Independent Bookstore Day is here!!! A wonderful day to pick up a new book and support your favorite local indie bookstores this Saturday April 24th :) We've got exclusive merch and special edition books available in-store and online to celebrate! Due to Covid-19, Seattle Independent bookstores will not be holding our usual festivities with the challenge to visit all participating stores in a single day. However, there is a NEW and wonderful challenge that is happening this year that will allow people to safely participate amidst the pandemic called the 10-10-10 Challenge!

From April 24th - May 3, you can participate by making a purchase at 10 participating bookstores within 10 days and win a limited-edition Seattle Independent Bookstore Day Tote Bag! You can complete this challenge in-person or online. You can pick up a passport in-person at a participating bookstore or click here to print one out. With your passport you can keep track of all the different bookstores you make a purchase from. To see a list of all participating bookstores and how to submit your receipts, check out the Seattle Independent Bookstore Day website!

What better way to celebrate April than with poetry books! I am a bit biased as someone who reads poetry not only during National Poetry Month but every other month as well. But I’m here because I love poems and I want more people to love them too. 

Studying it in college, reading it during my lunch breaks, and writing it in my spare time, I am very familiar with the eye rolls and shrugs I get from people when I mention poetry. And, believe me, I understand when they say they just don’t get it because I don't get all of it either. One of the most common responses I hear is that school ruined it for them because required reading sometimes has a way of doing that.The overanalyzing in high school English class, your teacher and their unforgiving red pen, deters readers and nonreaders alike from picking up some of these amazing writers that are doing incredible things with language. Like Billy Collins writes, "all they want to do / is tie the poem to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it." You don't need a rope, a chair, or a confession - I promise.

Massive loss that left so many feeling helpless, fragile and unmoored. The ongoing fight for equity. A catch-all anxiety tied to the simple passing of time. Moments of true rest were few and far between this past year. But there were moments.

Alright people, it's officially holiday season. I can't believe it's already that time of year again but somehow here we are. Our resident Romance and Mystery & Suspense experts have picked out some of their favorite holiday themed books just for you. Enjoy!

To celebrate Indigenous Heritage Month this November, we collected a list of amazing books by Native and Indigenous authors that have been shaking up the literary world in the last couple years. From the genre-bending brilliance of Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq, to the wonder and whimsy of Darcie Little Badger’s Elatsoe, the inventiveness, modernity, and sheer talent of these writers is what makes us booksellers excited to do our jobs. 

We asked the booksellers at all three of our locations for their favorite books of 2020. These are the top 10 books that made it onto the majority of those lists.

Usually, Independent Bookstore Day involves a few more events than it does this year, but that doesn’t mean we love it any less!

Do we miss the prize wheel? Stamping passports? Blackout poetry? The photobooth? We do! We miss it all so much! But most of all, we miss seeing all of you, and hearing about your bookstore adventures -- and, of course, recommending you our favorite books.

So here’s a list of some of the books we wish we could put in your hands on Saturday -- and don’t worry, Indie Bookstore Day will be back next year!
 

These days have begun to feel elastic: even the most banal social practice upended, oceans of time in front of us that feel by and large destined to be filled by anxiety. Oh, the new normal. The importance of maintaining routine are stressed upon us, the vague semblance of normality holding us together with tape and string. I myself never thought I could abide shoes in the house but am now cheered by the simple act of lacing them each morning, even if only to tread the same exact square footage as yesterday.

There are many things to love about being a bookseller, but my favorite double edged sword is that we get to read so many amazing books before they are officially released in stores. Double edged only because we read books we love and then we have to WAIT, sometimes MONTHS before we get to shove them breathlessly into your hands. 

There’s been a lot of buzz around the bookstore lately because of all the wonderful advance reading copies we’re getting through, and because the suspense is killing us, this is what we can’t wait to recommend in the coming months:

The data is in, folks! You've seen our individual list of favorites -- part one, part two, and part three -- but if you looked at that and were overwhelmed with the sheer number of books we loved last year, this is the list for you.