Adventures Underground Castle Waiting by Linda Medley An engaging, clever,and beautifully illustrated all-ages graphic novel, Linda Medley's Castle Waiting is among our favorite graphic novels, and never fails to delight on each new reading. Castle Waiting is the result of over a decade's worth of Medley's comic strips that have at last been compiled and published in an elegant hard-bound volume by Fantagraphics. At the goblin-infested castle where Sleeping Beauty once slumbered, fairy tale interweaves seamlessly with interconnected narratives of the characters' lives. Witches, bird-men, and the bearded Solicitine nuns are among the fascinating and humorous characters that inhabit the Medieval-like world that Medley has created. A fun, gripping read for older children and adults alike, with strong female characters and intricate, masterful artwork, Castle Waiting is a rare treasure that is sure to create fans of even the most reluctant graphic novel-readers.

Port Book and News Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska by Seth Kantner Join Port Book and News for several author events in June, including a June 6 reading and slide show by Seth Kantner. Details on their website at www.portbookandnews.com "One of the most beautiful books you'll ever read--truthful, raw, and lovely. The photographs make the sparse arctic Alaskan landscape monumentally visible and profound, while Kantner's writing imparts heroic dignity to the lives around him. From a childhood spent in a time when 'Frostbite was a way of life' to an adulthood fiercely lived, the tale of this man's life is original and funny, vivid and touching. As tough as caribou hide, Kantner enthralls the reader from beginning to end. This book is bound to become a classic alongside the works of Loren Eiseley, Edward Abbey, and John McPhee." – Jonis Agee Seth Kantner was born and raised in the wilderness of northern Alaska. He attended the University of Alaska and the University of Montana, where he received a BA in journalism. He has worked as a trapper, fisherman, gardener, mechanic, igloo builder, and adjunct professor. His writing and photographs have appeared in Outside, Orion, The New York Times, Prairie Schooner, Alaska, Switch!, Reader's Digest, and other anthologies and publications. He is a Milkweed National Fiction Prize winner, a Whiting Award recipient. His novel Ordinary Wolves won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for Nonfiction. He lives with his wife and daughter in Kotzebue, Alaska.

A Book for All Seasons The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein If you've ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein's third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny's old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. Enzo is a reliable companion and a likable enough narrator, though the string of Denny's bad luck stories strains believability. Much like Denny, however, Stein is able to salvage some dignity from the over-the-top drama. -- Reed Business Journal Garth Stein is also the author of How Evan Broke His Head And Other Stories. Visit www.inklingsbookshop.com, to find more book recommendations and a list of coming events.

The Book Shoppe Beautiful Madness: My Journey Through Other People's Gardens by James Dodson When James Dodson fell for gardening, he fell hard—so hard that he soon found himself on a whirlwind tour of the globe, feeding his horticultural obsession at gardening shows in London and Philadelphia, smuggling cuttings from the estate of Thomas Jefferson, and eventually hanging off a cliff in the South African rain forest in his quest for new and exotic plant species. Dodson chronicles his year of green-thumb fever in Beautiful Madness, a story rooted in the fertile soil of America's passion for all things gardening. Dodson's journey through other people's gardens includes an encounter with the high rollers who bid top dollar at auctions of rare plants; a meeting with the retired business executive nicknamed the Botticelli of Bulbs; and a weekend with the Mad Man of Kew, whose wife tends the garden of Queen Victoria. A tale of one man's mania for gardening—and of the many others who share it—Beautiful Madness is sure to stoke the passion of anyone who loves to dig in the dirt. (Amazon.com)

Book & Game Company Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books by Maureen Corrigan Many of you will recognize the distinctive voice of Maureen Corrigan from her book reviews on NPR's Fresh Air. In this book, part memoir part review, she tells how books have shaped her life from classic literature to hard-boiled detective fiction. In the introduction she writes, "It's not that I don't like people. It's just that when I'm in the company of others--even my nearest and dearest--there always comes a moment when I'd rather be reading a book." At the end of the book she provides a useful list of recommended reading. -- Ben

Read it Again Body Surfing by Anita Shreve At the age of 29, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing, she has signed on to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend a sultry summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwardses' two grown sons arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions. Shreve weaves a novel about marriage, family, and the supreme courage it takes to love. Read It Again Book Club meets Monday, August 11, 12:15 to 1:15 to discuss "Body Surfing."

