Latest news with #JessWalter
USA Today
3 days ago
- Business
- USA Today
Meet fluffy 'bookseller' puppy Story at Dog-Eared Books in Iowa
Meet fluffy 'bookseller' puppy Story at Dog-Eared Books in Iowa Independent bookstores are the heartbeats of their communities. They provide culture and community, generate local jobs and sales tax revenue, promote literacy and education, champion and center diverse and new authors, connect readers to books in a personal and authentic way, and actively support the right to read and access to books in their communities. Each week we profile an independent bookstore, sharing what makes each one special and getting their expert and unique book recommendations. This week we have Ellyn Grimm and Amanda Lepper, co-owners of Dog-Eared Books in Ames, Iowa. What's your store's story? We are high school classmates who returned to our hometown to raise families. We reconnected over a shared love of reading, social justice and our strong-willed daughters who ended up in the same preschool class. As the years passed, we hatched a plan to create something we thought was sorely missing in our community – an independent bookstore. Dog-Eared Books opened on International Women's Day in 2021. We are a place committed to nurturing a love of reading for all members of our community by offering a thoughtfully curated and inclusive selection of books. We believe reading and storytelling make us better humans, allowing us to better care for one another. What makes your independent bookstore unique? We're proud to be located on a thriving, historic Main Street in a college town that attracts people from all over the world. We engage with our local community in a multitude of ways: more than 15 book clubs, puzzle competitions, book fairs for kids and adults, author events, fundraisers, collaborations with other community businesses and organizations and advocacy work around social justice issues. In the age of algorithms and AI, bookstores do what tech cannot – human connection. Our booksellers read voraciously across all genres and can find the perfect read for anyone who walks through our door. Of course, everyone's favorite 'bookseller' is Story, a 6-month-old golden retriever who works as a service animal in the store. What's your favorite section in your store? We personally love fiction of the slightly absurd variety – 'Sky Daddy,' 'American Mermaid' and 'Margo's Got Money Troubles,' to name a few. That said, we enthusiastically curate for the tastes of all of our readers. What book do you love to recommend to customers and why? Right now, we're really loving 'So Far Gone' by Jess Walter. We love to recommend it because we think it's a book that speaks to so many of us at this particular time. When the temptation to disengage from the world is so strong, the author urges us to remember why we need connection. And it's funny. We had the privilege of chatting with Jess Walter on our podcast "Bubbles and Books." It was a delight to discover that even with a laundry list of literary awards to his name, he remains warm and welcoming. We were so inspired by his hopefulness. What book do you think deserves more attention and why? We were blown away by 'O Sinners!' by Nicole Cuffy. It would be a travesty of epic proportions if it doesn't win all the things. Cuffy writes with such precision and intention. The interwoven narrative structure is brilliant. She also respects her readers – she gives us challenging, fundamentally human questions to grapple with and she doesn't give us easy answers. Cuffy also appeared on our podcast. Why is shopping at local, independent bookstores important? Reading is a solitary activity, but it can also be the basis for meaningful connection – we have found that our store has become a place that has allowed our community to forge connections and come to know one another better. Independent bookstores are run by readers for readers – each one that you walk into will surprise you with its unique offerings and forever change your reading life. What are some of your store's events, programs, or partnerships coming up that you would like to share? We offer four monthly subscriptions that ship all across the country: new release fiction, romance, chapter book, and picture book. Our podcast discusses two of the best things in life – books and champagne. We're thrilled to be hosting one of our all-time favorite authors, Kevin Wilson, in June. Some other upcoming authors we're excited to host are Tarah Dewitt, Jess Walter and Paisley Hope. This summer, we'll be offering puzzle competitions, a boozy adult book fair and a flash tattoo event benefitting reproductive health care.
San Francisco Chronicle
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: Jess Walter's 'So Far Gone' sets a redemption story in fractured, modern America
When the history of the United States in 2025 is written, perhaps one of the best things that will be said is: 'Well, it made for some great art.' Consider 'So Far Gone,' the new novel by Jess Walter. Set in present day America, it opens with two kids wearing backpacks knocking on a cabin door. 'What are you fine young capitalists selling?' asks Rhys Kinnick, before realizing the kids are his grandchildren. They carry with them a note from Kinnick's daughter, describing dad as a 'recluse who cut off contact with our family and now lives in squalor in a cabin north of Spokane.' More Information So Far Gone By Jess Walter (Harper; 272 pages; $30) Jess Walter in conversation with Tom Barbash: 6 p.m. June 24. Free. Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 415-927-0960. Jess Walter discusses 'So Far Gone': 7 p.m. June 25. Free. Lafayette Library, 3491 Mount Diablo Blvd., Lafayette. 925-283-6513. It's a great hook that draws you in and doesn't really let up for the next 256 pages. We learn why Kinnick pulled a Thoreau and went to the woods seven years ago (Hint: It has a lot to do with the intolerance exhibited by no small percentage of Americans and embodied by a certain occupant of the White House), as well as the whereabouts of Kinnick's daughter, Bethany, and why her messy marriage to a guy named Shane led to Kinnick's grandchildren being dropped off at his cabin. In a neat narrative gimmick, the chapters are entitled 'What Happened to ___' and fill in the main strokes of each character's backstory, as well as what happens to them in the present timeline. Told with an omniscient third-person sense of humor, the book's themes are nonetheless serious. On the demise of journalism in the chapter 'What Happened to Lucy,' one of Kinnick's old flames and colleagues at the Spokesman-Review: She 'hated that reporters were expected to constantly post on social media… before knowing what their stories even meant.' Or Kinnick's thoughts as he holds a .22 Glock given to him just in case by a retired police officer who is helping him get his grandkids back from the local militia: 'The shiver that went through his arm! The power!… The weight of this gun was the exact weight of his anger and his fear and his sense of displacement… That's where its incredible balance lay.' As Kinnick links up with various characters and drives across the Northwest in search of his daughter and grandchildren, the plot unfolds quickly. Most readers won't need more than a day or two to reach the final page, which satisfies the Thoreau quote Walter uses in the story's preface: 'Not till we are lost… 'till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves.'
