New Fiction

The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys
by Dao Strom (Counterpoint)

With acute, biting language and vividly wry and feeling characters, the four stories contained here in Dao Strom's latest effort seem as if they should be true. After having devoured the book, readers will no doubt find themselves remembering Mary, the young film student, and her rambunctious housemates or Darcy and her very uninvited guest as if they existed in the readers' lives—friends long gone but still worth wondering about from time to time. The order of girls and boys may be gentle, but here it’s lasting and absolute. -J. Schurk

Theft
by Peter Carey (Knopf)

Michael, aka "Butcher" Boone, once a well-regarded Australian painter, now has neither funds nor fame. Reduced to living in a remote country house owned by a former collector, he serves as caretaker to his mentally damaged, physically imposing, and emotionally volatile younger brother, Hugh. When the mysterious, beautiful, and ambitious Marlene enters their lives, the two brothers are drawn unwittingly into a deceptive scheme that could be their undoing. Carey's gift for language and vivid characterization once again reveals why he is a two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize. -L. Paus

Vellum: The Book of All Hours
by Hal Duncan (Del Rey)

Where does one begin with a book that Godzilla-romps across genres while keeping one foot solidly in the Modernist vein, giving James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and T. S. Eliot a run for their money?

A man finds a book that allows him to peel away layers of reality like onion skin, uncovering transmogrified landscapes; a conflict between superhumans escalates, as the world spins into apocalyptic hysteria; and linguistic ontology and warfare, Jungian archetypes, discourses on social, sexual, and individual freedoms overlap like a cat's cradle. Duncan's narrative compels the reader to participate in one of the most original and ebullient literary experiences in recent memory. -V. Verano

Winkie
by Clifford Chase (Grove)

Most of us could never imagine that those loving plush animals we spent most of our lives cuddling with, conversing with, even sharing our beds with, could turn to a life of crime, much less become a threat to national security. Clifford Chase begs to differ. In fact, he calls your attention to the case of his eighty-one-year-old, transgendered teddy bear, Winkie, who stands accused of an exorbitant amount of criminal activity—including terrorism and treason. The book sparkles with wit and tenderness, a political satire that successfully hits its mark. Free Winkie! -C. Joyner

Ludmila's Broken English
by DBC Pierre (Norton)

DBC Pierre's writing in this wild and uninhibited novel is linguistically raw, shameless, and stimulating. When conjoined twins are separated at the age of thirty-three, they are released from their "Care Home" onto London streets that are seething with temptation, opportunity, and danger. In a parallel storyline, the lovely Ludmila takes to the war-torn streets of Russia to provide for her family. The twins' exploration of life outside institution walls and Ludmila's tumultuous journey collide on a Web site for mail-order brides. Pierre has brought an ambitious, slightly vulgar, and unapologetic voice to fiction; you will surely appreciate the genius of this book. -J. Kearns

Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen (Algonquin)

Come one, come all! Step right up and get your chance to read the most spectacular, wondrous, and breathtaking new circus novel around! Do not be fooled by imitations! This is the book you will tell your children and grandchildren about! It has something for everyone: a love story for the little lady, daring feats of action and adventure for the young fellas, excitement and betrayal that will keep you at the edge of your seat, fantastic creatures from all realms of the animal kingdom, and—of course—carnies and freaks galore! Don’t be a rube, read this book. –J. Zaidi

The Possibility of an Island
by Michel Houellebecq
trans. Gavin Bowd (Knopf)

This novel, at once science fiction and deeply contemptuous of sci-fi conventions, is to Michel Houellebecq's oeuvre what Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is to Murakami's. Here, we see all of an author's themes—in Houellebecq's case, desire and tourism, sex and love, sentimentality and exploitation—addressed in a career-spanning masterwork. Told by a famous comedian and that same man's clone, hundreds of years from now, the novel carries us into the future to discover that the past isn't anything that we can hide from. Paradoxically, fans of both Kurt Vonnegut and Bret Easton Ellis will find much to adore in these pages. -P. Constant

The Cottagers
by Marshall N. Klimasewiski (Norton)

Nineteen-year-old Cyrus Coddington, a resident of East Sooke, on British Columbia's Vancouver Island, gets his kicks spying on visitors, vacationing "cottagers." Two American couples, friends, who are vacationing together become particularly fascinating to Cyrus, so he insinuates himself into their lives. When a man disappears, leaving only a few clues, all become suspects. Friendships become strained. The rocky coastline and dense forests of Vancouver Island both disguise and reveal the disturbing nature of the people who inhabit and visit East Sooke. Klimasewiski has written a suspenseful, psychologically acute, and absorbing story. -G. Berry

