All posts by Robin Wood

THE TESTAMENTS – Now IN STOCK

THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood

The book that finally answers the questions of what comes after THE HANDMAID’S TALE. Author Margaret Atwood writes: “Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.”

Not connected to the television version of THE HANDMAID’S TALETHE TESTAMENTS is sure to offer a fascinating take on oppression, and resistance. The forthcoming novel has already been nominated for Britain’s Booker Prize for Fiction.

Purchase THE TESTAMENTS in store or online. Not a Booklover’s Club member yet? Find out more at https://booksandbookskw.com/loyalty/.

THE TESTAMENTS photo courtesy Doubleday Books.

Hollow Kingdom – Kira Jane Buxton

“We need more heroes like S.T. — a foul-mouthed, idealistic, moral crow with unquenchable courage — and his sidekick, a befuddled bloodhound. Kira Jane Buxton speaks crow, gull, dog, housecat, and owl with such fluency and poetry that I could not put this book down. Her vision of the zombie apocalypse is a strange and wonderful journey I want to take again and again. I really can’t think of another current novel that conveys such humor, joy, sorrow, and hope so beautifully. Thank you for restoring my faith that this world may live on.”
— Dena Kurt, River Lights Bookstore, Dubuque, IA

Description


One pet crow fights to save humanity from an apocalypse in this uniquely hilarious debut from a genre-bending literary author.

S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (those idiots), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ®.

Then Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, and S.T. starts to feel like something isn’t quite right. His most tried-and-true remedies–from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim’s loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis–fail to cure Big Jim’s debilitating malady. S.T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he discovers that the neighbors are devouring each other and the local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of dangerous new predators roaming Seattle. Humanity’s extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a foul-mouthed crow whose knowledge of the world around him comes from his TV-watching education.

Hollow Kingdom is a humorous, big-hearted, and boundlessly beautiful romp through the apocalypse and the world that comes after, where even a cowardly crow can become a hero.

About the Author


Kira Jane Buxton’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The RumpusHuffington Post, and more. She calls the tropical utopia of Seattle, Washington, home and spends her time with three cats, a dog, two crows, a charm of hummingbirds, and a husband.

Praise For…


Hollow Kingdom is a nature book for our own age, an
exuberant, glittering, hard-hitting mashup of Dawn of the Dead and The
Incredible Journey. It’s an adventure lit by strange myths, brand-names,
television and smartphone screens, a fable with teeth and claws about animals
making new lives amongst the ruins of humanity. It’s transformative, poignant,
and funny as hell. S.T. the irrepressible, cursing crow is my new favourite
apocalyptic hero.”—Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H Is for Hawk

“A plucky hero, a
boisterous tale, startling prose and eerie events combine for a thoroughly
enjoyable account of the end of the world as we know it. The Secret
Life of Pets
 meets The Walking Dead.”—Karen Joy Fowler, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“I love this book so much! I wanted to set it on fire
while hugging it. I wanted to hasten the apocalypse just to see how my own pets
fare in a more humane world without humans. Kira Jane Buxton’s voice is fresh,
like a newly dug grave, but so joyful and honest you’ll laugh out loud, and
then check to make sure you haven’t lost an eyeball. Hollow Kingdom is a
wildly original debut and a paean to my favorite city.”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hollow Kingdom offers a
bird’s-eye view of the apocalypse we all want and need-especially when the bird
in question is a plucky, Cheeto-loving domesticated crow . . . With
infinite heart and humor, Kira Jane Buxton’s fine-feathered narrator guides us
through richly imagined animal realms while braving the terrifying collapse of
the human world. A dazzling, wholly original debut, revealing the great
paradox of humanity’s fatal flaws and resilient spirit.”—Mona Awad, author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Bunny

“Everything
you’re hearing about Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom–that it’s wildly
original and inventive, funny and profane–is wonderfully true. But even better,
this book is timely, smart, movingly written, and beautifully concluded.”—Laurie Frankel, author of This is How It Always Is and member of the Seattle7 Writers

