Dear Readers,
The silver lining to a week of closures and cancelled events is a bit of extra reading time, and this week's weather felt like a not so subtle reminder to stop doing all the things, and just read. It was wonderful.
Do you love writing or reading young adult fiction? Or have someone in your family that does? Or maybe you've never even thought about it, but want to see what the genre is all about? You will not want to miss our upcoming Young Adult Festival on March 16th! Young adult fiction captures the imagination of readers of all ages, and spans a wide variety of subjects and style. Think everything from Harry Potter or Anne of Green Gables to The Book Thief or The Hate U Give. We are thrilled to welcome seven Pacific Northwest authors to the store to talk about their 11 books, all appropriate for ages 12 and up. We love all the books featured for our 2019 festival, but we are very excited to announce that we have permission from the publisher to pre-release the paperback version of Shea Ernshaw's national bestseller, The Wicked Deep, just for this event! And we couldn't be more thrilled to welcome Will Ritter, author of the national bestselling and award winning Jackaby series. You can read about all the authors and featured titles in the event description below.
In support of these authors we are happy to offer you an event special on book purchases: now through March 16th, you can buy any combination of 5 books (out of the 11 event titles) and get 10% OFF your entire purchase plus a FREE Independent Bookstore Day 2019 book tote (a $10 value, while supplies last)! Young adult titles are priced cheaper than regular adult titles, so this is a great way to save and stock up for Spring Break and beyond. This festival is the perfect afternoon to connect with authors, get a stack of great new titles for your coming travel plans, or just spend the day with our tribe of people.. booklovers of all ages!
We hope to see you at the shop on the 16th, or at any of our fantastic March events, with a friend or family member in tow. Building a successful event program takes time, a lot of effort, and consistent, proven results. We hope this festival, and many of our other events this year, will bolster Roundabout's presence on the tour map, and help us to bring ever more varied and interesting authors to our community.
And now we know not to schedule four events on any given week in February. Lesson Learned. We hope you all stay safe on the roads out there, and wish you an extra free afternoon of warmth and a good book.
Yours in Reading,
Cassie
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We are over halfway through our Indiegogo campaign and it's been a great success! Thank you so much for your generous contributions. In the first month, we had over 140 donations and raised over $13,000! Adding the donor match, that is already $26,000 towards our SBA loan in 2019. I am thrilled.
I can't tell you how much the positive feedback has meant to me. A lot of you have said that by donating to our fundraiser, you feel more connected to and invested in the shop. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. You are a huge part of our success, and our future.
You have 17 days to make a contribution as our campaign ends on March 20th. You can learn more about our campaign, watch our video, track our progress, and make a contribution on our website: https://igg.me/at/roundaboutbooks. We are still giving away some great perks, including free coffee, book discounts, and our exclusive Roundabout Books engraved Hydro Flasks in support of our #treadlightly program. Thank you for helping us in the early, critical years of our little bookshop.
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#treadlightly update
Roundabout Books is committed to eliminating single use items in 2019. On January 1st, we removed all cups, lids, and straws from our cafe counter. You can still buy a disposable cup for $0.10, but we encourage everyone to bring your own as often as you can. We are trying to convert our habit of convenience in favor of more sustainable practices.
We've established a 'bag exchange' center so that there are extra totes available to carry home your books should you need them. Feel free to leave a tote, take a tote, or drop off your unused stack of paper grocery bags!
I know there is a blanket of snow out there, but if you're getting ready to prep your summer gardens, we have great compost! Every day we collect our used coffee grounds and tea leaves, and you are welcome to take them anytime. Just stop by the shop toward the end of the day with a pail in tow. It's all yours!
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I've tried not to drive you all crazy by spending too much time on my #shoplocal platform, but I have to comment on two pieces of news released last month:
1. CNBC reported that Amazon earned $232.9 billion in global revenue in 2018, and paid $0 in federal taxes this year. In fact, Amazon is getting a federal tax refund of $129 million.
2. The 2019 PrimeNumbers reports Amazon and its third-party vendors displaced 900,000 net retail jobs, displaced 540 million square feet of retail space, and estimated $5.5-$7 billion in uncollected sales tax.
Amazon is a part of our life now, but it doesn't have to be our whole life. If we want to keep diverse and interesting communities around for our children and grandchildren, we have to put a whole lot of effort into being careful about our buying decisions, and we have to spread that message over and over and over again. Bezos is relentless and Amazon won't stop growing, like a tsunami that can't help but absorb everything in it's path to make itself infinitely more powerful, an $800 billion company that doesn't pay taxes has nothing standing in it's way to total world domination. Yeah, maybe I'm carried away again. But then again, maybe I'm not.
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YOUNG ADULT FICTION FESTIVAL
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You won’t want to miss this festival featuring some of the most exciting YA stars in the Pacific Northwest! Join us for a celebration of books and writing, we'll have free snacks all day, and free pizza 12:30. Four authors will be presenting a reading (Jeremiah Franklin @ Noon, Will Ritter @ 1pm, Connie King Leonard @1:45, and Kristina Bak @ 2:30), but all authors will be available from 12-3 to sign books, chat, and answer all your questions!
