Eagle Eye Birthday Party

    Eagle Eye was abuzz on Saturday, April 26th, when we celebrated both Independent Bookstore Day and our 22nd Birthday. 

    We pulled out all the stops to celebrate, from exclusive merchandise to activities throughout the store. Shoppers were greeted by a Prize Wheel, which they could spin to win anything from an in-store discount to a chocolate bar. There were also Eagle Eye themed bingo cards, which could be filled out for a chance at another prize or just to get more familiar with the store.

     Publishers joined in on the fun too, sending us special editions of books and indie exclusive merchandise. Highlights included a signed edition of the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid entry, complete with faux-moldy cheese, and some pretty swanky tote bags. There were also snacks o'plenty, including a cookie cake, and the Eagle Eye staff have been happily enjoying the leftovers.

     Other bookstores around the city joined in on the celebration too, and there was even a city-wide bingo to encourage readers to visit multiple stores. The bingo items included "Bookstore near a college," "Bookstore that sells used books," and "Bookstore with a pet." The last one ended up being a surprise favorite of Eagle Eye shoppers who had never met Bonnie Ann, our bookshop dog, before, as she was around the store greeting shoppers throughout the day.

    Bonnie was not the only dog around the bookstore on the 26th, though. People brought in their dogs to come shop with them, something we are always happy to oblige as a dog friendly store. One gentleman even carried his furry friend around with him in a shopping cart!

    Eagle Eye did had over 280 unique sales on the 26th, so it's not a stretch to say it was a great celebration. We couldn't have done it without all of the wonderful shoppers who came to visit, so we'd like to extend an extra special thanks to everyone who came out!

A Traveler's Guide to Packing a Book

     With life happening all around us, it can be difficult to find the time to relax. And as responsibilities pile up, it can feel like that precious free time is shrinking by the day. Everything ebbs and flows, though, so hopefully more relaxation is on the horizon. But even when things are looking dark, we've still got one last bastion of rest: time off.

     Whether you're trotting the globe or choosing to see just how deep you can make that groove on your couch this weekend, taking some time for yourself can be both a restful and rewarding experience. It can also allow you to spend more time with interests you may have been neglecting, such as reading. As many of you probably already know, doing the reading is only half the battle and finding the perfect book can prove to be the more difficult task. Luckily for you, dear reader, booksellers happen to be perfectly equipped to find you just the book you need for any of your vacation endeavors, no matter where they take you.

    The first question I always ask myself when traveling is how many books I want to take. To answer this question one must consider many factors, such as duration of the trip, time spent traveling, and how much free time to read you're going to have. You should also consider how much space you're willing to allocate to books in your luggage, and whether or not you plan on shopping for books wherever you're going. (I always end up coming home with a couple more than I left with).

     Next, you should consider how you'd like your books bound. This part doesn't have anything to do with a book's content, but whether a book is hardcover or softback can be a deal breaker. Many travelers refuse to fly with a rigid hardcover, opting instead for a smaller and more flexible paperback. Others prefer the hardcover, citing its inflexibility as a plus that will keep it from being damaged. Some people don't really have a preference, which is also totally reasonable.

    Now that you know how many books you want and which books you're automatically not taking (sorry to that interesting looking 600 page hardcover that's been waiting on your to be read pile), it's time to figure out the actual books you'll be bringing with you. Some of you may already be compiling a list in your head, but don't start packing them just yet! Are you sure you want to bring that horror novel that's going to keep you up all night when you've got a travel itinerary that'll keep you busy all day? And do you really need to bring all four of those books with you for your long weekend at the lake? If you do, then more power to you, but it's always good to think about what books will pair well with your trip & the specific needs that may arise.

    And that about sums it up! Now that you've figured out what kind of books to look for it's just a matter of getting out and picking the books. Of course, if you need any recommendations or other assistance your friendly neighborhood bookseller should be happy to help!

