Nikki McClure's papercut art has been heralded as lovely and inspiring by her neighbors here in Olympia for years. We probably should have presented her with an award every year for the calendars alone... So, even if it falls to the folks at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association to honor Nikki and Cynthia Rylant with a 2010 book award for their children's book All in a Day, we do at least get to host the ceremony here and be the ones to actually hand Nikki (and maybe Cynthia -- cross your fingers) this richly deserved trophy/plaque/oversized check (we haven't seen it yet, but we assume it arrives in a hot-air balloon)! Are we gushing? The gush is all for the local talent. We're honored to serve as the transfer point, and we offer you champagne, delicious treats, and the complete works of Nikki McClure and Cynthia Rylant.

All in a Day (Hardcover)

By Cynthia Rylant, Nikki McClure

$17.95

ISBN-13: 9780810983212
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harry N. Abrams, 03/01/2009

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The rave reviews just don't quit for Bainbridge Island's Jonathan Evison and his breakout debut novel All About Lulu. Don't miss the chance to come down to the store, get to know him a little, and begin to wrap your mind around All About Lulu. Jim Lynch is expected to attend, and if you so desire, you may also wrap your mind around local brewskis on us, courtesy of Fish Tale Brew Pub.

(from Publisher's Weekly):

Starred Review. Evison's debut—of love and loss, growing up, throwing
up and moving on—is a stunner. William Miller Jr. is a scrawny loner
whose mother dies of cancer when he is seven years old, leaving him an
awkward vegetarian with an ominously macho father and idiot twin
brothers in mid-1970s Santa Monica. William's father, Big Bill,
remarries a grief counselor named Willow, and Will spends the following
decades in love with Louisa (Lulu, as she prefers to be called), his
new stepsister. They are close throughout adolescence, but after a
summer at cheerleading camp, Lulu returns home distant and hostile,
leaving Will to pine for her in solitary desperation. Will finally
appears to be on the path to normalcy in the early 1990s when he lucks
into a radio talk-show hosting gig, but the stroke of good fortune is
short-lived, as he discovers things about Lulu he'd rather not know.
Evison provides readers a viciously funny and deeply felt portrayal of
a blended family and one man's thwarted longing.

All about Lulu (Paperback)

By Jonathan Evison

$14.95

ISBN-13: 9781593761967
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Soft Skull Press, 06/01/2008

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Need something good to read?  Check out what people around Olympia are reading this week:

The Crack Between the Worlds: A Dancer's Memoir of Loss and Faith (Paperback)

By Maggie Kast

$25.00

ISBN-13: 9781606087770
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Resource Publications (OR), 08/01/2009

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Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History (Hardcover)

By Diana Wells, Heather Lovett

$19.95

ISBN-13: 9781565124912
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 01/01/2010

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Food Rules (Paperback)

By Michael Pollan

$11.00

ISBN-13: 9780143116387
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 12/01/2009

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Let the Great World Spin (Paperback)

By Colum Mccann

$15.00

ISBN-13: 9780812973990
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 06/01/2010

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Cutting for Stone (Paperback)

By Abraham Verghese

$15.95

ISBN-13: 9780375714368
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Vintage, 01/01/2010

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During a recent  workshop at Sam Weller's Bookstore in Salt Lake City I was turned onto graphic novels.    I confess I have been somewhat snobby about graphic novels, considering them "not real books".  But last night , in one sitting, I read Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel www.dykes to watchoutfor.com and was blown away.  Created from her old journals, family photos & letters, literary illusions and images of growing up in her typical (ie dysfunctional ) family this is one of the most engrossing memoirs I've read.  Mainly she explores her complex relationship with her-in-the closet, funeral director, English teacher, interior decorator Father. She manages to come to terms with her family and her father by portraying  the richness of the many worlds and co-existences they inhabit. Nothing is simple.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Paperback)

By Alison Bechdel

$13.95

ISBN-13: 9780618871711
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Mariner Books, 06/01/2007

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War Child: A Child Soldier's Story (Hardcover)

By Emmanuel Jal, Megan Lloyd Davies

$24.95

ISBN-13: 9780312383220
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: St. Martin's Press, 02/01/2009

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I have not read this book.  Let's just come clean on that right off the bat.  It's brand new. 

