Broadway Books - Independently owned and supporting the NE Portland community since 1992.

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That you can order books 24/7 on our website? Select "pay in store/pick up in store," and we'll notify you when they're ready for you to pick up!


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That we happily gift wrap any of your purchases from us at no additional charge?

That our gift certificates never expire? If we don't expire, they don't expire!

That more than almost anything else we love helping you choose just the right gift? So don't hesitate to ask for ideas if you're stuck.

That we are long-time supporters of local literary and educational activities?



 


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New in Paperback



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Coming September 1:

The fourth & final Neapolitan novel, by Elena Ferrante


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Broadway Books
A Great Little Store with Great Big Service
August 2015 Newsletter
 
  

The crashing waves, the sand between our toes, and the calls of the seagulls are reminding us to savor these last few weeks of our Oregon summer. We've loved hearing about the adventures near and far you've enjoyed this summer. Please keep sharing them with us!

Despite the lovely long days and record-breaking temperatures, we know that the start of school and the brisk days of fall are just around the corner. Keep us in mind as you begin gathering the required books for your students -- perhaps a classic or two might be in order for all of us. We've got the new August to August calendars in a bevy of glorious colors as well.

In honor of the recent release of the last Dr. Seuss book found in his collections, What Pet Should I Get?, we want to share with you our favorite Seussism; "You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back & relax, all you need is a book!" 

Let's all take pleasure in following that advice. 

Sally McPherson and Kim Bissell
Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232
(503) 284-1726
August Events

Tuesday, August 4th, 7 pm:  The Timberline Review to Launch at Broadway Books

We are thrilled to host the launch of the first issue of the new literary publication
The Timberline Review, published by Willamette Writers. Joining us to read from the first issue are contributors Kate Ristau, Margaret Malone, Andrew Michael Roberts, Jennifer Foreman, and Jack Estes -- and possibly a few surprise guests!  

Founded in 1965, this literary organization is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The editors of the review, Peter R. Field and Pam Wells, were inspired by the idea for a literary journal as a way to celebrate the organization's legacy. The first issue of The Timberline Review includes work from forty-six authors from three countries and fifteen states, including twenty-eight authors living in Oregon.   

 

Tuesday, August 11th, 7 pm:  Polly Dugan in Conversation with Scott Nadelson
Local northeast Portland author Polly Dugan will discuss the writing process and her latest novel, The Sweetheart Deal, with fellow writer Scott Nadelson. We will also be celebrating the release of Dugan's debut novel So Much A Part of You in the paperback edition. 

Dugan is a manuscript reader at Tin House magazine and is an alumna of the Tin House Writers Workshop.  Publishers Weekly commended her first work as "a solid debut -- Dugan's writing flows well and with thoughtfulness as she explores love, loss, and friendship through the three main characters and their families."  
 
The Sweetheart Deal explores how people move on in the wake of devastating loss, and what happens when the chance for love unexpectedly appears again.

Thursday, August 13th, 7 pm: An Evening with Oregon: Matt Love, Tim Sproul, and Bill Hall 

Three Oregonians. Three writers. Three literary genres published by Nestucca Spit Press. We welcome the ever energetic and interesting Matt Love from Astoria with his
memoir A Nice Piece of Astoria: A Narrative Guide and his new novel The Great Birthright: An Oregon Novel.
   
Love will be joined by poet Tim Sproul, reading from his new collection
Newported, a Poetic Field Guide to the Pacific Coast. Sproul's collection digs into the  heart of the real characters, dark bars, and magically dangerous beaches of the mid Oregon Coast.

Native Oregonian and Lincoln County Commissioner Bill Hall will read from his new novel of alternate history, McCallandia: A Utopian Novel. The book imagines iconic Oregon governor Tom McCall becoming president of the United States after Richard Nixon resigns. 

This trio will not disappoint. We hope you'll join in the fun.
 
