West of Here -- and a Bonus!

I'm having fun reading a new novel, West of Here, by Jonathan Evison, set in the fictional Olympic Peninsula town of Port Bonita, in America's last frontier. The novel travels back and forth in time between the late 1800s and 2006, as Port Bonita travels from its hopeful, forward-looking genesis to its contemporary sad-sack town. Evison paints a vast canvas with gorgeous descriptions of the northwest and a wide array of characters. It's a book I'm finding hard to put down (which makes work a challenge) because I want to know what's going to happen next with each character.

Here's what one reviewer had to say: "Evison bravely sets out to conquer big stories and big themes, and the result is a daring, gorgeously structured, and deeply satisfying expedition of a novel. West of Here deftly connects lives and centuries, pipe dreams and fierce realities, the sensibilities of the modern with the storytelling punch of the classic." (James P. Othmer)

And one of my favorite writers, Jim Lynch (The Highest Tide, Border Songs), calls it a "creative bonanza of a novel," and says Evison writes "with a big, playful heart."

Evison's debut novel, All About Lulu, was published in 2008 to critical acclaim, winning the Washington State Book Award. In 2009, he was awarded a Richard Buckley Fellowship from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. Algonquin editor Chuck Adams (Water for Elephants, A Reliable Wife, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers Homes in New England) has called West of Here the best novel he's worked on in more than four decades of publishing. In his teens, Evison was the founding member and frontman of the Seattle punk band March of Crimes, which included future members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Born in San Jose, California, he now lives on an island in Western Washington.

In the contemporary Port Bonita, characters often gather at the Bushwhacker bar and knock down a few beers, usually a Kilt Lifter. How would you like your very own Kilt Lifter beer glass? We have a handful at the store, and will happily give you one with each copy of West of Here that you purchase. How's that for a deal?

Here's a brief video documentary by Mark McKnight in which Evison discusses his writing process.

Presentation by Lewis & Clark Book Collector

Roger Wendlick never married, and he never graduated from college, but he did amass the world's most complete collection of printed materials relating to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was born in Portland, graduated from Jefferson High School and attended Portland State College for a year. He tried on a variety of occupations, including working as a miner, logger, surveyor, maitre d' and wine steward, guitar player, in a paper mill, and for the US Forest Service, before landing on a career in the construction trades.

While recovering from an accident on the job, Roger decided to head abroad for a while, visiting seventeen countries over a ten-month period. When he returned to Portland he began working in construction again, and, for a variety of reasons, decided that he needed a hobby: "Why not collect something, I thought?"

What made him focus on Lewis and Clark items was something he inherited from his grandmother, who had passed away while he was in Europe: a blue souvenir dinner plate from the 1905 Lewis and Clark World's Fair in Portland. He remembered that it had always been special to her, and he began to explore its history. And thus a man's obssession was born.

In 1980, Roger began collecting materials related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, working in heavy construction to finance his increasingly expensive obssession. His goal was to assemble the world's most complete collection of printed materials related to the expedition. In 1998, Roger achieved his goal and moved his library to Lewis and Clark College -- in a part donation/part purchase agreement. Since then, Roger has devoted himself full time to studying and teaching about the Expedition.

His book, Shotgun On My Chest: Memoirs of a Lewis and Clark Book Collector, was recently published by local 12-Gauge Press. Roger joins us Tuesday, May 11th, at 7 pm to discuss his book and the history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We hope you can join us for what is sure to be a fascinating presentation!

Let the Cooling Begin. Soon. Now Even.

Hey, did anyone notice that it's darned hot out there?? There's a reason why I don't live in the South. Well, many of them, actually (can you say "bugs"??). But one of the biggest is that I'm not a huge fan of heat and humidity. Especially together. So what's with this heat-and-humidity-IN-PORTLAND thing? My house was a balmy 85 on the main floor when I left to come to work, and my overheated cats were splayed out on the floor like furry hot water bottles. Oh, did I mention we have AIR CONDITIONING here at Broadway Books? I might have mentioned it a time or two already....

