The Chuckanut Reader - Spring 2021 by Village Books and Paper Dreams

The

Chuck anut Reader A Village Books Publication • SPRING 2021

A Magazine for the Northwest’s Most Avid Readers

Great Reads Virtual Events FREE!

• •

take enjoy

Independent Bookstore Day

April 24

20% OFF POETRY

All April

Gift Ideas

villagebooks.com VOLUME 28, ISSUE 1

Village Books & Paper Dreams

CUSTOMIZED

Care Packages! Send Books • Send Gifts • Send Smiles The perfect surprise for Easter, Mother's Day, birthdays, get-wells, or just an "I'm thinking about you" to anyone who needs a little lift.

Go to villagebooks.com where you can choose a theme then answer a few questions about preferences and reading habits, and our personal shoppers will take care of the rest.

Let Us Shop For You

Themes include holidays, positive energy/rest & relaxation, Pacific Northwest nature, biking, writing, tea lover, crazy for cats or dogs, or just let us surprise you with all of it!

SHOP 24/7 at VILLAGEBOOKS.COM In-Store Shopping available daily! Never Miss Out! Follow Village Books on Twitter. We tweet about book events, new books, and book-related topics. We are @VillageBksBham.

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Whatever your shopping preference, we're here for you. Like us on Facebook! Make sure to select Get Notifications so you'll always see our posts about local events and other book-related topics. Go to Facebook.com/VillageBooks.

Find and follow Village Books and Paper Dreams on Instagram (village_books). #Tag your favorite VB/PD photos! We post beautiful, behind-the-scenes images of staff book and gift favorites, new arrivals, author events, specials, and even an occasional fun contest or two.

Spring 2021

Building Community One Book at a Time

Dear Reader, Traditionally, we dedicate a portion of the Spring issue of our Chuckanut Reader to looking back, reflecting on the previous year's ups and downs. For us, it's been a year of finding the silver linings in the face of hardships, maintaining our compassion in the midst of suffering, finding creative solutions when confronted by obstacles, and staying true to our mission of building community even when the community can't gather. We worked to lessen the impact of behind-the-scenes disruptions while also upholding our high standards of service. The renewed emphasis on buying local saved many of our locally owned and independent businesses and our hearts go out to those we’ve lost. We congratulate you on choosing community over convenience, character over corporations, and people over algorithms. Remember that choosing local first is not just a fad, it's a way of life, that buying locally serves not just the business, but also you and your community. We're looking forward to the coming year with you, Dear Reader, and are very happy that 2020 is now nothing more than hindsight.

– Paul, Kelly, Sarah

and the Entire Village Books and Paper Dreams Family

VILLAGE BOOKS

& Paper Dreams The Chuckanut Reader • Spring 2021

Publisher: Village Books and Paper Dreams Production Design: Kelly Carbert Contributors: Eric Bowen, Lillie Brown, Kendra Calitri, Peter Dyer, Chelanne Evans, Kelly Evert, Paul Hanson, Sarah Hutton, Rachel Johnson, Jenni McDowell, Claire McElroy-Chesson, Mckenzie Oliver, Laura Picco, Melissa Searle, Lauren Sommer, Emily Thomsen Cover: Enjoy the comforts and colors of spring. Thank YOU for your continued support — we wouldn't be here without it. Content except art & book covers ©Village Books 2021 Printed by the Lynden Tribune on paper made from 50% post-consumer waste.

browse & shop anytime!

villagebooks.com

Village Books & Paper Dreams 1200 11th St., Bellingham, WA 98225 and 430 Front Street, Lynden, WA 98264

We're Online!

In This Issue... Shopping Made Easy at Village Books & Paper Dreams 2 Dear Reader 3 A Murder Mystery in Fairhaven – Don't Miss Out 4 Our Top Ten Stories From 2020 5-8 Independent Bookstore Day – Write a Review! 9 Round it Up for Common Threads 10 Shopping with Kelly – Gorgeous Gifts 11 & 13 Whatcom Reads 2021 14 Don't Miss Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro 15 PNBA Award Winners 16 Fiction, Mystery, and Sci-Fi Reads and Events 17-25 Literature, Writing Classes and Conferences 26-29 It's All Happening In Lynden 30-33 Cooking, Eating, and Evolve 34-37 Current Events, History, Biography 38-41 Get Outside, Travel, and Sail 42-44 Nature, Science, and Plants 45-47 More Non-Fiction, Art, and Crafts 48-49 April is National Poetry Month – Celebrate! 51-53 Great Reads and Activities for Kids, Teens, Teachers 54-63 Book Groups & Author Events – All Virtual 64-70 What Whatcom Was Reading 2020 71

Go to VillageBooks.com to see this issue, as well as past issues, of The Chuckanut Reader online!

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Dirty Dan

MYSTERY Weekend

April 24 & April 25 Village Books is a proud sponsor of the first annual Dirty Dan Mystery Weekend! Join us for this weekend of gathering clues, encountering suspects, interviewing witnesses and sleuthing. The weekend begins when you open the Fairhaven newspaper and read: “A runner was found dead on Friday April 23rd at 9am on the bench next to the statue of Dan Harris*…” Thus begins the quest to find the murderer and their method. Read the newspaper from front to back. You’ll also be given a map with locations where you can pick up printed clues to help you solve the mystery. All of the clue locations and the scene of the crime are within a half mile of Fairhaven Village Green. As you walk around the village collecting your clues, you will encounter some of the suspects (i.e. characters) described in the newspaper. You never know who might have valuable information which will help you solve the mystery. But can you trust them all? Hmmmm, the real “criminal” is out there and they have every reason to lead you in the wrong direction! When you think you have figured out who and how enter your solution on the official ballot. Bring your completed form to the Dirty Dan Mystery Headquarters (location to be announced). Correct ballot solutions will be placed in a drawing for Grand Prizes ranging from Weekend Getaways and Merchant Gift Certificates to Dirty Dan Mystery Memorabilia. All the other ‘incorrect ballots’ will be placed in a drawing for other prizes. ” Dirty” Dan Harris is the founder of Fairhaven Village. A character himself, he died a natural death in 1890 in Los Angeles.

Saturday, April 24, 10am through

Sunday, April 25, 1:30pm

Solve the Mystery Win Prizes!

$12

per person

Registration opens online March 15.

enjoyfairhaven.com Tickets will also be available in person that weekend— watch for details.

The Dirty Dan Harris Mystery Weekend is produced by the Historic Fairhaven Association, a non-profit organization that promotes and preserves the historical character of Fairhaven and also organizes the district festivals.

Spring 2021

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Village Books & Paper Dreams

2020 TOP 10 STORIES A Year of Being Nimble, Flexible, Creative, and Understanding

YOU

Our Customers and Employees ARE THE BEST!

How many ways are there to say unprecedented? 2020 was a challenge in so many ways and we absolutely 100% could not have made it through without the support of our staff and our customers. Our staff helped to create new ways to reach customers, embraced new systems, and navigated changing landscapes. Happily, you, our customers, responded in kind! You ordered from our website, you joined our virtual events, and embraced buying local to keep us here and to keep our community vibrant and strong. We're always appreciative of our staff and customers but this year it's doubly, triply, quadruply true. Thank you!

Village Books Turns 40, Our Lynden Store Turns 5

YEARS

1980-2020

What a year to celebrate milestone anniversaries! Our Lynden location celebrated five years in operation and Village Books celebrated the Big 4-0! Of course, last spring we were brainstorming party events and ways to celebrate but, well, you know. The moment we can celebrate together, we will! And meanwhile, here's to 40 years of local business!

Increased Awareness of Racial Injustice and Inequality

Our community and country continues to read and learn about antiracism in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others who suffered and died from systemic racism. Several of our bestselling books of 2020 (see pages 33 & 71) addressed unlearning these systems and provided frameworks for new thinking. Find continued reading and resources for all ages on our website.

Continued... Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

celebrate spring! THINK LOCAL FIRST find a farm share (CSA) NEW ONLINE TOOL HELPS YOU PURCHASE DIRECTLY FROM FARMERS Home delivery • Neighborhood drop sites • Farm pick-up EatLocalFirst.org/CSA

GREEN HOME TOURS & tALKS

GREEN

home

tours & talks

APRIL 17-18 VIRTUAL TOURS, TALKS & WORKSHOPS Online resources • Green building directory • Prizes! SustainableConnections.org

cloud mountain nursery opens for the season OPEN THURSDAY - SUNDAY Curbside pick-up • Delivery options • In-person shopping Online store • Outdoor workshops CloudMountainFarmCenter.org

support local businesses PURCHASE A WHATCOM THINK LOCAL FIRST GIFT CARD Valid at over 230 local businesses in Whatcom County. There’s something for everyone! ThinkLocalFirst.org

Spring 2021

Shop 24 hours a day at villagebooks.com

Village Books 2020 Top 10 - Continued from page 5

52 Women of Whatcom Celebrates 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage

52 Women of Whatcom, published by Village Books in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County and Cascadia Weekly, celebrates the work of 52 local women who have dedicated, and continue to dedicate, their lives and work to the betterment of their communities. “It’s empowering to know how we can all make a difference on the local level, and to learn more about our local history.” says Sarah. lwvbellinghamwhatcom.org

Home Deliveries by Foot, by Bike, or by Vespa! When the stay home order went into effect, we knew we had to find a way to get books to people at a time when, stuck at home, they needed books the most. Like many other businesses, we started home delivery. When the weather was good, owner Kelly Evert pumped up those bike tires and started delivering, keeping us connected during times of isolation. "It was so much fun to explore areas of Bellingham that I had not seen before,” says Kelly.

Virtual Events and Book Groups Emulate the In-Person Experience

Long before 2020 happened, we had considered expanding our events and book groups to the virtual world. When the world of author events did an about-face so completely, it gave us a great excuse to finally do it! Thanks to Claire, our rockin' events coordinator, we've been able to maintain intimacy and connection while being totally separate. You can even view past events on our YouTube channel! This past year has been quite an adventure and we have more amazing events coming!

Whatcom READS Shifts Gears from Ivey to Edugyan

Cast your mind back to March of 2020…the waning days of normalcy. Whatcom READS hosted Eowyn Ivey’s visit for To the Bright Edge of the World, one of the last events before everything shut down. From that day on, Whatcom READS prepared for the next book, Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black, adjusting for the changes by offering numerous and timely virtual events. Just wait till you see what we have in store for 2022! See Whatcomreads.org.

Customized Care Packages for Every Occasion Care packages ordered through our website have become another way we help customers get Birthday, Mother's Day, Easter and then Christmas gifts to friends and family. We created a guided questionnaire so customers could provide their personal requests and then we got to work. It is so much fun to gather gifts and then ship them to other parts of the country. It warms our hearts knowing that we are helping to bring a bit of joy into their lives. "Personal shopping is definitely a service that we are going to keep," says Paul.

See more on page 8 Thank You for Shopping Local. It Matters!

