Happy Thanksgiving from University Book Store!

Get Cozy with Winter Books

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I'm so, so excited to tell you about the last two books I finished, The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon and Something Red by Douglas Nicholas. Somehow (the endless coincidences of life) I managed to read my two favorite books this year back to back. Both are mysterious, suspenseful historical fiction, driven equally by complex characters and ideas.  And I love them both because I can recommend them without my familiar fear of offending more delicate sensibilities with my usual literary taste. 

 The Colour of Milk (out in January) will seem strange at first. It's written in the stiff-sounding voice of a barely-literate fifteen year-old farm girl. Within the first few pages, she tells you the year (1830s) the setting (a rural farm somewhere in England) and who she is (Mary). By the time you've adjusted to this stilted but meticulous prose, you will be trapped, and it's likely you will finish this book in less than two days, like I did. This is the dark side of all our beloved, bucolic Regency classics; what Wide Sargasso Sea is to Jane Eyre, but with no dreaminess to soften the blow. Like Mary's infallible, blunt bullshit detector, this book speaks loud and plain truth to power and history. 

Mary and her three sisters are relentlessly worked and abused as chattel on their father's farm. Never is a thought given to higher goals of education, pleasure, travel or art. What Nell Leyshon does most effectively is give us a window into the mind of a girl raised in such conditions. She harbors no aspirations of rebellion or justice because she has no time in her day for abstraction. She understands the brutal cause and effect of her world: work done for survival's sake, crops grown for one more year of life, cows milked for one more day. The trouble comes when the adults in Mary's life start to manipulate her, and I will not give anything more away. This is a devastating book, but it feels so true to its time that the devastation will feel like a very old injury, maybe one that we've almost forgotten. The experience of reading a character this strong and singular is worth the heartbreak.

Something Red by Douglas Nicholas is pure reading pleasure. If you've been craving beautiful sentences like I was, Nicholas' writing will melt over your brain and trickle down into your heart. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this is one of the most perfectly balanced novels I've encountered in years; no detail, character, tangent, bit of foreshadowing or iota of atmosphere is wasted. Nicholas employs great economy and restraint in dealing with vaguely supernatural elements, and my enjoyment of this book rested heavily on not knowing how far down the fantasy rabbit hole we were about to fall.

The story is set at a crucial turning point in world history: the rise of Christianity and the fall of Paganism in the British Isles, when monotheism wielded a strange combination of immaturity and power. A band of four travelers, who you will grow to love, are journeying across England, through forests reminiscent of those in Algernon Blackwood's The Wendigo. Nature looms alternately as friend and foe, and through the trees, barely glimpsed by the party, but certainly felt, something is prowling. You will want to discover every brilliant, imaginative, thrilling detail in this book for yourself. Be patient, the slow build of the first 200 pages or so will make the impact of the last 100 totally worth it. When I read the last paragraph, I felt that old twinge, so familiar to book lovers, of leaving before I was ready to go.

So there you go, my two best Winter picks! Enjoy!

--Seija

YOUNG ADULT or ADULT?

SCIENCE FICTION or FICTION?

How much do categories matter?

Having just read Pod, Stephen Wallenfels' exciting first novel, I find myself having a conversation with myself about shelving categories and how much they matter. To me, this book and its protagonists Megs and Josh - 12 and 15 years old respectively - are more suited to the young adult (YA for short) book shelves than science fiction. Both understandable and no doubt admirable, Ace books has something else in mind for this writer. Still my job is to make sure the reader and the book meet in that place that Rumi speaks of:

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there."
Essential Rumi,translated by Coleman Barks
 
A few days ago I had the pleasure of conversing with Michael (son of Stephen) - who works as our community outreach/events person for University Book Store, and is a gifted musician and artist in his own right - about this and he showed me a another* cover that has been released in Germany, for the German language edition of Pod.

This particular cover makes a lot more sense to me, if it were being released as a YA book here. It features two kids back-to-back, as if in a stand-off, with a blue stream of energy coming from one of the pods (Pearls Of Destruction) hovering in the sky. And while Megs and Josh don't meet - not in this book at least - they both experience the alien invasion and the changes that brings to the world.

