I had the pleasure of traveling twice in the month of July and, in so doing, visiting bookstores in cities that are not my own. This is one of my favorite things to do when visiting a new city, and also offers a great opportunity to discover new authors. I spent time in Portland, Oregon, where I visited Powell’s City of Books, one of the largest independent bookstores in the world. If you’ve never visited, I recommend carving out several hours. While I have been to the store numerous times (having spent many years living just a few hours away in Seattle), I still found myself there on four separate occasions during my one week trip! In particular, I spent time in their Small Press section, featuring hundreds of books from indie presses that are not easily found elsewhere offline.

I also made my first trip ever to Edmonton, Alberta this month, where I fell in love with another local indie, Glass Bookshop, and stocked up on some amazing Indigenous and Canadian authors I look forward to reading in the coming months.

Here are the books I completed in July. Head to your local indie and check them out, or you can find them all in my bookshop.org storefront, here.