When Elephants Fly is a fast paced novel that threads the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, mental illness, and elephants into a page-turning story. When Lily was seven, her mother, who had paranoid schizophrenia, tried to kill her,and Lily's odds of inheriting the disease are high. When a newspaper internship results in Lily witnessing a mother elephant try to kill her three-week-old calf, Lily can't abandon the calf and must choose whether to risk everything, including her sanity and a first love, on a desperate road trip to save the calf's life. Nancy Richardson Fischer lives in Hood River, OR.
With elegant, poetic, and descriptive writing, Shea Ernshaw delivers a captivating tale that is both suspenseful and enchanting in The Wicked Deep. Think Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic meet the Salem With trials with this haunting story about three sisters on a quest for revenge. The Swan Sisters are beautiful and alluring, and every summer they return to the rocky beaches of Oregon to exact revenge on the town that killed them for witchcraft more than 200 years ago. We are excited to be the first store in the country to release this book in paperback! Shea Ernshaw lives in Bend, OR.
In Sleeping in my Jeans, sixteen-year-old Mattie Rollins has life all figured out… until her plans crumble after becoming homeless. Her family is forced to live in the confines of their beat-up station wagon, Ruby, and after the mysterious disappearance of her mother, Mattie and her kid sister must learn how to live—not just survive—in their uncertain circumstances while racing to discover the truth behind their mother’s disappearance. Connie King Leonard writes with straightforward prose and great empathy.
Whether you know his work well, or have never been introduced, we know you’ll love the opportunity to meet Will Ritter and learn a little more about R.F. Jackaby and his investigative partner Abigail Rook. Jackaby (Book #1) opens with Abigail Rook, newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, when she meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary--including the ability to see supernatural beings, and a serial killer on the loose. By The Dire King (Book #4), the fate of the world is in the hands of Jackaby and Abigail, an evil king is turning ancient tensions into modern strife, and romances are deepening all around. This Sherlock Holmes meets Dr Who series is brimming with cheeky humor and a dose of the macabre and makes the perfect tale for long trips over Spring Break or Summer. Will Ritter lives in Eugene, OR.
In Dark Tomorrow: Rise of the Crow, a deadly virus has decimated most of Earth's population and16-year-old Sawyer Bradshaw finds he is both immune and alone in a world that has descended into violent chaos. Armed with only his estranged father's shotgun, and an unrelenting desire to stay alive, Sawyer discovers that he not only has an uncanny knack for cheating death, but also for taking lives. It's not long before he meets his match in a fierce and cunning teenage girl named Sara. They soon realize that love, betrayal, and death tend to walk hand in hand. Jeremiah Jimenez lives in Bend, OR and is a teacher at Mountain View High School.
A Key to Treehouse Living tells the adventure of William Tyce, a boy without parents, who grows up near a river in the rural Midwest. In a glossary-style list, he imparts his particular wisdom on subjects ranging from ASPHALT PATHS, BETTA FISH, and MULLET to MORTAL BETRAYAL, NIHILISM, and REVELATION. His improbable quest—to create a reference volume specific to his existence—takes him on a journey down the river by raft (see MYSTICAL VISION, see NAVIGATING BIG RIVERS BY NIGHT). He seeks to discover how his mother died (see ABSENCE) and find reasons for his father’s disappearance (see UNCERTAINTY, see VANITY). But as he goes about defining his changing world, all kinds of extraordinary and wonderful things happen to him. Unlocking an earnest, clear-eyed way of thinking that might change your own, A Key to Treehouse Living is a story about keeping your own record straight and living life by a different code. Elliot Reed lives in Spokane, WA.
In Nowever, high school misfit Stevie juggles secrets-her haunting visions, her uncanny gift, a confusing relationship that might be love-and searches halfway around the world for her lost dad. Two shocking deaths lead her with unlikely allies deep into crocodile-ridden Australian bush, where she uncovers alarming truths about her family and herself. Back home in Seattle she's rocked by new revelations. Kristine Bak lives in Bend, OR and is a regular member of the Roundabout Books Not Your Average Book Club.
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Miguel Edwards shares Art in Seattle's Public Spaces
Friday, March 8 at 6 p.m.
James Rupp interviewed and corresponded with more than ninety artists, also drawing from newspaper reviews, books, catalogs, and artist statements. Photographs by Miguel Edwards, all new to this book, showcase the pieces’ street-level presentation and help the reader understand the larger impact of each work in its neighborhood context. This comprehensive guide offers detailed information about the individual works of art, organized by downtown neighborhood.
Sculptor Miguel Edwards has been a commercial and fine-art photographer in Seattle since 1992. His clients include Pacific Northwest municipalities and Fortune 500 companies, and his photographs have been included in numerous publications, including Billboard and City Arts magazines. Edwards lives in Bend, Oregon.
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