Now is the Hour
by Tom Spanbauer (Houghton Mifflin)

Nearly two decades ago, Tom Spanbauer wrote The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, a novel that would become a cult classic. Now the Portland-based author revisits the country in the year 1967, when seventeen-year-old Rigby John Klusener decides to pack his bag and hitchhike to the wilds of San Francisco, leaving his religiously oppressive family and pregnant girlfriend in Idaho. Spanbauer recounts Rigby's life in often intoxicating prose, seducing even the most jaded readers, almost daring them not to fall in love with Rigby. -C. Joyner

London is the Best City in America
by Laura Dave (Viking)

To walk away from a place, a life, the person who has been the whole world, takes an awful lot of courage—or is it just fear? Emmy, the main character in Laura Dave's new novel does just that and for both those reasons. Now it is her brother's wedding and she must go back, only to discover her brother is ready to walk out, too. As they work together to figure out what to do next, events begin to spiral out of control. Dave's first novel is both hilarious and heart-wrenching, the most delightful of combinations! -T. Nisly

Londonstani
by Gautam Malkani (Penguin Press)

Jas b havin the blingest threads, talkin 2 da fittest desi girls, ridin in da latest beemer. Old Jas wuz so gora-lovin he b pract’ly coconut, the stupid phendu—but Jas is smarter than that: he's a conflicted, oddly insightful example of multicultural identity. Embracing the South Asian gangsta ethic, he navigates the schism between tradition and London hip (hop), boyhood and masculinity. As his speech alters to reflect his maturity, Jas discovers his integrity.

Malkani's darkly comic novel succeeds where others have failed: capturing the dilemmas and dangers of youth and ethnicity in one of the most diverse cities on earth. -V. Verano

Stick Out Your Tongue
by Ma Jian
trans. Flora Drew (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Seventeen years after its publication in the Chinese journal People's Literature, Ma Jian's original ban-inducing book, Stick Out Your Tongue, has been translated into English. This slim volume of fiction contains five stories, set in Tibet and connected by the presence of an incidental narrator—an itinerant Chinese journalist—and by their commonly blunt descriptions of suffering. Written after the author himself returned from Tibet, Ma Jian's stories are a series of quick punches, examples of everyday brutality, the kind that cannot be redeemed, least of all by the fantasy of Tibet as an idyllic realm and hidden paradise. -T. Hayes

The Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig (Harcourt)

The vividness of this book about Montana, memory, and community is hard to describe. The contours of Doig's characters seem to glow in their dusty, farming clothes, and a living, breathing, hardscrabble community is formed out of ink on a page. Damon’s family is struggling—like the schoolhouse and the farms that play a central role in the plot—yet fragility and strength are intermingled in this book. Doig's themes coalesce in the voice of Damon, speaking at the ages of both thirteen and sixty-three, waking up to the world and himself, deciphering the invisible bands that hold communities and hearts together. -M. Helsel

In Persuasion Nation: Stories
by George Saunders (Riverhead)

Saunders is one of America's finest satirists, whether it's the War on Terror seen through the lens of a rabies outbreak, consumer mania as a farcical walk down a New York street in the near future, or theology in the guise of a rebellion amongst characters from commercials. Also shuffled into the mayhem are a few haunting gems, the existential "93990," the misfit nostalgia of "Bohemians," and the mercurial and brilliant "CommComm."

These stories are a salve for those of us perplexed by today's social and political inanities; they shake loose the cobwebs in our minds and reconnect us to what’s genuine and real. -V. Verano

Everyman
by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)

A man escapes Manhattan in the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, only to be undone by the gradual deterioration of his body in Philip Roth's twenty-seventh novel. Part character study, part meditation on aging, Everyman also raises questions about faith, the often-inevitable unraveling of relationships, the disappointments within families, and life's impenetrable purpose. Roth's lively, sumptuous prose entices the reader to look deep within his characters. The experience of reading this small gem of a book, and Roth's mature work in general, is—for this reader—like falling in love, again and again. -K.M. Allman

Poetry

Spectral Waves
by Madeline DeFrees (Copper Canyon)

Local poet Madeline DeFrees entered a Catholic convent at seventeen and left thirty-eight years later. Her poetry shows a life lived in contemplation of the small and the looming—from spiders and gardens to cataracts, remembered friends, and the details of aging. DeFrees not only reflects on the world around her, she wonders about the very influence of that reflection: "Does color vanish when there's no eye to devour it?" Such questions inspire me to run outdoors to devour, to absorb and watch. Her poems are a reminder of that privilege and responsibility—to stand witness to our worlds. -T. Hayes

