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Welcome to Bloomsbury Books

An independent bookstore in downtown Ashland, Oregon


Bloomsbury Books is an independent bookstore on Main Street in downtown Ashland, Oregon, home of the world-famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Founded in 1980, we specialize in contemporary fiction and children’s books, but also carry a wide variety of nonfiction and local authors, and, of course, have a large Shakespeare and theater section.

Bloomsbury Recommends

We hope you enjoy our favorite Bloomsbury Picks as much as we have!

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series. Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Quâebec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sãuretâe, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he fina…

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

“Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured. Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, th…

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

“With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters–Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more–as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, ‘What does anyone’s life mean?’ It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in a…

The God of The Woods by Liz Moore

When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn’t just any camper, she’s the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp–as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region: Barbara’s older brother also went missing 16 years …

My Murder by Katie Williams

“One of those rare emotionally intelligent books that are also fun reads… Going to keep readers turning pages late into the night.” -The New York Times What if the murder you had to solve was your own? Lou is a happily married mother of an adorable toddler. She’s also the victim of a local serial killer. Recently brought back to life and returned to her grieving family by a government project, she is grateful for this second chance. But as the new Lou re-adapts to her old routines, an…

Death Valley

by Melissa Broder
The most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story. In Melissa Broder’s astounding new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thank…

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench

For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O’Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare’s plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War–a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slave…

Honey by Victor Lodato

Meet a woman as tenacious as Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and as irresistible as Andrew Sean Greer’s Arthur Less: Honey Fasinga, the glamorous daughter of a notorious New Jersey mobster, is returning home at last, ready to reckon with her violent past. As a rebellious teenager, Honey managed to escape her father’s circle of influence and reinvent herself in a world of art and beauty, working for a high-end auction house in Los Angeles. Now in her twilight years, she decides to retur…

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides

From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day. On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed …

    More Favorite Books

    Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

    Citizen: My Life After The White House by Bill Clinton

    Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher

    Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

    The City And Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

    The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

    Last Days by Brian Evenson

    The Damned (La-Bas) by J.k. Huysmans

    Patriot by Alexei Navalny

    What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci

    Framed by John Grisham

    War by Bob Woodward

    Into the Uncut Grass by Trevor Noah

    The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

    Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

    Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

    The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

    The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

    Weyward by Emilia Hart

    Playground by Richard Powers

    Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

    We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

    Something Lost, Something Gained by Hillary Rodham Clinton

    Does This Taste Funny? by Stephen Colbert & Evie McGee Colbert

    The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

    Why We Love Football by Joe Posnanski

    Fourth Wing By Rebecca Yarros

    IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES By Katherine Rundell

    The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

    The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

    Featured Titles

    Below are some of our currently featured titles available at Bloomsbury Books.

    The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

    The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series. Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Quâebec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sãuretâe, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he fina…

    The God of The Woods by Liz Moore

    When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn’t just any camper, she’s the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp–as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region: Barbara’s older brother also went missing 16 years …

    Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench

    For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O’Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare’s plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.

    The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

    The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War–a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slave…

    The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

    Cassie Andrews, a mild-mannered bookseller in New York City, inherits the mysterious eponymous volume from a deceased customer. Discovering its magical ability to transport her to any place she envisions, Cassie, accompanied by her spirited roommate, Izzy, embarks on an adventure. However, as they realize the perilous potential of the book, they find themselves entangled with an enigmatic man known as the Librarian, who protects a collection of similarly magical books, and pursued by malevole…

    The Women

    by Kristin Hannah
    When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, Frankie joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets―and becomes one of―the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends….

    Fup

    by Jim Dodge
    I read this little gem at least once every year to laugh at Jake’s moonshine antics and to revisit the strange and tear-inducing adventure of Tiny and his mysterious duck, Fup. Take your whiskey or tea out to the back porch on a quiet evening and sit for an hour or two to relish the wonder wrought by Jim Dodge in this short tale. – Meg

    The Whalebone Theatre

    by Joanna Quinn
    When we first meet Christabel Seagrave, we know three things: it is the end of WWI, she is 3 years old, and she is a force to be reckoned with. Orphaned yet living on her family’s estate, she is mostly left to her own devices as she grows up exploring the seaside around her home, along with the books in the estate’s extensive library. An eccentric cast of characters come and go: Rosalind, her champagne-loving stepmother; Myrtle, the wealthy American “Poetess;” Taras, the Russian-expat artist;…

    Young Queer America: Real Stories and Faces of LGBTQ+ Youth

    by Maxwell Poth (Author), Isis King (Foreword)
    PRIDE MONTH PICK Photographer and activist Maxwell Poth has traveled all over the United States, inviting LGBTQ+ youth to share their stories as part of Project Contrast, a nonprofit that amplifies these voices and connects kids and families with the resources they need to survive and thrive. This book collects the stories and portraits of seventy-three queer kids and teenagers from fifteen different states. In their own words, these young people share the challenges they’ve faced comin…

    Page Boy

    by Elliot Page
    PRIDE MONTH PICK Full of intimate stories, from chasing down secret love affairs to battling body image and struggling with familial strife, Pageboy is a love letter to the power of being seen. With this evocative and lyrical debut, Oscar-nominated star Elliot Page captures the universal human experience of searching for ourselves and our place in this complicated world. The Oscar-nominated star who captivated the world with his performance in Juno finally shares his story in a groundbr…