“What a surprising,
funny, terrifying, marvelous, wholly original novel! Buxton combines a vivid
horror show (think zombies and the gruesome, bloody extinction of man) with a
touching love story between the unlikeliest of BFFs: a crow, a hound, and a man
who’s had a tough go of things on Tinder, and that was before his eyeball fell
out. With humor and a style that brings to mind Tom Robbins and Karen Russell,
Buxton’s debut is heartwarming and heart stopping, hilarious and tragic.”—Amy Poeppel, author of Limelight and Small Admissions

“A hilariously exuberant
and heart-bursting fable for our times, Hollow Kingdom reminds us that
creativity and determination (and a whole lot of love) can go a long way toward
saving the world. When Mr. Rogers said to look for the helpers, who knew that
might mean a salty-mouthed crow and a faithful bloodhound?”—Jennie Shortridge, bestselling author of Love Water Memory and member of the Seattle7 Writers

“If you’ve
ever thought that humans were the ones in charge, Kira Jane Buxton’s
groundbreaking novel will have you thinking otherwise. Full of
unforgettable humor, insight and beauty, Hollow Kingdom enriches our
human experience by inhabiting the minds (and bellies!) of our non-human
animal companions and reminding us that we’re not alone here on this
earth.”—Ruth Ozeki, nationally bestselling author of A Tale for the Time Being

“Hollow Kingdom is a grown-up’s Watership
Down
 for our times — or the end of them. Kira Jane Buxton has created a crow
so full of personality you won’t even miss the company of humans, who are
devolving at hyper-speed rates into something sub-literate and grotesque. But
Buxton shows there’s humor in our plight and strength in tenderness, and she
portrays the intelligence and astounding beauty of the natural world in a
completely fresh way. This book is a triumphant feat of imagination, and it had
me believing that the bonds we’ve formed with our pets might help them save us
after all. I’ll never look at a corvid the same way again.”—Zoe Zolbrod, author of The Telling and Currency and former editor at The Rumpus

“Wow. Hilarious or horrifying? Sassy or
wise? Hollow Kingdom is a surprise and a marvel: a razor sharp and
satisfying warning about the coming apocalypse, told by one of the most
engaging narrators I have met in a long time. Good fiction makes you
think. It turns you upside down and makes you realize that you recognize
the world from that vantage point. Hollow Kingdom is that good fiction,
and so much more.”

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, author of Shadow Child

“Buxton spins a fresh, alarming apocalypse from the perspectives of intelligent, communicative animals in her hilarious debut . . . S.T.’s complicated personality and the masterful blend of humor and tragedy make this novel an eloquent, emotional exploration of survival during an unthinkable cataclysm.”—Publishers Weekly

“Buxton’s quirky ideas and compelling nonhuman characters will satisfy literary fiction and zombie genre enthusiasts alike who are looking for something beguilingly different.”—Booklist

Hollow Kingdom combines dark subject matter with an oddball sense of humor in what proves to be a winning formula . . . a surprising, funny, genre-bending novel, an environmentalist parable crossed with an epic adventure story, difficult to describe and even more difficult to put down.”—Shelf Awareness

“Surprisingly tender, laugh-out-loud funny, and deliciously strange . . . a joy to read.”—BuzzFeed

“Pick up this delightfully weird book for a change from the usual–we promise it’s like nothing you’ve read before.”—Good Housekeeping

“Kira Jane Buxton’s hilariously philosophical and formidable first novel tackles humankind’s most existential questions . . . Buxton does a stellar job of anthropomorphizing the novel’s animals and adding drama, suspense, tragedy and hope. It’s amazing that such a bizarre and far-fetched story can connect so deeply with our reality and its discussions about social media, climate change, immigration and self-identity. It doesn’t get any weirder, funnier or better than Hollow Kingdom.”—BookPage

“Literary debuts don’t get much more high-concept than this.”—Entertainment Weekly

In the Country of Women – Susan Straight

To understand my daughters and their sisterhood, you have to know the women, and sisters, who came before.

