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New Book of the Week
Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers
by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green
You might know the late Mary Rodgers as the author of the kidlit classic Freaky Friday, or as the composer of the musical Once Upon a Mattress (her one big hit in a long career of trying), or—her most double-edged claim to fame—as the daughter of the composer of big hit after big hit, Richard Rodgers. But after reading Shy, you'll know her as the most entertainingly dishy memoirist you can imagine. From an early age she knew everybody, from (of course) Oscar ("Ockie") Hammerstein to Mae West to her longtime boss Leonard Bernstein to her longtime best pal Stephen Sondheim, and she tells you exactly what she thought about each one of them—and, equally hilariously and unsparingly, about herself as well. ("Reader, I slept with him," is a frequent refrain.) And along with the delicious dish, you get a fascinating portrait of a woman building a creative career and constructing a life in the shadow, and the gilded cage, of fame. —Tom
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New Book of the Week
Singer Distance
by Ethan Chatagnier
Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier is not a sci-fi novel, despite the presence of crop circles and the fact that scientists of Earth have been communicating with Mars for nearly a century. Instead, this is a novel about loneliness, choices, and love (of people, but mainly of math). When four MIT grad students believe that one of them has finally solved the most recent (yet three-decades-old) mathematical proof that beings on Mars carved into the red planet’s surface, they embark on an epic road trip to Arizona to carve their answer into the Earth. When Mars answers, one of the four—brilliant mathematician Crystal Singer—disappears, driven by her obsession to understand Mars’s latest proof. Her boyfriend struggles to understand her state of mind and the choices she made. This beautifully written debut novel is a love letter to science and exploration, and will change the way you look at the stars—and possibly those you love. —Doree
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New Book of the Week
A Career in Books
by Kate Gavino
A Career in Books is a real treat: a substantial graphic novel full of wisdom, heart, and humor. The story centers on three best friends, fresh out of college and living together in New York. Each roommate is struggling with a different aspect of navigating the publishing industry as a young Asian American woman. Nina is the go-getter editorial assistant at a large publishing house, whose ambitions often exceed the reality of an entry-level position. Silvia works for a privately funded one-woman publisher, but dreams of writing her own book. Meanwhile, music-loving Shirin has a position at a university press, but isn’t even sure if working in publishing is what she wants to do. Meeting their neighbor, a nonagenarian Booker Prize–winning author whose books have mostly gone out of print, changes the course of each woman’s life. Author Kate Gavino has drawn on her own experience working as an editorial assistant to fully flesh out this story and its characters. —Haley
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Old Book of the Week
Shadows on the Rock
by Willa Cather
This work of historical fiction, set in Quebec in 1697-98, is a quiet charmer. By that time, the early, renowned explorers, fur traders, and missionaries were passing away and their deeds spun into the lore of the 100-years-young French colony. Instead, the story focuses on the town apothecary and his young daughter, arrived from Paris eight years earlier. Their home is an oasis of European comfort but the highlights of their year—a moonlit picnic with a sea captain’s talking parrot and unpacking a crèche from across the ocean—reflect both the New and Old Worlds. The family’s experience echoes that of Cather’s other pioneers, and more faintly, today’s immigrants. While reading, I felt like we’ve almost come full circle: the next chapter is when we resettle to other planets or galaxies! The novel opens and closes in October, and painterly renderings of autumn at that latitude—the golden foliage, gray rock, and silver mist—bookend a feel-good yet thoughtful tale that’s perfect as winter closes in. —Liz
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Link of the Week
Carmen Callil, 1938-2022
"To change the world, darling, that's why," Dame Carmen Callil once said when asked why she founded the Virago Press in the early '70s. And for many of us, especially those who revel in the ongoing rediscovery of lost women writers, she did, with those iconic dark-green covers that ushered whole generations of authors back into print and the public eye. She remained a visionary and combative presence in British publishing ever since, and published two books of her own, Bad Faith and Oh Happy Day, both still available, as are so many of the writers she championed. The Guardian has both an obituary and an appreciation by a longtime Virago colleague, and I also heartily recommend her two appearances on my beloved Backlisted podcast (discussing two Virago—and Phinney—favorites, Elizabeth Jenkins and Elizabeth Taylor), both for her comments about the writers and for the glimpse of her wry and forceful charm.
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Cover Crop Quiz #246
Another first edition from the '50s, this time an October-appropriate novel from 1959, priced at the time at $3.95 but with a signed first edition—with the author's reputation higher than ever—currently going for $7,500.
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Last Week's Answer
The 1954 first edition of Lord of the Flies, by 1983 Nobel laureate William Golding.
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New to Our 100 Club
Lab Girl
by Hope Jahren
(293 weeks to reach 100)
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Phinney Books
7405 Greenwood Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98103
206.297.2665
www.phinneybooks.com
info@phinneybooks.com
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Our shelves, meanwhile, are overstuffed with new fall releases, including a very big week this week for new fiction, but somehow we'll be making space in the coming weeks for some of the biggest of the season, including new books by 
