Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Drop what you’re doing and prepare yourself to fall hard for this absorbing story of loss, love and video games. Sam and Sadie connected as kids over a shared love of games like Super Mario and Oregon Trail. The two were virtually inseparable until a falling-out brought … Read more
All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien It’s 1996, and Ky Tran has left her tiny hometown of Cabramatta and her Vietnamese immigrant community to scratch out a future as a journalist in Melbourne. Then tragedy strikes: Ky’s brother Denny, a star student with a bright future, is brutally murdered in a popular restaurant. Despite … Read more
Think Black: A Memoir by Clyde W. Ford Few people have lives as varied and interesting as Bellingham’s own Clyde Ford. In his professional life, he’s been a chiropractor, a psychotherapist and a business owner. He’s studied mind-body healing, African mythology, the environment and history, and he’s channeled these interests into a career as a … Read more
The Family Chao by Lan Samatha Chang Lan Samantha Chang’s latest novel, “The Family Chao,” centers around a murder, but it’s less of a whodunit than a psychological study of complicated family relationships. The plot is similar to “The Brothers Karamazov,” but you need not be a scholar of 19th-century Russian literature to appreciate this … 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
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
Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of A Coast Salish Punk by Sasha taqwšeblu LaPointe An Indigenous artist from the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian tribes, Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, shares her story of trauma, healing and the search for home in “Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk,” a vulnerable and luminous debut … Read more
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner Michelle Zauner, the indie rock sensation who records as Japanese Breakfast, was only 25 years old when she lost her mother to cancer. Her mother, Chongmi, was 56 when she died. “It was the year her life ended and mine fell apart,” Zauner states. In the … Read more
Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s by Tiffany Midge Tiffany Midge may be the snarkiest, funniest writer to pass through Whatcom County in recent memory. Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s is a collection of satirical essays, observations and poems that look at the absurdity of contemporary culture, particularly as it pertains to Native Americans. … Read more
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee As the former president of the progressive think tank, Demos, Heather McGhee spent 20 years looking for solutions to economic inequality and other big social problems before realizing she was hitting the same wall. That wall came to … Read more