from standing on hard concrete all day. Using her contacts in the zookeeping world, Neva and Sam hatch a plan to send Hannah to an elephant sanctuary?just as the zoo's angry, unhappy director launches an aggressive revitalization campaign that spotlights Hannah as the star attraction, inextricably tying Hannah's future to the fate of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo.

A charming, poignant, and captivating novel certain to enthrall readers of Water for Elephants, Diane Hammond's Hannah's Dream is a beautifully told tale rich in heart, humor, and intelligence.

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Spooner by Pete Dexter

2009-09-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

Warren Spooner was born after a prolonged delivery in a makeshift delivery room in a doctor's office in Milledgeville, Georgia, on the first Saturday of December, 1956. His father died shortly afterward, long before Spooner had even a memory of his face, and was replaced eventually by a once-brilliant young naval officer, Calmer Ottosson, recently court-martialed out of service. This is the story of the lifelong tie between the two men, poles apart, of Spooner's troubled childhood, troubled adolescence, violent and troubled adulthood and Calmer Ottosson's inexhaustible patience, undertaking a life-long struggle to salvage his step-son, a man he will never understand.

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PNBA book show

2009-09-15T09:45:00.001-07:00

I'm just back from the annual fall show by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and have found some fascinating books, which I will tell you about in the coming weeks. Meantime...a tease...

I had a long conversation with Bend, Ore., author Diane Hammond, whose latest work is Hannah's Dream, in which an aging caretaker of an aging elephant in a decrepit zoo ponders retirement. Then, there's Hands at Work by Lopez Island, Wash., author Iris Graville and photographer Summer Moon Scriver. It's a collection of dramatic black & white portraits, along with companion profiles which capture the drama and tells the stories of people who work with their hands.

Pete Dexter's new book is Spooner, out Sept. 24, which tells the story of a lifelong tie between 2 men, poles apart. Adam Eisenberg, the Commissioner of Seattle Municipal Court, has written about women in police work in his new book A Different Shade of Blue. Boilerplate is an hilarious, fictional account history's mechanical marvel, Boilerplate. You gotta see it to believe it. It's out Oct. 1.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author Timothy Egan tells the story of the largest forest fire in US history in The Big Burn, about a fire in 1910 that burned 3 million acres. Out Oct. 19. Egan's last work, The Worst Hard Time, was about the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl.

Heart of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno

2009-08-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Time is running out for the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt, the two warring nations that arose when the former United States split apart after an economiccollapse left tens of millions unemployed and desperate for leadership. Weakened by their endless conflict, both countries are now threatened by the expansionist dreams of the Aztl�n Empire (formerly known as Mexico) to the south, which has steadily encroached deep into the regions once called California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Riven by intellectual and social decay, both the Islamic Republic and the Belt are at the brink of collapse.

The only solution is to reunite the countries and regain America's former power and global standing. And there's only one man who can do it: Rakkim Epps, genetically enhanced shadow warrior and hero of the two previous books in Robert Ferrigno's astonishing Assassin Trilogy.

Time is also running out for Epps's archenemy, the Old One, the sly, immensely rich Muslim fanatic who seeks to create one world under his domination. Now more than one hundred and fifty years old, he is dying and unhappily knows it. His solution is to reunite the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt his way, and his plan involves his voluptuous but deadly daughter, Baby, and none other than Rakkim himself. The Old One is aided by his sadistic, carbon-skinned enforcer, Gravenholtz, whom Rakkim failed to kill in an earlier encounter and who now wishes to kill Rakkim and those he loves.

Meanwhile, there is a rumor of a discovery of a sacred relic in the contaminated ruins of Washington, D.C., a radiation zone peopled by diseased zombies and daring treasure hunters. It is into this deadly wasteland that Rakkim must secretly travel and retrieve the icon if he is to defeat Gravenholtz, Baby, and the Old One, and have even a chance to unite the two halves of America.

A stunning stand-alone read, Heart of the Assassin is a feast of cinematic violence, brilliant plotting, and futuristic scene-setting. Completing Ferrigno's Assassin Trilogy, Heart of the Assassin confirms his position as a master of thriller fiction.

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk of Aug. 9, 2009

2009-08-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Fire and Ice, by J.A. Jance, is on the Northwest Bestseller list, plus B is for Beer, by Tom Robbins, Border Songs by Jim Lynch, and children's book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Week of August 9, 2009.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
2. That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo
3. Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
4. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
5. The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zaf�n
6. Fire and Ice, J.A. Jance
7. Shanghai Girls, Lisa See
8. Border Songs, Jim Lynch
9. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, Rebecca Wells
10. B Is for Beer, Tom Robbins

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
2. Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
3. The End of Overeating, David A. Kessler
4. Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford
5. Crow Planet, Lyanda Lynn Haupt
6. Rustic Fruit Desserts, Cory Schreiber, Julie Richardson
7. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, Julia Child, et al.
8. The Third Chapter, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
9. The Evolution of God, Robert Wright
10. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers

MASS MARKET

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
2. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
3. Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
4. Club Dead, Charlaine Harris
5. Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris
6. From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
7. Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, Dean Koontz
8. Careless in Red, Elizabeth George
9. 1984, George Orwell
10. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon

CHILDREN'S INTEREST

1. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Ellen Forney (Illus.)
3. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
4. Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
5. Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
6. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
7. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
8. Inkspell, Cornelia Funke
9. Scat, Carl Hiaasen
10. The BFG, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illus.)

Fire and Ice by JA Jance

2009-08-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont is working a series of murders in which six young women have been wrapped in tarps, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. Their charred remains have been scattered around various dump sites, creating a grisly pattern of death across western Washington.

At the same time, thousands of miles away in the Arizona desert, Cochise County sheriff Joanna Brady is looking into a homicide in which the elderly caretaker of an ATV park was run over and left to die. All the man has left behind is his dog, who is the improbable witness to some kind of turf warfare--or possibly something more sinister.

Then a breakthrough in Beaumont's case leads him directly to the Southwest and into Brady's jurisdiction. When the two met on a joint investigation years earlier, sparks flew. Under different circumstances, both of them admit, even more could have happened.

But here, as the threads of their two seemingly separate cases wind together, Beaumont and Brady must put aside echoes of their shared past as they are once again drawn into an orbit of deception. Except this time it's not just their own lives that are in danger but those of the people closest to them as well.

About the Author

J. A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, the Ali Reynolds series, and three stand-alone thrillers. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, she lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.

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