Taiwan Travelogue

     Summer is just around the corner, and for many this seasonal transition tends to bring a vacation with it. Taking a trip is historically one of the best ways to unwind, whether you're kicking back on the beach or secluding yourself in some sort of cabin. A change of location can also bring with it a flood of new experiences & offers a change of pace from the potential tedium of daily life. 

    If a vacation isn't in the cards for you this summer, however, there are still plenty of books that can take you somewhere far away, such as Yang Shuang-Zi's Taiwan Travelogue. In it we follow Aoyama Chizuko, a young Japanese novelist, as she embarks on a year-long trip to Taiwan to give talks about her novel and its newly released film-adaptation. During her stay she is accompanied by Chizuru, an enigmatic interpreter and Taiwan native, who shows Aoyama around the island. 

    Vacationing isn't always fun and games, though, and I'm not just talking about drama with one's travel companions. Tourism as an industry can be incredibly taxing on a location and the people who call it home, whether that be through overcrowding, rising costs of living, or environmental degradation. Just look at Venice.

    Taiwan Travelogue explores the tension brought upon by unwanted guests, though in the novel its not so much tourism as colonial occupation that is breaking down the local culture & environment (though tourism still plays a part). Despite opposing Japan's occupation of Taiwan, Aoyama still takes a government sponsored vacation to Taiwan. To show her defiance, she spends her time writing articles about local Taiwanese cuisine, history, and culture thanks to all the insight she's able to glean from Chizuru.

    What really stands out about Taiwan Travelogue is its focus on the little details. Aoyama has something of a bottomless appetite, so she's constantly sampling the local fare while she tours the country.  From decadent banquets to simple rice dishes, every meal is described with such precision that you can almost taste it. Oftentimes I would put the book down to realize that my own stomach was grumbling.

    This eye for detail isn't just aimed at the food, though. From the history of the railroads to the inner workings of traditional family structures, Shuang-Zi wastes no opportunity to provide more background. This abundance of information never feels overwhelming, though. This is in part due to the context of the conversations being between a traveling writer and her interpreter, but also because much of the information is delivered through footnotes, allowing the reader to go as deep into it as they want.

     Everyone knows that a scenic vacation isn't complete without some drama, and Taiwan Travelogue has that on deck too. Our two travel companions may have become fast friends, but Aoyama can't help but notice that Chizuru pulls back from time to time, almost as if she were wearing some porcelain mask. I won't be spoiling anymore, but I can confirm that watching the two's relationship unfold is sweeter than the fresh pineapple juice that brings them together.

    As the world seems to be edging closer and closer to the brink, it's important to take things slow every now and then to acknowledge the things in life that bring you joy. Taiwan Travelogue serves the dual purpose of being a great book, for those of you who enjoy that kind of thing, and being a story about finding those nuggets of joy in what can otherwise be a dreadful situation.

Big Changes for Little Readers

      It's time for spring cleaning, and over at Eagle Eye we are here for it. Specifically, we're taking this time to clean up things over in our Kids & Young Adult section. 

    "We want to simplify the shopping experience and make it easier for people to find things they're looking for," said Cassandra Hamilton, who's been heading up the reorganization efforts with Diana Robinson.

    When asked how we'd be simplifying, Hamilton said that we'd be more actively separating challenging young adult books from simpler titles for younger readers. We'll also be creating a mid-grade section, for readers who looking for a more challenging read that deals with simpler themes. Books that will end up in this categories include series like Dog Man, Dork Diaries, and Wings of Fire.

     Besides mid-grade fiction, we've also created a number of new sections in children's nonfiction. These include "Cool Skills," where you can find books about subjects from skateboarding to knitting, and "LGBTQIA+," but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

    "It's really important to get kids engaged with reading early, and this redesign will help shoppers find books to do just that," said Hamilton.

    All of the reorganizing has also cleared up a lot of space for us, which we'll be filling with more books! Specifically, children's classics, mid-grade, graphic novels, young adult, and new releases will be seeing a surge of new titles. Per Cassandra's recommendation, we will be getting in "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase," while Diana is more excited about reinvigorating the children's classics.

    "The kids need the classics!" said Diana in our interview.