New Nonfiction

Let Me Finish
by Roger Angell (Harcourt)

In this collection of autobiographical essays, longtime baseball writer and New Yorker fiction editor Roger Angell distills his own everyday (and not so everyday) experiences into crystal droplets of pure humanity. Each chapter reflects the beautiful promise and possibility of finding something new. With a conspiratorial smile, Angell pats the reader on the back and recounts his days as a baseball fan, snake aficionado, master martini mixer, sailor, movie buff, golfer, soldier, and writer—but most simply, a human. There are plenty of cameo appearances by famous people (including Angell's stepfather "Andy"), but the real star of this show is life itself. -J. Zaidi

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking)

Reading Philbrick's book is a little disorienting, like coming midway into an old movie, dubbed in Swahili, but without subtitles. The story is simple enough: the incoming group threatens the native group with advanced weaponry and, utilizing a preemptive strike, makes a grab for power within the region. War soon follows, and both of the tiny groups face annihilation. Amidst the chaos, one Pilgrim descendant respects and learns from the natives. His name is Benjamin Church and his understanding is clearly important in any age. Philbrick revitalizes the Pilgrims and imbues them with an urgent relevance. -R. Mita

Uncommon Carriers
by John McPhee (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux)

Uncommon Carriers is a book of essays on long-distance freight haulers—trucks, tankers, towboats, and trains—written in McPhee's simple, lovely prose. The dignified and terrifying massiveness of the haulers is overwhelming; it takes correspondingly massive amounts of skill and brains to operate them. In other words, drivers are no rednecked yokels. McPhee's respect for them is expressed on every page: this class apart, mostly men, who are very skilled, rarely home, and almost never given their due. This time, they've got it. -R. Crawford

Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish
by G. Bruce Knecht (Rodale)

From pirate fishing boats in the Southern Ocean to the toniest restaurants in New York, G. Bruce Knecht documents how an enterprising fish importer from California orchestrated the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of the Patagonian toothfish (aka Chilean sea bass). With the longest pursuit of a pirate vessel in modern maritime history as its backdrop, Hooked is a cautionary tale decrying the unsustainable, and often illegal, methods with which humans systematically denude the oceans. Well researched and brilliantly paced, Hooked makes the blood boil and compels us to think twice about the source of the food on our plates. -J. Reiner

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin)

Fans of Bechdel's long-running comic-strip soap opera, Dykes to Watch Out For, will be queuing up for this book, no questions asked. They already know that Bechdel is perhaps the finest cartoonist since Will Eisner's heyday to capture the nuances of body language and things left unsaid. For those unfamiliar with Bechdel's work, the surprise will come in reading this memoir—of a tormented father’s accumulating tics and peculiarities, and the way they can tear a family to pieces—and in wondering exactly where she developed the storytelling skills of a maestro. -P. Constant

Motherless Mothers: How Mother Loss Shapes the Parents We Become
by Hope Edelman (HarperCollins)

How does a woman who lost her mother at a young age navigate pregnancy and poop, toddlers and teenage angst, without her true maternal mentor—her mother—by her side? Hope Edelman's mother died of cancer when Hope was seventeen, and she has spent most of her writing life trying to make sense of that loss. The meticulously researched Motherless Mothers is a guide to taking good care of children and oneself after the death of a mother, and is rich with stories of neurotic, safety-obsessed moms, grandmothers in heaven, and the comfort of being alive. -G.M. Berry

The Gecko's Foot
by Peter Forbes (Norton)

The words "heady" and "engineering" are not often paired, and yet those two words (perhaps along with "exhilarating" and "practical") are perfect for this book. Forbes delights in tracing the influence of nature's ingenuity on technological progress, describing how innovations in microscopic imaging and the biotech revolution have revolutionized engineering and molecular biology. Like a favorite professor, Forbes revels in the process of discovery, detailing the difficulties inherent in copying a fly's wing and explaining how to harvest spider silk. His enthusiasm is infectious, and the reader comes away awed, with a full brain and new eyes. -M. Helsel

Unaccompanied Women: Late-Life Adventures in Love, Sex, and Real Estate
by Jane Juska (Villard)

Five years after this author, a former teacher, placed a personal ad seeking an intelligent, attentive lover—and wrote a book about the outcome—she finds she's become a celebrity. Though her advice and opinions on love and sex are widely sought, she continues searching for passionate companionship. This collection of witty essays about our universal need for intimacy is particularly inspiring considering that Ms. Juska is an astute, wry, and worldly seventy-two year old. These candid accounts of her present "unaccompanied" life, still rich with human interaction, are delightfully engaging stories about our yearning for fulfilled, but uncompromised, minds and bodies. -E. Dorfman

