Booknotes - Summer 2018
Booknotes, the literary review of The Elliott Bay Book Company, is written entirely by bookstore staff. It represents a sampling of recently published and forthcoming books that we're excited to share with you.
Calling All Minds
How To Think and Create Like an Inventor
By Temple Grandin
Narrated by Ann Richardson & Temple Grandin / 4 hours 25 minutes
From world-renowned autism spokesperson, scientist, and inventor Temple Grandin -- a book of personal stories, inventions, and facts that will blow young inventors' minds and make them soar.
Have you ever wondered what makes a kite fly or a boat float? Have you ever thought about why snowflakes are symmetrical, or why golf balls have dimples?... Read More »
Bob
By Wendy Mass & Rebecca Stead
Narrated by Nora Hunter & Rob Dircks / 3 hours 2 minutes
New York Times bestselling authors Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, masterminds of classic middle-grade fiction, come together to craft a magical story about the enduring power of friendship.
It's been five years since Livy and her family have visited Livy's grandmother in Australia. Now that she's back, Livy has the feeling she's forgotten... Read More »
That Kind of Mother
A Novel
By Rumaan Alam
Narrated by Vanessa Johansson / 8 hours 12 minutes
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY Buzzfeed • The Boston Globe • The Millions • InStyle • Southern Living
“With his unerring eye for nuance and unsparing sense of irony, Rumaan Alam’s second novel is both heartfelt and thought-provoking.”
— Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere
From the celebrated author of Rich and Pretty, a... Read More »
How to Love a Jamaican
Stories
By Alexia Arthurs
Narrated by Janina Edwards, Adenrele Ojo, Dominic Hoffman & James Fouhey / 7 hours 3 minutes
“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith
An O: The Oprah Magazine “Top 15 Best of the Year” • A Well-Read Black Girl’s Pick
Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to... Read More »
Lost Empress
A Novel
By Sergio De La Pava
Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini & Full Cast / 19 hours 7 minutes
From the acclaimed PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize-winning author of A Naked Singularity, a shockingly hilarious novel that tackles, with equal aplomb, both America’s most popular sport and its criminal justice system
From Paterson, New Jersey, to Rikers Island to the streets of New York City, Sergio de la Pava’s Lost Empress introduces readers to a... Read More »
So Lucky
A Novel
By Nicola Griffith
Narrated by Nicola Griffith / 4 hours 51 minutes
From the author of Hild, a fierce and urgent autobiographical audiobook about a woman facing down a formidable foe
So Lucky is the sharp, surprising new audiobook by Nicola Griffith—the profoundly personal and emphatically political story of a confident woman forced to confront an unnerving new reality when in the space of a single week her wife... Read More »
Florida
By Lauren Groff
Narrated by Lauren Groff / 7 hours 59 minutes
Florida
“This collection of short stories take place in Florida, but this is no Disney World! Dog snatching alligators, hurricanes and lurking panthers-just a few of the dangers in this well crafted book. I especially enjoyed "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners"”
Teresa, Bookmarks
The Map of Salt and Stars
By Zeyn Joukhadar
Narrated by Lara Sawalha / 12 hours 17 minutes
The Map of Salt and Stars
“The two intertwining stories--one an ancient folk tale, one a story set in modern day Syria, and both featuring a young girl not yet come of age as the protagonist and hero of her own adventure--is brilliantly performed by Lara Sawalha. I was captivated from the first but both the rich stories and the gorgeous telling of them.”
Kris, Left Bank Books
The Incendiaries
A Novel
By R. O. Kwon
Narrated by Keong Sim / 5 hours 11 minutes
The Incendiaries
“R.O. Kwon’s debut knocked me sideways. The Incendiaries is a serious reckoning with the problem of fanaticism and the violence of blind devotion. The story of Will and Phoebe is told with an extraordinarily smart and soulful style. I was amazed at how perfectly Kwon’s spare language fit her novel’s expansive scope. A stunning portrait of what faith can do and undo, The Incendiaries will delight and disturb. But, most of all, it will impress.”
John Francisconi, Bank Square Books
The Great Believers
By Rebecca Makkai
Narrated by Michael Crouch / 18 hours 16 minutes
The Great Believers
“This flawlessly written and lovingly told story weaves the immediate toll AIDS took on the Chicago gay community in the 80's with the longterm impact on survivors and their families. Makkai threads it all compellingly together with art world intrigue and institutional drama. I don't want to diminish it in any way with comparisons, but The Great Believers brought to my mind several of my favorite contemporary novels: A Little Life, Three Junes, and The Goldfinch. Rebecca Makkai, in my opinion, has launched herself into a whole new category of literary achievement with this, her third novel.”