Spring 2021

Village Books 2020 Top 10

#10

Spring 2021

Continued from page 7

Evolve BBQ on the Village Green Restaurants have had to innovate more than any other business this past year and Evolve has been no exception. (They’re named Evolve for a good reason!) If you didn’t get the chance to visit this past summer to enjoy Chef Christy’s scrumptious BBQ cooked fresh to order, you’ll have more opportunities in the coming year! evolvechocolatecafe.com

Smart Trips Winner Ronnie You may see her picture in posters around town, our own Ronnie Delgado was the Smart Trips Quarterly Prize Winner of $1000! "I love walking to work, it is good for me and for the environment" says Ronnie. A Western Washington University grad, Ronnie was absolutely surprised by her win. She continues, “It came at the perfect time, as my school loans are starting to be due." It truly pays to be a Smart Tripper! Village Books and Paper Dreams is a proud Smart Trips employer partner. whatcomsmarttrips.org

Building Community One Book at a Time

Join us in celebrating

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY

Saturday, April 24, 2021

ndependent Bookstore Day is a one-day national celebration that takes place at indie bookstores across the country on the last Saturday in April. This day serves as a reminder that independent bookstores are not just stores, they’re community centers and local anchors run by and enjoyed by passionate readers. Join us in celebrating . . . US! Stop by to check out and purchase exclusive 2021 limited-edition Independent Bookstore Day merchandise. Included are unique Baby Yoda onesies and cool Independent Bookstore Day (IBD) blackwing pencils, as well as signed editions of Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn and Cook, Eat, Repeat by Nigella Lawson and much more! Meanwhile think back to all the books you've purchased from Village Books over the years and write a short review (30-100 words) for your favorite! We'll post it in the store and for participating, YOU'LL BE ENTERED TO WIN A VILLAGE BOOKS GIFT CARD! Email your review to reviews@villagebooks.com by April 24–the sooner the better! FREE AUDIOBOOKS! Spend at least $15 at your favorite independent bookstore and collect selected free audiobooks from Libro.fm. Create your account now so you're ready for the big day—we're happy to help!

We can't wait to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with you! The pledge is a commitment to buy, in any given month, one fewer book from solely online sellers and chain stores and one more book from Village Books and Paper Dreams.

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Are You Receiving the

Village Books e-Newsletter? Village Books sends out an email newsletter packed full of store and book information including our latest virtual LitLive events, sale dates, and on occasion, special promotions. Twice each week, we also provide Shelf Awareness for Readers book reviews. If you’re not currently receiving these updates and would like to, you may sign up in the store or, even easier, do it at villagebooks.com today!

Spring 2021

ROUND IT UP for Common

Threads

Connecting Kids to Healthy Food

e’re excited to introduce you to this season’s Round Round It Up partner, Common Threads!

Common Threads helps kids across Whatcom County learn to make food choices that are good for their bodies, their communities, and the environment. Through gardening, cooking, and eating, they create opportunities to practice teamwork, learn healthy habits, and try new things. The majority of their programs take place on school grounds through experiential learning in the garden and classroom. They have continued to fulfill their mission during the school closures by turning the school gardens into small-scale production farms to grow fresh produce and aiding in food distribution to families in need. Common Threads Food Educators are modeling adaptation as they create and provide online content including delicious and healthy recipies to prepare and fun activities that can be done at home.

Round It Up, our amazingly simple giving program, was designed to support local non-profits. Join Village Books and Paper Dreams customers who are supporting our community by rounding up your next purchase to the nearest dollar. Ask a bookseller for details.

Your support is greatly appreciated as Common Threads continues to support the community. Providing nourishment and joy amid the uncertainty is what drives them to keep planting, harvesting, and smiling behind their masks.

Be the Change Garrett Shively

See commonthreadsfarm.org to read more information and to discover additional ways to support Common Threads.

Thanks for rounding up your purchases this season in support of Common Threads. 10

Spring 2021

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

The Colors of

g n i r p S

Shopping with Kelly

Village Books & Paper Dreams Owner & Gift Buyer Kelly Evert Shares Her Top Picks for the Season Spring. We made it! We are back to our glorious Northwest spring. As the season brings us new leaves and daffodils, home décor is also looking to these colors of warmth, calm, and grounding. Yellows, blues, and greens are the colors of the moment. Our patios have become an extension of our living spaces—a place we increasingly use for entertaining friends and family as our social distancing continues. Le Cadeaux brings us exceptionally made dinnerware for outdoor dining that are not only beautiful but made of heavy weight 100% melamine that is shatter resistant, BPA free, and dishwasher safe. Truly table art that has the look and feel of real ceramic with designs inspired by the French and Italian countryside. Our annual arrival of Magnolia Casual swings are always a hit and are perfect as a Mother’s Day present when mom wants to swing on a hammock built for one.

This also gives us the chance to enjoy some other new innovative designs that are being released. Paddywax candles have come out with a beautiful spring line in a range of evocative scents. They have cleverly created colorful glass diffusers with a brushed gold plate that hold reeds in place and can be repurposed as a bulb planter. They also have a new 12 oz. candle with a drainage hole and a lid that becomes a base to repurpose as a planter.

Turn the page for more Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

ONLINE SEASON

MAR 14

AT HOME WITH ANTHONY Anthony McGill, clarinet APR 11

AT HOME WITH ALEX Alex Klein, oboe MAY 9

AT HOME WITH JESSICA & DEMARRE

WATCH FOR FREE on CONCERT DAY!

Jessica Choe, piano Demarre McGill, flute JUNE 13

AT HOME WITH BELLA Harmony from Discord

Bella Hristova, violin

All concerts will air on BELLINGHAMSYMPHONY.ORG KMRE 102.3 FM & BTV on concert days. For information on single ticket and season access, please visit our website: BellinghamSymphony.org

Bellingham

City Club

community, arts & entertainment

JoinJoin us for non-partisan programs uslively, for monthly speakers who willmonth inform, connect and engage onon each with interesting speakers critical issues within ourcommunity. community. important issues in our

Everyone welcome lep.m. Doors open: 11:30 a.m. program: 1:30 rtually12w- hi ting vi eeLunch Club is m ty Ci the 4th Wednesday of each at Northwood ssible. Hall not po are month gatherings

FOR PROGRAM INFORMATION AND PRICING

all local, all the time www.cascadiaweekly.com

www.bellinghamcityclub.org 12

Spring 2021

Building Community One Book at a Time

Shopping with Kelly

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” –Cicero

Small pottery eases well from the indoors to the patio. We have some adorable pots just begging for a cheerful geranium or succulent.

Deciding just what to put into those containers can be a bit daunting when you arrive at the plant nursery. The Flower Yard by Arthur Parkinson (April) and DK Grow: Containers are just two books that are great at helping with design and care. And if you have more than a patio and need to go big with flowers, Floratopia by Jan Johnsen can help you from containers, to perennials, and borders. No matter how you enjoy the longer days, whether it be listening to a good book or podcast on your headphones while diffing in the garden or enjoyoing a gloass of wine on the patio, please, Dear Reader, enjoy the season of renewal. Kelly Evert Owner of an Independent Business Building Community One Book at a Time Since 1980

The Flower Yard :

Floratopia :

DK Grow Containers : Essential Know-How and Expert Advice for Gardening Success

Growing Flamboyant Flowers in Containers

110 Flower Garden Ideas for Your Yard, Patio, or Balcony by Jan Johnsen

available in March, paperback, DK

availble in April, hardcover, Kyle Books

available now, hardcover, Countryman Press

"The Flower Yard is simply gorgeous. Inspirational, sumptuous and packed with refreshingly downto-earth advice. I love this book." –Nigel Slater

Jan’s encouraging voice, experience, and contagious passion for flower garden design will inspire you to plant joyful blossoms wherever you live.

Ideal for first-time gardeners, DK Grow Containers has everything you need to know to choose and care for more than 80 different varieties, all specially chosen for their ability to thrive in containers.

by Arthur Parkinson

by DK

Find more new books on plants and gardening on page 47

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

2021

Join Whatcom’s Largest Book Group! Read the Book. Join the Conversation. Whatcom READS is a countywide program that encourages everyone to read and discuss the same book. The 2021 reading selection is Washington Black by bestselling novelist Esi Edugayn.

Esi Edugyan Virtual Events

Thursday, March 4 1pm - 2pm: Author Interview with Shu-Ling Zhao, co-founder, Sylvia Center for the Arts and Whatcom County Racial Equity Commission

7pm - 8pm: Book Talk with Mary Kinser,

collections development

librarian, Whatcom County Library System. These events hosted via Crowdcast.

Friday, March 5 - Art and Craft of Writing

11am - 12pm: Observe as Esi Edugyan leads a writing craft discussion with Western Washington University students. Moderated by Dr. Scott Linneman, director, University Honors Program. This event hosted via Zoom.

Pre-registration required for all events. Visit whatcomreads.org for details and to register for these free, online community programs.

Village Books donates 10% of sales of Washington Black to Whatcom READS. Whatcom READS is organized by all the public and academic libraries in Whatcom County and Village Books, with significant funding from Friends of the Bellingham Public Library and Whatcom County Library Foundation and support from other local businesses and organizations.

Whatcom READS ART Challenge Exhibition March 5-27

Read. Create. Enjoy.

Participate! All ages & mediums welcome. Art Drop Off: March 2 & 3, 11am - 4pm

At the Allied Arts Gallery, 1418 Cornwall Ave. Downtown Bellingham, WA

Spring 2021

Available

Now at R2021 ECONCILIATION

Village Books!

Pick up your copy of the 2021 Whatcom Reads anthology — a collection of stories & poetry inspired by the theme "Reconciliation." Shop 24 hours a day at villagebooks.com

Join us for a Virtual Event with Nobel Prize Winner

Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation with Ruth Ozeki Saturday, March 13, 2pm Join us for an afternoon with Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, as he discusses his new novel Klara and the Sun with Ruth Ozeki!

photo credit: Andrew Testa

Village Books is joining forces with Seattle bookstores Third Place Books and Elliott Bay Book Company to bring you this unique event as part of Kazuo Ishiguro's tour. We are excited to announce that celebrated author Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being, will join him in conversation. Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, carefully watches the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. It is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love? Kazuo Ishiguro's eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honors around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His work has been translated into over 50 languages, and The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, both made into acclaimed films, have each sold more than 2 million copies. He was given a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature. He also holds the decorations of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan.

TICKETS $35 INCLUDE • Event Access • One Hardcover Copy of Klara and the Sun • a book plate signed by Kazuo Ishiguro! (while supplies last)

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. She is the bestselling author of three novels, My Year of Meats, All Over Creation, and A Tale for the Time Being, which was translated and published in over 35 countries and shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. Her new novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness, will be published by Viking in September, 2021. She teaches creative writing at Smith College where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities.

Register today through villagebooks.com Books will be shipped after the event via USPS Media Mail. We do not offer international shipping.

Thank You for Shopping Local. It Matters!

Spring 2021

PNBA BOOK AWARDS 2021 PACIFIC NORTHWEST BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNERS

Each year since 1965, the PNBA Awards have celebrated exceptional books written by Northwest authors. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir by E.J. Koh

(Seattle, WA)

A box of tear stained letters written in Korean leads a young woman on a complicated family odyssey to understand why she and her brother were left in California as teens while their parents returned home for work. This challenging memoir unearths four generations of trauma, crossing borders between Korea, Japan, and America in exquisite poetry and prose, ultimately revealing that love takes many forms. T in House Books

This Is My America by Kim Johnson

(Eugene, OR)

Tracy Beaumont is a fighter for justice: for her father on death row for her brother, accused of murder for her friends and neighbors and—especially—for herself. Random House Books for Young Readers

Lupe Wong Won't Dance by Donna Barba Higuera (Issaquah, WA)

Mexican Gothic

by S ilvia Moreno-Garcia

(Vancouver, BC)

Shirley Jackson meets Get Out in this atmospheric slow-burner that will linger in your mind’s shadowy corners long after you’ve departed the haunting High Place. Del Rey

rough house

by Tina Ontiveros

(The Dalles, OR)

This raw story of cyclical poverty is a very real look at growing up in small logging communities of the Pacific Northwest. As Ontiveros tells stories of her father Loyd, a charming, ill-tempered logger battling addiction and other demons, you can’t help feeling for this family and falling deeply into this story. They both stick with you long after you close the book. Oregon State University Press

Spring 2021

Lupe Wong is half-Chinese, half-Mexican, opinionated, and determined to get straight A's in order to meet her baseball hero. What she is not is a dancer. So when she finds out that square dancing is the next unit in gym class, potentially foiling her plans, she makes it her mission to put a stop to it. The results are hysterical and unexpected. Higuera hits a home run with her debut middle grade novel full of humor and heart.Spanish edition also available. Levine Querido

Cemetery Boys

by Aiden Thomas (Portland, OR)

Seeking acknowledgement from his family, sixteen-year-old Yadriel, a gay, transgender brujo, performs a ritual that will not only prove who he is but will uncover his cousin’s killer. Only, things go awry, and he instead summons the spirit of resident bad boy, Julian, who will not move on until he settles his own unfinished business. Thomas weaves a spellbinding story In this rich, multicultural narrative full of intrigue and adventure, alive with the joy of community, identity, friendship, and love. Swoon Reads

Building Community One Book at a Time

New Fiction The Portrait

Good Eggs

by Ilaria Bernardini

by Rebecca Hardiman

available now, hardcover, Pegasus Books

available in March, hardcover, Atria Books

An internationally renowned writer, Valeria Costas has dedicated her life to her work and to her secret lover, Martìn Acla. When his sudden stroke makes headlines, her world implodes. Desperate to find a way to be present during her lover's final days, Valeria commissions his artist wife, Isla, to paint her portrait—insinuating herself into Martìn's family home and life. While he lies in a coma, Valeria and Isla remain poised on the brink, transfixed by one another. Day after day, the two women talk to each other during the sittings, revealing truths, fragilities and strengths.

