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Independent
Bookstores
for Independent Minds
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Waxwings
by Jonathan Raban
Here’s
a compelling piece of writing from Jonathan Raban who wrote Passage
to Juneau. It takes place in Seattle at the end of the 20th
century. The two main characters, Chick, who smuggles in from China,
and Tom, a social commentator on NPR from Hungary, are drawn by
Seattle’s opportunities. I loved how Raban intertwined the
lives of everyone in the book—he writes with a keen sense of
humor, and shares his wry observations of that era. Now in paperback.
Review by Margie Morgan
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An
Unfinished Life
by Mark Spragg (Where
Rivers Change Direction)
This is
a great story of the new West told by a master storyteller. Jean, a
young widow who bounces from wrong man to wrong man, flees to Wyoming
with her daughter Griff to make amends with Griff’s gruff
grandpa. The characters are memorable, probably much more so than the
forthcoming movie (the screenplay was written with the novel) starring
Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, and Morgan Freeman.
Review by Jan Peterson
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Isabel's
Daughter
by
Judith Ryan Hendricks (Bread Alone)
Avery
James has trained herself not to yearn for the mother who gave her
up--until a twist of fate leads her to a portrait of a woman who is the
mirror image of herself.
Book
of Joe
by Jonathan Tropper
The Book
of Joe is an elegiac, wickedly observant look at a small town and its
secrets. In this highly readable novel, the problem isn't that you
can't go home again, it's that eventually you have to, whether you like
it or not. Joe is a character you can connect with, warts and all.
Book of Joe
The Glass Castle
Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still
Lost in the Forest
We Are All the Same
Savage Summit
The Grandmothers
Maisie Dobbs
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Monsieur
Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran
by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
This
book of two short stories is as small as a Cliff’s Notes.
However nothing in it is abbreviated. Both stories are dense and
purposeful and reveal, through clever, restorative writing, essential
elements to life.
The
first story, Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran,
is set in the Jewish quarters of 1960’s Paris. Momo is a
neglected young boy in the throws of sexual awakening. Troubled and
lost, he meets Monsieur Ibrahim, a Muslim shopkeeper, and an unlikely
friendship blossoms. Eventually, they travel together to M.
Ibrahim’s homeland and here the story crests when Muslim man
teaches the Jewish boy how to whirl. As they watch the monks turn, M.
Ibrahim says, “You see, Momo! They’re whirling
around, they’re turning around their own heart, the place
where God is present. It’s like a prayer.” They
point their hands down and twirl. They push their hands up and the
spin. And their lives take on meaning while the reader is drawn in and
changed by the gentle turning of a beautiful story.
The
second story, like the first, elicits laughter and inspiration. Oscar
and The Lady in Pink, is a tale of a 10 year old boy dying
of leukemia. Mamie Rose, a hospital volunteer, suggests that Oscar
pretend that each day is the passage of ten years and so by, live a
complete life. As his life rushes by, the reader is touched through his
imagination and their conversations. In one such conversation, Oscar
wants to know why there aren’t dictionaries that help him
understand the difficulties in life. Mamie Rose says there
aren’t any solutions to life to write about. And Oscar, the
youthful, dying sage says, “That’s what I think
too, Mamie Rose, there are no solutions to life, other than living
it.”
These
stories both have traditional religious themes to them, but they are
not solely for religious folk. They are for anyone seeking a spiritual
polish or a philosophical challenge. They are also for bookies seeking
a good read. They are two of the best stories I’ve read in a
long time.
Review
by Michelle Peterson
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The
Pearl Diver
by Jeff Talarigo
A first
novel of rare beauty and sensitivity, Jeff Talarigo's The
Pearl Diver follows the harsh fate of a 19-year-old Japanese
pearl diver who is diagnosed with leprosy. It is 1948. There are trial
medications for her condition, but a weight of prejudice against her.
Her name is erased from the family register, and she is rowed to a
lifelong exile at the island leprosarium on Nagashima. Ordered to give
herself a new name, she decides on Miss Fuji, for the mountain she
loves. The balance of the novel is delivered in poignant fragments that
appear as notes to a modern-day anthropological study of the
leprosarium. Numbered artifacts like "An old map of Honshu" and "A
blank white urn" spark stories of the patients Miss Fuji has known and
cared for, most of whom were much sicker than she: crippled, blinded,
deformed, but all the more human for their suffering. The cruelties
inflicted on the patients at Nagashima almost rival the cruelties of
the disease itself. Talarigo's novel could easily succumb to
sentimentality, but he maintains the poise of Miss Fuji: one who
watches, who does not forgive, but who will not be lowered by vengeance
or despair. --Regina Marler
recommended by Chris
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Troy
by Adele
Geras
Troy is
action-packed, and is a great history book, as long as you like wars,
and other stuff that is gruesome.
contributed by Marisa Mozeleski
Age 12
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Store Info
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Books by the Way
'round the corner on
Bank Road
9928 SW Bank Road
PO Box 367
Vashon, WA 98070
Show Google Map
tel:
(206) 463-2696
fax: (206) 463-6224
email us
Hours
Mon - Fri: 10am to 6pm
Sat: 10am to 5pm
Sun: 11am to 5pm
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