Story Times

Tuesdays at 11am in Fairhaven

Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11am in Lynden Stop by for a half hour of stories and fun.

Thursday, April 27, 7pm

ANGELA TUCKER

–You Should Be Grateful: Stories of Race, Identity, and Transracial Adoption

An adoption expert and transracial adoptee herself examines the unique perspectives and challenges these adoptees have as they navigate multiple cultures.

“Your parents are so amazing for adopting you! You should be grateful that you were adopted.” Angela Tucker is a Black woman, adopted from foster care by white parents. She has heard this microaggression her entire life, usually from well-intentioned strangers who view her adoptive parents as noble saviors. She is grateful for many aspects of her life, but being transracially adopted involves layers of rejection, loss, and complexity that cannot be summed up so easily. In You Should Be Grateful, Tucker centers the experiences of adoptees to share deeply personal stories, well-researched history, and engrossing anecdotes from mentorship sessions with adopted youth. These perspectives challenge the fairy-tale narrative of adoption, giving way to a fuller story that explores the impacts of racism, classism, family, love, and belonging. Angela Tucker is the Executive Director of the Adoptee Mentoring Society and a well-known voice in the conversation about interracial adoption.

Nature of Writing Series

Friday, April 28, 7pm Children of the Setting

Sun Productions

–Jesintel:

Living Wisdom from Coast Salish Elders

Join the editors of this beautiful book as we celebrate its launch in the Readings Gallery. Dynamic and diverse, Coast Salish culture is bound together by shared values and relations that generate a resilient worldview. Jesintel—"to learn and grow together"— characterizes the spirit of this book, which brings the cultural teachings of 19 elders to new generations. Featuring interviews that share powerful experiences and stories, Jesintel illuminates the importance of ethical reciprocal relationships and the interconnectedness of places, land, water, and the spirit within all things. Collaboration is at the heart of this work and informs how the editors and community came together to honor the boundless relations of Coast Salish people and their territories.

Keep turning for more events

Saturday, April 29

Independent Bookstore Day, A Dirty Dan Murder Mystery and a Book Launch!

It's a great weekend toe get out and about! Stop by our Fairhaven store for a fun book launch for kids (see below) or partake in the Dirty Dan Murder Mystery. See below and pages 6 & 9 for details. Meanwhile, both our Fairhaven and Lynden stores will have a variety of exclusive Independent Bookstore Day merchandise for sale—check it out!

Nature of Writing Series

Saturday, April 29, 4pm

BARBARA DAVIS-PYLES

–Nobody Likes Frogs: A Book of Toadally Fun Facts

Join us in the Readings Gallery for the launch of another great kids book by local author, Barbara Davis-Pyles! In this humorous narrative nonfiction picture book, the text cleverly puts the reader in the role of the “expert” to educate a persnickety turtle about the amazing amphibian known as the frog. With the reader's help, Persnickety Q. Turtle learns intriguing frog facts, such as they can breathe through their skin while underwater and their eyes help them swallow! Pick up this book and help Persnickety find out all the reasons frogs are such incredible creatures. Barbara Davis-Pyles, author of Grizzly Boy, Cliff the Failed Troll, and Stubby the Fearless Squid, has written hundreds of fiction and nonfiction pieces for the children's education market.

May

Wednesday, May 3, 7pm

The Chuckanut Radio Hour featuring ERICA BAUERMEISTER

–No Two Persons at the Hotel Leo, Downtown Bellingham

Join us for an evening of music, comedy, poetry, and literature as we welcome Erica Bauermeister BACK to the Chuckanut Radio Hour as she introduces her latest novel, No Two Persons. One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. No Two Persons is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.” FindErica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novels The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the author and co-author of nonfiction works including House Lessons: Renovating a Life; 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide; and Let's Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington. Tickets $5 - available at villagebooks.com.