Looking for your next book club pick? Look no further than this sure-to-be-a-hit debut novel. Good Eggs follows the capers and crimes of three members of the Gogarty family. You'll be drawn in by the multi-generational drama and leave laughing out loud at the wit of Hardiman's storytelling. –Emily

The Five Wounds

by Kirstin Valdez Quade available in April, hardcover, W.W. Norton

It’s Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and 33-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his 15-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. The Five Wounds spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo’s mother, Yolanda, reeling from a recent discovery; Angel’s mother, Marissa, whom Angel isn’t speaking to; and disapproving Tíve, Yolanda’s uncle and keeper of the family’s history.

The Paris Library

by Janet Skeslien Charles available now, hardcover, Atria Books

Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together, perfect for fans of The Lilac Girls and The Paris Wife.

A Virtual Event with

Kristin Hannah in Conversation with Christina Dodd

Wednesday, March 24, 6pm Join us as we welcome two acclaimed bestselling authors to our virtual Readings Gallery! Kristin Hannah is the award-winning author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale which has been published in 43 languages. She will join us to introduce her latest novel, The Four Winds. Interviewing her will be Christina Dodd whose 52 novels have been captivating worldwide audiences for years.

The Four Winds

available now, hardcover, St. Martin's Press

It is 1934 and millions of people are out of work due to the Depression. The middle of the United States is dealing with the Dust Bowl. Crops are non-existent, and farmers are desperate. Like many people, Elsa Martinelli, a single mother of two, heads to California–her only hope of finding a job. Once arriving in the San Joaquin Valley she finds that life is still not going to be easy. She does however discover just how strong she can be to keep her kids fed. This is a beautifully written book by the ever popular bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah. –Kelly E.

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

New Fiction Cathedral

by Ben Hopkins available now, hardcover, Europa

We LOVE Europa books here and this debut novel upholds their tradition of publishing amazing books. Centering on a 13th century German town with the cathedral at its heart, Hopkins weaves through the lives of the citizens around it—from the Bishop’s Treasurer to a lowly shepherd turned stonecutter. Though the cathedral is at its center, the soul of this novel is in its characters, their lives, their drives, and their morals or lack thereof. As a reader, I felt safe in the hands of this master storyteller. –Paul

The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

available in March, hardcover, The Overlook Press

When Yui loses both her mother and her daughter in the 2011 tsunami in Japan, Yui struggles to continue on, alone with her pain. Then, one day she hears about a man who has an old disused telephone booth in his garden. There, those who have lost loved ones find the strength to speak to them and begin to come to terms with their grief. Soon Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone booth. Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World is the signpost pointing to the healing that can come after.

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

available now, hardcover, Harper

I’m a huge fan of looking at a story from another point of view. If you loved Circe—both for its extraordinary storytelling and the reimagining and retelling of a most familiar tale—you’ll love this story told through the eyes of the silenced women of the Trojan War. A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls, and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s greatest tale. Prepare yourself to be immersed, swept away, and awed. –Paul

The Committed

by Viet Thanh Nguyen available now, hardcover, Grove Press

The long-awaited new novel from one of America’s most highly regarded contemporary writers, The Committed follows the unnamed Sympathizer as he arrives in Paris in the early 1980s with his blood brother Bon. The pair try to overcome their pasts and ensure their futures by engaging in capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. Both literary thriller and novel of ideas, The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen’s position in the firmament of American letters.

Hot Stew

by Fiona Mozley available in April, hardcover, Workman

'Did you know in Tudor times all the brothels were south of the river in Southwark and it was only much later that they moved up this way to Soho. Stews, they were called then.' London. The charm, the mystery, the history. This is a story set in modern Soho and about a group of people from both extremes of society that are all in some way connected to a brothel which is in the process of being shut down for redevelopment. From the author of the Booker Finalist Elmet. –Kelly E.

Leonora in the Morning Light by Michaela Carter

available in April, hardcover, Avid Reader Press

Europe, 1930s. Leonora Carrington is a 20-year-old British socialite and painter dreaming of independence when she meets Max Ernst, an older, married artist whose work has captivated Europe. As Leonora and Max embark on remarkable journeys together and apart, the full story of their tumultuous and passionate love affair unfolds, spanning time and borders as they seek to reunite and reclaim their creative power in a world shattered by war. When their paths cross with Peggy Guggenheim, an art collector and socialite working to help artists escape to America, nothing will be the same.

Pre-order Your Copies Today! 18

Spring 2021

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Mystery Join us in welcoming mystery novelist

JACQUELINE

VIRTUAL EVENT

WINSPEAR Tuesday, March 30, 7pm

The Consequences of Fear : A Maisie Dobbs Novel available in March, hardcover, Harper

Available March 23 Pre-order You Copy Today!

As Europe buckles under Nazi occupation, Maisie Dobbs investigates a possible murder that threatens devastating repercussions for Britain's war efforts in this latest installment in the New York Times bestselling mystery series.

Indelible : A Sean McPherson Novel, Book 1

The Survivors

by Laurie Buchanan

by Jane Harper

available now, hardcover, Flatiron Books

Another fabulous stand-alone mystery from Jane Harper! For someone who's really been struggling to read these days, this book really got me out of my slump! The mystery takes place in a small seaside town in Tasmania, and the setting is like a character itself; it's one of my favorite things about her writing. I love her characters and she had me guessing the entire time! Now I'm on to reading everything else she's written. –Lauren

available now, paperback, SparkPress

“I was hooked from the first sentence. Buchanan’s Indelible is a delicious look at what can happen when you create a writing retreat in the bucolic Pacific Northwest and then populate it with many intriguing characters, including a grieving ex-cop, a beautiful woman in a wheelchair, an intuitive, and a serial killer. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire wild ride.” –John Dedakis, author

Virtual Event

Friday, April 16, 6pm Laurie Buchanan

in conversation with Ashley Sweeney Register at villagebooks.com today!

Blood on a Blue Moon : A Sheaffer Blue Mystery by Jessica H. Stone

available now, paperback

Sheaffer Blue can’t hold a job, a boyfriend, or her place in line at the liquor store. But she can solve murders. In Blood on a Blue Moon, she tackles corrupt politicians and killers who torch an elderly woman and blow up the neighborhood. Jessica H. Stone (Jes) is the author of The Last Outrageous Woman and Doggy on Deck.

Thursday, April 1, 6pm Join us as we welcome Jes to our virtual readings gallery! Register at villagebooks.com today. Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister available now, paperback, Sourcebooks Landmark

In 1853, an all-women expedition sets off into the frozen Northwest Territories in search of the lost Lord Franklin expedition, only to meet their own disasters. In a misogynistic era, expedition leader Virginia Reeve guides her team past dangerous and obstructionist men, only to face a murder trial for the death on the ice of one of her team. A gut-wrenching adventure tale of strong women facing ferocious natural—and human— dangers. –Eric

Spring 2021

New & Upcoming Fiction Cloudmaker

Better Luck Next Time

by Malcolm Brooks

by Julia Claiborne Johnson

available in March, hardcover, Grove Press

available now, hardcover, Custom House

From the author of the national bestseller Painted Horses, a novel set during the Age of Aviation, in which a young tinkerer and an aspiring pilot building their own airplane unexpectedly come into possession of a rare Lindbergh flight watch owned by a bank robber whose fellow criminals want it back. Set during the summer of Amelia Earhart’s final flight, this is a tale of American ingenuity and optimism against the backdrop of a deepening Great Depression.

Milk Fed

The Girl From the Channel Islands : A WWII Novel

by Melissa Broder available now, hardcover, Scribner

by Jenny Lecoat

available now, hardcover, Graydon House

Hedy fled Vienna to the Channel Islands for safety just before war broke out. But then she finds herself Jewish, Austrian, and on an English island. So she decides to get a job as a translator. As the war intensifies she finds herself depending on her small community and an unlikely German officer. Fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will also come to adore this book. –Kelly E.

First Person Singular : Stories by Haruki Murakami

I half read this and half listened to this on Libro.fm and I have to say the reader was fantastic. Reminiscent of an old black and white movie. This is a story narrated by a man that spent his younger days working on a dude ranch in Reno for soon-to-be-divorcees. The cast of characters that come and go from the ranch are truly touching and lots of fun. –Kelly E.

Melissa Broder is one of my favorite authors that I've discovered this year, and her latest book Milk Fed does not disappoint. Broder tackles eating disorders, religion, queerness, and intense love affairs in this page-turning novel. Amidst all of these intense topics, Milk Fed somehow manages to still be funny. Perfect for readers who love a relatable character that they can see the messiest parts of themselves in. –Peter D.

Pre-Order Your Copies Today!

available in April, hardcover, Knopf

The eight stories in this new book are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator. From memories of youth, meditations on music, and an ardent love of baseball, to dreamlike scenarios and invented jazz albums, together these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world. Occasionally, a narrator may or may not be Murakami himself. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides.

The Souvenir Museum : Stories

The Divines

available in April, hardcover, Ecco

available now, hardcover, William Morrow

With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken traces how our closely held desires—for intimacy, atonement, comfort—bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changed—and so do her readers. The Souvenir Museum showcases the talents of one of our finest contemporary writers as she tenderly takes the pulse of our collective and individual lives.

A private boarding school in the English countryside serves as the setting for most of this darkly stunning debut. Josephine (Joe) returns to St. John the Divine school where she was once a Divine. She’s confronted with memories of cliques, bullying, and one final, very bad act, that she realizes has shaped her entire adulthood. It’s about growing up and regret and I loved it so much. –Claire

by Elizabeth McCracken

Spring 2021

by Ellie Eaton

Building Community One Book at a Time

Spring Fiction

EMILY ST. JOHN

VIRTUAL AUTHOR EVENT

MANDEL Thursday, March 18, 6pm The Glass Hotel Join us in welcoming the award-winning author of Station Eleven as she presents her novel The Glass Hotel—an exhilarating story set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events–a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea. The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives. Now in paperback!

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

available in April, hardcover, MCD Books

From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the end of all things. Software manager Jane Smith receives an envelope containing a list of animals along with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and salamander. The hummingbird and the salamander are, it turns out, two of the most endangered species in the world. When she removes the hummingbird and the salamander from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events over which she has no control. We'll have a limited number of signed copies!