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee
by Charles J. Shields (Henry Holt)

Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch have spent countless hours in the collective psyches of everyone who's read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Boo Radley has also hidden behind the doors of many children as they slept. Until now, little has been known of the creator of one of Southern literature's greatest treasures. With delicacy and honesty, Shields paints an engrossing picture of the mysterious Lee. This book sheds light on her years in New York, the years spent with Capote while he collected information for what would become In Cold Blood, and the biographical aspects of her only novel. -C. Joyner

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
by Lewis Buzbee (Graywolf)

With barely contained enthusiasm, Buzbee writes with love about everything "book," from the checkered history of booksellers—including their brilliant presence in the publishing of James Joyce's Ulysses, and defense of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, the heartrending end to Shakespeare & Co. and the infusion of online bookstores—to the magnitude of movable type and the lackluster e-book. Much as on a lazy meander through the shelves, we discover charming anecdotes and fascinating facts on everything book related. The author is the ultimate bibliophile, having worked both in a bookstore and in publishing (as a sales rep and writer) and of course as a self-described "promiscuous" customer. -H. Myers

Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics
by Miriam Engelberg (HarperCollins)

"Scientists have now proved that 90% of all cancer deaths are due to the deadly F.O.L. (Full of Life) personality type," writes cartoonist, mother, and breast-cancer survivor Miriam Engelberg. Engelberg tells the story of her cancer diagnosis and her ongoing fight against metastatic disease through a series of cartoon panels that, while filled with humor and irony, cut to the heart of a terrifying and life-altering experience.

For Engleberg, cartooning is not only a form of storytelling, but also a spiritual practice. For the reader, Engleberg offers a rich, heartbreaking and deeply humorous experience. -K.M. Allman

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
by Bill Buford (Knopf)

In the last few years, plenty of books about the excesses of celebrity chefs have been published. This book is not one of them. Heat is Bill Buford's account of learning to cook in one of Mario Batali's restaurant kitchens, but it is more about the everyday struggle to be a cook and the pleasures of food than it is about Mr. Batali. This memoir has all the hilarity and addictiveness of an outrageous exposé. -M. Hickner

Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen
by Michael Ruhlman (Viking)

In the seven years since Michael Ruhlman wrote The Soul of a Chef, the role of the chef has changed dramatically! The rollout (the preferred industry term) of restaurants and products, along with the birth of the Food Network, means the celebrity chef generally no longer does the one thing that brought the initial success: cooking.

In The Reach of a Chef, Ruhlman explores this transition behind the scenes and also features those chefs who are still in their kitchens cooking twelve hours a day, seven days a week. I devoured this fascinating, in-depth, kitchen/cooking exposé. -T. Nisly

Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future
by Jeff Goodell (Houghton Mifflin)

Do you think America has moved beyond coal to cleaner, more sustainable energy solutions? If so, most of what Jeff Goodell has to say in Big Coal will come as a wake-up call. Goodell follows coal as it is blasted out of the ground, shipped across the country, burned to power our laptops and cell phones, and finally breathed into our lungs. He finds that the coal industry is hardly on its way out, but rather bigger and more menacing than ever. -M. Hickner

Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy
by Fawaz A. Gerges (Harcourt)

Middle Eastern scholar Fawaz A. Gerges traces the history and causes of modern jihadism. He begins his study by interviewing Kamal al-Said Habib in Cairo. Once a militant Islamist, Habib is now a moderate who believes there can be a diplomatic and political solution. Gerges characterizes his analysis and study as going into the "Arab street." He looks at Al-Qaeda, the Lebanese Civil War, 9/11, and the recent Madrid and London bombings. The book gives a human face to the Islamists and, for that reason alone, this book is indispensable. -G. Berry

Children's & Young Adult Books

The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon
by Mini Grey (Knopf)

Hey diddle diddle...If you've ever wondered what happened to the Dish and the Spoon after they ran away, this amusing new picture book will give you some updated insights. The "never-before-told true story" of their adventures takes us on a wild ride from the heights of wealth and success on Broadway to the shattering depths of despair in prison, and much more. This is a charming tale of friendship, survival, reunion, and resilience. Luckily for us, the Dish and the Spoon will be around to show us their tricks for generations to come. -D. Hsieh

Hannah West in the Belltown Towers
by Linda Johns (Puffin)

