CASSIE

Bend Bookstore Owner

Cassie is the owner of Roundabout Books. 

Hi! I moved from Phoenix to Bend in 2011 with my husband and three children. I founded Roundabout Books in 2016 simply because I love books and wanted a bookstore in my community. My family and I spent the last 13 summers exploring our National Parks together. The loss of cell service, the escape from everyday stresses, and the time together creating adventure and exploring the wonder of nature made these trips some of the most cherished memories of my life.

I love to read all manner of fiction, and the occasional nonfiction. I love coming of age stories like Donna Tarte's The Goldfinch, or John Boyne's The Hearts Invisible Furies. I love the intersection of literary and fantasy fiction, like Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun or George Saunders' short stories. I love to read strong historical fiction like Matrix by Lauren Groff, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, or Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tingui Zhang. I love books about art, magic, and love, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V E Schwab encompasses all three. I love books that make me laugh (try Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson), books that challenge my understanding of the world (anything by Richard Powers), a really great fiction debut (like Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy), and I still love to read and discuss the classics. I lead our Current Fiction and Classics book clubs. 

 

Liberation Day: Stories By George Saunders Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780525509592
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House - October 18th, 2022

The Furrows: A Novel By Namwali Serpell Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593448915
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hogarth - September 27th, 2022

The Sentence By Louise Erdrich Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9780062671127
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Harper - November 9th, 2021

Hello, Molly!: A Memoir By Molly Shannon, Sean Wilsey Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9780063056237
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Ecco - April 12th, 2022

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm: A Novel By Laura Warrell Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593316443
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Pantheon - September 27th, 2022

The Book of Goose: A Novel By Yiyun Li Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780374606343
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - September 20th, 2022

Sea of Tranquility: A novel By Emily St. John Mandel Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9780593321447
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Knopf - April 5th, 2022

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel By Gabrielle Zevin Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593321201
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf - July 5th, 2022

Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel By Anthony Doerr Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781982168445
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - September 27th, 2022

Four Treasures of the Sky: A Novel By Jenny Tinghui Zhang Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250811783
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Flatiron Books - April 5th, 2022

The Lincoln Highway: A Novel By Amor Towles Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780735222359
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Viking - October 5th, 2021

Daughter of the Moon Goddess: A Fantasy Romance Novel (Celestial Kingdom #1) By Sue Lynn Tan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780063031319
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Voyager - October 11th, 2022

Matrix: A Novel By Lauren Groff Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781594634505
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - September 6th, 2022

The Chosen and the Beautiful By Nghi Vo Cover Image
By Nghi Vo
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250820129
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tordotcom - March 29th, 2022

Migrations: A Novel By Charlotte McConaghy Cover Image
$26.99
ISBN: 9781250204028
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Flatiron Books - August 4th, 2020

I really, really love and admire this novel! A captivating and lyrical environmental story about a woman searching for meaning after the species have perished from an Earth ravaged by climate change.  When Franny Stone decides to join a fishing crew in the arctic and lead them across the world to follow the last migration of the Arctic tern, a species that flies from pole to pole and back each year, we are launched into the world of one troubled and wondering soul who feels intimately the profound loss of the Earth's species. Migrations expounds the preciousness and tenacity of all the animals in our world, including human ones.  Perfect for fans of Overstory, this relatively short novel will eclipse you with it's beauty and insight.  By far, one of my favorite reads of the year. ~Cassie


Staff Pick Badge
The Ten Thousand Doors of January By Alix E. Harrow Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316421973
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Redhook - May 12th, 2020

Magical Realism at it's best. The epitome of escape fiction, this novel incarnates the phrase “Books Open Doors’ by manifesting actual doors between worlds.  A book where writers are the creators of worlds, love transcends time and space, and magic lurks in every book. This enchanting book will take your breath away. ~Cassie


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The Heart's Invisible Furies: A Novel By John Boyne Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9781524760793
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hogarth - March 6th, 2018

This incredibly well written book is one of the best novels I've read this year. In a truly transcendent piece of fiction, John Boyne tells us the story of Cyril Avery, born out of wedlock in a rural Irish-Catholic community in 1945, to a teenage girl who is cast out by her priest and her family. So begins Cyril's transformative journey of the next seventy years, as he learns to accept himself, find happiness, find love, and find peace with the past, while reconciling his differences with his family, the church, and his homeland of Ireland.