Outlawed

by Anna North

The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin

available in April, hardcover, Harper

Yet again, Vlautin delivers a spot-on depiction of everyday people just trying to make their way through the next every damned day. His characters live in the margins of an increasingly gentrified Portland, struggling to reach that pie in the sky—or maybe even just that last slice of leftover pie in the back of the fridge. A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification, and how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of us, is it only a hollow promise? –Paul

available now, hardcover, Bloomsbury Publishing

In a reimagined Old West where a woman can be hanged for barrenness, Ada is on the run. Unable to conceive herself, and with aspirations to one day be a midwife like her mother, she joins the Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of gender-bending outlaws. North’s debut turns the classic Western on its head in the best possible way. She makes it about women. –Claire

Visit us 24/7 at villagebooks.com FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

The Last Bookshop in London : A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin

available in April, hardcover, Hanover Square Press

Inspired by the true World War II history of the only bookshop to survive the Blitz, this is a sweeping story of wartime loss, romance, and the enduring power of literature, perfect for fans of The Paris Wife and The Lilac Girls.

Spring 2021

New & Upcoming Fiction Brood

Burnt Sugar

by Jackie Polzin available in March, hardcover, Doubleday

Over the course of a single year, our nameless narrator heroically tries to keep her small brood of four chickens alive despite the seemingly endless challenges that caring for another creature entails. From the 40-below nights of a brutal Minnesota winter to a sweltering summer which brings a surprise tornado, she battles predators, bad luck, and the uncertainty of a future that may not look anything like the one she always imagined.

by Avni Doshi

available now, hardcover, Overlook Press

Antara and her mother have a fraught (understatement) relationship. As dementia slowly takes her mother, Antara remembers her untethered childhood at the hands of her wild-child mom and questions what was real and whether her mother even loves her. This is a raw, painful portrait of a woman wondering if it’s SHE who is actually unraveling and not her mother. Beautiful. Brutal. –Claire

We Run The Tides by Vendela Vida

available now, hardcover, Ecco

I feel as if I was reading a book about my high school years. Set in San Francisco in the 80's teenage Eulabee has a core group of friends but one day beautiful friend Maria suddenly disappears. And just as suddenly appears some time later. Where the heck was she? Why won't she tell anyone? Learning about friendship, what goes into being a teenager, how to party, and throw in some good music and you have a great story. Thoroughly enjoyable. –Kelly E.

Gold Diggers

by Sanjena Sathian available in April, hardcover, Penguin Press

Spanning two continents, two coasts, and four epochs, Gold Diggers expertly balances social satire and magical realism in a classic striver story that skewers the model minority narrative, asking what a community must do to achieve the American dream. In razor sharp and deeply funny prose, Sathian perfectly captures what it is to grow up as a member of a family, of a diaspora, and of the American meritocracy.

The Lowering Days by Gregory Brown

available in March, hardcover, Harper

A promising literary star makes his debut with this emotionally powerful saga, set in 1980s Maine, that explores family love, the power of myths and storytelling, survival and environmental exploitation, and the ties between native land and cultural identity.

Spring 2021

The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood

available now, hardcover, Doubleday

Following two families from Pakistan and Iraq in the 1990s to San Francisco in 2016, The Bad Muslim Discount is an inclusive, comic novel about Muslims immigrants finding their way in modern America. With deep insight, warmth, and an irreverent sense of humor, Syed M. Masood examines universal questions of identity, faith (or lack thereof), and belonging through the lens of Muslim Americans.

Raft of Stars Andrew J. Graff

available in March, hardcover, Ecco

One night, in the summer of 1994 in Claypot, Wisconsin, a gunshot rings out and two boys flee the scene, believing themselves murderers. They head for the woods, where they find their way onto a raft, but the natural terrors of Ironsforge gorge threaten to overwhelm them. Four adults track them into the forest, each one on a journey of his or her own. The adults track the boys toward the novel’s heart-pounding climax on the edge of the gorge and a conclusion that beautifully makes manifest the grace these characters find in the wilderness and one another. This timeless story of loss, hope, and adventure runs like the river itself amid the vividly rendered landscape of the Upper Midwest.

March 23-29

BUZZ WORTHY

Go to Evolve Cafe on the mezzanine in Village Books in Fairhaven and try the cocktail inspired by this book-$1 Off!

Building Community One Book at a Time

Fantasy & Science Fiction

Samantha SHANNON

Saturday, March 20, 1pm

In Conversation with Amanda Joy Join us for a riveting conversation between these two stellar fantasy authors.

VIRTUAL AUTHOR EVENT

The Mask Falling : A Bone Season Novel by Samantha Shannon

available now, hardcover, Bloomsbury Publishing

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Season and The Priory of the Orange Tree, comes the stunning fourth novel set in the world of Scion. The Mask Falling is a gripping, fantastical new addition to this "intoxicating urban-fantasy series" (NPR.org) that will leave readers begging for more."

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

available in May, hardcover, Ballatine Books

Andy Weir's newest sci fi thriller, Project Hail Mary, already has me on the edge of my seat. Author of the bestselling novel, The Martian, Mr. Weir never fails to bring both humanity and humour to his protagonists. If you love astronauts, mystery, and science portrayed so well it'll make you cry–then Project Hail Mary is for you. –Lillie B.

The Witch’s Heart The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner

available in April, hardcover, Redcover

Deep in the Hungarian woods, the sacred magic of King Solomon lives on in his descendants. Gathering under the midnight stars, they perform small miracles and none are more gifted than the great Rabbi Isaac and his three daughters. But darkness is creeping across Europe, threatening the lives of every Jewish person in every village. Each sister will have to make an impossible choice in an effort to survive—and change the fate of their family forever.

Bonds of Brass : Book One of the Bloodright Trilogy

by Emily Skrutskie

available now, paperback, Random House

This is a space opera tale of two friends, Ettian and Gal, who would do anything for each other—even if one of them IS the secret prince to the evil empire controlling the galaxy. They fight their way through nefarious plots against the prince, go undercover, and maybe find out exactly what they truly mean to each other along the way. –Jenni

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

by Genevieve Gornichec available now, hardcover, Ace

“A deep journey into the mists of the ancient Norse world of gods, monsters and humans, who shape shift from one to another. But the heart of the story is a witch's passage over many lifetimes and the ultimate sacrifice she makes for those she loves. A timeless tale of great power and artistry.” –Margaret George, New York Times bestselling author of The Splendor Before the Dark

Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes

available in March, hardcover, Tordotcom

When we came to America, we brought anger and socialism and hunger. We also brought our demons. Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center. This debut collection introduces readers to a fantasist in the vein of Karen Russell and Kelly Link, with a voice all her own. Dreamy, dangerous, and precise, with the weight of the very oldest tales we tell, Burning Girls and Other Stories introduces a writer pushing the boundaries of both fantasy and contemporary fiction. "One of the most powerful voices in speculative fiction." —Catherynne M. Valente

Spring 2021

Paperback Fiction Greenwood

Weather

available now, paperback, Hogarth

available now, paperback, Vintage

Like trees, families have roots and within those roots we gather strength, we share diseases, we grow (or not), we feel turbulence, and individually we strive for great heights. This is a sweeping saga about the family Greenwood. We follow them for one century starting in 1934 stopping along the way in 1974, 2008, and 2034. A brilliant read! –Kelly E.

This book came into my life when I needed it the most. Filled with existential dread about the planet and climate during the time of immense smoke in the Northwest this past year, I picked up Jenny Offill's Weather and it instantly turned my sadness into laughter. Unintentionally goofy and written in rhythmic, beautiful prose, this was one of my favorite books of 2020. Not to mention the fact that the paperback copy is beautiful. –Peter D.

by Michael Christie

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

available now, paperback, Grove Press

One of my favorite reads from 2020 is out in paperback! I’ve wanted to give this book to just about everyone; to say I loved reading this book is an understatement. Lily King’s writing is beautiful and captivating—Casey’s story is so human and vulnerable, you feel her struggle and want her to succeed, just like you would a close friend. –Lauren

The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

available in March, paperback, Milkweed Editions

A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.

Later

by Stephen King available in March, paperback, Hard Case Crime

Jamie Conklin is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine—as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

Spring 2021

by Jenny Offill

How to Pronounce Knife :

Stories

by Souvankham Thammavongsa available in April, paperback, Back Bay Books

In her stunning debut story collection, Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. Unsentimental yet tender, How to Pronounce Knife announces Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation.

The Mercies

by Kirin Millwood Hargrave available now, paperback, Back Bay Books

This excellent, atmospheric novel takes place in a small Norwegian coastal village in the early 1600s, where a huge storm killed most of the men. Alternating between two women, Ursa and Maren, Hargrave spins her chilling story (based on true events) about community, love, and courage against the backdrop of extreme hardship and early witch trials. A great read for book groups! –Lauren

BUZZ WORTHY

books & booze pairing

March 2-8 Go to Evolve Cafe on the mezzanine in Village Books in Fairhaven to enjoy a cocktail inspired by Stephen King's novel, Later. Receive$1 Off that cocktail!

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Paperback Fiction Daughters of Smoke and Fire

A Beast in Paradise

available in May, paperback, The Overlook Press

available now, paperback, Europa

The unforgettable, haunting story of a young woman’s perilous fight for freedom and justice for her brother, the first novel published in English by a female Kurdish writer. Daughters of Smoke and Fire is an evocative portrait of the lives and stakes faced by 40 million stateless Kurds. It’s an unflinching but compassionate and powerful story that brilliantly illuminates the meaning of identity and the complex bonds of family.

This is a sweet book about a French woman who obsessively loves her land and her farm and her family that she helps nurture. Beautifully written by this talented young author, this is a bestseller in France, and winner of the Le Monde Literary Prize. Europa publishing brings us books from around the globe and they are all masterfully translated. This novel is translated from French by Tina Kover. –Kelly E.

by Ava Horma

by Cécile Coulon

The Whispering House

My Grandmother’s Braid

available in March, paperback, Tin House

available now, paperback, Europa Editions

Freya Lyell is struggling to move on from her sister Stella’s death. Visiting the bewitching Byrne Hall, only a few miles from the scene of the tragedy, she discovers a portrait of Stella—a portrait she had no idea existed, in a house Stella never set foot in. Driven to find out more about her sister’s secrets, Freya is drawn into the world of Byrne Hall and its owners: charismatic artist Cory and his sinister, watchful mother. But as Freya lingers in this mysterious, centuries-old house, her relationship with Cory crosses the line into obsession and the darkness behind the locked doors of the estate threatens to spill out.

Alina Bronsky writes of family dysfunction and machinations with a droll and biting humor, a tremendous ear for dialog, and a generous heart that is forgiving of human weakness. A more tender and moving family portrait than Bronsky's best-selling book, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, the renowned author, while never abandoning her trademark and razor-sharp wit, tells a family story through a young boy’s eyes. Max, over the course of the story, will appreciate that people’s questionable behavior may often be motivated by sadness.

by Elizabeth Brooks

by Alina Bronsky, translated by Tim Mohr

Breasts and Eggs

To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi

by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett

available now, paperback, Penguin Books

available in March, paperback, Europa Editions

One of Japan’s most important and bestselling writers, Mieko Kawakami mixes stylistic inventiveness, wry humor, and riveting emotional depth to tell a story of contemporary womanhood in Japan. Breasts and Eggs recounts the intimate journeys of three women on the path to finding peace and futures they can call their own.

Jussi, a runaway, becomes Laestadius’s disciple, and the two set out on treks filled with philosophical discussions where Jussi learns all about nature. But their quiet days are interrupted when a maid is found dead in the forest. The locals suspect a predatory bear is at large. The constable is quick to offer a reward for capturing it, but Laestadius sees other traces that point to a far worse killer on the loose.

Book Launch!

Courage, My Love

Tuesday, April 13, 6pm

by Kristin Beck

in our Virtual Readings Gallery

When the Nazi occupation of Rome begins, two courageous young women are plunged deep into the Italian Resistance to fight for their freedom in this captivating debut novel.

