Happy April! Spring officially sprung a week or so ago, it is definitely feeling warmer, even when it’s raining, and the best part: it is staying light out later, expanding our lovely days!

What a perfect time to expand your reading horizons as well! I have overheard more than one of you say, “Oh, I don’t read short stories…” Well – now is the perfect time to expand your mind just a little bit and pick up a short story collection! There is an abundance of tremendous selections available to us these days. I believe it takes an enormous amount of talent to write a complete and satisfying story in 50 pages. Or, even more impressively, in 6 pages! But if the author gets it right, there is something quite spectacular about the distilling of the talent and the inspiration into 6 perfect pages. Something to truly savor.

And yes, thank you for asking, I do have a few suggestions!

• “We Live in Water: Stories” by Jess Walter. 2014 PNBA Book Award winner and my favorite collection in the last few years. The talent distillation in these stories is stunning. In paperback.
• “Tenth of December: Stories” by George Saunders. National Book Award Finalist. Named one of the best books of the year [2014] by The New York Times Book Review. Another staff favorite. In paperback.
• “Redeployment” by Phil Klay. Winner of the 2014 National Book Award and the John Leonard Prize for the best debut release of 2014! In paperback.
• “Problems with People” by David Guterson. These ten wise, extraordinary tales explore the mysteries of love and our complex desire for connection. A staff favorite author. In paperback.
• “Stone Mattress: Nine Tales” by Margaret Atwood. A collection of highly imaginative short pieces that speak to our times with deadly accuracy. Vintage Atwood creativity, intelligence, and humor.
• “Crow Fair” by Thomas McGuane. The reviews say: One of the best story collections you’ll read this year (or any year), McGuane’s funny, sad, awfully human stories feature aging cowboys, middle-aged men resistant to growing up, and the women who plague and perplex them. Well, I can’t wait!

And another great option is a collection of stories by various authors. A great way to be introduced to authors you may not have read, but may indeed love. For example:

• “The Best American Short Stories 2014” edited by Jennifer Egan. The latest in the yearly collection with a different editor for every edition.
• “Dangerous Women” edited by George R. R. Martin. These tales of dangerous women by the most stellar names in fiction, mystery, science fiction and fantasy are now available in 3 paperback volumes. Staff recommended.

First novel report: “Dog Stars” by Peter Heller. In paperback May 2013. Since “The Painter” is new in paperback, and has been chosen as the 2015 Seattle Reads title, thought it was a great time to mention his first novel. Which I loved! Set in Colorado after a superflu has culled most of humanity. A man named Hig lives in a former airport community which he shares with his 1956 Cessna, his dog, and a slightly untrustworthy survivalist. He spends his days flying the perimeter, looking out for intruders and thinking about the things he’s lost. When a distant beacon sparks in him the realization that something better might be out there, it’s only a matter of time before he goes searching. Poetic, thoughtful, transformative, this novel is a rare combination of the literary and highly readable. Written in a unique narrative voice that draws you right in. Read them both!

Events at The Edmonds Bookshop

April 16, 2015. 5 – 8 p.m. Third Thursday Art Walk Edmonds. Our annual Poetry Night! Check our events page for the announcement of the lineup this year. We welcome 4 or 5 local poets who will read their new work and if previous years are any indication – we are in for a great night — they always dazzle us!

April 24, 2015. Saturday at noon. We will welcome author Rev. Judith Laxer and her book, “Along the Wheel of Time: Sacred Stories for Nature Lovers.”

Following the Pagan Wheel of the Year, this new book tells eight short stories, one for each of the natural Earth holy days called sabbats. Through the experience of the characters, these stories demonstrate how the changing of the seasons is a spiritual model for the soul.

April 2015 Book Club Book

April 2 & 15, 2015. Our book club book is “The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel by Neil Gaiman. A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, this is his first new novel for adults since his bestseller “Anansi Boys.”

This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real…

We have chosen the books for the first half of 2015! They are listed on our Book Club page.

Recent book releases of note:
For ages 9 – 12. “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander. 2015 Newbery Medal Winner; 2015 Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winner. The author was on the PBS Newshour 3/26/15. See the interview here.
“A Dangerous Place: A Maisie Dobbs Novel” by Jacqueline Winspear. Four years after she set sail from England, Maisie Dobbs at last returns, only to find herself in a dangerous place . . .
“The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro. The author’s first novel in a decade follows an old couple on what might be their last journey: Hunting for memories of a son they think they had, in a land covered with memory-shrouding mists. An author interview on NPR.
“The Painter” by Peter Heller. A contemporary Western about a 45-year-old artist and fly fisherman. Heller skillfully balances two sides of his protagonist, painting a portrait of a man whose dark edge can explode in unexpected ways. The staff favorite now in paperback.
“Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” by Erik Larson. From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania.
“Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral” by Mary Doria Russell. From the bestselling author of “Doc,” comes a richly detailed novel of the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the making of the mythology that surrounds it to this day.

Books of note coming soon:

“Falling in Love: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery” by Donna Leon. “Death at La Fenice,” the first novel in the beloved series, introduced readers to the glamorous and cutthroat world of opera and one of Italy’s finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli—then a suspect in a murder. Years after Brunetti cleared her name, Flavia has returned to Venice and La Fenice to sing the lead in Tosca. Complications ensue… April 7, 2015.
“The Goldfinch: A Novel” by Donna Tartt. The 2014 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction. In paperback! April 7, 2015.
“Inside the O’Briens” by Lisa Genova. From the award-winning author and neuroscientist, comes a powerful new novel that does for Huntington’s Disease what her debut “Still Alice” did for Alzheimer’s. Selected by Independent Booksellers for the April 2015 Indie Next List. April 7, 2015.
“David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” by Malcolm Gladwell. In paperback. April 7, 2015.
“Blood on Snow: A Novel” by Jo Nesbo. From the internationally acclaimed author of the Harry Hole novels—a fast, tight, darkly lyrical stand-alone novel that has at its center the perfectly sympathetic antihero: an Oslo contract killer who draws us into an unexpected meditation on death and love. April 7, 2015.
“Sunset Eating Up the West Coast: The best road trips, restaurants, and recipes from California to Washington” by Brigit Binns. Sunset Magazine and cookbook author [and Road Foodie blogger] Brigit Binns team up to take readers on a mouthwatering tour along scenic highways and picturesque back roads of the Pacific coast –discovering local eateries, dives, and cafes that showcase the true flavors of each region. April 28, 2015.
“Gathering Prey” by John Sandford. The extraordinary new Lucas Davenport thriller from the bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize–winner John Sandford. April 28, 2015.

As always, check our website for all the latest in book news!

Happy reading!

— By Elaine Mattson

Edmonds native Elaine Mattson has worked at The Edmonds Bookshop off and on since she was 12 years old, and has also worked at a book wholesaler, a book publisher, and for the book publishing division of a large local software company (yes, that one). “I was raised a book lover [thanks, Mom!],” Mattson says. “We got book lights by our beds as soon as we were old enough to read. And then I probably got in trouble for reading too late the very next night. And I still read too late!”