by Norman B. Rice
When Norm Rice was elected mayor of Seattle, it was the most divisive, polarized time in the city's history. African Americans were only 10% of the city's population and Norm's election was ground-breaking. It was 1989 and the city was torn apart over the issue of busing to achieve school desegregation. On the same ballot with Norm was an anti-busing initiative. The anti-busing measure passed, Norm was elected and he became the mayor of a city tearing itself apart.
With candor and wisdom, Norm Rice chronicles his journey to leadership and public service, and the lessons he learned about civic engagement through his remarkable success in bringing a divided city together.
"Norm's biggest strength is that he listens to people."
- King County Democrat Central Committee
"Norm Rice was one of the best mayors Seattle has ever had. Rare is the public leader who manages to be highly effective and well-regarded. Rice has been both."
- Seattle Times - December 12, 2013
NORM RICE was Mayor of Seattle for two terms, 1990-1998. He is a graduate of the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance and the recipient of the University of Washington's highest honor, Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus. He is the first Seattle mayor to ever become President of the United States Conference of Mayors.
Proceeds from the sale of Gaining Public Trust are donated to the Northwest African American Museum.
by Lawrence Matsuda
Introduction by Tess Gallagher
My Name is Not Viola exemplifies what happens when historic racism and government policies intersect. Hanae Tamura strives to live a dignified life under undignified conditions. She manages to find balance even after being forcibly incarcerated twice: once in the WWII Minidoka, Idaho Concentration Camp without due process and again as a mental patient. Her lifelong quest to deal with the long-term consequences of America’s betrayal is a must read for those who value liberty and justice for all.
"The Story of America's WWII
concentration camps has been told from many angles, but never has the
psychological trauma of reentry been presented with such heartbreaking
intensity."
- Jay Rubin, author of The Sun Gods and several Haruki Murakami novels
"This magical and life-affirming book is a beautiful addition to the epic story of the Japanese in American."
- John Gordon Hill, Film Director
LAWRENCE
MATSUDA was born in the Minidoka, Idaho, Idaho War Relocation Camp
(concentration camp) during World War II. Matsuda has written two books
of poetry, a third in collaboration with Tess Gallagher, and a graphic
novel about the WWII Japanese American 442 Regimental Combat Team.
Animated sections of the novel won regional Emmys in 2015 and 2016.
Matsuda has a Ph.D in Education from the University of Washington.
by Catherine Johnson
At the age of 18, Catherine Johnson was the driver in an automobile accident in which a friend was killed. With compassion, insight, and beautiful prose the author leads us through her personal journey of guilt, grief, and eventual forgiveness. Finding Mercy in this World is a memoir about loss, about the healing power of love, the beauty of the natural world, and the moments of grace that make us good again.
They meet in a bookshop on Vashon Island, Washington. Every two weeks, they sit in a circle in comfortable chairs, surrounded by books and listen to each other's stories. They all live on the island now, but home in their early years was found in places as varied as New York, Lebanon, Ohio, Switzerland, and West Virginia. They write about their life experiences: vignettes from their journeys on this planet that often bring laughter and sometimes tears, but always tap into our common humanity. In this collection, created primarily for their friends and family, the Bookshop Memoir Group (aka Memorites): Lynne Ameling, Colleen Brooks, Alix Clarke, Cherry Champagne, Tom Craighead, Michael Monteleone, Jane Neubauer, Kathy Olsen, Trudy Rosemarin, Jessika Satori, Arlene Schade, Barbara Wells, and C.G. Zantz share stories of where they came from and some of the things that happened along the way.
by Laurie Bevan Stewart
On Fisher Pond: Memories of Bill Fisher and His Gift to Vashon Island is a tribute to generosity and stewardship, not only for those on Vashon Island, but for anyone who loves the land—wherever they may live.
"Laurie Stewart has woven a warm, delightful, surprising portrait of Bill Fisher from shared memories of friends and neighbors, revealing a private person with a great capacity for observing, loving, and stewarding his pond and its surrounds. Bill gave the community his beautiful pond. Laurie’s gentle descriptions and exquisitely remembered moments offer us a new gift: glimpses of the unusual man himself and his particular stewardship ethic."
- Rayna Holtz, King County Librarian, ret.
"This is a beautifully written tribute to an incredibly special and generous man."