I heartily recommend this book to both teen and adult readers who like novels that are character-driven and have a challenging set of circumstances for those characters to work through, and I have the sneaking suspicion that this could be a story that continues in later works by Mr. Wallenfels.

So, did I answer my own question? I'm not sure, but I had some fun and I hope that you did too.

 ~Jan
book seller
aka calendar girl

 *There could be many more, but I am limiting the discussion to these two.

Top 13 Scariest Books EVER, as Voted by UBS Booksellers

Did you guess any of our top 13 picks?  From the top, they are: 1. Tales of Edgar Allen Poe; 2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly; 3. The Shining by Stephen King; 4. Dracula by Bram Stoker; 5. Tales of H. P. Lovecraft; 6. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; 7. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James; 8. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood; 9. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier; 10. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty; 11. Tales of Algernon Blackwood; 12. Coraline by Neil Gaiman; and 13. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman.

Here's a Lovecraft quote that I like: "We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far."  Some of us though, Lovecraft certainly included, have a nagging urge to sail out onto those black seas.  Some of us want to be scared.  Once we get a taste of darkness, we can't remain on the island.  I credit horror, in both literature and film, as a driving force behind my love of fiction.  Just as so many people start the freefall into full-blown book addiction with science fiction,  fantasy or young adult lit, it was horror that got me going; R. L. Stine, Christopher Pike, Stephen King, then Clive Barker and Lovecraft and Blackwood... I was obsessed.  And when I feel like nothing is scary enough anymore, I revisit some of the classics on this list, and also some of the wild cards.  Pick up The Shining and The Handmaid's Tale; I think you'll be terrified by both for utterly different reasons.  
Happy Reading, and Happy Halloween!!!

--Seija

*Extra thanks and bonus street cred points go to the screamingly talented Brad, Jan and Michael, who made these truly chilling cards for my display.  Thanks guys!

* LOVE Quick Bread Baking Fall Days !!! *

It all started with this lovely book ... it was a bargain at only $6.98. I do like cookbooks ... and it is time to start baking y'all:

Everything easily fit onto my very small dining room table.

 Takes very little time to roast these raw sunflower seeds in the oven.

 Doubled the amount of sunflower seeds and golden raisins.

 Looks done but the knife came out wet, back in it goes with foil on the top to keep it from burning.

 And voila! A perfect bundt bread.

 milk optional (lol)

*** THE END. ***

~Jan, cookbook shelver

aka calendar girl

Please note: We have a limited supply of this particular book, as it is one of our bargain offerings ... please call the store (206.634.3400) if you want us to pull one aside for you!

My conversation with NW author Kelsey Pince

Jan: This is my first interview for the Book Store blog, where I've written pieces mostly to say, "We're here!" Your book inspired me! We had the event* here which was great, you sold a number of books, right?!

Kelsey Pince: Yeah, so far I've sold close to a hundred, I think I'm at 93. And two at Mill Creek branch, so I'm counting those ...

J: Tom (my guy) is reading your book now, and he's liking it, too. When I first started your book I thought that you have a lot of detail and your characters have a lot of thoughts, and that's part of the whole - you know - presentation. Is that your normal style?

K: I would not say that. No. This is the first, full-length novel I've ever attempted and it was a very different style from what I normally do - which is blogging - and I think a lot of that was maybe me getting my own nerves out as a writer. 'Cuz I think particularly the first chapter has a lot of that. Whereas it smooths out a little bit more.

J: It does! It does. 'Cuz all I had to do was go, "I'm not sure?" and then the next pages turned it around. So it was a very short ... like, it's ... my own head is full of that stuff so I so know what that is like.

K: And with NaNoWriMo, the first couple of days you're just like ...

J: (Interrupting) Yeah ... that's a question ... how did that shape that process for you?

K: It really makes it intimidating, particularly the first couple days when you sit down and you know you have this word-count that you have to meet every day if you want to stay on pace, so particularly the early stages of my book ended up being a little  wordier just because it was, "Am I going to have enough to say to meet the 50,000 words?" And then ten days in, it was clear that I was going to write way more than that so I calmed down a lot more.

J: Wow! That's a lot of words!

