Reading Recommendations

Make the most of summer with our recommended cookbooks featuring hundreds of delicious recipes for all of the favored occasions of the season: park picnics, beach days, backyard barbecues, potlucks, cookouts, and 4th of July celebrations!

Taste the PNW

Shellfish
By Cynthia Nims

Enjoying the bounty of the sea has never been easier with these 50 delicious and approachable recipes. From shrimp and crab, mussels, and clams to scallops and oysters, this cookbook is perfect for busy home cooks wanting to make simple, nourishing meals. Recipes include Crab and Endive Gratin, Fried Shrimp, Mini Pizzas with Clams, and many …

It’s celebration season. Whether you’re showing mom or dad the love, we’ve got a list of books that make the perfect gift!

Gifts for Mom

52 Lists Series
by Moorea Seal

If mom loves a good list, this is the series for her. These bestselling guided journals encourage self-expression and self-knowledge. With inspiring photography, charming illustrations, and thoughtful list prompts, mom can celebrate the vibrancy of life each week of the year!

The Little Book of Flowers Series
by Tara Austen Weaver, Illustrated by Emily Poole

These charming little hardcover books are a love letter to …

Celebrate Earth Day with educational books that the whole family will enjoy. These books encourage kids to get outdoors, teach fun lessons about frogs, alligators, and orcas, and allow readers to explore nature!

Nobody Likes Frogs
By Barbara Davis-Pyles, Illustrated by Liz Wong

According to Persnickety Q. Turtle, nobody likes frogs! Why would they? In this humorous narrative nonfiction picture book, the reader is cleverly put in the role of “expert” to educate Persnickety Turtle about the amazing amphibian known as the frog. With the reader’s help, Persnickety Q. Turtle learns intriguing frog facts and all the reasons why …

Spring has (almost) sprung and green thumbs of all ages are ready to get gardening! Whether you’re starting your very own vegetable garden or only have the space for one on your kitchen counter, this list has everything you need to read to get ready for the start of season.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living
By Carla Emery

The #1 best country, rural living, and homesteading book for beginners. For more than 50 years this has been the essential book of basic skills for living off the land. From homesteaders to urban farmers, and everyone in between, it includes …

Start the year with new books!

Here’s everything new that’s coming to a bookstore near you this season from all our imprints: Sasquatch Books, Spruce Books, and Little Bigfoot.

My Baby’s Book
By Anne Phyfe Palmer

From the author of This Life of Mine and This Family of Ours comes a new keepsake legacy journal, My Baby’s Book. This gorgeously crafted book provides a place for a proud parent or grandparent to record and reserve the memories, moments, and milestones of a new baby’s arrival—beyond the first year! Something truly special that will be cherished throughout their life.

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On Darning

A friend tells me about her favorite sweater and how she’s afraid if the holes get any bigger, it will be a lost cause. She says, “It has been with me through so much—at first I didn’t quite like it, but something kept me from giving it away. Each time I rediscovered it hidden at the bottom of my dresser drawer, it would call to me softly, but I would always reach for another, more familiar sweater. Later I found it tucked deep in my moving boxes. In my new place, it hung neglected in the back of …

This year’s Nature holiday gift guide is filled with visually-stunning and awe-inspiring books. From the quest to find every penguin in the world to the ecosystems of the Salish Sea, from a gorgeously illustrated book for birders to an inspiring orca rescue story, there’s something for every nature lover on your list!

BirdNote
by BirdNote; Illustrated by Emily Poole; Edited by Ellen Blackstone

This beautiful gift book features entertaining and informative essays from the popular public radio program, BirdNote, accompanied by gorgeous full-color illustrations throughout–an illuminating volume for bird and nature lovers across North America. An excellent gift for the …

This year’s Narrative Nonfiction holiday gift guide is filled with tales of adventure, discovery, history, struggle, and triumph. There’s a story for every reader on your list!

Uncharted
by Kim Brown Seely

Faced with an empty nest, a couple embarks on an epic voyage across land and sea, seeking the mythical blonde Kermode bear—and their truest selves. They impulsively buy a big broken sailboat, learn to sail it, and head out onto the Salish Sea to an expanse of untamed wilderness. Wise and lyrical, this heartfelt memoir recounts their voyage of discovery into who they were as individuals and as …

This year’s Travel & Outdoor Recreation holiday gift guide is filled with fun and accessible books for exploring the Pacific Northwest and West Coast! From the Cascade Mountains to the shores of Puget Sound, from spectacular cities to drives along the Pacific coast, there is something for every adventurer on your list.

The Mountains are Calling
by Nancy Blakey

Looking for easily accessible yet off-the-beaten-path outdoor adventures you can do year-round in the mountains near Seattle, Portland, and Bend? Look no further! This beginner-friendly guide will show you where to go, what to do, and what to look for while …

This year’s Children’s book holiday gift guide includes books celebrating the great outdoors in the snowy season, the power of reading, adjusting to new places and experiences, a fleet of working boats, the beauty of birds, learning shapes and colors, and more!

Library Girl
by Karen Henry Clark; Illustrated by Sheryl Murray

A loving tribute to the power books and librarians have to transform children’s lives. Library Girl is the inspiring childhood story of how beloved librarian and author, Nancy Pearl, discovered her strengths and realized her passion.

A Home Under the Stars
by Andy Chou …

This year’s Stocking Stuffers holiday guide is bursting with small but mighty book recommendations! From the astrology minded to the DIY homemaker, the city explorer to flower lover, there’s something for every reader on your list.

201 Everyday Uses for Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda
by Benjamin Mott

This handy book focuses on living simpler with 201 natural cleaning solutions that use four simple, versatile, and inexpensive ingredients: salt, lemon, vinegar, baking soda, and olive oil. This is an essential reference for anyone interested in thrifty, natural, and sustainable living!

Northwest Know-How Series
by Multiple …

This year’s Journals holiday gift guide is filled with beautiful and luxe hardcover journals. For the person who love to care for their plants to those looking to start a gratitude practice, for the reader who ponders what they’ve read to the genealogist in the family, there’s something for everyone on your list!

Grow a Damn Plant Journal
by Tyler Thrasher

Finally, a gardening journal grounded in science! Perfect for indoor or outdoor plants of every type, it’s made for green thumbs who want to take caring for their plants to the next level. This luxe plant journal challenges the …

This year’s Arts & Crafts holiday gift guide is filled with books to get the creative juices flowing. From learning to sketch (with a bonus mindfulness practice!) to mending well-loved clothes and home items, from sewing garments that fit your unique body to prompts to inspire aspiring authors, there’s something for every artist or crafter on your list!

Mindful Sketching
by Peggy Dean 

For the artist (or those aspiring to be), with Mindful Sketching you can express your own creativity and develop a life-changing mindfulness practice in this guide for all levels by bestselling author and artist Peggy Dean. Grab …

Mother’s day is just a few weeks away! Show mom the love this year with a new book, cookbook, or guided journal. This year’s gift guide includes books celebrating beautiful plants found in the garden, guided journals that celebrate a reader’s love of books, family, and the power of mindfulness, and a cookbook to inspire the home baker!

My Reading Life
by Spruce Books

Give mom the gift of keeping track of all the good books she reads! If she loves books, this charming guided journal is the perfect way to be more mindful about her reading. It’s a …