Growing food, educating and innovating, building community. These are the core values of Braided Roots Urban Farm, an area tucked away in the eclectic neighborhood of Deschutes River Woods where something pretty amazing is happening on only an acre of land. The farmers are not just cultivating locally grown produce, they are also transforming what […]
Culture Features
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Why We Celebrate Indie Bookstores
Shop locally, but read globally
More than any other time in Roundabout Books’ eight-year history, our customers are asking us to match the prices of books they see on Amazon. It may surprise you that I am heartened by these requests, as I think it is a sign of greater general awareness of the damage monopolistic companies like Amazon have […]
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Trivial but Serious Fun
It’s time to dust off frivolous knowledge inside your head
Trivia games are alive and thriving in Central Oregon. There’s a game to be played somewhere most every night of the week. Check out the Source calendar for a complete listing every week. I managed to hit four over the past fortnight. First on my list was JC’s because it adds a physical challenge to […]
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In This Together
High desert writer and Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston’s new book, “We Could Die Doing This,” compiles treasured “Third Act” columns
When brainstorming a title for her latest book, Ellen Waterston, along with Source Weekly publisher Aaron Switzer, knew they had to hit a bullseye. Composed of columns from her monthly series, “The Third Act,” which Waterston has been penning since 2021, the central thesis of ageing and ageism necessitated something punchy. She recalled her children’s […]
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Genre-Benders: Break Out of Your Reading Comfort Zone
Cozy horror, romantasy, viral BookToks. Publishing trends might be hard to keep up with, but one I don’t think will go away anytime soon is the way genre isn’t staying in its convenient pigeonholes. We’re seeing mystery bleed into literary, fantasy meeting detective story and horror alongside humor. I’m a bookseller at Roundabout Books in […]
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A Tower-ing Figure
Ray Solley announces his retirement as executive director of the Tower Theatre
You know the health of a town by the state of its theaters. Opened in 1940, the Tower Theatre was the jewel of downtown Bend from the date of its opening until its closure in 1996. When I moved here in 1999, downtown felt lessened by its boarded-up windows and darkened marquee. After a herculean […]
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Rising Above
Bend’s Jeff Swaney looks back on a life of adventure and found wisdoms in his memoir, “None of the Answers: Racing Through Life in Reverse”
When Jeff Swaney was 14 years old, an insurance salesperson knocked on the door of his home in Detroit, Michigan, extolling the soundness of a dizzying policy scheme to his parents. Detecting some dubious math in the pitch, the 14-year-old Swaney stepped in to quibble with the solicitor, trying and failing to convince his parents […]
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The Future Is Female
Girls Who Code seeks to close the tech gender gap
In the last 30 years, the number of computer scientists who were women dropped from 37% to 24% and a majority of that drop-off occurs between the ages of 13 and 17. Girls Who Code, a nationwide program, is on a mission to close the gender gap by 2030, aiming to prepare its members to […]
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Read to Kids
They’ll reap the benefits
Have you ever read a book to a 5-year-old? Their enthusiasm for choosing which book they want to read, their excitement at telling you that the stegosaurus has protective armor to save it from the meat eaters, or their giggle as they picture Pete the Cat stepping into a pile of blueberries in his new […]
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Love to Love You
Cookies, drag and painting… what else do you need for Valentine’s Day?
For some of us, Valentine’s Day can be less of a romantic holiday spent luxuriating in connection and more of a flashing neon sign pointing out the failure to find love. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a lovely V-Day or two, but more often than not, I find myself unpacking what’s missing from my […]