It's hard to describe all the emotions this book stirs up. I was laughing out loud throughout the story as Boyne's voice is full of humor and he writes with a sharp eye for the ironic and ridiculous.  But other times I was deeply saddened by Cyril's circumstances and angry at all the injustices he was subjected too. I was engaged with every page though, every chapter of the book was captivating.  I will recommend Invisible Furies for a long time to come. ~Cassie


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The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1) By N. K. Jemisin Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316229296
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Orbit - August 4th, 2015

Jemisin has created a new world, full of complexity in ideas, characters, setting, and history.  As the story opens you meet three female protagonists with various orogenic skill levels, which is the power to move rock deep within the Earth's crust, and the world hovers on the brink of the next Fifth Season, an extended winter triggered by seismic activity or another natural disaster.  As landscapes transform and secrets are revealed, you come to know characters who take your breath away as they discover new levels of love, humanity, and power. ~Cassie


Staff Pick Badge
Never Let Me Go (Vintage International) By Kazuo Ishiguro Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781400078776
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - March 14th, 2006

Out of all the contemporary literary fiction books to choose from, why is this little book a favorite? I think there is something very great about the hope of souls that know their time on this Earth is limited, that they are here only to serve a great sacrifice.  If you take away the reward of a long life and long love and great achievements, what does it mean to be human?  In some small way, this little book found an answer.~Cassie


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Piranesi By Susanna Clarke Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9781635575637
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - September 15th, 2020

The perfect book to inhale during a rainy afternoon! A story about the philosophical depths of knowledge, but in the physical form, the psychological, and the historical. What is true and what isn't? A story of secrets and passageways and ancient truths. This strange little book somehow blends the classical and the modern, ancient history and science fiction.  Captivating from the beginning, such an enjoyable read!


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Apeirogon: A Novel By Colum McCann Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780812981933
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - February 2nd, 2021

This book is ambitious in scope, incredibly poetic, and intimately illuminates the human experience. Apeirogon, named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides, is the story of two men living in Jerusalem, one Palestinian, one Israeli, both grieving for their murdered daughters. Though their stories unfold in a linearly, McCann tells them in the flavor of 1,001 Arabian Nights, with 1,001 chapters, blending fact and fiction, and touching on topics as seemingly random as the migratory flights of birds, Francois Mitterand’s last meal and the structure of the human eye. And magically, he links it all together, in one devastating and profound story. - Cassie


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The Beekeeper of Aleppo: A Novel By Christy Lefteri Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593128176
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ballantine Books - June 23rd, 2020

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is an incredible rendering of the Syrian refuge experience, bringing to light not just the stages of the journey through different countries and overwhelming challenges, but the grief of losing your home and loved ones, the resourcefulness of the bind, and the ways the basic need of survival can move someone on to unthinkable decisions.  An exquisitely written, engrossing, and heartbreaking story full of grief and hope and wonder. ~Cassie


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Klara and the Sun: A novel By Kazuo Ishiguro Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780593318171
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Knopf - March 2nd, 2021

When I read Ishiguo's work, I feel as if a veil has been lifted, and suddenly the world -or range- of humanness, and all it's uncomfortable possibilities, are clear. I'm so grateful for his extraordinary talents and ability to manifest new understandings inside the mind this reader. Whether it's the source of human emotion, the impact of memory, the grappling of regret, or simply the purpose of human life, I finish his books with greater insight into the scope of the living. Klara is no different - an inhuman character who in one almost childlike voice, reveals the boundaries between human and inhuman, between a future and obsolescence, between the bonds and boundaries of love. Thank you Mr. Ishiguro ~ again. ~Cassie


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The Bear By Andrew Krivak Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781942658702
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bellevue Literary Press - February 11th, 2020

An intimate fable of Earth’s last two human inhabitants, and a girls journey home.  This is a beautiful, lyrical, and haunting tale of human fragility, love, loss, and the mystery of life. Majestic, and a poignant tribute to nature and the resiliency of the human spirit. ~Cassie
 


