Phinney Books Weekly Newsletter #54

The neighborhood bookstore for Phinney Ridge and Greenwood

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Sometimes, the rest of the world cottons to the weird book you thought you and only a few other people were looking forward to. This week I was planning to feature Ottessa Moshfegh's dark new novel, Eileen, but wouldn't you know it: the New York Times reviewed it on the front cover of its book review and we sold out of the copies we had and all our suppliers ran out too. We'll have more in soon, though, and we'll be sure to have more to say about it then. (Liz, who is a fan of Moshfegh's strange little first novel, McGlue—which we do have in stock!—really liked Eileen too, so we're not sure who will write about it. Maybe we both will.)

Instead, we're featuring another book that we might run out of soon. Copies of Lispector's Complete Stories (see below) are even harder to come by right now, but we do still have one, so come by quick to read pages 254 to 257! [Update: sorry, we sold it before I could send this, even though I was hiding it behind the counter. More copies will arrive at some point...]

One more note: visitors to the store (and coffee drinkers and ice-cream eaters across the street) may notice a new addition to our facade: seven giant blue letters in the seven windows across our storefront, spelling out "PHINNEY." We've been planning to do this ever since we opened (the math was just too perfect to pass up), but like some other plans, it's taken us a while to make it a reality. Thanks to Elinor Nissley for the letters, Ballard Outdoor for the installation, and Mike Attebery for the original idea!

Thanks—Tom, Laura, Kim, and Liz.

Dock Street Salon Reading Series: Fountas & Szilagyi

Final reminder: tonight (Thursday) at 7, Seattle writers Angela Jane Fountas and Anca Szilagyi read new work at our Dock Street Salon reading series.

New Book of the Week
The Complete Stories
by Clarice Lispector
For as long as I've known of Lispector, the legendary Brazilian writer, I've been drawn to her but always intimidated by her "greatness," her glamour, and her difficulty, and so I had read plenty about her, without actually reading her. This new, complete collection of her stories is no less intimidating: it's over 600 pages, and the cover makes Lispector look like she stepped out of Un Chien Andalou. But then I opened to a story at random, "The Sharing of Loaves," and in its four, short pages I was hooked. It's not a difficult story; in fact I think it must be difficult not to love it. Come in and try it out yourself: it starts on page 254. I sampled more stories after that, and they carry a similar clarity and intensity, but honestly, that first story is all I need for now. —Tom

Old Book of the Week
The Damned Utd
by David Peace
To call this the greatest soccer novel ever written would imply that I've read any others, but people say it, and I can't believe it's not true. Peace, otherwise a crime novelist, took a bizarre episode in English football history, when the blustery manager Brian Clough took over his bitter rival, Leeds United, for a disastrous month and a half in 1974, and turned it into a strangely compelling drama about the repetitive, obsessive drive behind athletic success and failure. Imagine, U.S. sports fans, James Ellroy writing a novel about Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner, and then imagine you know nothing about Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner. It's fantastic. —Tom

Kids' Book of the Week
Who Needs Donuts?
by Mark Alan Stamaty
How on earth could I have resisted choosing this as a Book of the Week until now? It's one of the greats. First published in 1973 and brought back into print 30 years later, Stamaty's first book (before he found moderate fame in the '80s with his weekly political satire, Washingtoon) is a dense urban fantasyland (imagine Where's Waldo seen through the lens of early Scorcese) full of absurd hidden pleasures (like tiny pipe-smoking birds with the heads of horses) and a sweet and surprisingly affecting tale of two manic donut enthusiasts, young Sam and Mr. Bikferd, who learn the timeless lesson, "Who needs donuts when you've got love?" (Ages 3 to 6) —Tom

Non-Book of the Week
New Japanese Notebooks
Ever since I've lived in Seattle, I've trekked down to Uwajimaya to get my notebooks. I love the sturdy, understated elegance of Japanese notebooks, and we're thrilled now to be carrying a few favorite lines in the store. Your options for sophisticated notebook beauty are no longer limited to Moleskine!

Phinney Books
7405 Greenwood Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98103
206.297.2665
www.phinneybooks.com
info@phinneybooks.com
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New in the Store

Fiction:
The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny
Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
A Window Opens by Elizabeth Egan
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman

Nonfiction:
Rising Strong by Brené Brown
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty
Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel

Kids and Teens:
Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories by R.J. Palacio
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
Another Day by David Levithan
Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. and Matthew Holm
The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin
Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-a-Lot by Dav Pikley

Paperback:
Wittgenstein Jr. by Lars Iyer
Snowden by Ted Rall

This Week in
Bruce Chatwin's Letters

August 30, 1972
(age 32)
[Writing to his English parents from Klamath Falls, Oregon, where he had borrowed a cottage to write a book on nomads, which was never published]
"Oregon is simply beautiful... It's only a day's drive from here to Seattle, your old stamping ground, though I bet it's changed.... Nearby there's a Shakespeare Festival of all things, the oldest in North America founded in the early twenties. The town Ashland is full of banks and hamburger joints got up to look like Ann Hathaway's cottage... The performance was horrendous. The women were like the daughters of the American revolution at a bridge party and the men all came from Texas and gassed about on phoney hobby horses waving silk handkerchiefs at each other, shouting, 'Hi ... yeee ...' I have refused an invitation to go to the Taming of the Shrew.
"I don't know how long it will take. I am simply going to sit here and finish it. I refuse to be budged. My book, whatever anyone may say, is far the most important thing I've ever attempted. This place is quite conducive to work. So there we are."

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