Banned Book News
The New York Times published a guest essay by author Patricia McCormick whose book and National Book Award Finalist Sold was one of the most banned books at the start of this past school year.
The New York Times covered the story of Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s run-in with Scholastic licensing. Scholastic wanted to license her book Love in the Library, a children’s account of her grandparents falling in love at a Japanese-American incarceration camp during WWII. Scholastic asked her to delete references to racism in America in her author’s note. Tokuda-Hall refused and withdrew her book. Scholastic attempted to license the text as part of a collection of 150 books by or about Asian Americans, and they’ve paused production on the set while they examine their process. You can see the edits in the original article.
The Seattle Public Library is taking the lead and offering a Books Unbanned card for teens and young people anywhere across the U.S. to have free access to their entire collection of ebooks and audiobooks.
CALL FOR ACTION: Sign the petition to support the Right to Read Bill to fight against book bans and ensure students can access school libraries from Every Library.
2023 Pulitzer Prizes for Books
His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Struggle for Racial Injustice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. General Nonfiction. I recommend this book.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Fiction. This one keeps ticking up in my TBR pile due to recommendations and the prize.
Trust by Hernan Diaz. Fiction.
Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie. History.
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage. Biography.
Stay True by Hua Hsu. Memoir or Autobiography.
Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 by Carl Phillips. Poetry.
Streaming Recommendation: Firefly Lane
This weekend I finished watching the final season of Firefly Lane on Netflix based on Kristin Hannah's novel. This series did me in. Sarah Chalke and Katherine Heigl knocked it out of the park as soulmate besties over a 30-year friendship.
Hannah lives on Bainbridge Island—proving once again what a wonderful literary place we live in.
Continuing along with the best friends theme here…
Two Friends Open New Bookstore in Kingston
I went over to check out the new bookstore in Kingston called Saltwater Bookshop, which was covered in both The Kitsap Daily News and Shelf Awareness. Opened up by two long-time best friends, one who owns the Borrowed Kitchen Bakery, and both were booksellers at Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo.
The store is clean and bright, with a great selection of Pacific Northwest and Frontlist titles. I walked out with several new books and will return later in a few days to pick up some special orders. I think this will be my new route—check out the Bookery for used classics, and then head to the Saltwater Bookshop for new releases.
Let’s keep that friendship theme going… here are some of my recommendations for books about friendship.
My Favorite Books About Friendship
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
What books did I miss? Share yours in the comment section.
Books I Bought at Saltwater Bookshop
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
Make Friends by Joining a Book Club
We all could use a few good friends in our lives. The Surgeon General released a report that focused on The Healing Effects of Social Connection. One great way to feel less isolated is to join a book club or civic group. I have a few event suggestions below from Folio.
Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum Events
Folio hit our GiveBig goals, but you can still donate to help support the library and programs. You can also raise money by buying the books I’ve linked through our FolioSeattle Bookshop on Bookshop.org.
On May 17th, Mort Kondracke will moderate an in-person panel on A World of Trouble. Joining Mort on the panel are the University of Washington Prof. Resat Kasaba, former President of The US-China Business Council Dr. Robert Kapp, former senior international affairs writer for the LA Times Carol J. Williams, and former U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus John Koenig. Mort’s panels kept us going through the pandemic and I’m glad to report this one will finally be in-person!
NOTIS is having its 4th Annual Translation Slam on May 18th.
Brad Holden will host an event on May 19th called Drinks, Drugs & Debauchery: A History of Seattle's Prohibition Era. Brad will be back on June 2nd to host a Prohibition-style party to raise funds for Folio.
On May 22nd, Folio will co-host an event on Global Investigative Journalism with a group of investigative journalists from the Balkans.
Folio’s Librarian, Lillian Dabney, and Dave Beck from Classical KING FM will talk with author Joseph Horowitz about his novel The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York on May 25th.
And an event that isn’t at Folio—Colson Whitehead will be at Town Hall on July 28th to discuss his new book Crook Manifesto. I plan to meet up with folks who have been a part of Folio’s group, reading and discussing Whitehead’s works. We completed The Nickel Boys this past week and will be talking about Harlem Shuffle next.
What Is This?
A career that started when my mother saw that a Waldenbooks was opening in our neighborhood and told me, “Well, why don’t you apply there and get it out of your system?” Since then I’ve been a bookseller, an acquisitions editor, a content strategist, and am currently Board President for Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum. I started this newsletter because I gave up Twitter and need an outlet for all my social media energy and outrage.
I'd love to actually meet you for lunch sometime this summer, if you're around. I had not known about Folio and am glad to learn about it. I live in Greenwood but could easily get down to the Market if that's where you are. The author I'm working with knows the Densho folks, and I could tell you more over lunch, as well as surely finding other shared interests. My direct email is ecasey@blueearbooks.com
Thank you for the link to that NYT article about Love in the Library. I hadn't known about it - and it caught my interest because two books I'm currently helping develop, and will publish, concern the Japanese-American community on Bainbridge Island - both very significant, potentially landmark books, I daresay. More broadly, very much on my mind right how is the question of what publishers should be doing to publish and promote books in the most optimal ways, in this very factionalized as well as distracted American society we're finding ourselves living in. I don't have easy answers, but I think I'm at least asking the right questions. :-)