Kristin Beck will be joined by Jennifer Robson to discuss her novel, Courage, My Love

available in April, paperback, Berkley

Go to villagebooks.com for additional details & registration information. Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Literature A Swim in a Pond in the Rain : In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

available in January, hardcover, Random House

In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he’s been teaching for 20 years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.

The Signed

Treat Yourself!

First Editions Club! Receive six newly published first edition fiction books signed by the authors (and an occasional nonfiction title) over the course of one year. Our qualified buyers work together to select books based on literary quality and potential collectability. Each selection also comes with a protective dust jacket cover. Many past selections have gone on to receive critical acclaim, win major awards, and become book group favorites. To join Village Books’ Signed First Editions Club, we can help you register at the store or you can go to villagebooks.com to find everything you need to get started. If you have any questions, please read our Signed First Editions Club FAQ at villagebooks.com or contact us at firsteditions@villagebooks.com.

Happy Reading!

Virtual Open Mic & Spanish Open Mic with Seán Dwyer! Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their own stories, poems and essays! Regular emcee and celebrated local author, Seán Dwyer hosts. Pre-registration to read is required and spaces are limited so secure your spot by emailing Seán at sean@seandwyerauthor.com.

Do you love picture books or want to get a gift for a child who does? Read about our picture book subscription program on page 56.

Whatcom Writers & Publishers

Virtual Supper Club

Village Books is pleased to join forces with Whatcom Writers and Publishers to co-host their monthly virtual supper club. Each month on the second Wednesday, we host a guest author or explore a new topic to connect Whatcom Writers and industry speakers. Go to villagebooks.com to register.

When? Last Mondays of the month on Zoom. In Spanish at 6pm • In English at 7pm

Spring 2021

Building Community One Book at a Time

Inspiration into Action

JOIN US

June 21-27, 2021

Virtual 2021

Registration for the 2021 Conference is Now Open “Along Chuckanut Drive,” Nancy McDonnell Spaulding

FACULTY Anastacia-Renee

Due to COVID-19, we aren't able to gather together in person for the 2021 Chuckanut Writers Conference, but our talented, generous conference faculty will present an inspiring program you can enjoy using Zoom—all you'll need is the link we'll provide.

Erica Bauermeister Omar El Akkad

A full program of conference events will take place the week of June 21-27, 2021. You can purchase a conference package or register à la carte for individual breakout sessions. Browse the schedule at chuckanutwrititersconference.com and register for the conference package or individual sessions. Conference Package: $199. Discounted from our usual conference registration fee of $285, the CWC 2021 Online conference package includes admission to opening and closing keynote addresses, two craft talks, four breakout sessions of your choice, one author panel, and a live faculty reading. Participants will also be able to register for additional breakout sessions ($20), master classes ($50-65), and a marketing consultation ($40). If instead of a conference package you’d prefer to register for select events, individual breakout sessions are priced at $40 per session.

Lyanda Lynn Haupt Sonora Jha Laura Kalpakian Priscilla Long Casandra López Jory Mickelson Tiffany Midge Kristen Millares Young

Don't Miss Out!

Kami Westhoff

chuckanutwritersconference.com Whatcom Community College 360.383.3200 Bellingham, Washington FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Chuckanut Writers Classes for Your Writing Life

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Village Books and WCC Community & Continuing Education offer a writing instruction collaboration called Chuckanut Writers. These programs are designed to inspire and encourage writers at all stages of their writing journey. Check out these upcoming virtual classes:

Poetry First

Writing and Publishing Your Memoir

with Barbara Bloom

with Anne Putnam

Saturdays, 4/3/21 - 4/24/21 10am-12pm (4 sessions)

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4/13/21 - 4/29/21 6pm-8pm (6 sessions) This is an intermediate-level course for writers who have begun or are ready to begin a book-length memoir. We will cover scene selection, structure, and other mechanics, and the last two classes will be dedicated to publishing options, including the path to traditional publication. Upon completing this course, students will understand how to outline, compose, revise, and (after much revision) submit a full memoir manuscript for publication. Anne is a teacher, editor, and author of the memoir Navel Gazing: One Woman's Quest for a Size Normal.

Chuckanut Writers

It's hard for most of us to give poetry a central place in our lives, but in this four-session workshop, that's exactly what we'll do! By working together on writing exercises, looking at the poems of others, and spending time considering craft questions, we'll immerse ourselves in poetry—with the hope that some of this will carry into our lives after this time, helping us to give attention and voice to the poems we carry inside. Barbara Bloom has an MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and has taught creative writing for over 30 years.

All classes take place in a virtual classroom using Zoom

Creating Short Poems

How to Edit a Poem

with J.L. Wright

The Nature of Creativity: Writing Therapy Workshop with Rainah Sandstrom

Monday-Friday, 5/10/21 - 5/14/21 6pm-7pm (5 sessions) The journey towards achieving emotional fulfilment and contentment is a complex one. Writing has a particularly important role as a pathway to our wellbeing, enabling us to explore and express our emotions in an intimate way. This class will examine mental health through writing. By examining one's mental health through the process of writing, it facilitates people in their journey through creativity and self-fulfillment. Rainah has an MFA and has taught writing therapy in various facilities in Ireland and the U.S.

Don't Miss Out!

with J.L. Wright

Saturday, 5/15/21 10am-11:30am (1 session)

Saturday, 5/22/21 10am-11:30am (1 session)

Join J.L. Wright for an exploration of some of the short poem forms through examples and writing. Short poems are often tougher than writing long poems because poets spend more time on word choice and clarity. You will read examples, analyze them, and move what you learn into your own writing. You leave with at least three first draft short poems. J.L. Wright's publications include her books Unadoptable Joy: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose and Homeless Joy: An Expose in Poetry and Prose. She received her first Sue C. Boynton award in 2020. Her poems have published on four continents.

Join J.L. Wright for a discussion focused on strategies for self-editing poetry as well as the workshop method. Please bring one or two original poems you would like to revise toward publication quality. We will review five editing and revision strategies for poetry as well as participate in breakout sessions to workshop a poem.

Read more and reserve your space today at whatcomcommunityed.com You can also register by calling 360-383-3200

Spring 2021

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Join us for #VCAC21: Multichannel Marketing & the Business of Being a Writer The Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference

April 21-25, 2021

Learn From the Best The New Era of Content Creation in All Its Forms We have a spectacular line-up of experts in marketing, book publicity, publishing, and advanced writing craft. FEATURING CATHY ACE, International Bestselling Mystery Author,

Jessica Morrell Top Tier Editor, Hindenburg Audiobook Creation & Podcasting Systems, C.C. Humphries, BookChain, Chatables, Publish Drive, and more! MASTER WRITING CLASSES, Workshops, and the 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards Ceremony

www.ChanticleerReviews.com Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

- A Division of The Lynden Tribune -

In-House Professional Design Services Digital • Commercial • Web Automated Direct Mail Services Call today for a FREE quote! 113 6th Street, Lynden • 360.354.4444 www.LyndenPrintCo.com

Spring 2021

Thank you for five awesome years! We're celebrating from now until the end of March with special pricing and gifts! Call, email or visit our website. 100 5th Street, Lynden, WA

360/746-8597

www.innatlynden.com

Building Community One Book at a Time

Celebrating S R A E Y E FIV n e d n y L n i

Five Years of Fantastic in the Waples Mercantile Building Home to six unique locally owned businesses, the Waples Mercantile Building in downtown Lynden, WA has something for everyone. Originally built in 1914, it was home to William H. “Billy” Waples’ Lynden Department Store for more than 60 years. After a fire nearly destroyed the historic building in 2008, it sat vacant and deteriorating. Thanks to a massive restoration spearheaded by locals Teri & Matt Treat and Jeff & Debra McClure, the recoined Waples Mercantile Building is again the heart of downtown Lynden. Opened in 2015 and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, visitors appreciate the preserved character of the restored structure: wooden beams cut from ancient Douglas Fir trees and set in place over 100 years, original flooring, and impressive stonework can be found throughout. In addition to a lovely Inn, a distinctive group of restaurant and retail merchants now call the Waples Building home and Anniversary together infuse convenience, comfort, and interest into charming downtown Lynden.

SPECIAL

Treat Yourself to a Owned by the Treats and McClures, Night Away! The Inn at Lynden is a 35-room boutique Receive 20% OFF any room hotel offering stylish and serene comfort in type, for any night through March 31, 2021! a setting that highlights the building's rich history. Guests choose from a variety of different room types, with king or queen beds and luxurious ensuites. With complimentary bikes for guests to use, this charming Inn is just the staycation you know you need.

innatlynden.com Village Books had long been looking for the perfect place to open a second location so jumped at the chance to be part of the Waples Building reinvention. Gift and home decor like those found at Fairhaven's Paper Dreams are seamlessley interspersed with hot new book titles and used books. Customers in the North County appreciate how quick and easy it is for them to shop in Lynden and customers from the south are delighted to discover this gem in the heart of downtown Lynden.

villagebooks.com FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Visit Lynden • Explore the Waples Building Avenue Bread has been a staple of delicious breads, treats, coffee, and meals in Bellingham for decades but it's newest and most beautiful café rests in historic downtown Lynden. A full open kitchen serves everything from Eggenues for breakfast, french dip for lunch, and gourmet burgers for dinner—made with local pasture-raised beef. Stop by and try the Waples VanderBurger, the All American, or the John Deere!

avenuebread.com Craft Beer, Wine, and Charity. At Overflow Taps, founders Jesse Nelson, Adam Stacey, and Josh Libolt think of craft beer from an impact-first mindset: imaginging what impact you can have on the world and then connecting you with great tasting beers. In addition to numerous additional fundraising initiatives, 1% of drink sales is donated to build water projects in developing countries. Community and charity may be their focus, but selecting a rotating hand-curated tap list of craft beers and ciders, plus sharing wines, seltzers, and specialty bottles and cans to go is their passion. Ask Overflow about their recently launched a wine club!

overflowtaps.com

A special little store filled with special little things! Voted best store for baby by Best of the Northwest for 5 years in a row, Bellingham Baby Company is a baby boutique that offers a unique collection of apparel and gifts for newborns to 5/6 years. Most items are locally handmade and each item is carefully selected with safety, functionality and uniqueness in mind. Need personalized baby gifts? Printing right in the store, the folks at Bellingham Baby Company can create custom designs on shirts, blankets, bibs, and caps—just for you! Started in 2005 and continuing as a mom and pop company today, owners Shelly and Jeremy Allen are excited to be a part of the Lynden community.

bellinghambabycompany.com

Started by two sisters from Lynden, Laura Bouma and Wendi Parriera, Cheeks Jeans is a women’s clothing boutique best known for their beautiful, hand-picked selections of designer denim. They take time to select pieces that are high in quality and longevity, superior in fit and fabric, and unique in style. They also carry a gorgeous variety of tops, dresses, shoes, and accessories and work hard to offer the latest in fashion and trends. "Our goal as a team is to carry pieces for every occasion and every woman."

cheeksjeans.com 32

Spring 2021

We'll see you soon! Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

WHAT

LY NDEN

WAS -2020-

READING V B in Lynden Top Sellers

1. Hiking Whatcom County by Ken Wilcox 2. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 3. Oh, La La! by Ciscoe Morris 4. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey 5. A Promised Land by Barack Obama 6. Urban Trails Bellingham by Craig Romano 7. 52 Women of Whatcom by The League of Women Voters 8. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris 9. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan 10. Old Barns of Whatcom County by Jeff Barclay 11. Dog Man #09 Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey 12. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 13. Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump 14. Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes du Mez 15. Circe by Madeline Miller 16. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng 17. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 18. The Overstory by Richard Powers 19. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 20. Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Check out what our customers in North Whatcom County were reading in 2020! Libro.fm makes it possible for you to buy audiobooks through your local bookstore (Village Books!) giving you the power to keep money within your local economy, create local jobs, and make a difference in your community.

www.libro.fm/villagebooks Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

Whether you are paying for monthly membership, giving an audiobook gift to a friend, or buying audiobooks for your organization, Libro.fm splits the profit from your purchases with Village Books. Thank YOU for supporting local!

