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New Book of the Week
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Zott is my new hero. As a scientist in the 1960s, she has to contend with ingrained sexism not just in the world in general, but especially in the world of science, where her male colleagues routinely ask for her input yet never give her credit. Those same men relentlessly comment on her looks (yes, Zott rhymes with hot); then they fire her for being unmarried and pregnant. So, what does she do? She somehow stumbles into hosting a daytime cooking show on a local TV station. But she doesn’t pander to her audience of housewives. Oh, no. Instead, she teaches them science (using only the scientific words for, say, salt and vinegar, and explaining how different types of chemical bonds work in baking). And along the way, she ushers in a nationwide revolution of women standing up for themselves and their brains and their future. Throw in intense personal loss, a dog that understands and responds to hundreds of words (that dog deserves his own book, so I’m crossing my fingers for a sequel!), and a daughter who is beyond precocious, and you get a novel that is smart, funny, heartbreaking, maddening, and inspiring. And one that I just can’t stop thinking about. In fact, it’s my favorite novel from the past year. —Doree
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New Book of the Week
Writer in a Life Vest: Essays from the Salish Sea
by Iris Graville
From 2018-2019 Iris Graville served as the first writer-in-residence aboard the Washington State Ferries, spending a couple days a week writing on the route that travels between Lopez, Orcas, Shaw, and San Juan islands. The subtitle for her book Writer in a Life Vest: Essays from the Salish Sea is quite literal, as much of the book was either written on the water or inspired by Graville's residency. These entries span the gamut of subject matters, from the story of a ukulele jam aboard the ferry to poetry to an imaginary interview with Rachel Carson and Greta Thunberg. Graville's main focus is the health of the Salish Sea's ecosystem, including the plight of the orcas (I particularly enjoyed "O is for Orca: An Alphabetical Excursion through Orca Whale Characteristics"). Writer in a Life Vest is a love letter to the beautiful place we call home. —Haley
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New Book of the Week
Eyes of the Rigel
by Roy Jacobsen
Those of you (and there are many) who've encountered the previous volumes of the Barrøy Chronicles, The Unseen or White Shadow, will not need me to say anything about this new book other than It's here! Come buy it and read it! For those of you who aren't yet familiar with Roy Jacobsen's stories of the indefatigable Ingrid Barrøy and her clan: They're here! Come buy them and read them! Set during the middle decades of the 20th century and centered on a remote Norwegian island occupied by fishers and farmers, they're written with the terse directness of Hemingway (but without any of his outdated machismo), tracing the development of an entire society on an intimate, individual scale. A child opens her eyes to a life wider than her traditional family circle, a young woman feels the ripples of a world war lapping against her shore, and now a new mother must cope with aftermath of a conflict that's divided her nation. Jacobsen's novels are absolute bedrock for Madison Books, foundation stones on which our fiction collection is built. I said of the first of them that "I don't think I've ever read anything that better touched the essential truth of what it is to be alive," and that assessment has only been reinforced with each new release. —James (from the Madison Books newsletter)
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Old Book of the Week
Phinney by Post Book #86
The Third Policeman
by Flann O'Brien
I might express the strangeness of this novel by saying that the extensive footnotes about a misguided thinker named de Selby, who believed, among other things, that night is caused by "accumulations of 'black air,'" are the least strange thing about it. This story of a murder in the Irish countryside, and also of a box of money, and many bicycles, and more than three policemen, and possibly more than three dimensions, is both one of the funniest and one of the most disturbing books I've read, and also one of my very favorites. —Tom
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Old Book of the Week
The Shame
by Makenna Goodman
Comparison is the thief of this artistic, anti-capitalist, homesteading young mother's joy when she starts comparing the mundanity of her own lived life in rural Vermont to the highlight reel of her NYC-dwelling doppelganger's digital one. I love a good existential crisis, and Alma's inner monologuing is golden, filled with angst and humor and wisdom. Quick and intense, The Shame is just as all-consuming as the feeling of shame itself. —Anika
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Cover Crop Quiz #233
You may not recognize this 1985 first edition, which apparently sold just 1,478 copies (mostly as remainders), before finding a more extensive audience later, but possibly the content and atmosphere of the Dali painting featured ("The Phantom Cart") will help point you in the right direction.
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Last Week's Answer
I didn't omit needless words for this one: the cropped words on the cover, plus the hints about the publication history, were enough for many of you to identify The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr., with revisions, an introduction, and a new chapter on writing by his former student, E.B. White.
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Phinney Books
7405 Greenwood Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98103
206.297.2665
www.phinneybooks.com
info@phinneybooks.com
Facebook page
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As promised in our previous newsletter, the preposterously popular Seattle Independent Bookstore Day Passport Challenge is coming back this year! And, as also promised, we have some more details to share. Here's how it will work: beginning on Independent Bookstore Day (Saturday, April 30), you can pick up a Bookstore Day Passport at any of the 24 participating Seattle-area stores. And then, unlike in usual years, when you had only a single day to get your passport stamped at every store to become a Bookstore Champion, this year, to keep our stores from being quite as crowded as they have gotten in Bookstore Days past, we are allowing ten days (through Monday, May 9) to complete that daunting (but for many, highly enjoyable) task. Those who turn in a completed ballot by May 9th will receive (in a month or so) a Champions Stamp Card, granting a 25% discount good for a single use at each participating store.
Pretty great, right? Like everyone else, we've had a hard time planning a big, in-person event in these still-uncertain times, but we hope this plan will let folks make their visits on less-busy days if they choose, while still keeping the spirit of local book (and bookstore) love alive. And we are glad to report one sign of the continued health of local bookstores: we've added three new stores (in Tangletown, Burien, and Poulsbo) to our route! For full details, visit the 
And one more followup from last newsletter's announcements. As we mentioned, our local writer with fans across the globe, Nicola Griffith (who, among her many other laurels, managed to place one of her novels, Ammonite, at #24 (between Atwood and Erdrich!) on Esquire's recent 
