Staff

Amy

I followed by husband to Yakima from back east in the mid-90s and have since made it home. When my sons started school, I “went back to work” as a community volunteer:  first for libraries in the Yakima School District, then as an outdoor educator with Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. Since 2018 I have been delighted to add the title of bookseller for Inklings.

My favorite books to read include classic and literary fiction, novels-in-verse, cooking, nature writing, science history, spirituality, plus all kinds of children’s books. For me, the best and most memorable books teach something about the natural world or give new insights on social issues.

Good reads:

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The Holy Longing by Ronald Rohlheiser

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Children’s books by Kate DiCamillo and Mo Willems

Best American Science and Nature Writing series

AnneAnne

I am originally from England and moved to the US after I got married in 2016. We lived in South Dakota for a while and moved to Yakima April last year- 2018. In South Dakota I used to work at the local library. 

My life revolves around books! Mostly I read romance books and all of its sub-genres: contemporary, fantasy, paranormal... but I also really enjoy fantasy and the occasional historical fiction. When I am not at Inklings I am painting at home- I paint book covers on wooden letters using acrylics; writing reviews- I have a blog for romance and young adult books (www.glimpsesofmybooks.com); and taking care of my dogs.

I cannot choose a favorite book/s, but here are some of my favorite authors: Juliette Cross, Maggie Stiefvater, Nalini Singh, Gena Showalter, Renee Ahdieh, Katee Robert... 

Chris

Chris was born and raised in Yakima, graduated from Davis High School, attended college west of the mountains, and is old enough to remember wooden card catalogs from elementary school, when he'd volunteer one of his recesses to re-file the cards from returned copies of Matilda, Encyclopedia Brown, and Anne of Green Gables.

Favorite books: Calvin & Hobbes; Invisible Man (Ellison), Einstein's Dreams (Lightman), Station Eleven (Emily St John Mandel), Let's Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson), Story of My Life (Helen Keller), Wild (Cheryl Strayed), Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis), Slaughterhouse-Five (Vonnegut), Possible Lives (Mike Rose), Baking (Dorie Greenspan), Celebrate the Rain (Seattle Junior League), Ottolenghi Simple
Other Jobs: Lifeguard, dishwasher, lawn-mower; janitor; state park aide on Orcas Island; campaign volunteer; delivery man; tax preparer; clam-digger; GIS technician; county bureaucrat.
Hobbies: Amateur photography. As a teenager, I acted in high school plays, where I enjoyed my performances far more than anyone else did.

Irene

Let's begin at the beginning....Iowa, that flat, cold, cornfield filled state nestled between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Looking back, it was a wonderful place to grow up. I can often times still smell that fresh mown hay. The farm life was not the life for me, however, so I left on a jet plane to see what was beyond those beautiful flat lands to the Colorado Rockies. Beautiful snow covered mountains but what, I wondered was beyond those mountains....and so I headed further west and landed one very hot summer day in the California desert. Unfortunately 120 degree summers was really not to my liking so off I went again to check out the Pacific Northwest and here the wandering ended, although anyone who
know me knows the travel did not. I often pack my bags, grab my passport and head out on another adventure.

Jason N.  (IT guy)

Even though I am the Technical Support for Inklings, I still enjoy reading, and always have since childhood. I remember going to the downtown library and trying to read all the children's books they had. I especially loved Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol, Cam Jansen by David Adler, and books about knots, origami, and all craft books. I also love cooking books, like: Cooking for Geeks, anything by Mark Bittman, and America's Test Kitchen. Can't forget to mention Backyard Ballistics, either. 

Now I am mostly a technical reader, although I have to confess that I liked The Hunger Games series and couldn't put Orson Scott Card's Pathfinder down. Loved the sequel, Ruins.

I am married to another Inklings employee, Renee'. We have three young daughters.

Lacey

I'm Lacey, born and raised in the Yakima Valley, graduated from Selah High School in 2019. When my siblings and I were young we lived on the country-side of Selah surrounded by orchards of fruit trees and when we weren't picking fruit, running through or climbing trees, my grandparents or older cousin would be reading to me. When I was about 11 or 12, Rachel my older cousin gave me my first whole Harry Potter series and then sprouted a love for fantasy and to this day Children's fantasy, sci-fi/ fantasy and YA are currently my favorite genres :) 

My favorites include: Warriors by Erin Hunter,  Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, Harry Potter by J.K Rowling, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. 

LuanneLuanne

I am locally sourced. I went to Naches Valley High School, YVC, and Central Washington University. My school teaching career spanned 32 years and I retired in 2011. After I retired, I travelled for several years, but always kept my home base here in the Yakima Valley. In 2018 I hung up my traveling shoes and returned to Yakima to be nearer my growing grandsons and my elderly parents. 

When I saw that Inklings was hiring I knew would be a perfect fit for me. I take care of the ordering for the area school districts and curate the  children’s chapter section here in the shop. I love seeing what young people are reading. 

