WCLS

Maria Semple's summer-released Where'd You Go, Bernadette has been enjoying bestseller status, thanks to NPR features on On Point and Morning Edition (and there is a waiting list for library copies).  This time around Semple hones her slightly wicked and razor-sharp wit on Seattle and Microsoft culture.  The story centers on brilliant architect, Bernadette, whose allergy for Seattle culture has developed into an agoraphobia that has her using a virtual assistant in India to accomplish most of her errands.  This becomes a problem when the family plans a vacation to Antarctica to celebrate daughter Bee acing her private school report card.  Bernadette mysteriously disappears, and Bee's dedication to finding her mother takes her to the ends of the earth and will have you turning the pages to discover "where did she go?"  Get on the list for this great read - and while you are waiting, check out some of these other novels also set in the great city of Seattle.

Bookmarks magazine continues its Contemporary Life Stages novels series with a new booklist of titles that feature Family Life - from the joys and trials of parenthood to sibling relationships and family dysfunction.  Selections are all by contemporary authors and are identified by the decade or time period during which the novel takes place.  Previous lists in this series were Coming of Age, First Love, Careers, and Marriage.  Bookmarks magazine is available for checkout at the Deming branch or click here to have an issue sent to your home library for pickup.

September 15th begins the month-long celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.  Mark the occasion by picking up Julia Alvarez's A Wedding in Haiti, a memoir chronicling her hilarious and life-changing experiences in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  Years after Alvarez promises a friend she will attend his wedding, she must fulfill her pledge by traveling across the turbulent nation of Haiti, bribing officials along the way.  A year later, she and her husband make the same journey, this time to find her friend in the devastation of the 2010 earthquake that struck the island nation.  Once we have become involved in a relationship, Alvarez declares, we are transformed by our obligation to it.  For a sampling of Hispanic authors, check out The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature.

You might want to add these two new fall titles set in the Northwest to your reading list based on early reviews.  The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, set at the turn of the 20th century, places two scared, desperate, and very pregnant teenage girls under the compassionate watch of a reclusive orchardist who sacrifices his ordered world and lonely harmony to open his heart and let them in.  This book also has one of the most beautiful covers yet this year.  Lance Weller's Wilderness features Abel, another lonely and damaged soul, whose Civil War wounds - both physical and spiritual - led him to pilgrimage to Washington State where he lives with his dog for companionship in a driftwood shack.  But the war is not yet done with him, and he must make one more journey to hold onto his humanity.  (This cover is great, too!)