Edmonds Bookshop |

Welcome to Edmonds Bookshop

Located in thriving downtown Edmonds WA, we have books for readers of all ages and interests. We also offer a fun selection of gift items and a large, unique selection of cards. We are always happy to recommend books based on your reading preferences. Search for a specific book here on this site [search box above in the main menu] or contact us in person, via email or phone.

Update 6/20/2020. 10am.
Edmonds Bookshop is now open!

Good news! Edmonds Bookshop is now open! We are excited to have you back in the store. For the time being we will be open Monday through Saturday, 10a - 5p.

Bonus Hours this weekend! We will be open Sunday, July 12, 2020, 12p - 5p.

Our most important priority is the health of our customers and staff, and consequently we ask that all customers wear face masks, that you sanitize your hands upon entry and that you keep six feet of space between yourself and other shoppers and staff. For now, we will permit only five shoppers in the store at a time. Families with small children must stay together, and, sorry but our public restroom is closed.

We still are offering curb-side pick up, free shipping via USPS media mail, and free local delivery; inquire about details when placing your order.

We are very grateful for the numerous expressions of support received in the last many weeks. Your many thoughtful messages and gestures mean a lot, and we hope to return the kindness as we begin to emerge from the fog of the pandemic.

Thank you so much,
All of us at Edmonds Bookshop. We will see you soon!

Eat well, sleep well, read well, and thank you for your business!

Waldo is doing his part, wearing his mask, and social distancing this July.
We are looking forward to July 2021, when, if all goes well, he and all of his cohorts will be back hiding in Edmonds.
For this year, we have a few fun activities you can do on your own... visit our blog here for some great downloads.

Because we have had to postpone or cancel all of our scheduled in-store author events for the last few months,
we have invited our scheduled authors to create short promotional videos to highlight their recent books.

Enjoy this from local author Wendy Kendall, on our blog here.

Striving to be antiracist, with all the recommended reading we can find:

Ibram X. Kendi, a professor and director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University, is the National Book Award-winning author of “Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” and “How to Be an Antiracist,” and he has a great recommended list, on our blog here.

Not surprisingly, some of these titles have been temporarily out of stock at our distributor. As of 7/3, we have most of them back in, and the rest we are expecting within the next 10 days or so.... we will get them to you as soon as we possibly can.
If you just can't wait, we have a great option for you: inline with our commitment to provide the books and information you need, right now, we encourage you to visit our audio partner, Libro.fm to get your hands (or, well, ears...) on these titles. The link to great antiracist books and playlists here.

7/8/2020: PBS NewsHour. As part of the Race Matters series, Amna Nawaz spoke with two scholars to explore racism in America and the concept of anti-racism.

Ibram X. Kendi is the author of "How to Be an Antiracist," and is a professor of history and the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.
Robin DiAngelo is the author of the book "White Fragility," and is a consultant and educator on racial and social justice issues.
You can listen to or watch the full episode on PBS, here.

The Book Club Is Back!

For the foreseeable future we are going virtual with Edmonds Bookshop Book Club via Zoom!
By all accounts, our first Zoom book club went quite well! Join us in July:

In July we will be discussing "Ordinary Grace: A Novel" by William Kent Krueger, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, at our usual times:
Thursday evening July 2, 2020: 7 - 8pm and Wednesday morning July 15, 2020: 9 - 10am.

To prepare:
1. Send us an email here: EdmondsBookshopBookClub@gmail.com to register your email for book club membership. We will send you an invitation with a Zoom Meeting link as each book club meeting is scheduled. Once you accept the invitation it will show up in your calendar.
2. If you are not already using Zoom for family or business virtual meetings signing up for your free Zoom account is very easy. Start here: Zoom
Click on "SIGN UP, IT'S FREE" on the top right, fill in the info, and you're ready! You can choose to download the Zoom app to your desktop or continue to use Zoom in your browser. Alternatively you can download the Zoom app to your phone or tablet and sign up within the app. The Zoom app is available in the iOS and Android app stores.
[Zoom has some great help/testng for audio and video when you sign up... if you have any other issues/questions, or just would like a little help with any of the tech issues, please reach out and we will get you hooked up! Email us here.]
And then:
3. On the scheduled day and time, click on the book club meeting link in the invitation to launch Zoom and join the meeting. Though you shouldn't need to, you can also enter the Meeting ID, and password [case sensitive] if prompted. Susan will be the moderator/host of the meeting.

Bring a beverage of your choice, bring your book, and meet us to chat! If you're using Zoom for the first time, be sure to position your screen so that your appearance is as flattering as possible [lighting and screen positioning seem to be the keys!] Be sure you've turned your sound on so you can hear others. You can mute yourself so that background noises don't spoil the meeting, and un-mute yourself when you want to speak.

We are very much looking forward to this -- we miss your faces!

We, and lots of other people that love talking about books, are sharing lists of great recommendations.

Farther down the page are our lists of staff recommendations, recent award winners, as well as all of the current lists from Indie Next.

#BooksAreEssential Publishers Weekly [PW] is doing its part! For anyone in need of book reviews and recommendations, here is a great place to get your fix! Beginning with the March 16, 2020 issue and continuing for issues published during the duration of the Covid-19 crisis, PW is free to access, here. For everyone!