Helping someone get the just-right book for themselves or as a gift is such a rewarding feeling. Hearing about what others are reading is inspiring. But my favorite is watching young people choose their own chapter books, and remembering the special place reading and books have always had in my life. I’m a lucky local-sourced gal!

MaggieMaggie Mills

I've lived in Yakima since I was five years old. In elementary school I learned to love reading and devoured any book I could get my hands on. I read just about anything, but I loved mystery and fantasy. As a young adult, I've developed a passion for art and film, but I hope to carry my love for literature with me into that field.
I still love mystery and fantasy, but I've also learned to love graphic novels, manga, history, classics, and mythology. My favorite books inspire me to create and share what I loved about them with the people around me.

Currently, my favorites include: 
Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Odyssey by Homer, and The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.

Rachel

I started working at Inklings in 2014 right around Christmas as a gift wrapper. Now I work there part time. I have always loved reading ever since I was little and my parents and grandparents read me bedtime stories. My love of books has just kept growing since then. Now I enjoy fantasy, sci-fi and young adult fiction mostly. I am so grateful to be working in a bookshop where I can share my love of reading everyday. It is very rewarding helping people find books they've been looking for.
 
Here are some of my favorites:

Renee'

ReneeI've been working at Inklings since 2003 and hope to continue doing so for a long time. I love to surround myself with books, and was first introduced to the world of literature by my grandpa, George Simon. I would sit on his lap and we would read the Children's Book of Virtues together. There are so many wonderful stories in that book and I'm glad I got to share them with him. A few decades later I still love reading, but I've added a few more hobbies to my repertoire: bird-watching, hiking, and coffee-drinking. I am also a member of Central Washington Mountain Rescue. Instead of only finding adventure within the pages of a book, I get to go on all sorts of search and rescue missions that involve cliffs, helicopters, mountains and weather of all sorts. 

There are many books that I love to read over and over and over:

Some of my other favorites are: 

Sue

 I grew up in Sacramento, California and graduated from California State University in Sacramento with a degree in English Lit. After living in several states and raising two daughters with my husband, I'm now single and have three grandsons. I love animals and have two dogs, a cat, fish and a turtle that is about 40 years old. I have loved reading all my life and have worked in book shops for over 20 years. I'm also a runner. I'm pretty slow, but I do manage to run in a half-marathon or two a year, often with one of my daughters who are both runners also. You might see me running each morning on the road with my dogs.

Among my favorite books are:

Other favorite authors: Eudora Welty, Anne Tyler, Ivan Doig, Charles Todd, Agatha Christie, Martin Cruz Smith.

Favorite poets: Basho, Gary Snyder, Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, Stephen Dunn, and Mark Doty.

SusanSusan

I was born in North Bend, WA in 1953. Having two older brothers, I was a surprise, and I guess, a happy one. Living in Small Town, USA for the first 7 years of my life, I had hours of outdoor play and hours with some of my best friends - books! My long hair needed tending each morning, so my Mom sat behind me brushing, braiding and teaching me to read when I was four. After our family moved up to Snoqualmie Pass where our nearest neighbors were distant, that friendship with books and the North Bend librarian, gave me hours of imagination and companionship.

Attending a rural school with 100 kids in 1st through 12th grades gave me a good childhood full of teachers who cared about me and my education. Having no social life to speak of, I read all the time, worked hard as a student and didn't even mind long winters with six feet of snow on the ground. While my Dad worked nights for the Department of Transportation plowing that snow, I watched my Mom keep the furnace stoked with coal and wood and enjoyed a wonderful companionship with her, a kindred book spirit.

I married that tall blond basketball player that my Home Ec. teacher said looked like a Greek god. He likes me to remember that. We were only 18, so we kind of grew up the rest of the way together, and we've been married 42 years. We spent a few years in Chicago and Tennessee going to school and then moved back to Central Washington where we raised our four children and Jim started an aircraft rebuilding and manufacturing company called Cub Crafters.

We opened Inklings Bookshop in September of 2000 with no retail experience and a lot of optimism. My business partner, Mandi, made up for all my deficiencies in education, organization and creativity and she made us look good from the start. I am now the sole owner, but I use what I learned from her every day. I can't believe that Inklings is approaching its 19th birthday. What a ride this has been and continues to be. I love what I get to do every day, the people I meet and the challenges that keep me growing!

One of my other favorite roles is being Grandma Sue and spending time with Sophie.  She is a reader whiz and has the best sense of humor! I also have a granddaughter named Merit and three grandsons named Atlas, Corban and Levi.  They are all book-lovers, carrying on the noble Inklings tradition.  I thoroughly enjoy each of them. 

Tony Tony

I spent most of my life deep in Northern Canada where I plowed through the mud and the snow all over the oilfield. Eventually I escaped to find love and loss in Yakima. My passions other than the Science Fiction and Fantasy shelf are pulling a bar in the gym and pretending to be a rogue in Dungeons and Dragons. When I'm not at Inklings I'm at YVCC working on an AA in Medical Science and being a dad to my three young children.