K: (Gut level laughter ensues.) But for reference that's the length of the Great Gatsby ... it's pretty short for a novel. The novel that I ended up finishing uh is at 70,000 words, so ... I think it was only at sixty something when I finished NaNoWriMo, and then when I went back in and revised it it got a little bit longer.

J: So, uhm, I think that we addressed that question. So, let's just start with the biggie.

K: Okay.

J: How much of yourself, your own character, is in The World Below?

K: Well, it's definitely heavily based on my real life. But because I changed some things and because I streamlined a lot of events and combined some real people into one, I think that changed how the main character interacted with them and the decisions that she had to make that I never had to make, or had to make in a different order than I had to make them. So, even if she started out as me she definitely didn't end that way ... because her experiences were so different than mine. A lot of people read it - who knew me from that time - and definitely can see where the correlations to me and my real life are, but it's not ... it's still fiction.

J: Well, I really liked your character. I was really interested in her. And I worried along the way - is she going to go y'know - I was so hoping things would be okay for her. I don't want to give a spoiler quite yet. Okay, so that's good, I think that's just the truth for most writers, they've gotta have a voice, and you start with your own voice first and then hopefully you can move beyond that to create lots of new fiction ...

K: Exactly, and that's that ... because it was my first story it was a little bit easier to start with a situation that was at least true and just build off it from there. 

J: Cool, yeah, I like it. Uuhuum, so-o-o, you sort of segue into this, starting with yourself, starting with an outline, too?

K: I knew how it started and how it ended at the beginning of NaNoWriMo, like that's how I had it planned. And I had a vague idea of some of the events in the middle, but I really didn't know how to connect the beginning and the ending when I started. I kinda figured it would become clear to me as I wrote. And I think that I was lucky because I got to do a round of revisions between when I finished on December 1st and when they published it. So, I got to streamline ...

J: When did they publish it?

K: I think the contest went until late January and I had until the end of March to revise it, so I think it came out mid-April. It might have been early May ...

J: Did anything surprise you in the process?

K: Yes, a number of characters - particularly ones that I thought I knew how they would be and how they would act - kinda took over and took themselves in a different direction as I was working them, so a lot of the supporting characters surprised me and a lot of them surprised me by becoming much more important to the story than I originally thought they would be. And some of them became less important to the story, some of them by the end of it were not necessary at all, and ended up getting cut.

J: So even if you had some idea you allowed a lot of flexibility in there?

K: Yes, absolutely.

J: That's cool. Well, I really liked the balance between your main characters and the supporting characters 'cuz sometimes I get annoyed, I don't want to be pulled away from the main characters, but these ones supported the main and they supported the story. So you did that really well.

K: Thank you.

J: The balance ...

K: Thank you.

J: Y'know, 'cuz I will go, "aaahhuhrgh!" and you know that you've taken me away from the person (character) I love.

K: Yeah.

J: ... which actually leads us into the whole getting into the male mind ... set ... while you're writing. Have you ever done before?

K: I've written short stories from the perspective of male characters, and I feel like a lot of fiction has male main characters, so I read a lot from the male perspective. But it was a challenge and it was one of the things that I was nervous about going in, and when I did have people read the first draft that was one thing I was asking them to be critical of ... y'know: "does this sound like a male?" "Does this character come across as believably male?" Because I have definitely read female characters, written by male authors, where I was a little skeptical and I didn't want that to happen. So, I tried to be true to him as a character and also open to the feedback that I got from other men who were reading the book.

J: Yeah, you have a good community that surrounds you. I can tell that.

K: That is very true. My writer's group is mostly comprised of men ... so (laughter), I get that feedback a lot.

J: Well, that's really helpful then, how long have you been in that group?

K: Uhm, we've been going off and on, couple of our members left for grad school, so we've been on hiatus but we're starting up again ... I think I've been with them for about two years now.

J: That's awesome.

K: It is a lot of fun! ... mostly they write literary fiction and I'm kinda the more genre fiction member of the group, so there's that contrast between us too, but when we do short prompt exercises I always try to ask them if my male characters are coming across as credible.