In the Country of Women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women. In inland Southern California, near the desert and the Mexican border, Susan Straight, a self-proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college, they married and drove to Amherst, Massachusetts, where Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Once back in Riverside, at driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large, close-knit Sims family, Straight–and eventually her three daughters–heard for decades the stories of Dwayne’s female ancestors. Some women escaped violence in post-slavery Tennessee, some escaped murder in Jim Crow Mississippi, and some fled abusive men. Straight’s mother-in-law, Alberta Sims, is the descendant at the heart of this memoir. Susan’s family, too, reflects the hardship and resilience of women pushing onward–from Switzerland, Canada, and the Colorado Rockies to California.

A Pakistani word, biraderi, is one Straight uses to define a complex system of kinship and clan–those who become your family. An entire community helped raise her daughters. Of her three girls, now grown and working in museums and the entertainment industry, Straight writes, “The daughters of our ancestors carry in their blood at least three continents. We are not about borders. We are about love and survival.

About the Author


SUSAN STRAIGHT has published eight novels, including Highwire Moon, Between Heaven and Here, and A Million Nightingales. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the National Magazine Award. She is the recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, the O. Henry Prize, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her stories and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Granta, McSweeney’s, Black Clock, Harper’s, and other journals. Her work has been translated into Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Turkish, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, and Russian. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family.

First Cosmic Velocity – Zach Powers

A stunningly imaginative novel about the Cold War, the Russian space program, and the amazing fraud that pulled the wool over the eyes of the world.

It’s 1964 in the USSR, and unbeknownst even to Premier Khrushchev himself, the Soviet space program is a sham. Well, half a sham. While the program has successfully launched five capsules into space, the Chief Designer and his team have never successfully brought one back to earth. To disguise this, they’ve used twins. But in a nation built on secrets and propaganda, the biggest lie of all is about to unravel.

Because there are no more twins left.

Combining history and fiction, the real and the mystical, First Cosmic Velocity is the story of Leonid, the last of the twins. Taken in 1950 from a life of poverty in Ukraine to the training grounds in Russia, the Leonids were given one name and one identity, but divergent fates. Now one Leonid has launched to certain death (or so one might think…), and the other is sent on a press tour under the watchful eye of Ignatius, the government agent who knows too much but gives away little. And while Leonid battles his increasing doubts about their deceitful project, the Chief Designer must scramble to perfect a working spacecraft, especially when Khrushchev nominates his high-strung, squirrel-like dog for the first canine mission.

By turns grim and whimsical, fatalistic and deeply hopeful, First Cosmic Velocity is a sweeping novel of the heights of mankind’s accomplishments, the depths of its folly, and the people–and canines–with whom we create family.

About the Author


Zach Powers is the author of Gravity Changes, which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize, and his work has appeared in such places as American Short FictionBlack Warrior ReviewThe Conium Review, and the Tin House blog. First Cosmic Velocity is his first novel.

Praise For…


“Powers’ writing style is delicate and almost otherworldly; as in his collection of stories, Gravity Changes, each word is carefully chosen, every sentence deliberately flowing into the next…Scenes centered on the characters’ emotional lives are touching, and the dreamy tone brings a touch of fantasy without pushing too far into whimsy. A lovely and hopeful story from a promising writer.”—Kirkus Reviews

More Praise for FIRST COSMIC VELOCITY

One of B&N Reads’ Best New Fiction of August

“[An] entertaining and winning debut novel…Through [the intriguing premise] Powers refracts glimpses of the competitive Soviet space program and its personnel [and] the sometimes absurd politics of the Khrushchev era…Powers’s deadpan depiction of the ruse that drives his tale and the historical figures duped by it will give readers pause to wonder if it really is that improbable.”—Publishers Weekly

“Powers masterfully evokes postwar Russia and his inventive plot offers moments of tenderness and grace along with interjections of dark humor. Themes of family, home, and identity are explored with great pathos and psychological acuity. The dichotomy of national ambition versus the day-to-day heroism of citizens is a timely and timeless reminder of what makes a nation great. For fans of Anthony Marra.”—Booklist

“For fans of: Original alternate histories and juicy tales of Soviet secrets. Read it for: The psychological burden placed on the twins who are selected to survive.”—BookPage