Spring 2021

BUZZ

WORTHY

e z o o B & s k o Bo new release books and cocktail pairings

Village Books & Evolve Cafe are matching a craft cocktail with a new release book—every week! Why? Because it's fun!

Bonus: you'll receive $1 OFF the selected drink AND cocktails can be ordered to go!

New Selection Every Week! Discover which cocktail special goes with these new releases!

• March 2-8 –Later by Stephen King • March 9-15 –Recollections of My Nonexistance by Rebecca Solnit

• March 16-22 –Epic Hikes of the World by Lonely Planet exact drinks not shown. non-alcohol options available.

• March 23-29 –Raft of Stars by Andrew Graff

Check out the variety of Spiked Hot Chocolate Drinks - YUM!

Find cookbooks along with unique cooking merchandise and tasty treats in Paper Dreams!

Paper Dreams

Easter Bunny

Headquarters

Spring 2021

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Food We Can All Eat That! : Raise Healthy, Adventurous Eaters and Help Prevent Food Allergies - 95 Wholefood Recipes for the Family That Eats Tgether by Pam Brook

Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food: Deliciously Doable Ways to Cook Greens, Tofu, and Other Plant-Based Ingredients

by Hsiao-Ching Chou

available in March, flexibound, Hardie Grant

available now, hardcover, Sasquatch Books

More than simply a book about allergies, the meals and ideas in We Can All Eat That! are created by a cook who takes great satisfaction in creating and sharing delicious, unprocessed food, and whose mission is to spark that joy in others. She does so in this book across nine beautifully photographed chapters: Breakfast; Soups & Salads; Pasta & Rice; Asian & Gentle Curries; Sides & Vegetables; Mains; Cakes, Puddings & Desserts; Dips & Snacks; and Saucy Sauces.

In this new collection, you’ll find vegetarian recipes for stir-fries, rice and noodle dishes, soups, braises, and pickles. Of course, the book wouldn’t be complete without vegetarian versions of Chou’s famously delicious dumplings. From Cauliflower with Spiced Shallot Oil to Kung Pao Tofu Puffs, and from Hot and Sour Soup to Ma Po Tofu to Steamed Egg Custard, these recipes will satisfy your every craving for classic Chinese comfort food.

COOKING MEMOIR

Simply Julia : 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food

Finding Freedom :

available in March, hardcover, Harper Wave

by Julia Turshen

A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French

available in March, hardcover, Celadon Books

In this singular, heart-stopping memoir—in many ways a classic American story— restaurateur and cookbook author Erin French invites readers to Freedom, Maine, to witness the struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that have made both French's life and her wildly successful restaurant, The Lost Kitchen, triumphant. Her experiences with survival, with single-motherhood, with addiction and recovery, with deep loss and, eventually, abiding hope will resonate with readers everywhere—those who are determined to find their own voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best selves, despite seemingly impossible odds.

Kate Lebo

in conversation with Kim Addonizio The Book of Difficult Fruit:

In Simply Julia, readers will find 110 foolproof recipes for more nutritious takes on the simple, comforting meals she cooks most often. With practical chapters such as weeknight go-tos, makeahead mains, vegan one-pot meals, chicken recipes, easy baked goods, and more, Simply Julia provides endlessly satisfying options comprised of accessible and affordable ingredients. Think dishes like Stewed Chicken with Sour Cream + Chive Dumplings, Hasselback Carrots with Smoked Paprika, and Lemon Ricotta Cupcakes—the kind of flavorful yet unfussy food everyone wants to make at home.

VIRTUAL EVENT

Monday, April 5, 6pm

Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (With Recipes) by Kate Lebo

available in April, hardcover, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Inspired by 26 fruits, the essayist, poet, and pie lady Kate Lebo expertly blends natural, culinary, medical, and personal history. Lebo's unquenchable curiosity leads us to intimate, sensuous, enlightening contemplations. The Book of Difficult Fruit is the very best of food writing: graceful, surprising, and ecstatic. Read more about Kate, Kim, and this exciting new book on page 68.

This event is brought to you by four Pacific NW independent bookstores, Village Books, Third Place Books (Seattle), Browser's Books (Olympia), and Auntie's Books (Spokane).

Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

We've Missed You!

Village Books & Paper Dreams

Safe Shopping REOPENING SOON! –Spring 2021–

With limited store capacity, you can enjoy socially distanced browsing. High touch surfaces are regularly cleaned and sanitized throughout the day and sanitizer is available for customer use at our entrance and throughout the store.

Book Orders

Though we stock thousands and thousands of titles, we cannot carry everything on our shelves. Our friendly, knowledgeable booksellers are happy to get any available book for you. All Your Favorites Are Coming Back

• in person seven days a week • by phone: Fairhaven - 360.671.2626 and Lynden - 360.526.2133 • or shop 24 hours a day online at villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Shop 24 hours a day at villagebooks.com

read. eat. repeat.

With the two laughing wives

Counter Service Curbside Pick-up Open Dining Room

We're continually adding services and extending our hours. Watch evolvechocolatecafe.com for updates!

We create a delicious variety of

Gluten Free Choices including • Blueberry Coffee Cake bursts with with Bow Hill blueberries and the taste of ginger • Our Chocolate Cake-ettes are gluten free AND vegan and come in a rotating variety of flavors including tahini, rose, coconut whip and sesame crunch candy on top. • By using our delicious gluten free ginger cookies as the crust, our Banana Cream Pie also makes the GF cut. • We always have gluten free COOKIES on hand – our Chocolate Chunk is always a favorite.

Check out our new 2nd location Evolve Espresso + Provisions adjacent to Hotel Leo in downtown Bellingham! grab-n-go food • wine • cigars

ORDER ONLINE! Order our weekly 3-course dinners and sweet or savory treats online. Takeout and Curbside Pickup available! evolvechocolatecafe.com

There's LOVE in EVOLVE...

Indulge your palate and your mind! 360.220.1898 Deliciously perched above Village Books - 1200 11th St. in Historic Fairhaven, Bellingham, WA

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Thank You for Shopping Local. It Matters!

Spring 2021

POLITICS &

Fulfillment : Winning and

CURRENT EVENTS

Losing in One-Click America by Alec MacGillis

available in March, hardcover, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

This is not another inside account or impassioned indictment of our most conspicuously dominant company. Rather, it is a beautifully wrought study of the America that falls within that company’s growing shadow. As MacGillis shows, Amazon’s sprawling network of delivery hubs, data centers, and corporate campuses epitomizes a land where winner and loser cities and regions are drifting steadily apart, the civic fabric is unraveling, and work has become increasingly rudimentary and isolated. With empathy and breadth, MacGillis demonstrates the hidden human costs of the other inequality—not the growing gap between rich and poor but the gap between the country’s winning and losing regions. The result is an intimate account of contemporary capitalism; its drive to innovate, its dark, pitiless magic; its remaking of America with every click.

Invisible Women : Date Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

available in March, paperback, Abrams Press

A landmark examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women, now in paperback. Examining the home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more, Criado Perez unearths a dangerous pattern in data and its consequences on women’s lives. Built on hundreds of studies in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, highly readable exposé that will change the way you look at the world. March is Women's History Month!

Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer : Essays

The Soul of a Woman

available now, paperback, Counterpoint

available in March, hardcover, Ballantine Books

Wendell Berry first challenged the idea that our advanced technological age is a good thing when he penned “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer” in the late 1980s for Harper’s Magazine, galvanizing a critical reaction eclipsing any the magazine had seen before. He followed by responding with “Feminism, the Body, and the Machine.” Both essays are collected in one short volume for the first time.

What feeds the soul of all women—and feminists—today? To be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over their bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved. On all these fronts, there is much work to be done, and this book, Allende hopes, will “light the torch of our daughters and granddaughters.”

Graphic Novel Save It for Later :

Antigone Rising :

by Wendell Berry

Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest

by Nate Powell

available in April, hardcover, Abrams ComicArts

In this anthology of comics essays, author and graphic novelist of the award-winning trilogy March, written by Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell addresses living in an era of what he calls “necessary protest.” As Powell moves between subjective and objective experiences raising his children, he reveals the electrifying sense of trust and connection with neighbors and strangers in protest. He also explores how to equip young people with tools to best make their own noise as they grow up and help shape the direction and future of this country.

Spring 2021

by Isabel Allende

The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths

by Helen Morales

available in March, paperback, Bold Type Books

The picture of classical antiquity most of us learned in school is framed in certain ways—glossing over misogyny while omitting the seeds of feminist resistance. But in Antigone Rising, classicist Helen Morales reminds us that myths have subversive power because they are told—and read—in different ways. Through these stories, Morales uncovers hidden truths about solidarity, empowerment, catharsis, and shows how we can reclaim them to challenge the status quo, spark resistance, and rail against unjust regimes.

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

History A Game of Birds and Wolves : The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II

by Simon Parkin

available now, paperback, Back Bay Books

Combining vibrant novelistic storytelling with extensive research, interviews, and previously unpublished accounts, Simon Parkin describes for the first time the role that women played in developing the Allied strategy that, in the words of one admiral, "contributed in no small measure to the final defeat of Germany." Rich with unforgettable cinematic detail and larger-than-life characters, this is a heart-wrenching tale of ingenuity, dedication, perseverance, and love, bringing to life the imagination and sacrifice required to defeat the Nazis at sea.

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule

available now, hardcover, St. Martin's Press

Why has much of this country continued to exalt Lee, despite his traitorous actions? As a daughter of Southerners who were raised to revere Lee, but who never bought the myth, I found validation in my questioning of those long-held traditions through reading this book. Seidule's arguments, all based on history and facts, are comprehensive and clear. This is a very important book and I can't wait to read it again. –Claire

Four Hundred Souls : A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

by Ibram X. Kendi, Keisha N. Blain available now, hardcover, One World

Kendi and Blain have gathered ninety Black writers from all disciplines to tell one of history’s great epics: the journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present. With lyrical interludes from ten poets, eighty writers take on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span, exploring their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemic. This comprehensive, dynamic, single-volume work is an essential historical keepsake.

The Barbizon : The Hotel That Set Women Free by Paulina Bren

available in March, hardcover, Simon & Schuster

Liberated from home and hearth by World War I, politically enfranchised and ready to work, women arrived to take their place in the dazzling new skyscrapers of Manhattan. But they did not want to stay in uncomfortable boarding houses. They wanted what men already had—exclusive residential hotels with daily maid service, cultural programs, and private dining. Sylvia Plath fictionalized her time there and, over the years, its almost 700 tiny rooms with matching floral curtains and bedspreads housed Titanic survivor Molly Brown; actresses Grace Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Ali MacGraw, Jaclyn Smith, Phylicia Rashad, and Cybill Shepherd; writers Joan Didion, Diane Johnson, Gael Greene, and Meg Wolitzer; and many more.

March is Women's History Month!

Four Lost Cities : A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

available now, hardcover, W.W. Norton

Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today. Newitz also introduces us to the often anonymous workers—slaves, women, immigrants, and manual laborers—who built these cities and created monuments that lasted millennia.

Shop 24/7 at villagebooks.com

The Free World : Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand

available in April, hardcover, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

In the long-awaited follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Metaphysical Club, The New Yorker's Louis Menand offers the definitive intellectual and cultural history of the postwar years. The Cold War was not just a contest of power. It was also about ideas, in the broadest sense—economic and political, artistic and personal. In The Free World, the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize–winning scholar and essayist Louis Menand tells the story of American culture in the pivotal years from 1945 to 1970 that shaped our era.