J: ... uh, I am not a man (laughter), but I thought the male character was credible and especially the situation ah at home, y'know what men fear about becoming ... is it a spoiler? ... becoming fathers?

K: Naw, I don't think it's a spoiler.

J: So, are you going to continue in this genre? You said you're different then the rest in your group. Will you continue to write ...?

K: I really like urban fantasy and contemporary fantasy. Those are my favorite things: Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors and that tends to be what he writes, plus I think that it's easier to make sense of the world sometimes if you see it that way. So that's why I always enjoyed it as a genre. My next book is more like historical fantasy, high fantasy, that kind of thing. But I think that I will continue with contemporary urban fantasy once I'm done with the next project I'm on.

J: So that's going to be a satisfying genre for you for a while?

K: I think so yes ...

J: Cool, 'cuz I love it ... I'm like keep doin' it ... I want it, o-kay. And you've finished your second novel: do you want to share anything now with your readers? or do you want to keep it hush-hush?

K: Oh no, that's fine. I'll talk about that. It's still in draft format and I'm getting a lot of feedback from a lot of readers so it may not come out exactly this way, but it's kind of a re-examination of the crusades ... in a high fantasy setting. So instead of having the Knights of the Templar as my good guys: they're the bad guys. And the Arab-Muslim-African population are the protagonists ... because that's the history I learned in school and so that's always my viewpoint on world history, and I don't often see that in fantasy.

J: I think that's really excellent. I think that's going to be really unique then.

K: I hope so! (Laughter from both.)

J: You have a degree. What's your degree in?

K: I have a bachelors in Near Eastern Language and Culture, so specifically Arabic and the history of the Arab world.

J: So that helped you a lot right in shaping the second book, right?!

K: Yes, absolutely. And we didn't learn about crusader history in public school, so the first time I learned about the crusades was from the Arabic-Middle Eastern perspective. Then reading fantasy where the crusader-knights are always the good guys that's a little confusing to me. So I guess that I'm just trying to write a story that's more from the perspective I learned in world history.

J: Sounds excellent. Really. I ... probably one of those things that you feel that you were born to write?

K: Absolutely, everything in my education kinda brought this back to my interests and made me feel like this is a story that I want to tell.

J: Powerful. And within that, this is just spontaneous, within that are there female characters that are in this whole thing, and how does that work with the culture?

K: That is ...

J: And you don't have to give me too much ... whatever you're ...

K: That's ... uh ... my main character is female and a lot of the   main characters are female. Part of what I wanted to do in this world is to write a ... and it is fiction, it's not really historical because I do have a large number of women participate in the wars who are fighting as soldiers. It really was a combination of me wanting to create a more feminist feel in this time period, and also just a more global perspective on it. So I won't say it's based in history and it's not very historically accurate but culturally a lot of women did participate ... we just don't that often hear about them and they often had to do it in secret and so I kinda have a more open view of them. 

J: Normally I'm not interested in reading anything historical, but I know that I'll be reading your book. Because you are bringing you-ness to it. There is so much about you that I like as a person ...

K: Thanks ...

J: And uh you are a risk-taker and it seems like you like to walk off the beaten path and find out life on your own.

K: Yeah, and I'd rather have something that was sort of inspired by history but not really chained to historical fact. (A bit of hemming and hawing.) I don't write historical fiction. My research into this has been much heavier than my research into The World Below just because I wanted to have the right feel ... but y'know no one's going to use it in a history class ...

J: But they might teach it in a lit class ... which would be really-really cool. 

Let's see here ... well we talked about, you talked about Neil Gaiman: are there other writers you would say have influenced you?

K: Yes, absolutely. Neil Gaiman's protege Susanna Clarke, who's really only written Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and some short stuff, but she ... she is one of my bigger influences because I read that book so often! I love her style! I know it's hard to say that just one book is the major influence, but definitely her ... and Jo Walton ... her book Among Others which is like a life story told through the books she's read in a lot of ways ... and The World Below is sort of similar to that in that it's set in a book store for a large part. There's a lot of discussion about books and reading and how a person's taste in books reflects about their personality ... so I'd say Jo Walton's a huge influence. Of course, Jason Vanhee ...

