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
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 renowned … Read more
The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with Recipes) by Kate Lebo Mixing culinary history, personal reflections and tantalizing trivia, poet and pie aficionado Kate Lebo delves deep into 26 lyrical essays featuring “difficult” fruit — one for each letter of the alphabet — in her first work of nonfiction, “The … Read more
Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers In the gentle, hopeful future world of the ‘Monk and Robot’ series by Becky Chambers, Sibling Dex, a tea monk on the planet Panga, and a scatterbrained and lovable robot named Splendid Speckled Mosscap (robots in Panga are named for the first thing their awareness touches on, in this … Read more
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch, but many of us Northwesterners claim Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl as one of our own, even if his life-changing stint as the drummer for Nirvana only lasted four years, and to hear him tell it, he wasn’t a … Read more
52 Ways to Nature: Washington: Your Seasonal Guide to a Wilder Year by Lauren Braden Now that the Fourth of July has come and gone, signaling summer has finally arrived to Whatcom County, it’s time to make adventure plans to make the most of each precious weekend. Seattle-based travel writer Lauren Braden’s “52 Ways to Nature: … Read more