Northwest Know-how: Beaches by Rena Priest Nature lovers and poetry enthusiasts have a couple of chances to meet a local treasure, Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest. Priest will be speaking about her latest book, “Northwest Know-How: Beaches” from 7-8:30 p.m. Friday, June 10 at Village Books in Bellingham as part of the spring “Nature of Writing” … Read more
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso If Edith Wharton wrote Ethan Frome in 1986, it might look like Very Cold People. Also set in a fictional Massachusetts town, Sarah Manguso’s first novel is a pithy coming-of-age story with a bleak outlook. Ruthie doesn’t know why her non-WASP family lives in Waitsfield– they can’t afford it … Read more
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka At the community pool, obsessive lap swimmers adhere to a strict, unspoken social code. They stick to their lanes and keep an eye out for each other–especially Alice, who has been swimming laps here for 35 years. Her dementia doesn’t seem as big of a deal when she’s at the … Read more
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. FRUIT, RUM, SUGAR, spices — their mother Eleanor’s black cake is a family tradition that runs throughout Benny and Byron’s childhoods, tying them to their Caribbean heritage and to one another. When Eleanor passes away, she leaves her children one final black cake to share, along with a mysterious recorded … Read more
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin. Our lives are shaped by our memories. They influence our understanding of the world, and through them we develop our sense of self. But what if you could excise a piece of your past? At Nepenthe, memory erasure is big business, allowing clients to eliminate snippets of recall … Read more
Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian Long before President Biden declared Russia’s Ukraine war “genocide,” and long before the word was first coined during World War II to describe Nazi Germany’s actions toward European Jews, the Ottoman Empire’s ruling Committee of Union and Progress systematically implemented the mass murder of approximately 1 million Armenians in what … Read more
The Salt Fields by Stacy D. Flood In spare prose with haunting images, Stacy D. Flood’s novella, “The Salt Fields,” tells of a Black man’s train journey north, leaving South Carolina with its ghosts and grief for a fresh start in the northern steel mills. Set just after World War II during the beginning of … Read more
Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West by Blaine Harden Whether you’re a “Whittie,” know someone who attended Whitman College, or have never heard about early Washington pioneer Marcus Whitman, you’ll still find much to learn by reading veteran journalist Blaine Harden’s deeply researched … Read more
Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth by Clyde W. Ford Over his distinguished writing career, Bellingham author Clyde Ford has entertained and challenged readers with his works of fiction and nonfiction alike. His previous book, “Think Black,” is a vivid portrayal of the intersection between technology and … Read more
Writer in a Life Vest: Essays from the Salish Sea by Iris Graville As the first-ever writer-in-residence for the Washington State Ferries System, Iris Graville’s office was a booth on the passenger deck of the MV Tillikum, the inter-island ferry that threads San Juan, Orcas, Shaw and Lopez islands. Her beat was the Salish Sea, … Read more