We are starting the year off with a great read by one of our very own Creatives here at the Evergreen Echo! Waxing Off by E.E.W. Christman is a Queer, urban fantasy novella with elements of horror, self-exploration, and romance. It is a quick and delightful read, pulling you right into the action. Oh, and did I mention there are werewolves and pecan pancakes? 

Dear reader, if you would indulge me during this absolutely heinous Seattle winter (I’m looking at you, atmospheric river!) and let me introduce you to a beloved childhood gem of mine, I would be most grateful. While we are taking quite a big step away from the Puget Sound this month and going across the pond to England, I promise this little trip will be well worth it. If you need something warm and cozy to read like I do, read on. 

For Today I Am A Boy by Kim Fu stopped me dead in my tracks. 

The pure poetry in every line feels like something akin to Medeline Miller (The Song of Achilles) or Ocean Vuong (On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous), easy-breezy but powerful, simple and complicated. It is difficult to find a writer quite like Fu, with such command over a narrative, seamlessly moving between past, present, and future without a single falter. Each line felt like its own universe so carefully crafted, and the whole novel moved like a symphony harmonizing in unison. 

While Frédéric Gros is not native to the Puget Sound, and his book, A Philosophy of Walking, is not rooted in the Pacific Northwest, it has completely revolutionized how I navigate and experience the city of Seattle and the University District where I live. In a part of the world so close to nature with comfortable temperatures most of the year, and a large hiking, biking, and travel culture, A Philosophy of Walking feels like a necessary read.

We Are Not a powerful graphic novel. Written and illustrated by Josh Tuininga, We Are Not Strangers explores the relationship between Marco, a Jewish immigrant, and his friend, Sam Akiyama, a first generation Japanese American. Marco and Sam navigate the discrimination and displacement of their communities in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and during World War II while trying to look out for their families and for each other.

It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne De Marcken is an ephemeral collection that feels more like a dream than a story. This novel is simply unforgettable, and it had me in its clutches from the moment I flipped open the first page.

Have you noticed that Vampires are making a comeback? With two new iconic vampire movies to swoon over, Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake (2024) and—a new personal favorite—Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025), there’s a growing trend towards blood sucking fiends in media (again!). And these aren’t the tame, glittery vampires from Twilight—these are the gritty, murderous creatures from our nightmares, and I love it! After watching Sinners during its box office run, I have been on a major vampire kick. So, naturally, I had to deliver a vampire novel for Parker’s Pages this month, and I found the perfect speculative fiction story for you all.

If you’re anything like me, then you’re approaching Emerald Street knowing next to nothing about Hip Hop, but Abe has you covered. His approachable and straightforward explanations are easy to follow and even easier to enjoy. Starting us in Seattle’s Century District, we move through time and space, beginning at Seattle’s early Hip Hop days and arriving in the present where the community thrives.

Windfall takes us on an incredible journey, from Oregon to the North Dakota prairie, and from the present all the way back to the early 1900s. But even with these leaps through place and time, Bolstad keeps us rooted. She delivers both fact and imagination in her distinct journalistic style, helping us follow her line of inquiry into her family’s past.

I’m returning to my usual Parker’s Pages standard today and have an intense and thrilling novel to offer. Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka had me up all day and night, gobbling pages like a Thanksgiving feast. This novel is, quite simply, brilliant, and a great weaving of mystery, crime, horror, and intense character study. There simply isn’t anything else like it.

This week we’re taking a look at a book that’s a bit out of my normal reviews here in Parker’s Pages. This one is an interactive Tarot card guide called Every Little Thing You Do is Magic by two Seattle artists, Callie Little and Moorea Seal. While doing my usual rounds of the local bookstore, I came across this guide while digging through the store’s collection of Tarot decks and just knew I had to have it.

When life gives you a book about frogs, by golly, you’ve got to jump on it.

This week I discovered Frog Day, a stupendously cute and informative book all about frogs and toads and the wonderful world they live in. From the Earth Day series of the University of Chicago Press comes a 24-hour story about 24 different frog and toad species, written by herpetologist (a biologist who studies amphibians and reptiles) Marty Crump and illustrated by local Seattle artist Tony Angell.

I desperately needed an escape this month and happily uncovered one of the most delightful fantasy novels I’ve ever read while scouring the local bookstore. The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister creates a cozy atmosphere right off the cuff, weaving lyrical writing with gloriously sensual descriptions of scents to create a reading experience that feels like no other. I have never had a novel tug at my sense of smell quite like this one; it brings to mind memories old and new, just as it does for the main character of the novel, Emmeline.

Armored with little more than a trusty tote bag and too much caffeine, I entered Third Place Books on Ravenna, searching for a local author to write my first book review about. I found an armful of wonderful tomes and settled on beginning with a novel called Lake City (2019), a fascinating fiction by Thomas Kohnstamm, a born-and-raised Seattleite. 

At the checkout stand, a bookseller promised me that Lake City was a fantastic read, that Kohnstamm’s next novel would be out soon, and that Thomas was a terrific guy and regular at Third Place Books. I was so excited by the enthusiasm from the bookseller that I rushed home to read it that night.