Thursday Themes

Bestseller Spotlight: Cats vs. Dogs

On Wednesdays, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller List is published. Every week, we love to see what books have been most popular in independent bookstores around our region. As we peruse the list, we look for something special to showcase. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes. It’s been a while since we featured cats and dogs on bestseller covers, so let’s give it another whirl! This time, we’re comparing number of covers with cats on them vs. number of covers …

Jul 23, 2026

what's new

Jul

22

2026

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Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is the story of Skotch, the usual sort of private investigator, who gets involved in the usual sort of shady job that PIs get saddled with. His clients aren’t telling him everything. The missing individual he’s supposed to find has something that everyone wants. And it’s likely that a few dozen folk are going …

Jul

21

2026

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Cool Machine: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

It is a bittersweet moment when you turn the last page of a world that has been such a vivid part of your life for the past five years. Spending over 900 pages in Colson Whitehead’s New York of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, with Ray Carney, Elizabeth and Pepper, has been one of the …

Jul

20

2026

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Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives by Lucy Mangan

My ultimate comfort read is a memoir of sorts, but totally focused on the writer’s relationship with books and reading. I can’t get enough, especially when the author is from the UK. Lucy Mangan is the television critic for The Guardian and this is her second reading memoir, after Bookworm, which focused on her childhood …

Jul

17

2026

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Legs Hearts Minds: Loss and Its Remedies by Chris Jones

Legs Hearts Minds by Chris Jones is a powerful pick for readers who love sports, underdogs, or deeply moving memoirs, offering a honest account of heartbreak and how the author’s devotion to his sons and an English soccer team (Burnley F.C.) becomes a path toward rebuilding his life and rediscovering the redemptive power of sports …

Jul

16

2026

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We Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel

Nisha is a burnt-out abortion clinic worker who accidentally inherits an ancient Hindu power, after which chaos of the finest order ensues (think literal demons coming for her). Patel’s research into Indian history and mythology gives the story added weight (not to mention how sharply she captures the current state of reproductive rights in our …

Jul

15

2026

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The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Something is slowly creeping towards giant walls from the sea? All tech and buildings are made out of mushrooms and plants? Murder?! This book really has everything and more. If you’re looking for a refreshing and strange read, The Tainted Cup checks all the boxes, from murder-mystery to fantasy to sci-fi. –Kelly S., Village Books, …

Jul

14

2026

Borrowed Copy

Meet Nathaniel of Saltwater Books

Meet Nathaniel of Saltwater Bookshop in Kingston, WA! In a sentence or two, tell us who you are. It is said, that on Saturdays in the afternoon, you might find a bookseller waving their hands about and exclaiming things about some nonsense book or another. This is only 80% true, even on other days he …

Jul

13

2026

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The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence—Before It’s Too Late by Cory Doctorow

A “centaur,” in modern tech speak, is an individual who uses technology to be a more productive version of themselves. A “reverse centaur” is a person who is forced by technology to work at a pace that is thoroughly inhuman. Doctorow isn’t anti-AI, rather, he—like Pope Leo XIV—is all too aware of the cost hidden …

Jul

10

2026

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Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay 

This is the new standard for AI horror. Tremblay blends satire, paranoia, and genuine emotional depth into a story that is as heartbreaking as it is terrifying. Julia and Bernie quickly become characters you care about, and their cross-country journey transforms from a technological experiment into a meditation on identity, humanity, and love. Unsettling, clever, …

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