- Emma Amiad, Founding president, Vashon Maury Island Audubon Society
"Fisher Pond remains one of the most generous and precious of gifts to our community. The Vashon Land Trust is honored to steward it. Laurie Stewart's book is a wonderful reminder of Bill’s philosophy—that Nature knows what she’s doing."
- Tom Dean, Executive Director, Vashon-Maury Land Trust
Dr. Albert Paugh is flunking retirement. After selling his Vashon Island veterinary practice, he soon finds himself not only lost without his work, but suddenly single.
His efforts to carve out a new life, both as a bachelor and a retiree, only leave him feeling like his golden years are fast becoming years of gloom. His regrets pile up until he moves to Baker’s Beach where he gets to know a very special neighbor, learns that friends are the family you choose, and finds a new sense of purpose. The Reinvention of Albert Paugh is a sweet, funny love story about retirees that will delight readers (and dog lovers) of any age.
“This is a heartening book, a chronicle of renewal and hope that’s sparkling with humor!”
- Rayna Holtz, King County Library System Librarian, ret.
“You’ll be cheering for Al as he figures out how not to flunk retirement!”
- Connie Burns, School Library Journal reviewer,
“Warm as a woodstove, fun as a ferry ride, polished as beach glass …a joyful portrait of a close-knit community… Al Paugh encounters the irksome challenges and tender graces of growing older, as well as new possibilities and renewed purpose among cherished friends, human and canine alike.”
- Laurie Stewart and Nancy Katica, Vashon Island Bookshop
“refreshingly realistic...a thoroughly satisfying story.”
- Ann Combs, Eagle Harbor Books, author of Once Upon a Two by Four
by Lonny Kaneko
Lonny Kaneko’s poetry expresses the reverberating trauma of his family’s imprisonment in the Minidoka concentration camp during WWII. Without committing a crime or due process, the Kaneko family was among 120,000 Japanese Americans put in concentration camps in the United States. Kaneko’s illuminating poetry: touching, evocative, reflecting a deep sense of sadness––also reflects in its range, the depth of resilience and the transcendence of the human spirit.
“There’s nothing to see through/the ordinary eyes . . .” says one of the poems in this fine collection, but Lonny Kaneko does not have ordinary eyes or an ordinary sensibility, and he sees a great deal. Hidden in the title of this book is the begged question: “How do we define home?” Here is a remarkable poet who has spent his whole life attempting to do this. Kaneko does not merely bear witness; he works to understand consequences. He is a participant in his life, not a victim of it.
- Samuel Green, Inaugural Poet Laureate, Washington State
"Like the harsh wind scouring the barracks of Minidoka, these poems bring a chill with the first reading. Kaneko shares the numbing secrets of the internment, stating "the cold is not cold until I admit it." Against the sand of the past, he reveals the landscape of the present."
- Sharon Hashimoto, author of The Crane Wife
There is "dust rising over all the world" but when it settles, one finds poems like these that quench the thirst and feed the soul. From Minidoka to Seattle and points beyond, I find myself returning to that "leaf in a well of water".
- Alan Chong Lau, Arts Editor, International Examiner
Lonny Kaneko (1939–2017) has received both national and local awards for his poetry, fiction, and play––including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for poetry. Stories, poems and essays appear in anthologies such as An Ear to the Ground, Daily Fare, The Big AIIIEEEEE, Asian American Literature, and The Seattle Review. He lived on Vashon Island in Washington state.
by Artis Palmer
When Jack Palmer was offered a job driving a tractor for a mining company in Nome, Alaska, there was no time to waste in deciding. It was the morning of June 15, 1934. He had a lovely wife, Alice, a young daughter, Artis, a lot of debt, and no job in Seattle. Jack stepped on to the gangplank of the SS Victoria at Pier Two that same afternoon. Alice and Artis received a telegram from Jack later that summer telling her to be on the last boat and bring food for eight months.
Artis Palmer, a former freelance writer for Seattle Magazine, in this charming memoir humorously and tenderly chronicles the challenges faced by her family during the Great Depression. Eccentric characters and unexpected adventures are entertainingly bound by the force of place and community. From bootlegging in Seattle to gold mining in Nome, Alaska, There’s No Place Like Nome reveals the courage and resilience of the human spirit in tough times.
