RAB June 2022 Newsletter

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JUNE 2022 NEWSLETTER

Dear Readers,

I have been thinking about writing the June 2022 newsletter for six years The year I opened the store, I had just sent my eldest off to start college, and my twins were in seventh grade. I was not confident about opening a new business with kids at home that still needed a lot of my time, and even considered waiting to open it until they were gone, or at least driving. No doubt,it would have been easier, as I spent six years worrying about all the things I was missing with them when I was at the store, and worrying about all the things I was missing at the store when I was with them. That’s the anguish of every working parent though, we just can’t be in two places at once.

But my kids surprised me, as kids usually do. The missed baseball and football games, the missed horse shows and carpools and field trips, all those Decembers when I couldn't even get home for dinner, ultimately didn't really matter. They were incredibly supportive, proud of the store, helped out when they could, and encouraged me to work when I needed to. They forgave every single time I wasn't there, and appreciated every single time I was. Roundabout is here now because of their genuine understanding and support. And as they graduate this month, and I face that empty nest transition when I’ll have much more time for the shop, though missing the bustle of children at home, I can only feel grateful for every single memory of the last six years, the good and the bad. Thank you Arwen and Jack, we made it through, and I’m so very proud of both of you.

Every graduation season feels significant. Maybe it’s the former teacher in me, but this moment is such a transition, a milestone, and a mountain of possibility all tangled up together in one big emotional right of passage. If you’re the parent of a graduate this year… Congratulations. Somehow we managed to get here, through all the ups and downs of toddlerhood and teenagerhood, it's done. If you’re a parent of kids still on this journey – I promise, you will make it here too. Even if this is the weekend you find empty liquor bottles underneath your teenagers bed and realize they have several missing assignments two weeks before the end of a school year (been there!). We're grateful for all the moments.

And if you know a parent of a child who will not see their graduation day… I just have not been able to find the words. In 2030, 19 children from Uvalde will not graduate. Last year, The Lost Class shared a message that 3,044 children did not graduate because of gun violence. On this day, when we celebrate all the former achievements and future possibilities, our hearts are heavy, and we mourn for those that will never see their graduation day. Sometimes it feels like the only thing we can do is scream into the void and cry in despair, as nothing seems to be changing. But we can still call our elected officials, have difficult conversations with each other, and vote for policies that will stop this madness. We need schools to be safe, so teachers keep teaching, and children keep learning, and they all keep breathing. Somehow, we have to figure out how to do more than mourn the losses, we have to find the path to change.

Friday, June 3, is National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Penguin Publishing Group and PRH are partnering again with Everytown for Gun Safety in support of #WearOrange weekend, to help raise awareness and send a powerful message to end gun violence. PRH has updated its National Gun Violence Awareness Day Book List, is working to get bookstores and authors involved, and encouraging authors to sign up for the Everytown Authors Council, a group designed to harness the power of the literary community to amplify the gun safety movement.

There’s so much more to talk about for June, but I think this is enough for today’s letter. Please read below for all the exciting events coming up at Roundabout this month. To all the graduates out there... celebrate this moment, you've earned it. Then go out there and raise your voice, make your mark, find the path toward the change you want to see in the world. We've got your back.

Yours,
Cassie

STORE NEWS

June is BUSY! Graduation, Father's Day, Juneteenth, PRIDE month, and more! We have displays and recommendations for all your June reading needs, cards for Father's Day and Graduation are in stock, and plenty of fun gift ideas for everyone on your list. And don't forget, this week is the unofficial kickoff to summer reading!! Stop in to ask us all about our new favorites. Below are a few more in-store highlights for this month.

Our 4th Annual Head Start book drive is underway and we need your help to hit our goal of 1,000 books! You can follow this LINK for an online list of recommended book drive titles, or visit our shop to pick out a book from our book drive displays, which include many titles under $10. We partner with SELCO Community Credit Union to donate several hundred titles. We're looking forward to seeing how many books we can bring to children in need.

Our Summer Reading BINGO is back! Last year's summer reading was such a hit and we loved seeing your BINGO's and Blackouts. Stop by the store to pick up your summer reading BINGO grid, or download one from our website HERE and get started today.

June is PRIDE month! The perfect time to read a book with an LGTBQ+ character and/or author, and to check that box on your Summer Reading BINGO! We've collected a few featured list, but they are by no means exhaustive. Stop in the shop to explore our PRIDE display and hear about our staff favorites.

