Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran There’s something really fun and escapist about hard-boiled detective novels, and Sara Gran’s first Claire DeWitt mystery, Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, delivers in spades. There’s a self-destructive protagonist who may or may not be a reliable narrator. It’s set in … Read more
Golden Child by Claire Adam You might expect a celebrity like Sarah Jessica Parker to have her own fragrances (she does) or line of shoes (she has that too). But it might be surprising to learn that the award-winning actress is a prolific reader whose passion for books led to a collaboration with Crown Publishing … Read more
Fox 8 by George Saunders Back in 1995, there was a fabulous movie about a little pig who learns to herd sheep; maybe you remember it? My husband and I referred to Babe as the “best talking pig movie of the year” because there were actually two talking pig movies released that year—Gordy was the … Read more
It can be challenging to find your next great read, but the Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) has stacked the deck in your favor. To celebrate our 75th anniversary and our love of sharing stories, we’ve created a full deck of reading recommendations, one for each week of 2019. These recommendations are selected from many … Read more
Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam Houston Pam Houston was 31 years old when her first book, a collection of short stories titled Cowboys are My Weakness (1992), was published to some acclaim, earning her a check for $21,000—a lot of money for someone who was living in a tent and … Read more
Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett The Super Bowl may be over and the New England Patriots’ sixth championship win noted in the record books, but there’s plenty about professional football and racism in the United States to make white people ill at ease, and who better than Michael Bennett to spell it … Read more
Vox by Christina Dalcher It’s the near future, and all women and girls across the United States are required to wear word counters that limit them to 100 words per day. For each word beyond 100, the irremovable “bracelets” deliver a series of electric shocks that increase in intensity from painful to completely devastating. What’s … Read more
A Home on the South Fork: An Early History of Acme by Margaret A. Hellyer After reading A Home on the South Fork: An Early History of Acme by Margaret A. Hellyer, it is easy to conjure the wild place this river valley once was: ancient cedar and fir trees growing tall in fertile soil; … Read more
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver With trademark style, Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel, Unsheltered, tackles political and social justice issues through the story of two families inhabiting the same house, separated by more than a century, who find themselves terribly at odds with the changing world around them. Willa Knox and her husband Iano are an educated professional couple … Read more
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger Leif Enger’s first book in a decade (So Brave, Young, and Handsome was published in 2008) is a gentle, charming antidote to all that ails us as a society these days. The title character, Virgil Wander, is the unassuming sole proprietor of a rundown independent movie theater in a struggling Minnesota town. … Read more