Counterpoint: 634 books

“Intense, complicated short stories about intense, complicated people . . . A seasoned, deeply knowing writer with riches to share” (Kirkus Reviews).   With her keen eye, her fabulous ear and her generous heart, Valerie Trueblood finds characters in moments of true extremity when they are...

“This assured crime novel from Leonard opens on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City . . . the plot twists and turns” (Publishers Weekly). Jack McCann is a high-stakes Wall Street trader who sneaks into his office early one morning to try and clear out his things and get out...

In Portland, Orgeon, three high school friends-Leon, Chris and Kayla-spend their time skateboarding studying foreign languages and classical music, and plotting a shared future that will avoid the superficiality they witness in the adult world around them. There is only one adult they admire, whom...

This provocative novel follows Scott, a lonely drifter who earns money as a medical test subject and finds shelter in abandoned buildings on the riverfront. He first befriends Ray, a mysterious homeless man whose tenderness can't hide his unsavory tastes; next, he sets four adolescent boys on a series...

This memoir of one woman’s struggle with her DNA’s legacy and its effects on multiple generations of family is “amazing” in “the raw courage she exhibits” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). When testing reveals that Bonnie Rough is a carrier of a genetic condition known as hypohidrotic...

**“Patterson beautifully parses the consequences of one woman’s fall in this memorable, penetrating, fully achieved novel.” —**The New York Times Book Review   Story Prize and California Book Award finalist Victoria Patterson revisits Newport Beach in This Vacant Paradise, examining the...

The true story of the first women to compete in Olympic track and field comes to life in this “rich and resonant” historical sports novel (Publishers Weekly)****. “A fascinating exploration of a little-known chapter in sports history. With gorgeous, restrained prose and a crystalline...

The Emergency Press edition of this title (2013) was a Seattle Mystery Bookshop bestseller and called "a compelling, existential thrill ride" by Booklist. This Is What We Do is an insightfully written crime thriller exploring nihilism, revolutionaries, self-examination, hope and hopelessness. Tom...

A West Virginia family struggles amid the booms and busts of the coal industry in this novel from an author called “Appalachia’s Steinbeck” (Jayne Anne Phillips). Set in present day West Virginia, this debut novel tells the story of a coal mining family—a couple and their four children—living...

To outsiders, they seem the perfect American family. Margaret, the loving, widowed mother. Mackie, the brilliant, dazzling handsome older son. Phillis, his beautiful, talented, sophisticated wife. Dink, friendly and outgoing, with all the energy of young manhood. Gina, his girlfriend, the prettiest...

This is her first novel in twenty years, completing the trilogy that began with The Revolution of Little Girls (nominated for a Southern Book Award and winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction) and Terminal Velocity< (also a Lambda nominee) Among the...

Named a New York Times Best Book of the Year, 2016 For a runaway slave in the 1840s south, life on the run can be just as dangerous as life under a sadistic Massa. That's what fifteen-year-old Naomi learns after she escapes the brutal confines of life on an Alabama plantation and takes refuge in a...

“Ambitious and distinctive . . . taking us into the lives of two endangered species, Mexican wolves and a Southwest underclass family, equally hunted by fate” (Ivan Doig, bestselling author). Willa Robbins is a master tracker working to reintroduce the Mexican wolf, North America’s most...

An elegant and spare novel, widely appealing with commercial potential, The Job You Mostly Won't Know How to Do features characters of the American West, isolated by land and by their actions, building a life they never expected to have This beloved writer has won a PNBA five times over his...