Spring 2021

Life Stories Radiant : The Dance, The Scientist, and a Friendship Forged in Light by Liz Heinecke

abvailable now, hardcover, Grand Central Publishing

Part hidden history, part love letter to creative innovation, Radiant is the true story of Marie Curie and Loie Fuller, an American performance artist who became a living symbol of the Art Nouveau movement with her hypnotic dances and stunning theatrical effects. These two revolutionary women were drawn together at the dawn of a new era by a singular discovery, and a lifelong friendship grew out of their shared passion for enlightenment.

The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s by Maggie Doherty

available in April, paperback, Vintage

In 1960, the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study formed, offering paid positions to women with PhDs or the "equivalent in artistic achievements". That first group included poet Anne Sexton and writer Maxine Kumin and this book traces their time as the first ‘Equivalents’. It’s about women determinedly creating, despite the challenges of motherhood and marriage. Writing, feminism, friendship, and struggle. Brilliant. –Claire

Recollections of My Nonexistence available in March, paperback, Penguin Books

Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violence on the street and throughout society and the exclusion of women from cultural arenas. She explores the forces that liberated her--books themselves; the gay community that presented a new model of what else gender, family, and joy could mean; and her eventual arrival in the spacious landscapes and overlooked conflicts of the American West. Now in paperback!

BUZZ WORTHY books & booze pairing

Pair this new release with the selected cocktail ($1 Off) at Evolve Cafe inside Fairhaven Village Books

Spring 2021

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie : The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli

available in April, hardcover, Abrams Press

A group biography of four beloved women who fought sexism, covered decades of American news, and whose voices defined NPR. Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie is journalist Lisa Napoli’s captivating account of these four women with radically different stories, their deep and enduring friendships, and the trail they blazed to becoming icons. Based on extensive interviews, this book is as beguiling and sharp as its formidable subjects.

The Agitators : Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights

by Dorothy Wickenden

available in March, hardcover, Scribner

From the intimate perspective of three friends and neighbors in mid-nineteenth century Auburn, New York, acclaimed author Dorothy Wickenden tells the fascinating and crucially American stories of abolition, the Underground Railroad, the early women’s rights movement, and the Civil War. Harriet Tubman was one of the most important conductors on the underground railroad and hid the enslaved men, women and children in the basement kitchens of Martha Wright, Quaker mother of seven, and Frances Seward, wife of Governor, then Senator, then Secretary of State William H. Seward. The Agitators is revelatory, riveting, and profoundly relevant to our own time.

Every Day Is a Gift :

by Rebecca Solnit

March 9-15

Celebrating Women

A Memoir

by Tammy Duckworth hardcover, available in March, Twelve

Tammy Duckworth, the biracial daughter of an American father and a Thai-Chinese mother, a U.S. senator and Iraq War veteran, takes readers through amazing stories from her incomparable life. She served eight months in Iraq before her helicopter was attacked and she lost her legs. After 13 months spent recovering, learning to walk again on prosthetic legs, she won two terms as a U.S. Representative, and then she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016. From childhood to motherhood and beyond, Every Day Is a Gift is the remarkable story of one of America's most dedicated public servants.

March is Women's History Month! Building Community One Book at a Time

Biography Smalltime : A Story of My Family and the Mob by Russell Shorto

Crossing the River :

Seven Stories That Saved My Life

available now, hardcover, W.W. Norton

by Carol Smith

Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family.

available in May, hardcover, Abrams Press

Smith recounts how she faced down the crippling loss of her seven-year-old son Christopher through reporting a series of profiles of people coping with their own intense challenges, whether a freak accident, a debilitating injury, or a terrifying diagnosis. Smith deftly mixes the stories of these individuals and their families with her own account of how they helped her heal. This is a beautiful and profoundly moving book, and a valuable, illuminating read for anyone coping with loss.

Why Fish Don’t Exist :

Late Migrations : A Natural History of Love and Loss

A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

by Margaret Renkl

by Lulu Miller

available in April, paperback, Simon & Schuster

I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump and this book broke my reading life open again. The first couple of pages are like an open door, beckoning you to hear this story of a slightly mad taxonomist, a story delicately braided with Miller’s own slow unraveling. It’s one of those books that I wish I could stick a bookmark in every copy that says, “Please, just trust me, read it.” –Sarah

March is Women's History Month! The Code Breaker : Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson

available in March, hardcover, Simon & Schuster

When Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find The Double Helix on her bed. Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his co-discovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity o f nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions.

Check out our

Virtual LitLiveEvents on pages 65-70!

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

available in March, paperback, Milkweed Editions

Late Migrations is an unusual, captivating portrait of a family—and of the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees, as well as a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents. Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut.

Think Black : A Memoir by Clyde Ford

available now, paperback, Amistad

I n t his t h o u g h t - p rovo k in g a n d heartbreaking memoir, award-winning local author Clyde Ford tells the story of his father, John Stanley Ford, the first black software engineer at IBM, revealing how racism insidiously affected his father’s view of himself and their relationship. “An inspiring account of a father and son struggling to break down racial barriers inside corporate America , and beyond. A must read.” –Morgan Freeman

Virtual Event! Saturday, April 10, 6pm CLYDE FORD in conversation with

George Dyson Register at villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Getting Out Hiking The Pacific Crest Trail : A Visual Compendium by Joshua M. Powell

available in March, paperback, Sasquatch Books

Through the written word, graphic design, and illustration, The Pacific Crest Trail: A Visual Compendium conveys the beauty and the beastliness of a 2,650-mile wilderness hike from Mexico to Canada. The author chronicles the PCT through infographics about the trail and the thru-hikers’ experience, and includes arresting illustrations of the landscape and minutiae of the trail.

Mud, Rocks, Blazes : Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

Epic Hikes of the World by Lonely Planet

available in March, paperback, Lonely Planet

Now out in paperback! With stories of 50 incredible hiking routes in 30 countries, from New Zealand to Peru, plus a further 150 suggestions, Lonely Planet’s Epic Hikes of the World will inspire a lifetime of adventure on foot. From one-day jaunts and urban trails to month-long thru-hikes, cultural rambles and mountain expeditions, each journey shares one defining feature: being truly epic.

March 16-22

BUZZ WORTHY books & booze pairing

Go to Evolve Cafe on the mezzanine in Village Books in Fairhaven to enjoy a cocktail inspired by this book-$1 Off!

by Heather Anderson

available now, paperback, Mountaineers Books

Following her memoir, Thirst, here is the next step in Heather “Anish” Anderson’s adventurous life journey-one of deep emotion and self-discovery. Despite her success setting a self-supported Fastest Known Time record on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013, Anderson still had such deep-seated insecurities that she became convinced her feat had been a fluke. So two years later she set out again, this time hiking the 2,180 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Maine to Georgia, to crush her constant self-doubt and seek the true source of her strength and purpose.

Advertise in

ADVENTURES NW >>>

· 60,000 Readers · Affordable Rates · Beautiful, World-Class Content

Season begins June 4, 2021 www.bellinghambells.com 42

Spring 2021

· A Perfect Fit for Our Community Contact John @ 360.319.1614 or john@AdventuresNW.com Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Travel Spirit Run : A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land

World Travel :

available in March, paperback, Catapult

available in April, hardcover, Ecco Press

Noé Álvarez was lost, trying to find purpose, when he learned about the Peace and Dignity Journey, a 6,000mile run from Alaska to Panama by indigenous runners. He signed on and what follows is his story as he runs with a group of people, each with their own conflicts and struggles. Spirit Run is about the transformative power of running and finding one’s place in the world. –Claire

This book begs some questions, namely, does the world need a travel guide right now, in the midst of a global pandemic? I say, YES. One day, we will be able to travel again. In the meantime, we can read about the places we will go and hear Bourdain’s unique voice as we read his words and ponder future destinations. This book feels like Possibility. –Claire

by Noé Álvarez

An Irreverent Guide

by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever

Water, Wood, and Wild Things : Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town by Hannah Kirshner

available in March, hardcover, Viking

Taking readers deep into evergreen forests, terraced rice fields, and smokefilled workshops, Kirshner captures the centuries-old traditions still alive in Yamanaka, Japan. Water, Wood, and Wild Things invites readers to see what goes into making a fine bowl, a cup of tea, or a harvest of rice and introduces the masters who dedicate their lives to this work.

We WILL travel again soon! It's time to start dreaming and planning– we've got the guidebooks you need!

Clanslands : Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other

Travel Literature

available now, hardcover, Quercus

An Indian Among Los Indígenas :

by Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish If you've watched Outlander then you know the two authors. If you haven't watched the show, I suggest doing so after reading the books by Diana Gabaldon. Actors Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish decided to head out to their homeland and enjoy learning more about whiskey, ancient warfare, and their Scottish roots. Their original idea of a podcast would not be enough; they decided to write a full on book about their wild adventures in Scotland. A very jovial, testosterone-filled book packed with historical fact, this book that was fun to read. It has also turned into a show on the small screen—look for Men in Kilts. –Kelly E.

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A Native Travel Memoir

by Ursula Pike

available in April, hardcover, Heyday

An Indian Among los Indígenas, Pike’s memoir of her experience serving in the Peace Corps in Bolivia, upends a canon of travel memoirs that has historically been dominated by white writers. It is a sharp, honest, and unnerving examination of the shadows that colonial history casts over even the most well-intentioned attempts at cross-cultural aid. It is also the debut of an exceptionally astute writer with a mastery of deadpan wit. It signals a shift in travel writing that is long overdue.

Spring 2021

Join us for

l i a S ' A s Book t Sea

a p u o r G k o A Bo Buxton! e

n a J a r i K h t i w

All hands on deck! Book your cabin and join Village Books co-owners Paul Hanson and Kelly Evert, and special guest author KIRA JANE BUXTON on a seabound book-club adventure of a lifetime with the Schooner Zodiac Books A'Sail Cruise. Adhering to COVID-19 safety precautions and procedures, we'll sail during the day through the San Juan Islands, where passengers will have an opportunity to navigate and sail this classic ship.

September 7-9, 2021

We’ll take advantage of the late-summer days to get in three full days of sailing and book discussion amid the gorgeous San Juan Islands, accompanied by a variety of marine life from bald eagles to porpoises and maybe even whales! In between we’ll dip into all that the Schooner Zodiac has to offer, from kayaking to hiking to topnotch meals to wine on deck at sunset. Then the anchor drops and the books come out! Paul and Kelly will guide your literary journey with the help of guest author, Kira Jane Buxton, whose novel Hollow Kingdom, has been making big waves in the literary world. Space is limited so book today—you deserve it!

Check Out Our Fun Reading Selection!

Space is limited so book today!

• Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton • Crow Planet by Lyanda Lynn Haupt • My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell Participants receive 15% off the reading selections at Village Books.

The Schooner Zodiac also offers many Day Cruises and themed Multi-day Cruises to choose from throughout the summer! Visit their website and explore!

Space is limited so register today!

See schoonerzodiac.com or call 206.719.7622 for more information and to book your cruise today! 44

Spring 2021

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EXPLORE

local history • local interest • local authors Chuckanut Editions, Village Books' very own publishing imprint, is focused on local history, local interest, and local authors. We're proud to publish our first book for 2021: 78 Beaches from photographer Lynda Burgan. 78 Beaches is the result of Burgan's explorations of shorelines along Washington and Oregon coasts. Over the course of a year, Burgan gathered natural materials she found while walking these beaches. She then composed the found materials into beautiful arrangements, photographing the results. Burgan was born and raised in Wisconsin, growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan. After 20 years of moving with the military, her family settled in Snohomish, Washington, where she discovered the oceans and beaches of the Pacific Northwest. All 78 of the photographs collected in this full color book illustrate the vast variety and unique characteristics of the beaches that range up and down the Pacific Northwest coast and islands. This book can also serve as a guide for where to go if you want a sandy beach or want to go rock or seashell or even sea glass collecting. Fun fact: The significance of the number 78 is that it's an arithmetic progression—Burgan visited 1 beach in January, 2 beaches in February, 3 beaches in March, etc. The sum total at the end of one year is 78!