Becky Dayton, The Vermont Book Shop
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
By Ottessa Moshfegh
Narrated by Julia Whelan / 7 hours 14 minutes
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
“At first, My Year of Rest and Relaxation feels like the end of something, like a novel about the end of someone’s life. But Moshfegh has a way of affirming life unlike any other author. Repercussions of grief, emotional exhaustion, and the general anchors of life hurl a young woman into the warm embrace of the idea of hibernating for a year. Of course, this cannot be so simply done. In true Moshfegh fashion, this journey is brimming with laconic humor, her brand of ne’er-do-wells, and ample substance intake, which all lead to one of the most existentially satisfying reads in recent memory. ”
Gregory Day, BookPeople
Convenience Store Woman
By Sayaka Murata & Ginny Tapley Takemori
Narrated by Nancy Wu / 3 hours 21 minutes
Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world. So when she takes a job in a convenience store while at the university, they are delighted. For her part, she finds a predictable world in the convenience store, mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the... Read More »
Welcome to Lagos
A Novel
By Chibundu Onuzo
Narrated by Robin Miles / 9 hours 23 minutes
When army officer Chike Ameobi is ordered to kill innocent civilians, he knows it is time to desert his post. As he travels toward Lagos with Yemi, his junior officer, and into the heart of a political scandal involving Nigeria's education minister, Chike becomes the leader of a new platoon, a band of runaways who share his desire for a... Read More »
There There
A novel
By Tommy Orange
Narrated by Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Cuervo & Kyla Garcia / 7 hours 59 minutes
There There
“A stunning debut novel by an original voice. Twelve characters of Native American descent, interrelated by birth or chance, struggle with the competing forces of cultural history and modern urban existence. Their stories build separately before colliding powerfully in the book’s final pages at The Big Oakland Powwow. I was riveted.”
Keltie, Parnassus Books
Confessions of the Fox
A Novel
By Jordy Rosenberg
Narrated by Aden Hakimi / 10 hours 12 minutes
Recently jilted and increasingly unhinged, Dr. Voth throws himself into his work, obsessively researching the life of Jack Sheppard, a legendary eighteenth century thief. No one knows Jack's true story—his confessions have never been found. That is, until Dr. Voth discovers a mysterious stack of papers titled Confessions of the Fox. Dated 1724,... Read More »
The Book of Essie
A novel
By Meghan MacLean Weir
Narrated by Robbie Daymond, Tara Sands & Erin Spencer / 11 hours 3 minutes
The Book of Essie
“The Book of Essie is a captivating debut. The original plot moves at lightning speed while giving the reader characters to hang on to, care for, and sympathize with. The novel focuses on 16-year-old Essie Hicks, a star on a reality TV show following her preacher father and her ultra-religious, conservative family. When Essie finds out she is pregnant, she must protect herself and her future in the face of public scorn. I couldn’t stop turning the pages to see what would happen to Essie and Roarke, the boy Essie’s mother has decided she will marry in a primetime, live-televised wedding. Weir proves herself to be a brilliant new talent with a sensitive but unflinching take on child exploitation and life in the public eye. A must-read! ”
Liv Stratman, Theresa Case
Atlas of a Lost World
Travels in Ice Age America
By Craig Childs
Narrated by Craig Childs / 9 hours 10 minutes
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet comes a vivid travelogue through prehistory, that traces the arrival of the first people in North America at least twenty thousand years ago and the artifacts that tell of their lives and fates.In Atlas of a Lost World, Craig Childs upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were. How... Read More »
Tyrant
Shakespeare on Politics
By Stephen Greenblatt
Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini / 5 hours 26 minutes
World-renowned Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores the playwright's insight into bad (and often mad) rulers. As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of... Read More »
Barracoon
The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
By Zora Neale Hurston
Narrated by Robin Miles / 3 hours 49 minutes
Barracoon
“Barracoon would be a significant document were it only about Cudjo (Kossola) Lewis, the last survivor of the last recorded slave ship to the US. His memories, recounted orally, preserve a trans-atlantic history that has long-been suppressed. But Barracoon is also a story about Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance, and the reclamation of African-American folklore. Woven throughout Hurston and Lewis' conversations is a yearning for roots and a fight for identity.”
Clara, Bookshop Santa Cruz
The Death of Truth
Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump
By Michiko Kakutani
Narrated by Tavia Gilbert / 3 hours 45 minutes
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NEW YORK TIMES Editors' Choice
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic comes an impassioned critique of America’s retreat from reason
We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven... Read More »
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