Here's a quick tour around the Literary Internet.
• James Arthur offers his appreciation of Conan the Barbarian on The Rumpus.
• David Gates (author of, among others, the fantastic novel Jernigan) reviews Love and Obstacles by Aleksandar Hemon—who read with us in May. (Great reading.)
• Lorrie Moore has another masterful short story in The New Yorker. World continues to turn as it will.
***
Don't miss tonight's reading:
Tuesday • June 30 • 7pm
Clarion West presents: Karen Joy Fowler
Reading & Book Signing
U District store
Karen Joy Fowler is the author of six novels and dozens of short stories, all marked indelibly by her remarkable, witty voice, yet as different from one another as chartreuse is from physics. Winner of the World Fantasy Award and two Nebulas, and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, Fowler is a brilliant writer, a compassionate teacher, and an intuitive critic. Free and open to the public.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
University Book Store and the Farmer's Market
This summer we have a growing series of events and chef demos in partnership with the Neighborhood Farmer’s Market Alliance. Last Saturday kicked it off when actress and cookbook author, Mariel Hemingway gave a cooking demo and signed her new book, Mariel’s Kitchen.
Our events team had a great time selling books outside next to stalls of leeks, lettuce, and peonies. Farmers Market shoppers crowded around the event space to listen to Mariel speak about healthy living and eating. The audience grew and grew as samples of spinach Swedish pancakes and eggs with spring greens were passed around. We are so excited to continue these events and hope you can join us for future ones!
Why not join us for one of the following upcoming events!
Friday • June 19• 4pm
Poppy Tooker
Crescent City Farmers Market
Phinney Ridge Farmer’s Market
67th and Phinney Avenue N
New Orleans cookbook writer and activist, Poppy Tooker will be giving a cooking demo and signing her new cookbook which raises funds for the Crescent City Farmers Market.
Plus Cajun Music by a bookstore staff member!
Sunday • June 28 • 10am – 2pm
10th Anniversary Berry Spectacular
West Seattle Farmer's Market, California Avenue SW & SW Alaska
The NFMA and the Junction association celebrate ten years of a thriving, vibrant farmers market with a huge blowout on market day. Come visit the University Book Store table for great bargains on a wide selection of berry and farmers market books!
Saturday • July 10 • 10am
Matthew Amster-Burton
Hungry Monkey: A Food Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater
University District Farmer’s Market
University Way & NE 50th
Local food writer and blogger, Matthew Amster-Burton will be giving a cooking demo and signing his new book about raising a child to love food.
Our events team had a great time selling books outside next to stalls of leeks, lettuce, and peonies. Farmers Market shoppers crowded around the event space to listen to Mariel speak about healthy living and eating. The audience grew and grew as samples of spinach Swedish pancakes and eggs with spring greens were passed around. We are so excited to continue these events and hope you can join us for future ones!
Why not join us for one of the following upcoming events!
Friday • June 19• 4pm
Poppy Tooker
Crescent City Farmers Market
Phinney Ridge Farmer’s Market
67th and Phinney Avenue N
New Orleans cookbook writer and activist, Poppy Tooker will be giving a cooking demo and signing her new cookbook which raises funds for the Crescent City Farmers Market.
Plus Cajun Music by a bookstore staff member!
Sunday • June 28 • 10am – 2pm
10th Anniversary Berry Spectacular
West Seattle Farmer's Market, California Avenue SW & SW Alaska
The NFMA and the Junction association celebrate ten years of a thriving, vibrant farmers market with a huge blowout on market day. Come visit the University Book Store table for great bargains on a wide selection of berry and farmers market books!
Saturday • July 10 • 10am
Matthew Amster-Burton
Hungry Monkey: A Food Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater
University District Farmer’s Market
University Way & NE 50th
Local food writer and blogger, Matthew Amster-Burton will be giving a cooking demo and signing his new book about raising a child to love food.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Dog of the Week!
Been a while, Dog of the Week. Where have you been? Waiting for Spring, maybe?
That's Zulie. Zulie is a 7 1/2 week old English bulldog. She visited our Bellevue store.
We hope to see her a lot.
"Zulie" is, according to her human, the Arabic word for "peace."