    So if you've ever felt a little lost in the kid's section, come on down and check out the changes for yourself. The book you've been looking for might have been under your nose the whole time.

Bookselling & Sustainability

    Did you know it takes about 4.5 kWh of energy to print, bind, and ship a single paperback? That's according to David Reay of the University of Edinburgh. In contrast, it takes zero additional energy for a used or recycled book to sit on our shelves. So besides saving on cost, shopping used books helps to keep your carbon footprint low too. 

 

    Trading in books here also keeps them out of the landfill, though we're not the only operation that can boast this. There are, of course, other used bookstores, but there are also places like the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (or CHaRM) where you can recycle more than just your books.

 

    Our environmentally friendly practices don't end with book trade-ins, though, because here at Eagle Eye make use of sustainability in all facets of bookselling. When we receive inventory, we save all usable packing paper & sturdy cartons for future use. This means we never have to purchase packing paper for when we ship out books, and only rarely do we have to buy shipping boxes.

    Besides our environmentally conscious practices, we also host events throughout the year with local & national nature writers and conservationists. One author we often feature is Douglas Tallamy, who's new book "How Can I Help?" just released, and to celebrate we'll be offering at a discounted price of $19.97. If you're looking for a more energy sensitive option, though, we've got a great selection of used books in our Nature section.

Fool Night

    Imagine a world engulfed in smog, smog so thick that it blocks out the sun. Temperatures drop globally. Plants that rely on photosynthesis start to die off. Mass extinction draws near, but life will find a way.

     This is the world of Fool Night, and the world Toshiro Kamiya lives in. Despite the sword hanging over his head, Toshiro works himself to his limits day in and day out at a factory to support himself and his mother, earning a wage that leaves him with not even 2,000 yen after expenses. And with the cost of his mother's schizophrenia medication on the rise, it's looking like any savings Toshiro may have for the future are about to evaporate. 

   All hope is not lost, though, for Toshiro and the rest of humanity. A procedure known as transfloration can plant seeds into humans, which then grow & sustain themselves using their host's flesh, allowing them live in constant darkness. The downside is that once they plant the seed, you've only got 2 years left to live. The upside is a 2 million yen subsidy from the government.

    After a near-death experience, Toshiro decides that life's too short to be living like he does & opts for transfloration. The procedure goes off without issue, but unfortunately that doesn't mean everything's smooth sailing. Shortly after being discharged, Toshiro is mugged, losing all 2 million of the subsidy yen, and left in the gutter. And here, at his lowest point, does a strange change start to occur inside of him. Toshiro starts to hear the voices of the plants around him, voices that open a new world of possibility for him.

     It is at this point in the story that Fool Night emerges from its cocoon. Toshiro joins up with Transflora Medical, the organization responsible for transfloration and all of the red tape that comes with it, to work as an investigator. From here, we're introduced to a flurry of new characters, concepts, institutions, counter-institutions and more. And just when you think you've something's been taken as far as it can go, a wall gives out and shows you just how much further there is to go.

    To me, Fool Night is the perfect metamorphic manga. Not only does its central plot device involve people undergoing an irreversible transformation, but the story itself is constantly in flux. One second its a family drama, the next a detective procedural, and then you turn the page and you're in the middle of an all out raid. And with the world in flux, its the perfect time to jump into a story that'll keep you constantly engaged like this one.

No Laughing Matter

         There are few occupations more associated with the genre of horror than the clown. Ever since the release of Stephen King's It, the killer clown has been at the forefront of just about every medium that can support horror: books, movies, video games, even the real world. 

        It wasn't like clowning was all fun & games before 1986, though (The Joker introduced people to the scary clown archetype in the 1940s). Besides making people laugh, clowns, jesters, fools, harlequins, etc, throughout time have also brought acute awareness to society's ills, and they usually do both of these things in the same breath. When you consider the juxtaposition of these two seemingly disconnected elements, and the discomfort that might illicit, it's easy to see why clowns have been so readily adopted by horror creators. 

