“Working Boats: An Inside Look at Ten Amazing Watercraft” by Tom Crestodina For many of us, the working vessels that ply local waters and the people who work aboard are a bit of a mystery. We board ferries. We watch sturdy tugs push heavy barges. And we may eat the catch the mariners bring to … Read more
Transcript Our WCLS book selectors sit down and discuss several of the books in our Gift Guide publication, available at WCLS library branches. Two conversations, our adult selectors, Lisa Gresham, Mary Kinser and Emma Radosevich discuss their picks and three of our Youth Services selectors, Thom Barthelmas, Theresa Morrison and Tamar Clark talk about their contributions to … Read more
The Wok: Recipes and Techniques by J. Kenji López-Alt The 2023 winner of the Washington State Book Award for General Nonfiction, J. Kenji López-Alt, is not a flash-in-the-pan. His first book, “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science,” was a New York Times bestseller and won a 2016 James Beard Foundation Award. In 2020, he … Read more
Congratulations, the Best Is Over!: Essays by R. Eric Thomas In this new collection of laugh-out-loud funny essays, R. Eric Thomas picks up where his last memoir (Here For It, 2020) left off. Newly married and enjoying professional success, Thomas’ life is upended when his husband, a Presbyterian pastor, takes a job in Thomas’ hometown of Baltimore. He … Read more
The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay In this sequel to The Book of Delights (2019), Ross Gay is back with even more digressions about delight. This book is the result of Gay’s project to notice and record everyday moments of gratitude for one year, starting in August 2021. As the world opens back up after … Read more
Listen to folks at our Open Book Festival and get a glimpse at the man behind the microphone as we share an excerpt from Puyallup Public Library’s podcast, Shush!…with Debi in which Debi turns the tables on me and interviews me at the Deming Library. Open Book webpage Shush!…with Debi: The Library Podcast Puyallup Public … Read more
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Typically, when I finish a book, I immediately pick up the next one. However, on occasion a book lingers in my thoughts for a day, or more, carving out a spot for itself and temporarily forbidding any new stories from taking root. “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig is … Read more
Find out about the Open Book Festival happening on Sunday, November 5, 2023. WCLS Executive Director Christine Perkins and Village Books Co-owner Paul Hanson talk about this “book lover’s dream day” and all the “bookish experiences” to be had there. Transcript Open Book Festival webpage
O Lady, Speak Again by Danya Patterson Let’s face it, I’m not at all qualified to review this powerful book of poems on the themes of feminism, Mormon culture and the women of Shakespeare’s plays. I’m in over my head, yet I’ve been drawn in by both wordplay and intimacy as Bellingham poet Dayna Patterson navigates … Read more
Where the Language Lives by Janet Yoder Vi taqʷšɘblu Hilbert was 49 years old when she got a phone call that changed the course of her life. Thom Hess, a linguist at the University of Washington, called Hilbert and asked her to review an audio recording of one of her mother’s traditional Coast Salish stories he … Read more