[Jason Vanhee is a book seller at University Book Store and a published author. I like and admire the fiction that I've read of his so far.]

J: Which of his (books)has influenced you the most? Or can you do that?

K: Well? I would say Engines of the Broken World, which is his book, which is going to be released next fall. When I read that after he finished that for his own NaNoWriMo project, that kind of gave me the idea that I could do NaNoWriMo and maybe I did have a story to tell, because I always thought of myself more of a blogger and not a fiction writer and he sparked my interest in fiction and also was just right there cheering me on and encouraging me throughout the whole month. And he writes such a wide spectrum of genre: like some of his is contemporary fantasy, some of it's young adult, some of it's much more like straight historical fiction, and so I think his eclectic writing really has inspired me to go for what interests me and not worry about what genre it is ...

J: Well, I've read one of his books and I thought it was excellent so I'm looking forward to those other ones, too.

K: Did you read Engines of the Broken World or Never?

J: Engines ...

K: That's the one that he's revised a couple of times now so it'll probably be different when it comes out, but that's the one that is getting published.

J: Excellent!

K: It's so exciting!

J: It is, very exciting! To work at the book store, the book store is filled with talented creative people. Writers like you and Jason, and then visual artists ... I could name 'em all but ... but yeah, it's pretty impressive. It's an exciting time to work at the book store I think.

K: It's a really supportive environment, too. 

J: Yes.

K: Everyone wants to talk about what you're working on and share what they're working on and no one is too self-important to share or to give advice or encouragement. So I think it's a great environment!

J: I think you bring that out in people. So ... probably not e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y would get (you know) the degree of response that you have, but ...

K: I'm really lucky.

J: You are. But I wouldn't even say lucky, I'd just think that, "like attracts like!"

K: Oh!

J: That's one of my maxims in life. So ... what is the hardest part of the process, the writing process, for you?

K: For me it's knowing when its done. Because I'll write something and then go back and revise it and then go back and revise it. I will continue revising until someone tears it out of my hands and tells me it is done. And I never feel like anything is done. And from what I've read most authors have this problem, so I'm a little comforted that maybe I'm not insane. But uh the nice thing about NaNoWriMo is that it gives you a deadline that is almost unreasonable, so you just have to get it done, you can't worry about making it perfect. You know it's just a matter of writing the next sentence in order to keep up with your word count and uhm so once I'm outside of NaNoWriMo and I can write at my own pace it is hard to stop obsessing about tweaking and just move on to the next section.

J: Well you left a little bit of room for this character that I love to come back. Is there any possibility that we might hear from her again?
 
K: Yes, I would say a strong possibility! I have a second story with her in mind ... I haven't fleshed out the plot of it yet. I kinda know what happens next with her and I think there's a new character's story to wrap into that as well, but I don't quite know how to turn it into a novel quite yet. I think after I finish with the high fantasy project I'll return to that and see if there's a place to go.

J: Well, I'd be ready to hear more about her. She's c-o-m-p-l-e-x and meaty and so much about her and how you developed her is what I want to read about a character! I want to read a character that t-r-i-e-s to do good but is so often challenged and doesn't always meet the mark.

K: Yeah, absolutely, she's very flawed and I think that in next story going forward she'll get to have more of a leadership or mentoring role with another character, which I think will be interesting for her and will also kinda help her grow up ... because even though she's 19 or 20 in the book, she's kinda in that arrested development stage of not having had a childhood ... so still kind of stuck in a perpetual childhood. And now that she's on her own, without the protection of others, that'll be a good place to grow-up ... finally.

J: Sounds wonderful. It does. Well, this was just an interviewer's dream. Thank you so much for sitting down with me.

K: Thank you.


*Presentation of winner of the contest.

Kelsey Pince's The World Below was the winner of the Obliterate the Empty Page! contest held in November 2011 during National Novel Writing Month. It was chosen as the best entry by a panel of local book luminaries. Thank you to contest sponsors: Richard Hugo House, Northwest Independent Editors Guild, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators.

Cooking from Burma: Rivers of Flavor

Fall is one of my favorite times—the leaves are turning, the back to school buzz starts up, and the newest cookbooks are released. I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the Artisan Cookbook Challenge—where a few booksellers across the country cooked through Naomi Duguid’s gorgeous new book, Burma: River of Flavor.

