Locally Writ: Local bookstores step up with curbside pick-up
With quarantine presenting new obstacles to commerce every day, small businesses everywhere are developing and implementing more contagion-conscious means of getting products to consumers. Local bookstores, for example, are now offering curbside pick-up in place of in-store.
After closing for weeks due to the quarantine, Auntie’s Bookstore is now able to operate at limited capacity thanks to a Paycheck Protection Program loan. The store remains closed to the public but, starting this week, customers can take advantage of the store’s curbside pick-up system.
To buy a book, call or place an order online through Auntie’s website at auntiesbooks.com, and you can pick it up the same day before 5 p.m. When you arrive, call (509) 838-0206, and a cautiously masked employee will run your books out to you. 402 W. Main Ave.
Auntie’s local picks: “Before Familiar Woods” by Ian Pisarcik; “The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices From the Fight for Atomic Justice” by Trisha Pritikin; and “In Accelerated Silence” by Brooke Matson.
Wishing Tree Books is offering home delivery in the city of Spokane. Wishing Tree continues to support mail orders and also offers “porch pick-up” rather than curbside – the store is located in a bright purple house with a covered porch. To order a book, visit its website at wishingtreebookstore.com or call (509) 315-9875. 1410 E. 11th Ave.
Wishing Tree’s local picks: “Pigs” by Johanna Stoberock (adult fiction); “The Dreamer and the Doctor: A Forest Lover and a Physician on the Edge of the Frontier” by Jack Nesbit (adult nonfiction); and “Cryptid Creatures: A Field Guide” by Kelly Milner Halls (middle grade nonfiction).
Northwest Passages online
In addition to producing “Storytime From the Tower” for several weeks now, Northwest Passages Book Club has been organizing a series of topical online events.
Starting on April 2, the book club has been hosting virtual forums on a variety of subjects, including the social impact of COVID-19, the ramifications of season cancellations in the world of sports, the rising popularity of gardening, and interviews with politicians including Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, Spokane Valley Mayor Ben Wick and Gov. Jay Inslee.
If you’ve ever wanted to see The Spokesman-Review reporters and editors in action, these videos offer a new and perhaps otherwise impossibly intimate opportunity.
Last week, gardening celebrity Ciscoe Morris discussed his new book, “Oh, La La! Homegrown Stories, Helpful Tips, and Garden Wisdom,” in a livestream with Spokane gardening expert Susan Mulvihill, whose column appears in The Spokesman-Review on Sundays, and Northwest Passages Book Club coordinator Kristi Burns. Morris’ book is available at Auntie’s.
Video recordings of the majority of these online forums can be found on The Spokesman-Review YouTube channel youtube.com/thespokesmanreview and the Northwest Passages website at spokesman.com/northwest-passages/videos/. Once you’ve found the live video of your choice, visit spokesman.com/bookclub/livestream/ to sign in to the discussion and ask your questions.