The title of this collection of poetry comes from a line in a poem written in 1875 by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Our collection features contemporary poets such as Ina Whitlock, Roger Davies, Juli Goetz Morser, Catherine Johnson, Eric Horsting, Hunter Davis, Janice Randall, Sue Wiley, Lonny Kaneko and Ann Spiers.
Proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to Vashon Community Care.
by Ann Combs
When Ann Combs, her husband Joe and their six children set about re-building a large dilapidated house on Bainbridge Island, their only prior experience in construction was building a toy chest from an instruction kit.
In this classic chronicle of island life, you’ll meet surgeons who look like longshoreman, longshoremen who play Mozart concertos, old Mr. Torgeson, who raises chickens so fat they break their legs leaping off their perches, and Grandma Harriott, who carves historical scenes on cubes of butter.
Told with humor and heartwarming candor, this charming account of the pitfalls and pratfalls of do-it-yourself home remodeling makes high comedy of island idiosyncrasies and domestic travail. Readers are in for a treat!
Ann Combs, a former columnist for the Seattle P-I, is the author of a number of titles for adults including Smith College Never Taught Me How to Salute; We’ll Laugh About This, Someday; and the beloved children’s book How Old is Old. She lives on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, Washington.
by Jean Davies Okimoto
It’s the first summer of her retirement and librarian Maggie Lewis is relishing the unfolding of sweet summer days on Vashon Island: walking on the beach, reading the classics, and kayaking. But in June when a sudden storm hits the island, Maggie’s summer becomes about as peaceful as navigating whitewater. Not only does her wealthy sister arrive uninvited with a startling announcement, but Maggie finds herself entangled with her new Baker’s Beach neighbor, Walter Hathaway. A famous children’s author and recovering alcoholic, Walter has a history with Maggie they would each like to forget.
Delightfully told with humor and insight, Walter’s Muse is a page turner for romantics, writers, and the young at heart at any age.
Rave reviews for Walter's Muse
“A joy to read!”
- Rayna Holtz, Librarian, KING COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM, ret.
“Brimming with wit and wisdom...a delightful celebration of mature love, sure to enchant fans of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand!”
- Juli Morser BOOKS BY THE WAY
“Readers will connect with this warm story of two lonely people finding each other late in life.”
- LIBRARY JOURNAL
"A romance of retirement and humor...a fine pick for any general fiction collection, not to be overlooked."
-THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
"A romance of retirement and humor...a fine pick for any general fiction collection, not to be overlooked."
-THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
The Love Ceiling
by Jean Davies Okimoto
ISBN 978-0-9823167-3-3
Click here to view an excerpt.
Recommended by the King County Library System Staff!
The Love Ceiling was recommended by the King County Library System staff as a 2009 seasonal read.
USA Book News National Best Books 2009 Award
The Love Ceiling is a woman's fiction finalist for the USA Book News National Best Book award.
Rave reviews for The Love Ceiling
"rich with life experiences... rendered with compassion and insight.”
— Nancy Livingstone, US Review of Books
“The Love Ceiling will ring true with many women.”
— The Midwest Book Review
“...an intriguing, absorbing, and unusual novel.”
— Mary Gergen, The Positive Aging Newsletter
“...wonderful, touching, funny. Jean Davies Okimoto writes with literary perfect pitch.”
— Christiane Northrup, MD author and host of PBS television special Mother-Daughter Wisdom
“A lovely book, full of wisdom and compassion. With keen insight, the author examines the problems of achieving fulfillment as both a woman and an artist.”
— Barbara G. Walker author of The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
“A fine painting of words by a true artist....so compelling that once you begin you cannot put it down.”
— Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz artist and author of Camp Days 1942-1945
“Any woman who has ever wrestled with a difficult father will find inspiration and solace in these lucid pages.”
— Leza Lowitz former Tokyo correspondent for Art in America
"In this courageous journey, Okimoto gives us a model for any woman yearning to claim her truth, to be seen for who she is in her deepest heart. I was inspired by The Love Ceiling and recommend it for any woman seeking greater self-expression."
— Lisa Dale Norton, Author of Hawk Flies Above: Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills, and Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir
Available on:
- Vashon Book Shop
- IndeBound
- Amazon
- Barnes and Noble
Retailers and Libraries:
- Ingram (800-937-8000 • orders@ingrambook.com)
