Independent Bookstore Day is nigh! Mom and I have worked out our provisions for our trek to 19 Seattle bookstores on Saturday with the proper mix of protein (for stamina) and sugar (for the party atmosphere).

The one thing I haven’t done and can foresee I won’t have time for is making up a list of books I want to get ahead of time so: random browsing and Staff Recommends shelves here I come!

I do have two recommendations for you, in addition to the general recommendation to get your butt to at least one independent bookstore in your area on Saturday whether you live in Seattle or not. The first is (yes slightly self-promoting but still) the WA129 poetry anthology our state poet laureate Tod Marshall has put together — I’m in it with a poem called “Albrecht Dürer Moves to Ilwaco, Washington” along with a fine list of other Washington state poets/poems.

The second is a book I just finished—As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, subtitled Food, Friendship and the Making of a Masterpiece. Which is a not very inclusive subtitle as DeVoto and Child are wonderful letter writers and opinionate on all kinds of life’s topics and the 1950s. I found it both wonderfully relaxing, entertaining reading and also resonant with these times of ours that I was looking for an entertaining break from, since much of their correspondence takes place during the McCarthy era.

If you happen to be looking to be more organized than I am this year and want a list of books handy so you can be efficient on your bookstore day challenge trek, you can also pop back to my Summer Book Bingo reviews from 2016 and 2015. And, Seattle Arts & Lectures just let it be known that three of the upcoming 2017 Summer Book Bingo squares will be: “about art or an artist,” “LGBTQIA author or character,” and “published the year one of your parents was born.”

Seattle Independent Bookstore Day 2017 Participating Stores:
Ada’s Technical Books, Book Larder, BookTree Kirkland, Eagle Harbor Books, Edmonds Bookshop, Elliott Bay Book Co., Fantagraphics Books, Island Books, Magnolia’s Bookstore, The Neverending Bookshop, Open Books: A Poem Emporium, Phinney Books, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Secret Garden Books, The Traveler, and all locations of Liberty Bay Books, Third Place Books, and the University Book Store.

Hope to see you out and about at one or more of these local treasures on Saturday!