Tuesday, August 18th, 7 pm: Wayne Lee 
We can't think of a better way to wrap up our summer reading schedule than with an irreverent celebration with Hillsboro author Wayne Lee, who will share some of his inventive and humorous pieces from his latest collection, Googling a Present Participle: Poems, Prose Poems, Bogus Monologues & Fraudulent Artifacts.  

Lee's boundary-stretching poems, parodies, satires, and send-ups include an obituary for Mr Potato Head, an ode to asparagus pee, and an intentionally bad translation of an Elizabeth Bishop poem. These deftly crafted pieces examine the interrelationship between writing, music, theatre, and other arts, tackling sticky issues such as cultural elitism, racial stereotypes, class warfare, and political correctness.
New Sunday Hours
During the month of August we will be experimenting with opening the store at 10 am on Sunday mornings, rather than at noon. If this is the perfect book browsing time for you, please let us know! We appreciate your feedback.
New in Hardcover
Circling the Sun, by Paula McClain
Novelist Paula McLain is back with Circling the Sun, a fictionalized look at the life of Beryl Markham. There are two groups of readers who will be especially pleased by this new book. First, the many admirers of The Paris Wife, her novel about Hemingway's first wife, will enjoy revisiting her evocative storytelling.

Second, devotees of Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa and Beryl Markham's West with the Night will enjoy immersing themselves in colonial Kenya, perhaps imagining Robert Redford as Denis Finch Hatton. As an author, an aviatrix, and a lover, Markham cut her own path, lions and warthogs be damned. McClain has a gift for bringing to life strong, complex female characters from history.
Last Bus to Wisdom, by Ivan Doig 
In case anyone overlooked the narrative pull Montana has on Portland readers, Fourth of July Creek by Portland author Smith Henderson is a good wake-up call. 

But the real granddaddy of Big Sky fiction was Ivan Doig. Born in Montana, he never strayed far. From English Creek through Sweet Thunder he has shown us the land and people as no one else could. And now comes his final book after his passing last April: Last Bus to Wisdom -- could there be a more perfect title?

The novel is a picaresque coming-of-age tale with a classic Doigian ensemble of characters. As always, Doig is as fresh as the Montana mountain air. Although I do think he was unfair to crows in English Creek. [Note: This book will publish on August 18th -- contact us to reserve a copy.]
The Quartet, by Joseph Ellis
Lincoln had his math wrong in the Gettysburg address! Joseph Ellis tells us in The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 that the new nation conceived in liberty was brought forth not in 1777 but in fact later by the efforts of just a few. 

George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison saw the former colonies as so many unherdable cats, doomed to squabble. Virginia believed it owned Kentucky, and New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were fighting over Vermont. Without the work of this quartet, The United States would likely have been hopelessly balkanized.

This is the ninth book on our country's infancy from this Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, and he writes with the same grace, zip, and scholarship as in Founding Brothers and Revolutionary Summer
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an open letter to his teenage son and is sure to fuel animated discussions at a time when black deaths are on everyone's minds as rarely before.

Toni Morrison calls it "required reading," and both she and Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns, hail Coates as the James Baldwin of our time.

While some might feel he has a one-size-fits-all view of whites, no one will deny the beauty and precision of his writing. Many readers know him as an intellectual of great range from his articles in O, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan 
Reviewers of this new memoir by journalist William Finnegan of a life chasing the best waves can hardly find enough superlatives. The Wall Street Journal calls it "sweeping, glorious, incandescent," and Finnegan's description of finding a perfect wave reminds The New York Times of Keats' On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer.

NPR calls the book "a demonstration of gratitude and mastery." A staff writer at The New Yorker since 1987, Finnegan's on-land time is spent writing award-winning nonfiction about troubled parts of the world. But the old boomer still surfs sublime waves in Fiji.


Is your book club looking for ideas for new books? We'd love to brainstorm with you. And we're always happy to let you know if books are readily available and when they'll be published in paperback. 

Contact Information
Sally McPherson or Kim Bissell
Broadway Books
(503) 284-1726
[email protected]