Food for Thought

Today at lunch Kam and I were joined by local artist Jon Strongbow who came by to pick up a book he ordered.  Kam and Jon have only met each other a couple of times, but they must be fashion soul mates as this photo taken outside our front gate attests:

The day was bright and sunny and we were able to sit on the balcony.  For lunch today we had a salad with romaine lettuce, red cabbage, yellow carrots, cherry tomatoes, and toasted pumpkin seeds; served with this we had roasted golden beets, grilled onions and sweet peppers, olives, pepperoncini, hummus, Bulgarian feta cheese, and pita bread.  Kam and I split a can of dry cider, and for dessert we had a bit of dark chocolate with cinnamon, cayenne, and cherries, spicy!

What we're reading:

My sister loaned me a graphic novel she loved:  Stiches:  A Memoir by David Small.  It's the dark story of the author's 1950's childhood in an unhappy and uncommunicative family and his experience of having what he thought was a minor operation that was really to treat thyroid cancer he was not told about, and which he got after being exposed to radiation to treat sinus issues by his doctor father.  The drawings are haunting and beautiful.
--Amy

This week I am reading Edmund White’s collection of essays called Our Paris. Also a book on the home life of William Morris. And the Journal of Eugene Delacroix.  Our Paris is like a more serious David Sedaris, and Delacroix is something of a harbinger of Proust.
--Kam

"I am reading a trilogy by a guy named Barry Hughart and it’s pretty awesome.  The first one is called Bridge of Birds and it’s basically about Chinese history and Chinese mythology and he extrapolates from that. the story is about a China that never existed but should’ve existed and it’s really beautiful. The dialogue is hilarious; of course it’s bloody like a mythology story, but there’s magic in it in a tragic kind of Chinese way."
--Jon Strongbow

Lunch and Books

On Wednesdays, we have "Pistil lunch" for whomever happens to be working that day and sometimes guests.  After a rainy spring, we've had a gloriously sunny week here in Seattle.  Consequently, our lunch moved today from the round table in front of the gas fireplace to the red Formica table in the nook off the kitchen, which has a door opening onto our sunny balcony.  Our meal was only slightly marred by the yappy little white dog in the yard across the alley...

Today it was just Kam and Amy and we had fried rice (with carrots, celery, onions, peppers, shitake mushrooms, garlic, cabbage, and tofu, garnished with green onions, cilantro, and black sesame seeds) and homemade kimchi on the side.  We drank red wine, and had chocolate for dessert.

What we're reading:

I am in the middle of  Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, a novel by Francine Prose that I picked up from the free shelf at a coffee shop.  It is narrated by various characters (photographers, writers, dancers) associated with the Chameleon Club where cross-dressers of all genders create surrealistic performances on the eve of fascism.  I've also just finished a novel by Rachel Cusk, Saving Agnes, the third novel I've read by this wonderful writer.  And I also just read a back issue of Granta from 2016 on the theme of Ireland.
---Amy

Just finished Designed by Travilla, compendium of Marilyn Monroe‘s most famous on-screen dresses designed by Bill Travilla. For balance I am reading Samuel Beckett’s monograph on Proust. One furnishes a guilty pleasure, the other a sort of pleasurable guiltiness.
--Kam

I am reading White Slaves of Maquinna:  John R. Jewitt's Narrative of Capture and Confinement at Nootka. Trade paperback, 186 pp. Illustrated with black and white photos and drawings. The book was originally published under another (similar) title in 1815. It recounts the author's capture with another crew member from an American trading ship playing the waters of the Northwest coast and his adventures over the next few years living with the tribe that enslaved him. He is a metalworker and so has real value to the tribe, and he tells them his shipmate is his father. He slowly learns their language and becomes acclimated to their ways, eventually marrying, though it is short-lived. It's quite an interesting tale, full of detail as the author kept a journal through his stay. American Indians are either worshiped or reviled in such stories. In this one, though the author considers them "savages" he is also quite fair-minded and reveals a people who are both noble and ingenious and full of superstition and bad temper, just like most humans. Interesting! 
--Sean

Etsy Shop Spring Sale

20% off your order of $20 or more 

on orders placed through our Etsy shop, 

now through March 29.

Elegant Endpapers

ffep

• Aka:
• FFEP or ffep
• front free endpaper

A common abbreviation for Front Free EndPaper. Generally, it is the first page of a book and is part of a single sheet that also spans across the inside of the front board (called the front pastedown) via a fold along the gutter with the purpose of connecting the boards to the stitched textblock.

As a result of this purpose, the paper quality of the ffep is generally of a heavier weight than those used for the pages of the book, and is often decorative.

[Biblio.com]

A Coupon for You

Here is a coupon code good for $5 off any order of $30 or more placed on our website:  brillig9679

We have recently added a good number of art exhibition catalogs to our inventory, as well as a number of vintage children's books.

My favorite recent children's book added to our shop is The Snail Who Ran  written and illustrated with beautiful black and white illustrations by Dorothy P. Lathrop. The story of a snail, a mouse, and an eft who are granted wishes by a fairy in the night.

Color frontispiece of this wonderful 1934 children's book.

More Book Plates

Happy Holidays!  It started snowing here in Seattle on Christmas Eve and it continues to fall this morning.  We are planning a Christmas Day urban hike and expect to see some snow people on our walk.

I hope everyone found at least one book under the tree, if you participate in this part of the season.   Will you put your name in your new book(s)? 

We come across book plates in our inventory, though they are usually of the mass produced kind that you can buy in a bookstore or stationery store in a box, with a blank space for your name. Often these commercially made book plates are prints of famous pieces of art.  Sometimes they are reading and/or book themed.  I remember receiving a gift such a box of book plates in sixth grade:  the classic image of the cat on top of a stack of books.

Here are some book plates discovered in our current inventory:

 I particularly like the book plate of the open door.  What exciting world will you enter through the pages of your book?

Presenting Works by Two Seattle Artists: Jon Strongbow and Tim Fowler

We are pleased to be selling works by two different Seattle artists.

In a series started in 1992, Jon Strongbow's detailed black and white line drawings of Seattle cityscapes juxtapose realistic architectural renderings with scenes embracing indigenous cultures from all over the planet, including extinct and endangered species.   There's even a drawing with the old Pistil Books & News storefront on Pike Street in the background.

Pistil Books is carrying his two new books, City of Spirits and Mystic City: 

On our Etsy site, we are also carrying block prints by Tim Fowler, self-taught Seattle based artist, who works in woodcarving, mosaic sculpture, painting, and printmaking.  His mosaic fence and colorful mosaic, metal and wood sculptures (including Easter Island heads, motorcyclists, and devils), and antique (some would say "rusty") vehicles make his home and yard a landmark in Seattle's Central District.  We have one of Tim's wonderful mosaic sculptures - a large salmon - watching over our front yard.

Tim says, "I was drawing pictures of cars and bugs in junior high when my art education stopped, and I haven't gotten over it since."

Tim Fowler has shown his art at Mia Gallery, Garde Rail Gallery, I.E. Gallery, Studio E, and the American Visionary Museum (Baltimore).