Three Cheers for Johnny!

Jonathan with his PNBA Award

     An author blogging from Colorado last week wrote, in reference to one of our wonderful Island authors, “Of course, now she lives on Bainbridge Island, with all the other writers in America who don’t live in Brooklyn …” And she’s right – we have an embarrassment of riches here – New York Times bestsellers, romance writers, memoirists, novelists, and non-fiction authors whose names are recognized nationally.
     We are particularly proud at Eagle Harbor Books when one of our own is singled out for praise. On Tuesday night we got to honor Bainbridge Island author Jonathan Evison, author of All About Lulu  and West of Here. Johnny had been named a winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award 2012 for West of Here. And we got to present him with one of the niftiest plaques we’ve ever seen.
     Anyone who has read Evison’s books knows how much he deserved this. Anyone who knows his story – the years of toil before his first book was published – knows how sweet this must be. If you’ve been one of the lucky ones who have met Evison at our bookstore, at a book group meeting, or at the bar at Hitchcock, you know what a delight it was for us to be a part of this celebration.
     And what a treat it was for those who came to celebrate with us:  Evison read from one of his upcoming novels, The Dreamlife of Huntington Sales. Where else do you get to sit and listen to an author spin his stories before they are even published? Congratulations, Jonathan!