        Horror, as a genre, is similar to clowning. You take something familiar and distort it in some way to alter its effect. But while clowns take something upsetting and make it funny, a horror author might take something funny and make it terrifying, like in It. Or, a horror author may take something that's already devastating and introduce new elements to create something far, far darker. If you'd like to plumb the depths of that darkness, then stick around because there's some great books I've been dying to talk about, and deep within their pages you may just find something scarier than clowns.

        Gabino Iglesias' barrio-noir The Devil Takes You Home takes one of the most devastating things that can happen to a parent, the loss of their young child, and uses that as the starting line. But that's hardly as bleak as this book gets. Following the loss of his daughter, and now wracked with medical debt, the book's main character, Mario, becomes a hired gun. His jobs start out small, just whacking a few guys that Brian, his handler/heroin addict, has assured him are bad dudes, but soon enough the pair have gotten themselves wrapped up in a scheme to rob a cartel caravan. 

        So far this may sound like more of a hard-boiled action story than something horrific, but I'd like to remind you that Mario is a man that is haunted. Haunted by the loss of his daughter, by the poverty he's had to live in, by the systematic racism and marginalization he's faced for most of his life. While this more figurative haunting does a great job at creating a bleak atmosphere, the introduction of genuinely paranormal elements are what make this book truly terrifying. And the way that Iglesias contextualizes them is especially interesting.

         Taking place between Texas and Mexico, this book is rich with Mexican & Mexican-American culture. One example of this is that many of the supernatural elements manifest themselves through Christian iconography. There are witches possessed by the devil and ghosts that look like little angels. The sequence I found to be most horrifying mixes this Christian supernaturality with the human cruelty that also runs through the book, and the product is El Milagrito. I won't give you any details, so as not to tarnish the experience, but I still get goosebumps when I think about those pages.

        The Devil Takes You Home is a perfect example of the way how horror can successfully use distortion to great effect. It sets a scene of the world, with all its ugliness, and injects elements of the other to strap the reader into a roller coaster ride of fear, violence, and paranoia. 

        Brainwyrms, by Alison Rumfitt, is another book that kicks off with a horrible bang. Frankie is the survivor of a bombing on her workplace carried out by TERFs (or Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist). Frankie's life is destroyed, and in its wake she begins to drink more, see her friends less, and sleep with an increasing number of strangers. When Frankie meets Vanya the two hit it off immediately, almost to the point of obsession, but Frankie gets the impression that there's something sinister lurking behind Vanya's surface.

        Where The Devil Takes You Home takes some of the worst parts of the world and frames them alongside something supernatural, Brainwyrms posits that the two might be linked. More specifically, it is a novel that examines transphobia and its effects, specifically on members of the trans community like Frankie and Vanya. At the root of all the hatred are the titular brainwyrms, which are infecting people throughout Britain with transphobia and driving them to commit hate crimes like the one at the beginning of the novel.

        Horror has traditionally been a genre where more "taboo" topics can find a home, and Brainwyrms certainly does not shy away from those. Where it really leans in is the realm of sex, and more specifically into kinks. But what kink would fit into a story about brain-eating parasites turning people into bigots? Why, infestation of course. It's not just introduced as a cheap gross-out, though, but rather works as great characterization for the interested party, showing us their innermost desires, not just sexually but more generally. Additionally, the fascination serves as an interesting exploration of how what one person may find horrifying, say a parasitic worm eating someone's tongue and taking its place, can be tantalizing to another.

        If my description hasn't made it clear, Brainwyrms is an intense read. There's even a part in the middle of the second act where the author suggests you take a break before proceeding. But if this sounds like something you may be interested in, even just a little, I'd encourage you to face your fears and take the plunge. And if you're on the fence, not just about Brainwyrms but about The Devil Takes You Home too, then I'd encourage you twice as hard, because if you live your life in the light then you'll never really know what's going on in the dark. 

    You can find both of the books discussed here on the shelves at Eagle Eye Book Shop. And if someone got to them before you, or you'd rather order online, you can find the links to purchase them below.

https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9780316426718

https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9781250866257