The Discretion Series: Adding Nuance to Western Historical Fiction
The Discretion Series by J. Hoolian Clayton
Reviewed by Julie Schultz
Historical fiction set in the 1800s in the western part of what was then becoming the United States tends to have a well-established story arc and cast of characters. The leading role is typically played by a rugged...
Pros and Cons List Review
A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings by Will Betke-Brunswick / Tin House: 156 pages. $18.95
Graphic novels may be an unfamiliar format for many readers, but the genre has been one of the fastest-growing parts of the book world over the last decade. While much of this expansion has been driven...
Elisa Lorello All of You Review
All of You by Elisa Lorello / Lancarello Enterprises: 246 pages, $16.95.
Elisa Lorello’s new novel All of You is her best book so far. It combines her signature wit and humor with complex character development and a thread of social commentary about age and gender that amplifies the core plot...
The River Where You Forgot My Name: Giving a Voice to Julia Clark
The River Where You Forgot My Name by Corrie Williamson / Southern Illinois University Press: 80 pages, $15.95
With her second collection of poetry, The River Where You Forgot My Name, Corrie Williamson adds a lyrical entry to the flourishing realm of persona poetry that gives the power...
The Only Good Indians: A Must-Read Montana-Based Thriller
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, Gallery / Saga Press: 336 pages, $16.99
Thrillers are not typically my favorite genre, especially those that involve elements of magical realism, a literary device that usually strikes me as contrived. In this case, though, the supernatural...
A Timely Reflection on Transracial Adoption
Bitterroot: A Salish memoir of Transracial Adoption, By Susan Devan Harness, University of Nebraska Press: 360 pages. $21.95
As with any good memoirist, Susan Devan Harness intersperses the past with the present to create dramatic tension, relating how her experience as the American Indian adoptee...
For Fans of Boys in the Boat...
Faster, By Neal Bascomb, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 368 pages. $28.00
In Faster, Neal Bascomb takes on the story of one particular racecar matchup of political consequence: the 1938 Pau Grand Prix, in which a Jewish driver in a French-engineered car owned by an American heiress triumphed over the...
Louise Penny's Paris: A Perfect Pandemic Escape
All the Devils Are Here. By Louise Penny. Minotaur Books: 448 pages; $28.99.
I came late to Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series. Friends had recommended it for years, but I always had something Very Important to read instead. Then the pandemic arrived. While others searched for answers in...
The Tea Bar Reopens!
Missed us? We missed you, too. And now we are serving tea again!
To keep us all safe, there will be some changes. All orders will be placed and delivered at the front register (where we have the germ shield). Customers can request straws, sugar, honey, or other add-ins, but they won't have direct...
Support Your Bookstore
How to Help
There's no doubt that the world feels a bit off-kilter these days. As you know, we temporarily closed our downtown store recently as a measure to help curb the progression of the novel coronavirus that's has been blazing around the world. Our community's health and safety is an important...
Need Tea?
—UPDATE—
We are now following the governor's orders to shelter at home. Our downtown store is closed but you can still become a member-owner and you can still order books from us. We hope you will.
Because we are unable to sell tea directly from our website, we regret that for now, we cannot help you...
We're In This Together
Reading Is Not Canceled!
We have included a second edition of book recommendations below, including a range of activity books for kids. All of these can be ordered via our website for direct shipment to your home, or you can select "Store Pickup Option" and put "Home Delivery" in the comments if you...
Safety
To our wonderful community:
We are doubling our hand-washing routines and wiping all surfaces frequently with a bleach solution…this includes the tablets we use as a point of sale. We are not at this time allowing customers to smell teas, but you can trust us to describe them to you!
We are watching...
What I am reading Now: The National Tour of the USS Constitution
Phillip Parker's The National Tour of the USS Constitution 1931-1934, is a brief and engaging summary of the restoration and subsequent tour of the frigate USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides." The Constitution was built in 1794, had a distinguished career and is today the world's oldest commissioned...
What I am Reading Now Department: Let Me In by Elaine Koyama
There were few women in professional roles in major corporations when Elaine Koyama started her career in in 1976. One of her few role models in her early career was the TV character, Mary Richards, from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, whose career was centered in Minneapolis, just as Elaine’s would be....
What I am Reading Now: Fire Pony, by Sheila Ruble
A good story well-told does not have age guidelines for its audience. Fire Pony is written for a middle school audience, the protagonist is an 11 year old girl, but even though I am more than a half century older than the intended demographic for this book, I found it to be a real page-turner that...
What I am Reading Now: Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
How could I have gotten through an English major without reading any Austen? We are considering celebrating Jane Austen Day in September at This House of Books, so now is my chance to correct this omission. I went to the bookstore and added a copy of Austen's 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice, to my...
American Sentences
As we go into Poetry Month, I want to share a little about a form that is new to me: American Sentences -- a North American version of the Japanese haiku. These are one line poems that consist of seventeen syllables.
The form was invented by Allen Ginsberg in the 1990s and has been picked up by...
Parking when you come to This House of Books
This House of Books is located in the central core of Downtown Billings, at the corner of Third Avenue and North
Broadway. We are among the best located businesses in Billings for finding convenient parking.
Parking meters and metered streets downtown as of August 21, 2014
Source: Billings Downtown...
Two Teas and a Bush
Last month, we had our first tea tasting event of 2019, led by This House of Book's general manager and tea guru Gustavo Belotta. Before serving any tea, however, Gus displayed several jars, one containing a black tea, one a green, and one an herbal, and asked what the difference was.
"Caffeine!"...