Riverwalk Books Apples & Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found by Marie Brenner Perplexing was the family euphemism for Brenner's older brother Carl; the less tactful thought him unknowable, charm-free or plain weird. At 13, in San Antonio, Tex., where his father owned a discount store, Carl joined the John Birch Society. At 40, he left his career as a trial lawyer to become an apple farmer in Washington's Cascade Mountains. Brenner (House of Dreams) and he were on barely civil terms, but when he was 55, he was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, glandular cancer, and asked Marie for help. She responded, leaving her family in New York to be with Carl, who rejected conventional treatment, and to follow him as far away as China for scorpion patches, herbs and red meat for yang deficit. The cancer spread quickly; meanwhile, Marie sought to investigate her family's present and past among her father's feuding siblings, including writer Anita Brenner (who became part of Mexico City's art scene that included Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo). And with this research, Brenner courageously and affectingly plumbs the depths of often complex family and sibling relationships. --Publisher's Weekly

The Bookery The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton In her light second novel, Clayton chronicles a group of mothers who convene in a Palo Alto park and share their changing lives as the late 1960s counterculture blossoms around them. Linda is a runner who tracks women's progress at the Olympics. Brett has one eye on the moon, where men are living out her astronaut dreams. Southern belle Kath isn't convinced she has dreams outside the confines of her marriage (but she's open to persuasion), while quiet Ally only hopes for what the other women already have: a child. Frankie, a Chicago transplant who has followed her computer genius husband to a nascent Silicon Valley, is the story's narrator and the ladies' ringleader, inspiring them all to follow her dream of becoming a writer. They write in moments snatched from their household chores and share their stories in the park. Though the narration and story lines are so syrupy they verge on hokey, Clayton ably conjures the era's details and captures the women's changing roles in a world that expects little of them. -- Publisher's Weekly

Jerroll's Book & Supply Co. East of Eden by John Steinbeck Summer is a great time to revisit (or discover) the classics. Our more relaxed approach allows us to savor longer and more richly textured stories than other times of the year. East of Eden is the original sprawling, epic, family story. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley at the turn of the century, the tale parallels the fall of Adam and Eve and the rivalry of Cain and Abel through the lives and loves of the members of the Trask and Hamilton families. As Steinbeck wrote in the dedication to East of Eden, “…Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts- the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation…”. John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden most certainly figured in his honor. All the elements of a good summer read are here: vivid characterization, incredible setting, and soaring emotion. Pour the iced tea, recline in the hammock, and immerse yourself in this classic American novel.

Inklings Bookshop So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger I was delighted to find that my favorite author finally had produced his second novel, So Brave, Young and Handsome. I was also delighted to meet him last winter and report that our store has sold hundreds of his first book, Peace Like a River. That book, one of my most recommended for years, is referred to in the store as a "bun burner". Lest you think it is somehow racy, let me assure you that it only means that one customer loved it so much that she let the buns burn! Leif's new book reminds me of Huckleberry Finn, Oh, Brother Where Art Thou? and The Fugitive all wonderfully rolled up together. I can't think of anyone who would not enjoy this one. A story of a writer in the midst of mid-life, muse-less malaise who befriends a recovering fugitive and follows him across the country.

Brick Road Books Church of the Dog by Kaya McLaren In this reprint of a novel first published in 2000 and written by a Cle Elum author, Edith and Earl McRae have lived on their Oregon farm for 60 years, but know their time is coming to an end. After a withdrawn Earl discovers a lump in his neck, he struggles to reconnect with his wife and his alienated grandson, Daniel. Into this family tragedy strolls Mara, a chaotic figure who sees auras and appears in other characters' dreams—in other words. The result is an inspirational novel that explores God and ethics.

BookPeople The Women's West by Susan Armitage and Elizabeth Jameson A collectin of articles about the history and role of women in the settlement of the American West, written by two of America's finest female historians.