Anyway, let's try for a little vicarious book cooling, shall we? Just looking at the covers of these books takes the temperature down a notch or two, and I'm sure cracking them open and reading them will make us all just downright chilly, in the best possible way.

In Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places, Bill Streever takes us on an extraordinary search for cold in a warming world. (Sound familiar?) Streever, who chairs the North Slope Science Initiative's Science Technical Advisory Panel, evokes history, myth, geography, and ecology in showing us the cold that remains in this world and what has been left in its absence -- taking a dip in an Arctic swimming hole, exploring the hibernation habits of animals, and adventuring up Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest peak, among his other poetic escapades.

The Solace of Open Spaces, by Gretel Ehrlich, about the beauty of Wyoming, has long been one of my favorite books. Her most recent book, published a few years ago, is The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold (now THAT sounds nice about now). The book was written out of Ehrlich's love for winter -- for remote and cold places, for the ways winter frees our imagination and invigorates our feet, mind, and soul -- and also out of the fear that our "democracy of gratification" has irreparably altered the climate. From Tierra del Fuego in the south to Spitsbergen, east of Greenland, at the very top of the world, Ehrlich experiences firsthand the myriad expressions of cold and shares them with us, exploring the important question: If winter ends, will we survive?

Near Death in the Arctic: True Stories of Disaster and Survival, edited by Cecil Kuhne, might be taking us TOO far down the cold path. In this book, Kuhne, gathers astonishing tales of man versus nature, all set against the bleakly beautiful backdrop of the poles of the earth. The anthology includes "South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage," by Ernest Shackleton, "The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-13," by Apsely Cherry-Garrard, and "Ice Bird: The First Single-Handed Voyage to Antarctica," by David Lewis.

Even a little rain sounds pretty good just about now, so I have to include one of my all-time favorite northwest books, The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest, by that wonderful writer Timothy Egan. In the tradition of fine journalism, Egan takes us from salmon fisheries to mountain camps, from an impoverished Indian reservation to the manicured English gardens of Vancouver, interweaving personal experiences and conversations with observations of nature and historical information. A terrific book. Egan (also author of The Worst Hard Time, about the great American Dust Bowl) has a new book coming out in October: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America.

Finally, if you're not cooled down yet, this book will surely do the trick: The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments, by David Lebovitz. Mmmmm. My mouth is watering just typing all those words! Every luscious flavor imaginable is grist for the chill in pastry chef Lebovitz's gorgeous guide to the pleasures of homemade ice creams and more. Just whip up one of these babies and watch the cooling begin.

We've got all these books in stock in our (did I mention yet?) AIR CONDITIONED bookstore, so come say hi and step out of the heat and let the cooling begin.

Border Songs a Big Hit at Broadway Books

It was a packed house and a happy house at Broadway Books last night to hear Jim Lynch read from his wonderful second novel, Border Songs. Jim has been a big favorite at BB since the publication of his first novel, The Highest Tide, and people were eager to hear from his new one. Jim read a few passages -- some of which were hysterical, all of which were beautiful -- and talked about the process of writing the book. As a long-time journalist, Jim is well-versed in research and investigation, which served him well in the writing of this book, for which he had to learn about birding, autism, dairy farming, the US/Canadian border, and other subjects. After taking questions from the audience, Jim gladly sat and signed book after book for his enthusiastic audience. And then he signed some more books. All of the books we have in the store, in fact. So come on down and get your very own signed copy of Border Songs, before they fly away. My prediction? Brandon Vanderkool will become as well-loved a literary character as Miles O'Malley has been. And now we know: Jim can write short and tall. A huge thank you to Jim and all who attended for a truly wonderful night!

Your Oregon Wine-Touring Companion

I'm heading to Walla Walla this weekend, for a little family meet-up time, albeit short. As you must know by now, Walla Walla is the hot new wine capital -- a far cry from the small wheat-and-onion-and-strawberry town that I grew up in. When I left WW for college (more than a decade ago, less than a century), there were ZERO wineries in WW; at last count there were more than a hundred, many of them producing top-notch wines. Sure makes coming home for the family visitation even more exhilarating! And along with all those wines and wineries comes four-star restaurants and wine bars. Yeehaw!!! Hmmmm. I might have to come home with a bottle or two....