I had never had Burmese food before, but imagined that it might resemble some of the cuisines from Burma’s borders: Thailand, India and China.
Looking through the book, it became clear that while Burmese food shares some characteristics with these other cuisines, it has a unique flavor all of its own.
After much salivating, I narrowed down my choices to items that we could enjoy throughout the week.

Our Menu:
Tender Greens with Crispy Fried Shallots

Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad
Tart-Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce
Easy grilled chicken
Kachin Pounded Beef with Herbs
Lemongrass Pork Sliders
Tapioca-Coconut Delight

Duguid recommends that you make some of the Burma Basics in advance—so I fried up shallots and garlic, distilled the oils, toasted up chickpea flour and made the chile garlic sauce in advance. All of these basics were easy to put together, and keep in the fridge or on the shelf for a few weeks!

We made the Tender Greens with bok choy and spinach. It was a delicious salad that was easy to put together, but had surprising depth of flavor. The greens are quickly blanched in boiling water and drained. They are then chopped and tossed with a number of elements that add crunch and texture: fresh shallots, chopped peanuts, fried shallots and garlic. Then the salad is lightly coated with toasted chickpea flour and dried shrimp powder that add both flavor and unctuousness. Finally, lime juice and shallot oil are massaged into the greens for a light vinaigrette.
The Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad was equally easy: carrots are grated on a box grater, then lightly pounded with lime juice and fish sauce to soften. They’re tossed with crunchy roasted peanuts and fried shallots, coated lightly with the shrimp powder & toasted chickpea flour and tossed with chile, salt and a little fresh mint or coriander. It was sweet and spicy and refreshing all at the same time.

The Easy Grilled Chicken was hands down my sweetie’s favorite. I rubbed bone-in chicken breasts with a flavor mixture made of turmeric, chile powder, minced garlic and ginger, and a little fish sauce. We threw them on a hot grill for about twenty minutes and the end result was fantastic—well seasoned, complex flavor in the breast meat with lightly charred skin. Delicious!
My favorite was the Kachin Pounded Beef—which is simmered with evocative Sichuan pepper, lightly seared and then pounded with a spice mixture that includes chile powder, a bit more toasted Sichuan pepper, ginger, garlic and fresh coriander. The resulting mixture was delicious and aromatic served on jasmine rice, with a little Chile Garlic Sauce to give it heat.

The Lemongrass pork sliders were a fun addition to the meal—the lemongrass, ginger, shallots and garlic add flavor, while jasmine rice binds what is essentially, a Burmese meatball. We ate them with rice and greens, but had fun imagining additional serving suggestions: on a baguette with carrot salad and fresh coriander heaped on top; or in a soup, perfumed with ginger and garlic.

We ended our meal with the Tapioca-Coconut Delight—I cooked pearls of tapioca with sugar and then cooled them. Meanwhile, I whisked together egg yolks with brown sugar and coconut milk that had been thickened with a bit of rice flour. Once this thickened, I poured it over the tapioca layer and cooled again. We served a scoop with fresh peaches for a light finish to our flavorful meal.



Duguid is known for writing thoughtfully researched cookbooks that make foods from far-flung areas accessible to those of us stateside. This book doesn’t disappoint. It’s chock full of information about Burma’s political and cultural history, that adds meaningful background; it includes a handy guide to pairing recipes for both larger meals and weeknight suppers; and lovely photographs of the people and food top off the collection. With a small investment of time, and almost no specialty equipment or special skills required, we were transported to the rivers of flavor that Burma has to offer.
~Stesha

Slicing shallots for Fried Shallots and Shallot Oil

Slicing garlic for Fried Garlic and Garlic Oil

Frying shallots

Tart-Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce

Preparing the greens

 

Mis en place for Tender Green Salad

Tender greens with crispy fried shallots

 

Grating carrots

Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad

Easy grilled chicken

Aromatics for Kachin Beef

Kachin Pounded Beef with Herbs

Aromatics for Lemongrass Sliders

Lemongrass sliders

Tapioca-Coconut Delight with fresh peaches