New LGTBQ+ Children's Booklist from Bookriot
LGBTQ+ Books from Asian American and Pacific Islander Authors
New Must Read Queer Books - including Cassie's favorite, Yerba Buena!
PRH Ultimate LGBTQ+ Booklist
Powell's Books curated PRIDE lists
Macmillan Essential LGBTQ+ reading

It's Farmer's Market season! We hope to see you during NWX Saturday's this summer. Stop in for coffee and avoid the lines! Our famous cold brew is back this month and we're ready for the warm weather coming our way!

HELLO! STORYTIME

June Storytime Dates & Themes
Wednesday, June 8th @10:30-11:00. Ocean.
Wednesday, June 22nd @10:30-11:00. Butterflies.

Hello Storytime! We will meet the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. We look forward to sharing stories and songs with 0-5 year-olds, geared toward those younger ages. There will be a heavy emphasis on fun, so bring your listening ears and a smile for a fun half hour with Kathy!

JUNE AUTHOR EVENTS

Central Oregon Book Project by Kimberly Bowker
Thursday, June 2nd @ 6pm
In person event at the store

Please join us for this in-store event with Editor Kimberley Bowker and several writers involved with this book.

Central Oregon Book Project is an anthology of true stories and verse written from or about Central Oregon. The collection was originally funded as a Kickstarter campaign to honor the land and our lives within it. The first run of books was distributed in little free libraries and public places around the region. Several writers from the book will be reading at the event.

Find out more HERE.

OSU-Cascades MFA Residency Creative Writing Cohort with Beth Piatote
Sunday, June 5th @ 4pm
In person event at the store

Join us to celebrate the OSU MFA Low-Residency Creative Writing Cohort with Beth Piatote, author of The Beadworkers, at a special event.

A woman teaches her niece to make a pair of beaded earrings while ruminating on a fractured relationship. An eleven–year–old girl narrates the unfolding of the Fish Wars in the 1960s as her family is propelled to its front lines. In 1890, as tensions escalate at Wounded Knee, two young men at college—one French and the other Lakota—each contemplate a death in the family. In the final, haunting piece, a Nez Perce–Cayuse family is torn apart as they debate the fate of ancestral remains in a moving revision of the Greek tragedy Antigone. Formally inventive and filled with vibrant characters, The Beadworkers draws on Indigenous aesthetics and forms to offer a powerful, sustaining vision of Native life.

Beth Piatote is an associate professor of Native American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is Nez Perce enrolled with Colville Confederated Tribes and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her two children.

Find out more HERE

Hike 366: A Woman's Tale of Hiking Adventures All Year Round by Jess Beauchemin
Tuesday, June 7th @ 6pm
In person event at the store

When Jess Beauchemin takes a hike, anything can happen. She’s traveled from shoreline to mountain top, rainforest to desert, city to wilderness, East Coast to West Coast and everywhere in between. Tackling the Hike366 project, to record a hike on every calendar date of the year, gave her a deep sense of purpose with each adventure. In this book she shares some of her favorite and most memorable tales from nearly fifteen years of hiking.

Jess Beauchemin is an outdoor explorer who loves hiking, climbing, poring over maps and poking wildflowers. She has hiked on every calendar day of the year, across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. She is a personal trainer living in Bend, Oregon.

Find out more HERE.

Bend, Oregon Daycations by Kim Cooper Findling
Thursday, June 9th @ 6pm
In person event at the store

Announcing the second edition of Bend, Oregon Daycations: Day Trips for Curious Families! It has been the must-have guidebook popular with families and newcomers curious about the exciting destinations that surround Bend, Oregon. Now the book has been updated to include maps, more destinations, and more fun one-day travel narratives for families. Learn what to take, where to go and what not to miss on 23 Oregon day trips within a two-hour radius of Bend.

Kim Cooper Findling is the editor of Bend Magazine, the publisher of Dancing Moon Press and an author, editor, journalist and teacher based in Bend, Oregon.

Find out more HERE.

Rosanne Parry Book Signing
Friday, June 10th @ 3pm
In person event at the store

Meet the author of A Wolf Called Wander and A Whale of the Wild and get your books signed! You can buy books at the event or bring your copies of Rosanne's books to be signed.

Rosanne Parry is the author of the many award winning novels including Heart of a Shepherd (Random House), Last of the Name (Learner) and A Wolf Called Wander (Greenwillow & Andersen Press), which has spent more than 40 weeks on the NYT best seller list. A Whale of the Wild (Greenwillow) goes on sale September 1 of 2020. Rosanne and her family live in an old farmhouse in Portland, Oregon. She writes in a treehouse in her backyard.

Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary by Laura Stanfill, in conversation with Robert Hill
Thursday, June 16th @ 6pm
In person event at the store

As a firstborn son of a master craftsman, Henri Blanchard is expected to inherit the family barrel organ workshop, but he would prefer to make bobbin lace like his best friend Aimée. In an effort to put his misgivings aside and prove himself a worthy heir, he attempts dramatic feats that draw derision from the townsfolk and finally land him in jail, accused of murder. Threatened with the hangman's noose, he is forced to flee and discover a world beyond that may be big enough for even the rarest bird to find a nest.

Once upon a time, Laura Stanfill lived in a New Jersey house filled with music boxes, street organs, and books. She grew up to become the publisher of Forest Avenue Press. Her work has appeared in Shondaland, The Rumpsu, The Vincent Brothers Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, and several print anthologies.

Robert Hill is a New Englander by birth, a west coaster by choice, and an Oregonian by osmosis. As a writer, he has worked in advertising, entertainment, educational software, and not-for-profit fundraising.

Find out more HERE.

JUNE BOOK CLUBS

Current Fiction Book Club

On June 1st at 6pm, we will discuss No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. Join our Zoom meeting HERE.

Classics Book Club

On June 8th at 6pm, we will discuss Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. Join our Zoom meeting HERE.

Nonfiction Book Club

On June 10th at 1pm, we will discuss Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid by Thor Hanson. Join our Zoom meeting HERE.

Mystery Book Club

On June 15th at 6pm, we will discuss A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw. Join our Zoom meeting HERE.

RAB Middles Book Club

On June 20th at 6pm, we will discuss Twins by Varian Johnson. Join our Zoom meeting HERE.

JUNE NEW RELEASES

From the bestselling author of Mrs. Fletcher, Tracy Flick from Election returns! In classic Perrotta style, Tracy Flick Can't Win is a sharp, darkly comic, and pitch-perfect reflection on our current moment. Flick fans and newcomers alike will love this compelling novel chronicling the second act of one of the most memorable characters of our time. This novel will thrill fans of Election and, for the uninitiated, holds its own as a standalone novel.

It's 2017 and Tracy Flick is the hardworking assistant principal at a New Jersey high school. Still ambitious but feeling stuck and underappreciated in midlife, Tracy gets a jolt of good news when the longtime principal, Jack Weede, abruptly announces his retirement, creating a rare opportunity for Tracy to ascend to the top job. But is she really a shoo-in for the principal job? Is the superintendent plotting against her? Why is the School Board President's wife trying so hard to be her friend? And why can't she ever get what she deserves?

Releases 6.7.22. Preorder HERE.

Money can’t buy happiness… but it can buy a decent fake.

As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American, Ava Wong has built the perfect life. But Ava’s world is crumbling: from her struggling marriage, to her unused law degree, to her toddler’s tantrums.

Enter Winnie Fang, Ava’s enigmatic college roommate who abruptly dropped out. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew is now a confident woman dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret? Winnie counterfeits replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help her—someone upstanding. Someone like Ava.

Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish, feminist caper.

Releases 6.7.22. Preorder HERE.

A dazzling epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award Finalist Sabrina & Corina

Luz “Little Light” Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930’s Denver on her own, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors’ origins, how her family flourished and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.

Releases 6.7.22. Preorder HERE.

A dazzling novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system—the debut of a blazingly original voice that “bursts at the seams of every page and swallows you whole” (Tommy Orange)

Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability.

Releases 6.7.22. Preorder HERE.

Fowler sure is fond of setting off big surprise-bombs in her novels--revelations that would have most families looking for a rug to sweep everything under. But you haven't met the Geller sisters. Three women whose chosen way to deal with sibling betrayals, sub-optimal husbands, artistic and financial failure, perverse directives from their mother's will, and last-gasp chances for love is to plow right through the middle, the hard way. What it comes down to is this: Fowler's insight into the way we re-open ourselves for love, time and again, speaks stirringly to the heart

Releases 6.7.22. Preorder HERE.

A stunning new work of historical fantasy, J.M. Miro's Ordinary Monsters introduces readers to the dark, labyrinthine world of The Talents and reads like a Dickensian X-Men.

England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness—a man made of smoke.

Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a brutal childhood in Mississippi, doesn't have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When Alice Quicke, a jaded detective with her own troubled past, is recruited to escort them to safety, all three begin a journey into the nature of difference and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous.

Releases 6.7.22. Preorder HERE.

A riveting, tender debut novel following a brother and sister whose paths diverge—one forced to leave, one left behind—in the wake of a nationalist coup in the South Pacific.

On a small Pacific island, a brother and sister tune in to a breaking-news radio bulletin. It is 1985, and an Indian grocer has just been attacked by nativists aligned with the recent military coup. Now fear and shock are rippling through the island’s deeply rooted Indian community as racial tensions rise to the brink.

Spanning from the lush terrain of the South Pacific to the golden hills of San Francisco, Mother Ocean Father Nation is an entrancing novel about how one family, at the mercy of a nation broken by legacies of power and oppression, forges a path to find a home once again.

Releases 6.7.22. Preorder HERE.

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Told in three time periods: 1850, 1954, and 2019, Brooks follows characters who are all captivated by and, ultimately, shaped by a horse immortalized in art and studied by science, and the Black groom who was critical to his success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

Releases 6.14.22. Preorder HERE.

The book that every parent, caregiver, and teacher needs to raise the next generation of antiracist thinkers, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist.

Following the model of his bestselling How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi combines vital scholarship with a compelling personal narrative of his own journey as a parent to create a work whose advice is grounded in research and relatable real-world experience. The chapters follow the stages of child development and don't just help parents to raise antiracists, but also to create an antiracist world for them to grow and thrive in.

Releases 6.14.22. Preorder HERE.

USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow returns to her world of Fractured Fables with a new version of Snow White.

Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.

Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose.

Releases 6.14.22. Preorder HERE.

A young woman searches for the truth about her father and the secrets of her family in this electric debut novel.

Ellie Adler finds herself shaken by the unexpected death of her father. At the reading of his will, Ellie learns that instead of leaving her his prized possession—a baseball that holds emotional resonance for them both—he has left her a seemingly ridiculous, even insulting gift. Worse, he’s given the baseball to someone no one knows.

Setting out to track this person down, she learns startling information about who her father really was and who she herself is becoming. Unforgettable, witty, and heartbreaking, The Catch is a story of the gifts we’re given—the ones we want and the ones we don’t yet understand that we need.

Releases 6.21.22. Preorder HERE.

A gripping account of the billion-dollar timber black market—and how it intersects with environmentalism, class, and culture.

In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree poachers, law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels, and indigenous communities along the way.

Featuring excellent investigative reporting, fascinating characters, logging history, political analysis, and cutting-edge tree science, Tree Thieves takes readers on a thrilling journey into the intrigue, crime, and incredible complexity sheltered under the forest canopy.

Releases 6.21.22. Preorder HERE.

Age of Miracles meets The Immortalists in this spirit-lifting, high-concept blockbuster debut set in a world where people can find out how much time they have left to live.

One spring day, small wooden boxes arrive for every person, all over the world, from suburban doorsteps to desert tents. All the boxes feature the same inscription, “The measure of your life lies within,” and vary in only two ways: the name of the recipient and the length of the single string inside. Instantly, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy, first to ascertain their origin and meaning, and then to confront the truth of the strings.

Both heartbreaking and profoundly uplifting, The Measure is a sweeping, ambitious meditation on life, family, and society that challenges us to consider the best way to live life to the fullest.

Releases 6.28.22. Preorder HERE.

Secrets. Lies. Super-bad choices. Witchcraft. A darkly gripping contemporary fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood

Melissa Albert’s signature storytelling is once again pure sorcery. This book has everything I love: girls with tremendous power at their fingertips, mothers with unforgivable secrets, horrors left on the doorstep, and best of all, writing that sings and stuns. To those with a crookedness inside you: You are about to be enthralled.

Releases 6.28.22. Preorder HERE.

The sequel to Victoria Aveyard’s instant #1 New York Times bestselling Realm Breaker.

With Taristan's army marching across Allward, opening more portals into terrible alternate worlds as he goes, Corayne has no choice but to rally her own army and become the hero she’s destined to be. But what Taristan unleashes next might burn the world to the ground before there’s any chance at victory.

Breakneck adventure meets impossible thrills in this nonstop sequel to the instant #1 New York Times bestselling hit Realm Breaker—introducing lethal new challenges and an unstoppable enemy that will push Corayne and her companions, and the world they so love, to the breaking point.

Releases 6.28.22. Preorder HERE.