Associated Press
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Book Review: Jess Walter's 'So Far Gone' sets a redemption story in fractured, modern America
When the history of the United States in 2025 is written, perhaps one of the best things that will be said is: 'Well, it made for some great art.' Consider 'So Far Gone,' the new novel by Jess Walter. Set in present day America, it opens with two kids wearing backpacks knocking on a cabin door. 'What are you fine young capitalists selling?' asks Rhys Kinnick, before realizing the kids are his grandchildren. They carry with them a note from Kinnick's daughter, describing dad as a 'recluse who cut off contact with our family and now lives in squalor in a cabin north of Spokane.' It's a great hook that draws you in and doesn't really let up for the next 256 pages. We learn why Kinnick pulled a Thoreau and went to the woods seven years ago (Hint: It has a lot to do with the intolerance exhibited by no small percentage of Americans and embodied by a certain occupant of the White House), as well as the whereabouts of Kinnick's daughter, Bethany, and why her messy marriage to a guy named Shane led to Kinnick's grandchildren being dropped off at his cabin. In a neat narrative gimmick, the chapters are entitled 'What Happened to ___' and fill in the main strokes of each character's backstory, as well as what happens to them in the present timeline. Told with an omniscient third-person sense of humor, the book's themes are nonetheless serious. On the demise of journalism in the chapter 'What Happened to Lucy,' one of Kinnick's old flames and colleagues at the Spokesman-Review: She 'hated that reporters were expected to constantly post on social media… before knowing what their stories even meant.' Or Kinnick's thoughts as he holds a .22 Glock given to him just in case by a retired police officer who is helping him get his grandkids back from the local militia: 'The shiver that went through his arm! The power!… The weight of this gun was the exact weight of his anger and his fear and his sense of displacement… That's where its incredible balance lay.' As Kinnick links up with various characters and drives across the Northwest in search of his daughter and grandchildren, the plot unfolds quickly. Most readers won't need more than a day or two to reach the final page, which satisfies the Thoreau quote Walter uses in the story's preface: 'Not till we are lost… 'till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves.' ___ AP book reviews:
Washington Post
07-06-2025
- Washington Post
America's ‘spot news novelist' takes on the Trump era from Spokane
SPOKANE, WASH. Spokane sits in eastern Washington, 20 or so miles from the Idaho state line, surrounded by foothills and mountains, nestled in a valley carved by a river. It's the birthplace of Father's Day. Its nickname is Lilac City. Its population is roughly 230,000. And its author and unofficial tour guide is Jess Walter.
New York Times
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Witty Caper Starring Gun-Toting Christians in Rural Washington
SO FAR GONE, by Jess Walter Northeastern Washington, jimmied into borders with Canada and Idaho, is a kind of paradox. Beyond the city of Spokane, alfalfa and wheat fields fan out, bucolic, framed by mountain ranges, foothills fringed with spruces and Ponderosa pines. It's the setting for the fictional town of Twin Peaks and the boyhood landscape of the real-life serial killer Israel Keyes, whose parents raised him off the grid, downwind from a smelter that polluted the Columbia River watershed. Amid dense woods and remote valleys, menace prowls. Against this backdrop Jess Walter's buoyant, witty caper 'So Far Gone' plays with the region's Gothic elements, tweaking our expectations while serving up a comic brew of precocious children, hapless adults, end-times preachers and armed militias. For seven years, 60-something Rhys Kinnick has isolated himself in a cabin reachable only by dirt road, without a cellphone or running water, a Thoreau of the 21st century. A retired environmental journalist, he's toiling over a philosophical treatise called 'The Atlas of Wisdom,' which he doubts will ever see any eyes but his own. In the spring of 2024, his grandchildren show up at his door. Leah's 13, the reincarnation of Rhys's daughter, Bethany, the 'same insistent, dark, almond-shaped eyes. Same long brown hair. Same direct way of speaking.' Asher, age 9, is a chess neophyte and chatterbox. Bethany has vanished and they need his help. Walter roves between characters with a Russo-esque realism and omniscience. When Leah was an infant, Bethany's relationship with the girl's father, a flaky, drug-addled bassist named Doug, derailed; she then met her husband, Shane, in Narcotics Anonymous, where they both found God as a path out of addiction. Except that Shane's increasingly high on radicalized Christianity, advocating for tradwives and home-schooling, drawn to the anti-government Army of the Lord (or 'AOL'). Now Bethany's AWOL, and Shane wants the kids back by any means necessary. It's not long before AOL thugs abduct Leah and Asher, breaking Rhys's cheekbone. To find them he enlists the aid of his ex-girlfriend Lucy Park, a newsroom editor who is feisty and fast on her feet. Rhys may still be in love: 'In his defense! She did! Look amazing! Slender and fit, formerly short black hair grown out past her shoulders, pulled away from her apple-shaped face, and those runner's legs,' he thinks. 'The old desire heating up the furnace.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