And here are a few new blog posts, with great lists, to assist with your online browsing! And please feel free to pre-order any book you would like to!

*The Guardian has a couple of brilliant lists for summer reading:

~50 brilliant books to transport you this summer: A vampire in Shanghai, artists on Hydra, and identical twins run away to New Orleans... dazzling novels plus the best politics, history,and memoir to take you away from lockdown. The list, with brief descriptions, here.

~Books to help you escape lockdown, chosen by Hilary Mantel, Edna O'Brien and more of our favorite authors. The column here.

More recommended summer reading lists:

*Oprah recommends books by women from around the world to transport you this summer. The list here. A few of the Oprah selections pictured on the left.

*The Washington Post recommends summer books to transport you. On our blog here.

*Entertainment Weekly has a list of great summer reads. The list on our blog here.

*The 20 Must-Read from Newsweek Fiction and Nonfiction Books of the Summer. Our blog with the entire list, here.

*Bill Gates shares his favorite books to read Summer 2020. Here. His list features some new titles, and a few titles he has already recommended. Our blog with the entire list is here.

Best books of 2020 so far:

*Time Magazine chooses 10 best books of 2020, so far! These books, from a biting collection of comedic essays to the final novel in a beloved trilogy, represent authors at the peak of their craft. The blog, with the list, here.

*The BBC has chosen the best books of 2020, so far. [There is definitely some overlap with Time Magazine's list!] The BBC list here.

And here we will post links to some interesting, encouraging, and/or timely things. Book- and author-related.

*Hugo House presents: Write-O-Rama! Your chance to try out several workshops offered by Hugo House teachers all in one writing-packed day.
On Sunday, July 12, sample Hugo House classes, meet the teachers, and try a new genre without the pressure of registering for a full class—all on Zoom. Tickets on sale now. Details at the Hugo House website, here.

*Publisher Penguin Random House has a "Books Connect Us Live" feature where they gather all the virtual events for their books & authors into one easy-to-scroll-through list.
You may join any of the events live, and bonus, some of them are available to view later at your leisure. Here is the link to the list for the week ending 7/12/2020.
Colson Whitehead, Hank Green and Lara Prescott each have a few virtual events scheduled this week. On the same page are links to previous weeks' events.

*Summer Book Bingo 2020 has arrived! Presented by Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts & Lectures.

Adult Bingo Card is here.
*Here are some recommended books to help fill your Summer Book Bingo card: an article in The Seattle Times, and a list on the Seattle Public Library site.

*More Book Bingo help from our friends at Seattle Arts + Lectures:

                      Category: 2 books by the same author. Suggestions here.
                   Category: books in translation. Suggestions here.
                        with links to more information on all of the pages!

Kids' Bingo Card is here.

*J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World announced that all 17 chapters of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” [book #1] will be read in a series of free videos and audio recordings. The readings of the beloved fantasy story is part of the Harry Potter at Home series on the website here.

Chapter Eleven: 'Quidditch' read by David Tennant! and David Beckham! is here.
Other readings/videos will be posted weekly on the website.

Harry Potter At Home is a way of bringing the magic into people’s homes, casting a Banishing Charm on boredom. {Their words!}

*Seattle Arts & Lectures podcasts. SAL/on air is a literary podcast featuring the best author talks from over thirty years of Seattle Arts & Lectures’ programming. Listen to your favorite SAL speakers for free on the SAL podcast, here. Also, many of SALs upcoming events have been moved online. Information and more details on the SAL events page, here.

*The Best Short Fiction, Handpicked by the Best Voice in Podcasting.
In every episode, host LeVar Burton invites you to take a break from your daily life, and dive into a great story. LeVar’s narration blends with gorgeous soundscapes to bring stories by Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury and more to life. So, if you’re ready, let’s take a deep breath... the link here.

*npr is a great source for author interviews and book reviews. A few of the recent ones here.
They also have created an app called the Book Concierge. An interactive reading guide. Mix and match tags such as Book Club Ideas, Biography & Memoir, or Ladies First to filter results and find the book that’s perfect for you or someone you love. Check it out here!

*BookTube. [some featured authors pictured left.] A monthly online book club meeting that is free and open to everyone. Each episode resembles a small book club meeting consisting of one bestselling author, a moderator, and top YouTube creators, as they have an engaging conversation about the author’s latest book. The first season includes, among others, Malcolm Gladwell, Michelle Obama, and Margaret Atwood. Links and more information on our blog here.

*One of our favorite authors, Ann Patchett, has a beautiful essay about reading Kate DiCamillo's books, in the New York Times, here. We are totally going to read "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane."
A list of Kate DiCamillo titles to get you started is here. Read the essay. You will want to come back and order at least one of her books. We've got you!

5/4/2020: Pulitzer Prize winners announced!
American author Colson Whitehead has become only the fourth writer ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice! Twice!

"The African-American author was honoured this year for "The Nickel Boys," which chronicles the abuse of black boys at a juvenile reform school in Florida. Whitehead, a 50-year-old New Yorker, won the 2017 prize in the same category for his book "Underground Railroad."'

All of the information about this year's winners on the Pulitzer website, here.

Extended information on our blog post, here.

4/29/2020: Edgar Awards 2020 announced!
Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the Winners for the 2020 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2019.
More information on our blog, here. All of the winners are on the Edgars website, here.