Madison Books Newsletter #12

The neighborhood bookstore for Madison Park and its environs

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We're three months into the ongoing project that is Madison Books, and while everything is going great, we're already wishing we'd implemented some kind of system to document all the interesting conversations we're having with visitors. There's so much we're learning about the history of the neighborhood and the families who live in it that we don't want to let any of it slip through our fingers. Someone oughta write a book.

It's a little too hectic around here to take that on, but we can pause long enough to note one memorable in-store encounter. We had a drop-in this past week from some literary luminaries, representatives of the Creative Cities Network administered by UNESCO, the United Nations' scientific and cultural arm. If you don't know about this program, it's well worth researching, but the relevant information here is that Seattle is an internationally recognized City of Literature. Stesha Brandon is the program manager for our hometown organization, and Christiane Vadnais hails from Quebec City, Canada, one of our 27 partner communities.

Seattle's City of Literature designation makes us inordinately proud, so their visit counted as a celebrity appearance. We talked about a million things bookish, including Seattle's thriving indie bookstore scene, and traded information about our favorite regional reads. Some were completely new to us (and you'll likely see a few of those titles here soon) but we were chuffed that they discovered several Quebecois authors already gracing our shelves.

By itself this was as pleasant an interchange as we can imagine, but in retrospect we realized how significant it was. Independent bookstores are rightly lauded for their focus on local interests—carrying books from and about the place they inhabit, providing a gathering space for their neighbors, and so on—but that doesn't preclude us from having a global outlook. Every time you walk through our door you're helping tie your community more tightly together and you're also making a direct connection to other communities of readers across the city, state, country, and planet.

Madison Books doesn't have a formal mission statement, but if we did it would involve the twin concepts of Near and Far. Though the terms have opposite meanings, we find that thinking about one always leads to the other. Dealing as we do on an individual, human scale, one person's story leads to the next and then to the next, and pretty soon we've circumnavigated the globe without ever leaving the block. Book by book, the world grows closer day by day.

Thanks—James, Jeff, Cindy, Paula, and Erica

New Book of the Week
The Salt Path
by Raynor Winn
A bad investment causes fifty-year-old Raynor Winn and her husband Moth to lose their family farm and livelihood. Around the same time, Moth is diagnosed with a terminal degenerative illness that leaves him depressed and in constant pain. Homeless and hopeless, the couple decides to embark on the 630-mile South West Coast Path along the English coast with no preparations and hardly any gear besides a cheap tent and thin sleeping bags. The long walk tests everything they have, including their 32-year relationship, but ultimately changes their lives in ways they never could have expected when they took that first step. Along the way, strangers they meet demonstrate the best and worst qualities in humanity. This uplifting memoir is a great summer read for anyone dreaming of far-off travel adventures. —Haley (via the Phinney Books newsletter)

New Book of the Week
The Road to Grantchester
By James Runcie
Now, during PBS-TV’s latest run of the British mystery series Grantchester, is an ideal time to dive into this prequel novel, which recalls the circuitous path protagonist Sidney Chambers took from being a Cambridge classics student to becoming an Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth. As World War II consumes Europe, Chambers and his irrepressible friend Robert Kendall join the Scots Guards and are sent to the Italian front, where their ability to maintain optimism amid unrelenting carnage is sorely tested. Crucial to Chambers’ efforts is “Rev Nev” Finnie, an Episcopal chaplain with whom he engages in philosophical discussions—talks that prepare him for Kendall’s subsequent battlefield death and his own return home. Back in England, Chambers finds himself guilt-ridden for having survived, and at a loss to deal with Kendall’s coquettish younger sister, Amanda. Others expect Chambers to become a teacher or diplomat, but his search for peace leads him instead into the priesthood. There’s little crime-solving here, but author Runcie excels at evoking the climate of warfare, and his investigations of the human mind and heart will feel familiar to any Grantchester fan. —Jeff

Kids' Book of the Week
The Poison Jungle
by Tui Sutherland
What is probably the best-selling series for young readers that we carry at Madison Books has reached lucky number 13. What more do you need to know? About the only thing we can think to add is a reminder that Tui Sutherland will be a headlining author at the Seattle Children's Book Festival at the end of September. —James

Link of the Week
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
This week, PBS's American Masters series premieres a documentary about one of the Northwest's greatest writers, the late Ursula K. Le Guin. Essential viewing.

First Lines That Last
In honor of the bicentennial of Herman Melville's birthday, which took place on August 1, we share something short and sweet this week, a brief opener to one of the biggest books there is.

Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville

"Call me Ishmael."