Friday, May 5, 7pm

An Evening with

RAINN WILSON at the Mount Baker Theatre

–Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

We are thrilled to welcome actor, comedian, producer, writer, and director. Rainn Wilson as part of our Booked at the Baker series! Each ticket comes with a copy of his new book, Soul Boom. Tickets on sale soon at mountbakertheatre.com. In Soul Boom, Rainn explores the possibility and hope for a spiritual revolution, a “Soul Boom,” to address today’s greatest issues—mental health, racism and sexism, climate change, and economic injustice. Wilson’s approach to spirituality—the non-physical, eternal aspects of ourselves—is relatable and will apply to people of all beliefs, even the skeptics.

Rainn Wilson is a three-time Emmy nominated actor best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on NBC’s The Office. Rainn is the author of The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy, as well as the coauthor of SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions, a New York Times bestseller.

Nature of Writing Series

Saturday, May 6, 7pm

An Evening with PETER WOHLLEBEN and THOR HANSON at Bellingham High School

–The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them

Village Books and the North Cascades Institute have teamed up once again, to bring you another great event in the Nature of Writing Series, and this one is a doozy! Peter Wohlleben will present his latest book The Power of Trees and he will be in conversation with bestselling author and biologist Thor Hanson!

The Power of Trees is forester Peter Wohlleben’s follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees, a New York Times bestseller that sold millions of copies worldwide. This latest work is as fascinating and eye-opening as it is trenchant in its critique. It is a love letter to the forest and a passionate argument for protecting nature’s boundless diversity, not only for the trees, but also for ourselves. Tickets include a copy of The Power of Trees. Don't miss this event!

We Appreciate Your Continued Support of Village Books and our Literature Live Programming

Tuesday May 9, 6pm

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater Open Mic

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater

(CSWT) Open Mic is held at Village Books on the second Tuesday of the month from 6-8pm. All welcome! Register to read through villagebooks.com or just show up and enjoy.

Nature of Writing Series

Saturday, May 13, 4pm

MATT KRACHT

–OMFG Bees!:

Bees Are So Amazing and You're About to Find Out Why

Matt Kracht is best known as the cantankerous, bird-loathing author of bestsellers, The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America, and The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World. One might assume that Kracht finds bees to be another detestable flying nuisance, but that can’t be further from the truth. “Seriously, bees are so important to our agricultural food supply that we should be kissing bees’ asses” he asserts in his newest book, OMFG, BEES! Bees Are So Amazing and You’re About to Find Out Why. Based in Tacoma, Matt Kracht is a writer, artist, and amateur naturalist who enjoys creating books that celebrate the humor inherent in life’s absurdities.

Friday, May 19, 7pm

LAURIE BUCHANAN and ASHLEY SWEENEY

–Impervious: A Sean McPherson Novel

Friends and family gather for the union of Sean McPherson and Emma Benton at Pines & Quill, a writers’ retreat in Bellingham, Washington. But just as the festivities begin, an explosion shatters everything. From Bellingham to New Orleans and San Francisco, the chase is on to discover who’s dead set on ensuring the newlyweds don’t live happily ever after. Laurie Buchanan writes the Sean McPherson novels—fast-paced crime thrillers set in the Pacific Northwest. Ashley E. Sweeney, a long-time Northwest Washington resident, has garnered twelve awards, including the Nancy Pearl Book Award, for her three historical novels, Eliza Waite, Answer Creek, and her newest, Hardland.

Literature

Events take place at Village Books in Fairhaven unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday, May 24, 7pm

JANE WONG

–Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City: A Memoir

An incandescent, exquisitely written memoir about family, food, girlhood, resistance, and growing up in a Chinese American restaurant on the Jersey shore. In this, her debut memoir, Wong tells a new story about Atlantic City, one that resists a single identity, a single story, as she writes about making do with what you have—and what you don’t. Filled with beauty found in unexpected places, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City i s a resounding love song of the Asian American working class, a portrait of how we become who we are, and a story of lyric wisdom to hold and to share. The author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and Overpour, Jane Wong is a Kundiman fellow and the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, and others. An associate professor of creative writing at Western Washington University, she grew up on the New Jersey shore and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

Monday, May 29, 6:00pm

Open Mic with Seán Dwyer

Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their own stories, poems and essays. Published and unpublished writers are encouraged to attend and enjoy a welcoming audience. Our regular emcee and celebrated local author, Seán Dwyer, will host as he does every month.See villagebooks.com for details and registration information.