“[First Cosmic Velocity] is full of attention to physical, geographic and historic detail, but what makes it a truly gripping work of imagination is its ability to create an emotional reality for its lead character amid an ambitious, delightfully strange look at a different version of the Soviet space program…[Powers’s] attention to emotional detail, combined with a powerful supporting cast and a masterful sense of historical table-setting, makes First Cosmic Velocity a delightfully complex page-turner for space enthusiasts and fans of alternate histories. You will never look at the space race the same way again.”—BookPage.com

“Each fictionalized twist in Powers’ darkly whimsical world illuminates something true about human nature and man’s obsession with greatness. The dialogue is at once exact, grim, and hopeful…This book is fantastical, yes, but it is also clear-eyed, original, and an exciting read.”—Do Savannah

“Mixing history and fiction, the book isn’t so much about the foibles of geopolitics as it is about one man’s search for truth in a world built on lies.”—The Millions

“I ate this right up. Boldly imagined and deeply human, Zach Powers’ re-creation of the Russian space program is a story that will entertain you, and then haunt you.”—Michael Poore, author of Reincarnation Blues

“Beguiling and artful, First Cosmic Velocity is an absorbing tale of ambition and desire.  Blending folklore and alternate history, conspiracy theory and historical detail, Powers forms a compelling narrative of strange propaganda that conceals far stranger truths.”—Tom Sweterlitsch, author of The Gone World

“In the darkly comic vein of Martin Amis and Mark Leyner, First Cosmic Velocity mixes the earnest with the satirical and the profound with the absurd for a ride through a fictionalized Russian space program that is as thought-provoking as it is fun.”—Courtney Maum, author of Touch and Costalegre

More Praise for Zach Powers

“A wonderfully vertiginous, through-the-looking-glass story collection, packed with Powers’s one-of-a-kind humor and insight. With his extraordinary imagination and vitalizing prose, Powers can make anything live, and does. He is fluently conversant with the Devil, the dead, children, animals, astronauts, and newlyweds―and this is just a partial roster of the wild crew aboard this ship. Goofy and profound, lyrical and exhilarating, Gravity Changes is a thrilling, rocket-fueled debut.”—Karen Russell

Strange Harvests – Edward Posnett

An original and magical map of our world and its riches, formed of the stories of the small-scale harvests of seven natural objects

In this beguiling book, Edward Posnett journeys to some of the most far-flung locales on the planet to bring us seven wonders of the natural world–eiderdown, vicuña fiber, sea silk, vegetable ivory, civet coffee, guano, and edible birds’ nests–that promise ways of using nature without damaging it. To the rest of the world these materials are mere commodities, but to their harvesters they are imbued with myth, tradition, folklore, and ritual, and form part of a shared identity and history.

Strange Harvests follows the journeys of these uncommon products from some of the most remote areas of the world to its most populated urban centers, drawing on the voices of the people and little-known communities who harvest, process, and trade them. Blending history, travel writing, and interviews, Posnett sets these human stories against our changing economic and ecological landscape. What do they tell us about capitalism, global market forces, and overharvesting? How do local microeconomies survive in a hyperconnected world? Is it possible for us to live together with different species? Strange Harvests makes us see the world with wonder, curiosity, and new concern.

About the Author


Edward Posnett was born in London. After a spell working in financial services, he started writing about nature, markets, and trade. His fascination with the Icelandic tradition of eiderdown harvesting led him to write “Eiderdown,” winner of the Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize, and sparked this first book. He lives in Philadelphia.

Praise For…


“Edward Posnett has written an exceptional first book; Strange Harvests is a subtle, fascinating braiding of travel, cultural and natural history, ethnography and economic analysis; a modern-day Wunderkammer with echoes of Pico Iyer as well as Sir Thomas Browne. Clear-eyed but never blithe, Posnett records the destructiveness of market rapacity as well as rare, hopeful examples of human and more-than-human harmony. It is a pleasure and an education to journey with him in these pages.” —Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland and The Old Ways

“An original and bracing read. Posnett engages the reader sensually, intellectually, and poetically, dispelling any sense of separateness between our human existence and the material goods that rise from the earth and pass through our hands. The great gift of this book is that it inspires us to look with new depth into the varied stuff of life, and with this widened perspective, to act with care, grace, intelligence, and joy.” —Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Crow Planet and Mozart’s Starling

