For North Portland’s Another Read Through, the rent is too damn high, as the saying goes. By the end of January, owner Elisa Saphier will move her used book store out of the space at 3932 N. Mississippi Ave. that it’s occupied since 2014.
Saphier said her lease was nearing its expiration in late 2018 when she negotiated a one-year extension. At around $6,000 a month for the roughly 1,780-square-foot storefront, the rent “was far less than what (the landlord) wanted to charge me and far more than I wanted to pay,” she said.
Saphier, who runs Another Read Through with three part-time employees, spent the additional year unsuccessfully seeking a new location for the store’s approximately 14,000 books and its book groups.
“The rents in the city are mostly out of my reach,” she said. In addition, she didn’t want to infringe on other bookstores’ customer bases, having learned how important local foot traffic is when she moved her store from its original location a mile away.
The plan now “is to wait it out” in the hope that rents drop amid the current building boom, Saphier said, adding, “Turnover is crazy in this town right now.” She plans to reduce her inventory to about 6,000 titles, which will go into a storage unit. She’ll maintain Another Read Through’s online store, social media feeds and newsletter. The book groups will keep meeting, at a café. She will also continue to sell books at literary events.
“My intention is to still be seen in the community even when I don’t have a physical store,” Saphier said.
Right now, she’s still got “a lot of great books” on the shelves. She hopes readers won’t forget Another Read Through, “because we won’t forget them.”
“It's been amazing, a dream come true,” she said. “We are hoping and planning that this isn't the end.”
New YA romance anthology includes Michelle Ruiz Keil story
Portland author Michelle Ruiz Keil is one of 17 contributors to the wonderful new young-adult fiction anthology “Color Outside the Lines: Stories About Love” (Soho Teen, 312 pages, $18.99), edited by Sangu Mandanna. The through line for the anthology could be summed up as “Love comes in all hues.” Ruiz Keil’s story, “Gilman Street,” is about a momentous day in the life of a Mexican American teen who, weary of having become a spectator in her best friend’s life, skips school and ends up learning something important about herself. The author is scheduled to appear at a celebration of Vancouver’s Henrietta Lacks High School from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, at Barnes & Noble Vancouver, 7700 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver.
Abrams Press
Thomas Hager’s ‘Ten Drugs’ gets its 10th foreign-language edition
Coming soon en español is Eugene author Thomas Hager’s “Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine” (Abrams Press, 304 pages, $26). The Spanish-language edition will be the 10th foreign-language edition of the book, Hager wrote on his website. “Ten Drugs,” published in March, is a lively, enlightening set of biographies, if you will, of drugs that have played outsize roles in human history. Hager takes pains to give previously unsung heroes their due: The British noblewoman Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, for instance, was key to launching smallpox inoculation in the West. The book also provides a healthy dose of pharmaceutical industry history.
Courtesy of the publishers
Two books for teens focus on gun violence
I still remember where I was when I learned about the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. That slaughter of 20 children and six adults galvanized Shannon Watts to found Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, as she writes in the foreword to Portland author Michelle Roehm McCann’s latest book, “Enough is Enough: How Students Can Join the Fight for Gun Safety” (Simon Pulse/Beyond Words, 320 pages, $22.99). McCann, who makes no bones about supporting stricter gun-control laws, presents statistics, resources and interviews, with Oregonians well represented – from Gov. Kate Brown to State Rep. Jennifer Williamson to Lake Oswego student activists to family members of the two people killed in the 2012 Clackamas Town Center shooting three days before Sandy Hook.
A mall shooting is the central event in Portland author April Henry’s latest young adult thriller, “Run, Hide, Fight Back” (Henry Holt and Co., 256 pages, $17.99), which takes its title from active-shooter response trainings. When armed men enter a fictional Portland mall and begin firing on everyone within sight, several teens, one wounded, end up trapped inside a store and must work together to survive. Henry’s taut prose and efficient character development propel the story to a fiendish twist of an ending. Your call on whether this book represents a disheartening commentary on contemporary America, an attempt to profit off headlines, realistic fiction about a top concern of today’s kids, or just a good action-filled yarn.
Literary events for Dec. 13-19, 2019
Admission is free unless otherwise indicated.
Washington author David Guterson reads from his new narrative poem, “Turn Around Time: A Walking Poem for the Pacific Northwest.” 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St., Portland.
Oregon novelist and middle-grade author Michael Strelow signs his books. 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Jan’s, 12320 S.W. First St., Beaverton.
The Grinch appears at a holiday storytime featuring Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St., Portland, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton.
Oregon author Jory John presents his new picture book, “The Cool Bean.” 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Barnes & Noble, Clackamas Town Center, 12000 S.E. 82nd Ave. “The Cool Bean” will also be featured in a double storytime with TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s debut picture book, “The Serious Goose.” 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Barnes & Noble Lloyd Center.
VoiceCatcher literary journal, which supports local writers and artists, presents readings from its upcoming fall issue. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Rose City Book Pub, 1329 N.E. Fremont St.
-- Amy Wang, awang@oregonian.com
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