Which reminds us, of course, that recently Richard Bausch's amazing short novel Peace came out in paperback.
That's Zulie. Zulie is a 7 1/2 week old English bulldog. She visited our Bellevue store.
We hope to see her a lot.
"Zulie" is, according to her human, the Arabic word for "peace."
Which reminds us, of course, that recently Richard Bausch's amazing short novel Peace came out in paperback.
Monday, June 01, 2009
A bookseller talks about her favorites.
I have this thing about favorites. Movies, paintings, cities, songs, types of food—hardly anything is excused from judgment. These lists are subjective and impermanent. For instance, I don’t think my favorite movie is the best movie ever made, it’s just the best for me. It aligns with my emotions and my narrative ideals. Other categories rely even more on subjective experiences. I’m sure some people love going to Tijuana, for instance, but because I went with my dad when I was fourteen and ate some bad enchiladas, I will most likely never return. I try not to focus on my least favorite things. Doing so negates the purpose of making these temporary lists, which is to seek out and eagerly anticipate new experiences.
With that said, I thought I’d start my first blog for the bookstore with a list of my five (technically six) favorite novels, in no particular order. I hope to elaborate on these in future posts.
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The Hours by Michael Cunnigham
Deliverance/To The White Sea (Irrevocably tied, blame James Dickey)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
When I read, I’m chasing that feeling I had in my early teens when I first read Orwell’s 1984. I had picked up a badly used copy somewhere—the cover font was nearly identical to that used in the “Schoolhouse Rock” logo—and someone had underlined whole pages worth of text in thick blue marker. I stayed up late one night to finish it, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Finishing that book made me feel like I had been through the same psychological warfare as Winston Smith, especially in that last climactic, unbearable scene of betrayal. It was the first time I had been through such an emotional literary workout, and I loved it.
New favorites stacked up quickly after that. I was lucky to attend a school with a brilliantly run Humanities department with a broad reading list. Hefty classics (The Grapes of Wrath, The Scarlet Letter, A Tale of Two Cities) mingled with less predictable picks (A Confederacy of Dunces, A Clockwork Orange, Darkness at Noon) and soon I was awash in great books. Coming from a family of readers helps as well; my mom seems to draw only from the new fiction cart at the library, while an uncle of mine is addicted to audio books. One of my cousins often reads books in their original Spanish, while another is just starting to get excited about his totally awesome 9th grade sci-fi lit class. I love talking to my family and friends about books, and there is something particularly thrilling about discussing my favorites. They have each changed me a little; in the way I think about writing, history, relationships, religion, and most of all, about people.
—Seija
With that said, I thought I’d start my first blog for the bookstore with a list of my five (technically six) favorite novels, in no particular order. I hope to elaborate on these in future posts.
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The Hours by Michael Cunnigham
Deliverance/To The White Sea (Irrevocably tied, blame James Dickey)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
When I read, I’m chasing that feeling I had in my early teens when I first read Orwell’s 1984. I had picked up a badly used copy somewhere—the cover font was nearly identical to that used in the “Schoolhouse Rock” logo—and someone had underlined whole pages worth of text in thick blue marker. I stayed up late one night to finish it, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Finishing that book made me feel like I had been through the same psychological warfare as Winston Smith, especially in that last climactic, unbearable scene of betrayal. It was the first time I had been through such an emotional literary workout, and I loved it.
New favorites stacked up quickly after that. I was lucky to attend a school with a brilliantly run Humanities department with a broad reading list. Hefty classics (The Grapes of Wrath, The Scarlet Letter, A Tale of Two Cities) mingled with less predictable picks (A Confederacy of Dunces, A Clockwork Orange, Darkness at Noon) and soon I was awash in great books. Coming from a family of readers helps as well; my mom seems to draw only from the new fiction cart at the library, while an uncle of mine is addicted to audio books. One of my cousins often reads books in their original Spanish, while another is just starting to get excited about his totally awesome 9th grade sci-fi lit class. I love talking to my family and friends about books, and there is something particularly thrilling about discussing my favorites. They have each changed me a little; in the way I think about writing, history, relationships, religion, and most of all, about people.
—Seija
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