“A beautiful exploration of our fraught connections with other species. With seemingly boundless curiosity, Posnett invites us on journeys through the surprising webs created by international trade. Uniting these stories from around the world are essential questions for our time: Is a balance between humans and the rest of nature possible? Or do we inevitably destroy what we harvest and desire? Full of surprise, delight, and horror, these lively tales illuminate and captivate.” —David George Haskell, author of The Songs of Trees and The Forest Unseen

“[An] evocative look at precious natural objects . . . Posnett aims to record ‘for posterity’ the wondrous details of these objects—and he succeeds marvelously.” Publishers Weekly 

“Posnett scours the globe for natural commodities that sustain a balance in which consumption doesn’t lead to destruction and harvesting involves replenishing and renewal . . . An engrossing tale of wonder.” Kirkus Reviews 

Wanderers – Chuck Wendig

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. From the mind of Chuck Wendig comes “a magnum opus . . . a story about survival that’s not just about you and me, but all of us, together” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

Advance praise for Wanderers

“This career-defining epic deserves its inevitable comparisons to Stephen King’s The Stand.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A suspenseful, twisty, satisfying, surprising, thought-provoking epic.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away

“A true tour de force.”—Erin Morgenstern, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus

“A masterpiece with prose as sharp and heartbreaking as Station Eleven.”—Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M

“A magnum opus . . . It reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand—but dare I say, this story is even better.”—James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Crucible   

“An inventive, fierce, uncompromising, stay-up-way-past-bedtime masterwork.—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World 

“An American epic for these times.”—Charles Soule, author of The Oracle Year

About the Author


Chuck Wendig is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Aftermath, as well as the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books, and Zer0es and Invasive, alongside other works across comics, games, film, and more. He was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and an alum of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and he served as the co-writer of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus. He is also known for his popular blog, terribleminds, and books about writing such as Damn Fine Story. He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.

Praise For…


Wanderers is amazing—huge, current, both broad and intensely personal, blending the contemplative apocalypse of Station Eleven with the compulsive readability of the best thrillers.”—Django Wexler, author of the Shadow Campaigns series

“A riveting examination of America.”—Scott Sigler, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Generations Trilogy

“If you ever wanted to know what America’s soul might look like, here’s its biography.”—Rin Chupeco, author of The Bone Witch

“A tsunami of a novel.”—Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning author of Into the Black Nowhere

“A defining moment in speculative fiction.”—Adam Christopher, author of Empire State and Made to Kill

“Trust me: You’re not ready for this book.”—Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Phasma

“An astounding adventure.”—Fran Wilde, Hugo-, Nebula-, and World Fantasy finalist and award-winning author of the Bone Universe trilogy

“Utterly brilliant and frighteningly plausible.”—Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

“Beautiful and harrowing—and timely as hell.”—Richard Kadrey, New York Times bestselling author of The Grand Dark

“A harrowing portrait of an unraveling America . . . terrifyingly prophetic.”—Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Ararat and The Pandora Room

“A brilliant, Hollywood-blockbuster of a novel.”—Peter Clines, author of Dead Moon and Paradox Bound

“Approach Wanderers like it’s a primetime television series, along the lines of The Passage [or] Lost. . . . Make Wanderers a summer reading priority; you won’t regret it.”Book Riot

Casting into the Light: Tales of a Fishing Life – Janet Messineo

Tales of a champion surfcaster: the education of a young woman hell-bent on following her dream and learning the mysterious and profound sport, and art, of surfcasting, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Janet Messineo knew from the get-go that she wanted to become a great fisherman. She knew she was as capable as any man of catching and landing a huge fish. It took years—and many terrifying nights alone on the beach in complete darkness, in search of a huge creature to pull out of the sea—for her to prove to herself and to the male-dominated fishing community that she could make her dream real.

Messineo writes of the object of her obsession: striped bass and how it can take a lifetime to become a proficient striped bass fisherman; of stripers as nocturnal feeders, hard-fighting, clever fish that under the cover of darkness trap bait against jetties or between fields of large boulders near shorelines, or, once hooked, rub their mouths against the rocks to cut the line.