Someone is stealing the paintings of Seattle's hottest new artist. When Hannah and her mom, who adopted Hannah as an infant from China, housesit a friend's apartment, Hannah finds herself living the high life in the swanky Belltown Towers, right in the heart of art and crime. She and her best friend can't help but become nosy twelve-year-old sleuths. Beatniks, snobs, advocates, recluses, and purple-clad bike messengers become suspects. Seattleite jokes and Hannah's unavoidable strong will make this fun to read and an addictive page-turner. If other books haven't turned your preteen into a reader, this one might do the trick. -T. Radebaugh

Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food
by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson (Houghton Mifflin)

Eric Schlosser here teams up with Charles Wilson to write a young-adult version of the New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation. This book will get teens talking about schools, corporate America, animal and human rights, and American values, not to mention investing thought in what they eat. It’s full of teen heroes grappling with the tough problems this generation faces while making an awesome step into adulthood. I wish students would read this book in schools—this is education at its best. -T. Radebaugh

Out of Patience
by Brian Meehl (Delacorte)

Jake Waters comes from a long line of plumbers who all resided in a stinky little Kansas town called Patience—and he's sick of it. His eccentric father is obsessed with the family's history—namely toilets, toilet accessories, and the curse that looms over his family and their town. Jake just wants to start over somewhere new and less embarrassing. Hilarious, engaging, and surprisingly heartfelt, this novel shows us what it means to choose our own destinies, even when there's a funnel cloud of poop coming to destroy everything in its path. -J. Schurk

Back Talk

by Holly Myers

What do The Lovely Bones, Fight Club, The Known World, White Teeth, and The Joy Luck Club have in common? All are phenomenal first novels from major literary talents. Elliott Bay Book Company wanted to find a way to celebrate first novels and lead readers to them, so in July of 2002, we initiated the Maiden Voyage First Edition Program. The voyage began with Julie Otsuka's bold, heart-wrenching, and unforgettable novel When the Emperor Was Divine. It was no surprise when it was chosen for the "If All Seattle Reads" program sponsored by the Washington Center for the Book. Along with prize-winners and bestsellers, the program has introduced readers to exciting new voices such as Mark Haddon and Susanna Clarke, filling readers' shelves with hardcover first editions. Book collectors, who are keen to collect fine first editions because, like fine wines, they appreciate in value, find that the Maiden Voyage program is a natural fit because its purpose is to ship out first editions. For readers who need a little direction in deciding what to read out of the 130,000 to 175,000 books that are published every year, Maiden Voyage can point the way to great fiction. Registering is simple; it can be done in-store, on the phone, or via e-mail with the help of staff. The flat fee includes the cost of shipping six hardcover first editions by up-and-coming authors. These first novels will be mailed directly to your home over a twelve-month period. We look forward to your joining us on this voyage of discovery.

The Owner's Corner

by Peter Aaron

As often happens, I find purchase on ground between a pair of poems—one by Emily Dickinson—the other by Rainer Maria Rilke.

1082
Revolution is the Pod
Systems rattle from
When the Winds of Will are stirred
Excellent is Bloom

But except its Russet Base
Every Summer be
The Entomber of itself,
So of Liberty—

Left inactive on the Stalk
All its Purple fled
Revolution shakes it for
Test if it be dead.
-ED

Revolution. Before it’s too late—before Liberty hangs dead on the stalk. But what kind of revolution? Let it be precisely the opposite of the blight it would eradicate. As the regime is deceitful and ravenous, let it be honest and generous. As the regime is brutal and vindictive, let it be kind and forgiving. As the regime is cynical and divisive, let it be hopeful and healing. As the regime is sanctimonious and secretive, let it be tolerant and forthcoming. As the regime is violent, let it be peaceful. As the regime is criminal, let it be lawful. Perhaps it's not too late. Let's take to the streets—one by one—without plan or party—without cabal or conspiracy—without excuse or equivocation—in grand anticonspiracy—to wage remorseless, implacable love.

IX
You who give judgment, do not award yourself praise
because irons and the rack are not fashionable still.
Where among you beats the heart that sheer pity has raised?
Mercy is not shaped by spasms of will.

What we have given the scaffold over the years
it will surely give back to us: just as a child may
offer as gifts the toys of its previous birthday.
It is not like this that a God truly merciful enters
into the welcoming heart like a wide-open door.
He would come as a God, all in light and in power enduring,
so much more than a wind for the sails of the great and secure.
Nothing less than a tender, mysterious vision
quietly conquering our hearts from within,
like an infant at play, conceived of an infinite pairing.
-RMR

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Little, Brown), Thomas H. Johnson, editor; Sonnets to Orpheus, by Rainer Maria Rilke (Routledge), Stephen Cohn, editor.