Thanks to all Holiday Book Talkers!

Holy cats! How much fun was that???? Last night was our third Book Talk, and I think it was the best one yet! The hardest part by far was narrowing down the selection of books we talked about; there are just so many amazing new books out this fall, which made it quite the challenge.

Heart-felt thanks to all who attended -- you made it so much fun. This time around we took a gift-giving focus when talking about new books. Who knew Roberta and I could talk about so many great books in such a short amount of time? Well, I'm guessing some of you suspected as much....There were several happy prize winners, and some people got a terrific head start on their holiday shopping. And everyone enjoyed Roberta's incredibly yummy gingerbread. Big thanks to Great Wine Buys, an independent neighborhood wine shop, for the loan of glasses and for directing us to some tasty wine. Our next Book Talk is planned for the spring, but we're considering offering another holiday focused one before the year is out. Anyone interested in that? Let us know what you think; we'd be happy to gear up for an encore! Thank you to Deb Hartman for the accompanying photograph of the happy book talkers in action. Seriously. I have no idea what I'm doing in this photo, but I'm clearly emphatic about something!

2009 National Outdoor Book Awards

Here are the just-announced winners of the 2009 National Outdoor Book Awards:

• History-Biography: Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley (Harper).
• Nature and the Environment: Our Living Earth by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
• Design & Artistic Merit: Lars Jonsson's Birds illustrated by Lars Jonsson (Princeton University Press)
• Outdoor Literature: Halfway to Heaven by Mark Obmascik (Free Press)
• Natural History Literature: Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys by Rob Dunn (Smithsonian Books)
• Instructional: Girl on the Rocks: A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace and Courage by Katie Brown, photographs by Ben Moon (Globe Pequot Press/Falcon Guides)
• Outdoor Adventure: Guide to the Green and Yampa Rivers in Dinosaur National Monument by Duwain Whitis and Barbara Vinson (RiverMaps)
• Nature: Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America by Roger Tory Peterson (Houghton Mifflin)
• Children's: Whistling Wings by Laura Goering, illustrated by Laura Jacques (Sylvan Dell Publishing)

Agree? Disagree? Others you would recommend?

The National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA) is the outdoor world's largest and most prestigious book award program. It is a non-profit, educational program, sponsored by the National Outdoor Book Awards Foundation, Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education, and Idaho State University. The purpose of the awards is to recognize and encourage outstanding writing and publishing. Reviews of these titles and a list of the honorable mentions can be found at the NOBA Website.

Chelsea Cain Returns to Broadway!

As a kid, Chelsea Cain aspired to be a firedog. Fortunately for us, she wasn't able to pull it off, so instead she became a terrific writer and storyteller. On Tuesday, November 17th, Chelsea returns to Broadway Books to read from the third book in her series about Portland police detective Archie Sheridan, the fetching serial killer (Gretchen Lowell) who torments him, and Susan Ward, the ambitious newspaper reporter. We all learned to love Archie and be attracted to/repelled by Gretchen in Chelsea's first two books, Heartsick and Sweetheart. This third Portland-based book, Evil at Heart, entwines the three once again and deals with the issue of the media's infatuation with serial killers. And of course all of it is shot through with the author's trademark style and humor.

Here's what some reviewers have said about her newest book: "snappy pace and sustained creepiness," "crime, horror, and a little comedy," with "compelling flawed heroes and antiheroes." And "it just doesn't get much better than this."

Chelsea spent her early childhood on a commune in Iowa, then moved with her mother to Bellingham, Washington, where she grew up. She was ten years old when the first victim of the Green River Killer was found; the Washington State serial murder wouldn't be captured until 2001. And that's when the seeds of this series were planted. Chelsea has always been a little obsessed with detectives and detecting, however. In fact, one of her earlier books was Confessions of a Teen Sleuth, with a grown-up Nancy Drew looking back on her life and setting the record straight.

Fortunately for all of us fans of Archie and Gretchen and Susan -- and of Chelsea -- she recently signed another deal with her publisher for the next two books in this current series and Book #1 in a new thriller series. Hooray!

Please join us next Tuesday night at 7 for an entertaining evening with Chelsea. And believe me, they are always entertaining!

Book Talk for the Holidays!

Tick tock! Time is running out to sign up for tomorrow night's Book Talk. We invite book-clubbers and book lovers alike to join us for our third Book Talk. A few months ago we hosted a gathering for readers who were looking for good book club choices or just good reads in general. It was so successful and so much fun that we had another one. And now we're hosting a third -- this time to share our thoughts on some of the best new books of the season, with a peek at what’s to come and with an eye to gift-giving as well as choosing books for your personal library or your reading group. This event is open to the first 35 people who register by paying the fee of $5, which will be refunded toward any purchase that night. We’ll have refreshments, prizes, and a bunch of fun. What a delightful way to get lots of great holiday gift ideas. Register now to assure a spot! Our last event was packed.

Siverly & Drake Read Poetry Tonight

Two very fine teachers and poets, Bill Siverly and Barbara Drake, will be with us tonight to read from new books. Bill Siverly, originally from Idaho, has lived in Portland since 1972. He is co-editor of Windfall: A Journal of Poetry of Place, which features poetry of the Pacific Northwest and appears twice yearly on the equinoxes. Bill’s new book, Clearwater Way, is a journey from the Washington Coast up the Columbia, Snake, and Clearwater Rivers and into the woods of north Idaho. The journey is also back in time, to his childhood, and is inspired by the Wasco myth cycle about Coyote, who traveled the same terrain, creating land forms, resources, and cultural practices.

Barbara Drake grew up at the Oregon coast. She is the author of a number of poetry chapbooks, a memoir, and a college textbook about writing poetry. Barbara’s new book is Driving 100. The major theme of this work is that the past in all of its mystery and wonder is driving relentlessly into the dark. Barbara’s strong voice and sympathetic observation create a haven in her poetry for things which are passing away, and in these poems they go on living in the light of her unique poetic reality, exquisite in line, image, memory and emotion.

We hope you can join us for this terrific event tonight, which starts at 7 pm.

Talking 'bout Books at BB

We had so much fun at our sold-out Book Talk events last spring that we're going to have another one! Thursday, November 12, at 7 pm is the date for our next Book Talk, this time with an eye to holiday gift-giving. You can learn about the best new books of the season, with a peek at what's to come, mingle with other book lovers and share good reads, have a little nosh, win prizes, and perhaps get some of your holiday shopping out of the way!

Space is limited, so sign up now. Reserve a spot for the next Book Talk by paying $5 in advance, which will be refunded toward any purchases you make that night. Call us at 503-284-1726 to reserve your spot, or just stop by to sign up. We're open from 10 to 7 Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday. After Thanksgiving we'll change to our extended holiday hours until Christmas.

Hope to see you there!

Great News for Percy Jackson Fans!

Fans of Rick Riordan's series based on Greek mythology, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, got some great news recently: Riordan will soon launch a new series involving Egyptian Gods loose in the modern world. The series, featuring siblings Carter and Sadie Kane, will launch May 4, 2010, with The Kane Chronicles, Book One: The Red Pyramid (Disney-Hyperion). You can read more about the new series on Rick Riordan's blog.

You can also read more about Rick Riordan and Percy Jackson in a previous blog here about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

A film version of the first book in the Percy Jackson series, The Lightning Thief, will be released in February 2010. The final book in that series, Book Five: The Last Olympian, was published last May. Both of Riordan's series are targeted to the 10-14 age group, but kids of all ages have been known to devour the Percy Jackson books (including yours truly).