She writes of growing up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Salem, New Hampshire, the granddaughter of textile mill workers, tagging along with her father and brother as they cast off of jetties; of going to art school, feeling from a young age the need to escape, and finding herself, one summer, on the Vineyard.

She describes the series of jobs that supported her fishing—waitressing at the Black Dog, Helios, and the Home Port, among other restaurants. She writes of her education in patience and the technique to land a fish; learning the equipment—hooks, sinkers, her first squid jig; buying her first one-ounce Rebel lure.

She re-creates the thrill of fishing at night, of being buffeted by the island’s harsh winds and torrential rains; the terror of hooking something mysterious in the darkness that might pull her into water over her head.

She gives us a rich portrait of island life and writes of its history and of Chappaquiddick’s (it belonged to the Wampanoags, who originally called it Cheppiaquidne—“separate island”); of the Martha’s Vineyard Derby: its beginning in 1946 as a way to bring tourism to the island during the offseason, and the Derby’s growing into one of the largest tournaments in the world.

Messineo describes her dream of becoming a marine taxidermist, of learning the craft and perfecting the art of it. She writes of the men she’s fished with and the women who forged the path for others (among them, Lorraine “Tootie” Johnson, who fished Vineyard waters for more than sixty years, and Lori VanDerlaske, who won the Derby shore division in 1995). And she writes of her life commingled with fishing—her marriage to a singer, poet, activist; their adopting a son with Asperger’s; and her teaching him to fish. She writes of the transformative power of fishing that helped her to shake off drugs and alcohol, and of her profound respect for fish as a magnificent animal.

With eighteen of the author’s favorite fish recipes, Casting into the Light is a book about following one’s dreams and about the quiet reckoning with self in the long hours of darkness at the water’s edge, with the sounds of the ocean, the night air, and the jet-black sky.

About the Author


JANET MESSINEO is a former president of the Martha’s Vineyard Surfcasters Association. She has written about fishing for many publications, including On the Water, Vineyard Style, and the Martha’s Vineyard Times. She lives with her husband, Tristan Israel, in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts.

Praise For…


“Terrific … affecting … categorizing this as a fishing book would be doing it a disservice. At its heart, this is a book about renewal. It will fill you with hope.”

–Steve Donoghue, The Vineyard Gazette

“A must-read … inspirational.”

Booklist (starred review)

“How Janet Messineo, through sheer grit, managed to acquire her skills and gain acceptance into the boys’ club of master fishermen on Martha’s Vineyard reads like a fairytale in which a callow youth overcomes endless obstacles to realize a seemingly impossible dream. But be warned: Once you start reading this gripping and instructive saga, it’s hard to put it down.”
—Lisa Alther

“Delightful . . . great insight into the existence of professional anglers and the insular culture of Martha’s Vineyard . . . Messineo’s captivating memoir brings a refreshing mix of vulnerability, accessibility, and joy to the fishing genre.”
Publishers Weekly

“A tackle box full of fishing tips, memories, histories, taxidermy, and even recipes from an angler who found focus and purpose for her life among her fellow fishermen on Martha’s Vineyard . . . A chronicle of a life in fishing by an author who seems like good company.”
Kirkus

Deep River – Karl Marlantes

Karl Marlantes’s debut novel Matterhorn has been hailed as a modern classic of war literature. In his new novel, Deep River, Marlantes turns to another mode of storytelling–the family epic–to craft a stunningly expansive narrative of human suffering, courage, and reinvention.
In the early 1900s, as the oppression of Russia’s imperial rule takes its toll on Finland, the three Koski siblings–Ilmari, Matti, and the politicized young Aino–are forced to flee to the United States. Not far from the majestic Columbia River, the siblings settle among other Finns in a logging community in southern Washington, where the first harvesting of the colossal old-growth forests begets rapid development, and radical labor movements begin to catch fire. The brothers face the excitement and danger of pioneering this frontier wilderness–climbing and felling trees one-hundred meters high–while Aino, foremost of the books many strong, independent women, devotes herself to organizing the industry’s first unions. As the Koski siblings strive to rebuild lives and families in an America in flux, they also try to hold fast to the traditions of a home they left behind.
Layered with fascinating historical detail, this is a novel that breathes deeply of the sun-dappled forest and bears witness to the stump-ridden fields the loggers, and the first waves of modernity, leave behind. At its heart, Deep River is an ambitious and timely exploration of the place of the individual, and of the immigrant, in an America still in the process of defining its own identity.

