Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe is the Whatcom READS 2024 book selection. Jess Walter, author of the 2023 featured title, The Cold Millions, announced the book and author during the March 3 author event at the Mount Baker Theatre. Winner of a 2023 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award, Red … Read more
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka Reviewed by Emma Radosevich, collection development librarian, Whatcom County Library System 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 … Read more
111 Places in Seattle That You Must Not Miss by Harriet Baskas February and March can be challenging months here in the Pacific Northwest. Snow is on the ground as I write this, the temperature is freezing and it will be dark in a few hours. It’s a time when PNWers fantasize about trips to warmer … Read more
Whatcom READS season is in full swing, and now that you’ve had a chance to read Jess Walter’s novel “The Cold Millions,” you can dig deeper by availing yourself of library materials from public libraries and local higher-ed institutions. The Whatcom READS website links to a lengthy list of titles exploring topics mentioned in the book, such … Read more
You Are Not Broken: Stop “Should-ing” All Over your Sex Life by KJ Casperson Nestled between articles on China’s approach to COVID-19, Ukraine’s cyber-defense program and needle exchanges in New York City, the Dec. 3, 2022, edition of The Economist included a piece titled, “The wounds of silence.” The author compared modern discomfort about talking about … Read more
Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson Many summers ago, Frankie was a bored teenager in a small town. Messing around with an old copy machine one afternoon, Frankie and her friend Zeke created a poster emblazoned with edgy illustrations and an enigmatic phrase. They hung copies up all over town anonymously, not … Read more
Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander You might think that just because Meredith has not left her house in 1,214 days, she’s lonely. Far from it! After all, Meredith has her jigsaw puzzles, her online support group, grocery delivery and her cat Fred. Oh, and the visits from the volunteer charity arranged by her friend Sadie. It’s … Read more
Better Than We Found It: Conversations to Help Save the World by Frederick and Porsche Joseph Intended as an introduction to topics of the day for a teen audience, adult readers of “Better Than We Found It: Conversations to Help Save the World” by Frederick and Porsche Joseph will appreciate this inspired examination of society’s most … 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 the … Read more
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley If you’re in the mood for a satisfying, twisty thriller laced with contemporary and traditional Native American culture, Angeline Boulley’s debut novel starts with a bang. Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine is the titular “Firekeeper’sDaughter,” half Ojibwe, half French/Italian/English, and entirely herself. A talented hockey player and aspiring doctor, Daunis has made the … Read more