But Oregon ain't no slouch in the wine department either. And as summer approaches -- although the rain and hail I see through the store window would say otherwise -- it's a good time to start planning some winery tours. A newly published book might be the perfect companion for those trips, Wine Trails of Oregon: A Guide for Uncorking Your Memorable Wine Tour, by Steve Roberts. This book is chalkful of photographs and maps to guide you through the entire state (including Zerba Cellars, one of my favorites, which is in Milton-Freewater -- spitting distance from the actual town of WW). While it doesn't have every winery in Oregon, at almost 500 pages it's got enough to keep you amply saturated. Cheers!

Something New from Timothy Egan

One of my all-time favorite nonfiction writers is Timothy Egan. Some of my favorite books of his are The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest; Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West; and The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl, for which Egan won the National Book Award -- and deservedly so; it's a terrific book.

And now we all have another book from Egan to look forward to: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America. The book tells the story of the Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America. 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 the forest service with consequences felt in the fires of today.

The Big Burn tells an epic story, paints a moving portrait of the people who lived it, and offers a critical cautionary tale for our time -- characteristics of all of Egan's books. The book will be published mid-October -- let us know if you want us to reserve you a copy.

Egan worked for 18 years as a writer for The New York Times, first as the Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a national enterprise reporter. In addition to the National Book Award he won in 2006, he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 as part of a team of reporters who wrote the series "How Race is Lived in America." He lives in Seattle.

Fleeting Beauty

In a recent conversation with the publisher of Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957, we learned that the first printing is just about gone -- just what's left on store shelves. The book currently sells for $75, but in the next printing the price is likely to go up -- probably to around $100 or so. We've still got copies of the first printing, but they're going fast. If you want a copy stop by soon or give us a call (503-284-1726). This book -- recently recognized by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association -- is indeed a treasure.

Where to Go When in the Great Northwest

Wouldn't it be great if you could know exactly where and when to go if you want to see migrating whales, nesting puffins, soaring raptors, tidepool treasures, frozen waterfalls, nesting great blue herons, wintering waterfowl, blooming mountain wildflowers, and more great experiences of the natural world of the Pacific Northwest? Well, now you can! Just published by Timber Press is The Northwest Nature Guide: Where to Go and What to See Month by Month in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, by James Luther Davis. The book presents 150 best bets for wildlife adventures throughout the Northwest and even in your own backyard! With contagious enthusiasm and laugh-out-loud humor, popular Oregon naturalist Davis gets you where you need to go to see nature at its peak every month of the year. As the author says in his introduction: "Ahh, another day in paradise. If you've lived in the Pacific Northwest for long you've probably figured out that you reside in one of the greatest places on Earth. Yet, like urbanites in any developed country, we Northwesterners spend so much of our time in environments of our own creation and on schedules of our own design that we are out of touch with the natural world and its rhythms." This book is the cure for that, enabling you to have "outdoor adventures that leave you feeling revitalized and inspired, with a renewed sense of wonder and appreciation for nature. You may even have some experiences that can best be described as spiritual." What are you waiting for? There's no better way to push through the winter doldrums than to explore the natural treasures of the Northwest.

Calling All Fans of The Highest Tide!

Here's something for everyone to look forward to: Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide, a consistent best-seller here at Broadway Books, is coming out with his second novel in June 2009. Border Songs is about border crossings and birdwatching, about elusive dreams and swiftly changing worlds. Mostly, however, it is a riveting portrait of a distinctive community, an inventive love story -- both comic and tender -- and, as with The Highest Tide, we're sure it will be fiction of the highest order. The book should be out around mid-June. Let us know if you want to reserve a copy. Jim has also agreed to do a reading at the store this summer! Stay tuned for further information on that.

John Keeble Reading

Last night John Keeble read from his novel Yellowfish, recently reissued by the University of Washington Press. He had an enthusiastic audience, including Robin Cody, author of Ricochet River and Voyage of a Summer Sun. Signed copies of Yellowfish are available at the store! (John on left; Robin on right.)