About the Author


Karl Marlantes graduated from Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, before serving as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. He is the bestselling author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War. He lives in rural Washington.

In Oceans Deep: Courage, Innovation, and Adventure Beneath the Waves – Bill Streever

In the spirit of Bill Bryson and Ian Frazier comes this fascinating examination of our past, present, and future beneath the waves.


In an age of unprecedented exploration and innovation, our oceans remain largely unknown, and endlessly fascinating: full of mystery, danger, beauty, and inspiration. Bill Streever-a longtime deep-sea diver himself-has masterfully woven together the science and history of Earth’s last remaining frontier: the sea.

In Oceans Deep celebrates the daring pioneers who tested the limits of what the human body can endure under water: . free divers able to reach 300 feet on a single breath; engineers and scientists who uncovered the secrets of decompression; teenagers who built their own diving gear from discarded boilers and garden hoses in the 1930s; saturation divers who lived under water for weeks at a time in the 1960s; and the trailblazing men who voluntarily breathed experimental gases at pressures sufficient to trigger insanity.

Tracing both the little-known history and exciting future of how we travel and study the depths, Streever’s captivating journey includes seventeenth-century leather-hulled submarines, their nuclear-powered descendants, a workshop where luxury submersibles are built for billionaire clients, and robots capable of roving unsupervised between continents, revolutionizing access to the ocean.

In this far-flung trip to the wild, night-dark place of shipwrecks, trapped submariners, oil wells, innovative technologies, and people willing to risk their lives while challenging the deep, we discover all the adventures our seas have to offer-and why they are in such dire need of conservation.

About the Author


Bill Streever is the bestselling and award-winning authors of And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind, Cold, and HeatAs a biologist, he has worked on issues ranging from climate change to the restoration of Arctic tundra to underwater noise to the evolution of cave crayfish. With his wife and co-captain, he splits his time between Alaska and their cruising sailboat, currently in Central America.

Praise For…


“With a real knack for
storytelling, Streever evocatively puts the reader in the helmets, flippers,
and submersibles of sea explorers throughout history…Streever crafts a book to
be enjoyed by divers and general readers alike.”— Publishers Weekly 

“A
buoyant, at times thrilling, account of the deep sea experience, perfect for
divers and other lovers of life beneath the waves.”— Kirkus Review 

Praise for And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind

“The wind is always changeable, whether it’s a brisk nor’easter or the shifting tempests of intellectual history. And Soon I Heard Roaring Wind proves that Bill Streever is a master at navigating both.”—Sam Kean, author of Caesar’s Last Breath and The Disappearing Spoon

“Science, history, and personal adventure come together in a wild and witty exploration of wind. When Streever deals with a natural phenomenon, he does so with aplomb…[he] has a knack for blending his research and personal experience into an easy-to-read account that is hard to put down.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Clear prose animated by deadpan humor and enthusiasm for all things meteorological…. Streever absorbingly explains the processes that make air move….”—Publishers Weekly

“Streever covers the science of wind and weather and the history of weather forecasting in an authoritative, well-researched, and engrossing text…. A riveting, detailed look at the power of wind, along with the pleasures and perils of sailing….This page-turning work of narrative nonfiction will appeal to readers interested in the history of science, the history and science of meteorology, the science of wind, and memoirs of life at sea.”—Sue O’Brien, Library Journal

Summertime, Summertime, Summertime Reading

Every year the “beach reads” display goes up and we try to define the quintessential summertime read. Should it be light and fluffy or be dense and deep? Just like the choice of reading at the beach, dockside, by the pool or inside in the air conditioning, the choice is up to you.

Here’s what we’re reading and enjoying this summer:

Camila: Elizabeth Gilbert’s CITY OF GIRLS – It’s an easy story to get into and read anywhere… especially outside in the shade next to the pool (while keeping an eye on my boys, of course). CITY OF GIRLS is a sexy coming of age story, it’s well written, full of NYC 1940’s glamour, lots of sex.