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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue By V. E. Schwab Cover Image
$26.99
ISBN: 9780765387561
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Books - October 6th, 2020

Oh my gosh! If you want to escape into a story that sweeps you away – this is it! When Addie faces an impossible decision in 18th century France, she makes a desperate deal with the devil – who grants her freedom, but simultaneously cursed to never be remembered. A magical, heart stopping journey through the centuries, Schwab has weaved together a gorgeous and haunting story of love, history, art memory. A really enjoyable read! ~Cassie


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Once There Were Wolves: A Novel By Charlotte McConaghy Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250244147
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Flatiron Books - August 3rd, 2021

The novel follows the story of Inti Flynn, the lead researcher a project that reintroduces wolves into the Scottish Highlands as way to save the forest, and she must try to straddle the delicate lines between conservation, farmers rights, and community interest. How far conservation efforts can and should go when both wild animals and humans are involved? A beautiful story of love and passion for the wilds, and for each other. Simultaneously intimate and expansive, haunting, visceral, and hopeful. I cannot recommend this book enough – my favorite read of the year so far.~Cassie


Staff Pick Badge
The Chosen and the Beautiful By Nghi Vo Cover Image
By Nghi Vo
$26.99
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9781250784780
Published: Tordotcom - June 1st, 2021

An exquisite retelling of the Great Gatsby. If you've ever wanted to re-read one of your favorite classics, take this route instead! The subtle plotlines and references and magic that Nghi Vo flushes out of an already polished novel is  mesmerizing, and leaves the reader breathless and caught up all over again in the story for the very first time.  ~Cassie


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Shuggie Bain: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) By Douglas Stuart Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802148506
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press - October 13th, 2020

Powerful writing and an important story. This novel will leave you reeling in the wake of Shuggie’s tragic coming of age, but I read this as an epic underdog story. A heartbreaking saga of addiction, shame, neglect, shame, and extreme poverty, but a young man that you can root for, and share in his trials and heartache as he learns to be himself, understand love, and find hope in his future. ~Cassie


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Bewilderment: A Novel By Richard Powers Cover Image
$27.95
ISBN: 9780393881141
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 21st, 2021

As the title implies, Bewilderment is a novel of wonder. I've never read anything so simultaneously transporting and devastating.  Although we expect an environmental novel from Powers, I didn't expect such an intimate portrait of character as he painted with this small two-person family.  I was rocked with the imagination of what curiosities the farthest reaches of space can hold, my mind tumbling over the  possibilities of distance worlds and futures, and simultaneously exploring what wonders of human psyche and future AI might hold as we plunder the depths of love and grief. Truly a novel of expansion and wonder. ~Cassie


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I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness: A Novel By Claire Vaye Watkins Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593330210
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Riverhead Books - October 5th, 2021

I devoured this book! Just as Death Valley and the surrounding Mohave  Desert are simultaneously brutal and beautiful, so is this incandescent novel.  When Claire leaves her home, husband, and new baby to attend a speaking engagement in Reno and reconnect with old friends, the desert pulls her back into a  tangled reckoning with with her past. The ghosts of her father, her mother, her first love, and her upbringing unravel her as she tries to come to terms with her new place in a world far away as a wife, a mother, and an artist.  At times hilarious, at times harrowing, this highly original novel speaks to the complexities of family, of love, and of the expectations we give our grown-up selves. A brilliant book, a transcendent read. ~Cassie


A Long Petal of the Sea: A Novel By Isabel Allende, Nick Caistor (Translated by), Amanda Hopkinson (Translated by) Cover Image
By Isabel Allende, Nick Caistor (Translated by), Amanda Hopkinson (Translated by)
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593157497
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ballantine Books - April 6th, 2021

Whether you’ve read Allende before or not, you will love this moving historical fiction novel. The story follows a family as they escape the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, creating a new life in Chile. An ode to refuges creating new lives everywhere, and a nod to the infamous poet, Pablo Neruda. A book about family, marriage, love, and home.