I
corresponded for a while with Emmanuel Jal while living in Oxford and
trying to figure out a way to use music, and hip-hop especially, to
document life and stem the rising tide of gang violence among Sudanese
refugee youth in Cairo who had fled the civil war, the genocide in
Darfur, or any number of other threats in the Sudan and along the way. 
I had spent the previous year with one of the gangs, hearing stories of
transit and tragedy, hope and reconnection, and ultimately desperation
and frustration (refugees have rights under international law, but
nobody actually provides them, and Sudanese certainly aren't 'priority'
refugees).

Emmanuel Jal came to my attention as an up-and-coming rapper in
London who was working to draw attention to Sudanese refugees and
battling the 'weak and helpless' refugee-camp stereotype used to
promote guilt-reduction-through-your-wallet TV ads.  Jal's story
is simultaneously unique and replicated everyday.  Only the luckiest of
refugees make it to Europe (and have books and documentaries about
them), but this doesn't belittle the journey.  Understanding what
happens to refugees in the world is, unfortunately, an understanding of
how dark international politics really is.

Why not start with War Child and see how the journey begins?

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This review doesn't come in the 'official' format because I can't seem to get the ISBN recognized, but here it goes (email us if you'd like it!):

Who Takes a Feather - Tara Jane ONeil

Ex-olympian Tara Jane ONeil is a great person, a great musician, and a great artist who has left little bits of herself (tangible and otherwise) all over the world.  Having shown her work in Europe, Asia, and North America, TJO has gained a significant following.  This collection of paintings, sketches, and drawings is a limited-edition muse of visual creativity collected over some years and presented by Japanese imprint Map Press in 2003.  As a bonus, the collection includes a mini-CD of songs showing off her other talents. 

Fans of TJO, or those familiar with her affiliated former musical projects (Rodan, Retsin, the King Cobra, and more) should take this opportunity to get to know her visual side. 

Very highly recommended.

Themba

The Yacoubian Building (Paperback)

By Alaa Al Aswany

$13.95

ISBN-13: 9780060878139
Availability: NOT AVAILABLE TO ORDER -- Please <a href="/used-book-request">click here</a> to submit a request for a used copy
Published: Harper Perennial, 08/01/2006

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Cairo's city center is a crumbling testament to a more opulent time.  Its rooftop terraces are cracked and its marble staircases grooved and rounded by countless feet too nervous to trust ornate iron elevators last serviced too many years ago.   The Greek Club, an exclusive and smokey gathering place for beer-drinking artists and the late-night wealthy set, is perched above the city's wide main circle, poised with a view to the monument below.  It was in this hall, surrounded by an inconceivable and surreal cast of people, that I first heard about The Yacoubian Building.  At the table was an American expat translator who had just finished the English version of the new book by Alaa al-Aswany, and he was reluctant to say much about it.  The unspoken and internalized, it turns out, is a persistent theme.

The novel unfolds in layers, much of it in the streets around the Greek Club, intertwining personalities and brashly exposing the seething private pressures and vices that flow through the massively populated metropolis: things many in Cairo are reluctant to say much about.  Introducing an array of characters that includes a respected elderly gentleman, a policeman, a business owner, and two lovers whose lives diverge dramatically, the novel explores loneliness, desperation, religion, and nostalgia through the crossing of barriers and and the intersection of lives.  Corruption, homosexuality, fundamentalism, terrorism, and sexual dynamics are omnipresent unspoken realities in Cairo.  This novel exposes them.

The hugely successful (at least in Egypt) film adaptation was quickly restricted to a handful of theatres upon release and censored by order of the government.  That means it has to be good.

Themba

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