Gianelle: I am listening to CITY OF GIRLS on Libro.fm. I’m not very far in, but It seems to fit the summer read vibe. It is a coming of age story, full of excitement & attraction of theater culture in 1940’s NYC. Vivian is not interested in conventional standards for young women of her time & as a consequence is kicked out of school & her parents send her away to live with Aunt Peg. There she encounters the freedom to explore life as it interests her.

This week I finished THE INVINCIBLE SUMMER by Alice Adams selected by the military spouse book club. It follows the lives of four friends over the period of twenty years beginning at university, detailing their struggles & successes of their personal & professional lives, and how friendship supports resilience.

Judy: I’ve listened to two very different, but very good books recently. Each is wonderfully read. Sally Rooney’s NORMAL PEOPLE is a contemporary Irish love story of two young people who meet in high school and go through college together. It’s beautifully and simply told.  But, oh, the details. And the families. The best part of listening is the narrator’s Irish accent, making you feel you’re in Dublin or the countryside with them.

The second book is a mystery. Laura Lippman’s LADY IN THE LAKE, (Coming July 23) the story of a lovely and intelligent Baltimore girl who does what’s expected of her, marries well, has a child, keeps a beautiful home. When it all falls apart she has to make a new life for herself. That’s when the story and our heroine heat up. Loved the details of the setting (husband is from Baltimore) but you don’t have to be to get lost in this story. Either book would be a pleasure to read but listening via Libro.fm was an excellent change for me. Happy Summer!

Emily: I’m tackling an epic read, THE OLD DRIFT by Namwali Serpell. It follows the curse down a Zambian family line for generations. Each section of the book follows a new member of the family, acting as novellas of their own. It makes it easy to take little “side trips” and pick up a different book before jumping right back in.

On one of these side trips, I read RABBITS FOR FOOD by Binnie Kirshenbaum. This book centers around Bunny, a middle-aged woman with clinical depression. Doesn’t sound like something for the beach? You’d be surprised at the humor packed in this one. It’s great for anyone who liked ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE but doesn’t mind going a little darker.

These first weeks of summer I’ve also spent some time paging through WAITING FOR THE PUNCH by Marc Maron and rereading favorite interviews. On Maron’s podcast, WTF, he interviews everyone,  writers, actors, comedians, musicians and even a politicians or two. I love listening to the podcast but the book is the perfect bring along for the boat or beach because you can open to any page and it’ll be thoroughly entertaining.

George: For the beach I can recommend Peter Heller’s THE RIVER, a thrilling adventure of two young men on a canoe trip in the trackless Canadian wilderness threatened by a raging forest fire and sinister men sharing the river.

For a long summer read, nothing beats the biography of FREDERICK DOUGLASS by David Blight. It’s both a mesmerizing story of a magnificent life and a history of America’s racial turmoil from the abolition struggles of the 1840s through the Civil War, and the ups and downs of reconstruction through the rest of the century.

Michael (Key West librarian and bookstore volunteer): For a super-fun summer beach read, I recommend THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH: LIFE AFTER WARMING by David Wallace-Wells. It outlines how few enjoyable summers the planet may have left, sketching the probable horrors from food shortages, deadly heat, rising waters, the certain mayhem of mass migration and likely death of millions or billions of people around the globe. Kick back and grab a Margarita, and focus on the fragility of our planet and our little lives on it. Additional Margaritas may be required.

Robin: I guess I’m in a fantastic mood this summer. Recently finished is OPPOSITE OF ALWAYS by Justin A. Reynolds about a boy in a time loop trying to save the girl he loves. It’s a charming love story with a great voice. Even going over the same story elements several times, Reynolds keeps the story fresh.

And I’ve finally moved Sarah Gailey’s MAGIC FOR LIARS out of the TBR pile and next to my air-conditioned spot on the couch. I’m a fan of the audacity of her prior collection, AMERICAN HIPPO and looking for what her novel featuring a murder mystery at a magic school brings. Happy reading!