Nature A Shape in the Dark : Living and Dying with Brown Bears

by Bjorn Dihle

available now, paperback, Mountaineers Books

In A Shape in the Dark, wilderness guide and lifelong Alaskan Bjorn Dihle weaves personal experience with historical and contemporary accounts to explore the world of brown bears—from encounters with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, frightening attacks, the controversies related to bear hunting, the animal’s place in native cultures, and the impacts on the species from habitat degradation and climate change. Much more than a report on human-bear interactions, this compelling story intimately explores our relationship with one of the world’s most powerful predators. An authentic and thoughtful work, it blends outdoor adventure, history, and elements of memoir to present a mesmerizing portrait of Alaska’s brown bears and grizzlies, informed by the species’ larger history and their fragile future.

Nature of Writing Series - Virtual Event Saturday, April 3, 7pm BJORN DIHLE In conversation with Joe Scott Register at villagebooks.com

Thank You for Shopping Local. It Matters!

The Pebble Spotter’s Guide

by Clive Mitchell available in April, hardcover, National Trust

Hidden in plain sight along every shoreline, these amazing consequences of wind, sea, and time all tell stories of our landscapes. In this spirited guide to pebbles, richly illustrated throughout, passionate geologist and pebble spotter Clive J. Mitchell gives practical advice on how to identify 40 pebbles and where to find them, making a trip to the beach or riverbank all the more interesting.

villagebooks.com Spring 2021

Science & Nature Cosmic Queries :

The Disordered Cosmos :

StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going

A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

available now, hardcover, National Geographic

available in March, hardcover, Bold Type Books

In this thought-provoking follow-up to his acclaimed StarTalk book, uber astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tackles the world's most important philosophical questions about the universe with wit, wisdom, and cutting-edge science. Populated with paradigmshifting discoveries that help explain the building blocks of astrophysics, this relatable and entertaining book will engage and inspire readers of all ages, bring sophisticated concepts within reach, and offer a window into the complexities of the cosmos.

In The Disordered Cosmos, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares her love for physics, all with a new spin informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in Black feminist traditions. Prescod-Weinstein urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is rife with racism, sexism, and other dehumanizing systems. She lays out a bold new approach to science and society that begins with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky.

by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, with James Trefil

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster : The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

by Bill Gates

available now, hardcover, Knopf

Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in various fields, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet’s slide into environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.

How Stella Learned to Talk : The Groundbreaking Story of the World's First Talking Dog by Christina Hunger available in May, hardcover, William Morrow & Company

I was astounded and impressed when I first saw the video of Stella the Talking Dog using her programmed buttons to communicate with her owners. Now, Stella's human Christina (a speech-language pathologist) tells us all about their journey, from getting Stella to "speak" her first word and all the trials in between. I love their story, and if you're a dog owner like me, it might inspire you to try her methods with your own dog! –Lauren

The Inner Life of Animals :

Love, Grief, and Compassion– Surprising Observations of a Hidden World

by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst available in May, paperback, Greystone Books

In this captivating book, Peter Wohlleben follows the hugely successful The Hidden Life of Trees with insightful stories into the emotions, feelings, and intelligence of animals around us. Animals are different from us in ways that amaze us—and they are also much closer to us than we ever would have thought.

Spring 2021

by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Under a White Sky : The Nature of the Future

by Elizabeth Kolbert

available now, hardcover, Crown

One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a 10,000-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation.

How to Be Animal : A New History of What it Means to Be Human by Melanie Challenger

available in March, paperback, Penguin

How to Be Animal argues that at the heart of our existence is a profound struggle with being animal. We possess a psychology that seeks separation between humanity and nature, and we have invented ideologies to magnify this. As well as piecing together the mystery of how this mindset evolved, Challenger’s book examines the ways in which it affects our lives, from our politics to the way we distance ourselves from other species.

Building Community One Book at a Time

Plants Washington Wildflower Hikes : 50 Destinations Pacific Northwest Wildflowers : A Pocket Reference both by Nathan & Jeremy Barnes

available in April, Mountaineers Books

Join us for a virtual event with

Nathan Barnes Tuesday, April 20, 7pm Nature of Writing Series

From flower-filled alpine meadows to streams lined with delicate Scouler’s corydalis blooms, Washington offers something for every hiker—and flower lover. Brothers Nathan and Jeremy Barnes expertly guide readers on 50 trails to spectacular seasonal floral displays, with each handpicked route showcasing a specific species and including turnby-turn route descriptions, a detailed topo map, history of the area, and information about the wildflowers found along the trail. Pair this with their Pacific Northwest Wildflowers Pocket Reference and you'll be set! This handy, visual, pocket-sized guide to wildflowers is particularly useful for novice or recreational wildflower enthusiasts. Laminated panels showcase 40 of the most common species found in Washington and Oregon.

Growing • Healing • Understanding

Floriography : The Myths,

Miniscapes : Create Your Own Terrarium

by Sally Coulthard

Magic and Language of Flowers

available in March, hardcover, Quadrille Publishing

by Clea Cregan

available in April, hardcover, Hardie Grant

Miniscapes will inspire you with 16 projects covering four biomes (Desert, Forest, Carnivorous and Air plants) and equip you with the knowledge you need about soil and rocks, moss, tools, propagation, choosing your plants and containers, and designing your tiny landscape. Between these covers is everything you need to create and maintain healthy, happy terrariums that are cheap to make and easy to maintain (you can even upcycle things you already have at home). Find more gardening books on page 13

Alternative Health

Flowers can talk. Red roses say 'I love you', white lilies offer condolence and poppies invite us to remember. For thousands of years, humans have used flowers as a language, a short-hand for emotions and meanings. In her new book, Sally Coulthard, takes a fascinating look at floriography and shows how we still use this secret language across the world. She delves into the meanings of flowers and where they came from, whether it's ancient mythology or hedgerow folklore. Covering 50 well-loved flowers and plants, from peonies to sweetpeas, ivy to irises, Floriography is a beautifully illustrated guide that will take the reader on an intriguing journey through the history, legend, anthropology and literature of flowers, showing how modern-day society still relies on the meaning of flowers.

Healing with Plants : The Chelsea Physic Garden Herbal by Chelsea Physic Garden

available now, hardcover, Aster

Discover the healing powers of plants in this stunning, definitive herbal guide from one of the oldest botanic gardens in the world, Chelsea Physic Garden. Be inspired by this beautiful guide to bring more plants into your life for health, well-being and happiness. The book includes a fascinating and broad introduction to herbal traditions, how to make plant-based preparations and tells the stories of more than 140 herbs and plants. Tips on growing these plants are also included, alongside recipes that anyone can try at home.

Seed to Dust : Life, Nature, and a Country Garden by Marc Hamer

Nature Writing

available in May, hardcover, Greystone Books

From the author of How to Catch a Mole, this meditative memoir explores the wisdom of plants, the joys of manual labor, and the natural cycle of growth and decay that runs through both the garden’s life and our own. In Seed to Dust, Hamer paints a beautiful portrait of the garden that “belongs to everyone.” Just like all good books and gardens, Seed to Dust is filled with equal parts life and death, beauty and decay, and every reader will find something different to admire.

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Nature of Writing Speaker Series

Village Books teams up with the North Cascades Institute every spring and fall to offer the “Nature of Writing” speaker series. With a focus on nature writing, science and the natural and cultural history of our region, the free series of readings brings some of the best writers on the natural world directly to you. We've got some incredibly inspirational and informative spring events lined up—go to villagebooks.com and register today. Tuesday, March 16, 6pm KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and

Thursday, April 22, 7pm Poetry! BILL YAKE Waymaking by Moonlight:

Defending the Songs of the Natural World

New & Selected Poems

Saturday, April 3, 7pm BJORN DIHLE

Tuesday, April 27, 6pm KIM STAFFORD Singer Come from Afar

in conversation with Joe Scott A Shape in the Dark: Living and Dying with Brown Bears Nature of Writing Series

Tuesday, April 20, 7pm NATHAN BARNES Washington Wildflower Hikes: 50 Destinations and Pacific NW Wildflowers: A Pocket Guide

Poetry!

Thursday, May 13, 7pm An Evening with SAUL WEISBERG & Friends

facilitated by journalist William Dietrich NCI: Connecting people, nature, and community through education since 1986

During this time of coronavirus and closures, North Cascades Institute has pivoted to create new online learning opportunities, so they can stay connected with you and you can discover new ways to connect with the natural world: see www.ncascades.org for details.

Defending Nature Fragile World by Kerby Rosanes available in March, paperback, Plume

Fragile Worlds is a coloring book with a mission: to raise awareness of the loss of biodiversity around the world. It features a total of 56 endangered, vulnerable, and threatened animals, intermixed with unique landscapes that are in peril, including the Philippine bat caves and the Baltic Sea. The result is a stunning tribute to Mother Nature, and an urgent reminder of all we stand to lose if we don’t protect the earth.

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Spring 2021

Earth’s Wild Music : Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World

by Kathleen Dean Moore

available now, hardcover, Counterpoint

At once joyous and somber, this thoughtful gathering of new and selected essays spans Kathleen Dean Moore's distinguished career as a tireless advocate for environmental activism in the face of climate change. In this meditation on the music of the natural world, Moore celebrates the call of loons, howl of wolves, bellow of whales, laughter of children, and shriek of frogs, even as she warns of the threats against them. Join us for a Virtual Event with Philosopher and Activist

KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE Tuesday, March 16, 6pm Register at villagebooks.com Moore is the author or co-editor of many books about our moral and emotional bonds to the wild, reeling world, including Wild Comfort, Moral Ground, and Great Tide Rising.

Building Community One Book at a Time

Inspiration Psychology A Cure for Darkness : The Story of Depression and How We Treat It

Useful Delusions : The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain

by Alex Riley

by Shankar Vedantam

available in April, hardcover, Scribner

available in March, hardcover, W.W. Norton

Expanding from his own experience, Riley tracks depression treatments through history, from the “talking cure” to electroconvulsive therapy to magic mushrooms. Reporting on the field of global mental health from its colonial past to the present day, Riley highlights a range of scalable therapies and explores what treatments are on the horizon for those who don’t respond to these first-line treatments.

Self-deception can do terrible harm to us, to our communities, and to the planet. But if it is so bad for us, why is it ubiquitous? The lies we tell ourselves can sustain our daily interactions with friends, lovers, and coworkers. They can explain why some people live longer than others, why some couples remain in love and others don’t, why some nations hold together while others splinter.

Check out our

Virtual LitLiveEvents

Spiritual Activism Do Better : Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy

by Rachel Ricketts

available now, hardcover, Atria Books

Do Better is a revolutionary offering that addresses anti-racism from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spiritually-aligned perspective. This actionable guidebook illustrates how to engage in the heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices that racial justice educator and healer Rachel Ricketts has developed to fight white supremacy from the inside out, in our personal lives and communities alike. Do Better provides the missing pieces to manifest practicable, sustainable solutions such as identifying where we most get stuck, mitigating the harm we inflict on others, and mending our hearts from our most painful race and gender-based experiences, plus much more.

Historical Humor

on pages 65-70!

Fashion How to Break Up With Fast Fashion : A Guilt-Free Guide to Changing the Way You Shop–for Good

by Lauren Bravo

available now, hardcover, Headline

Journalist Lauren Bravo loves clothes more than anything, but she's called time on her affair with fast fashion in search of a slower, saner way of dressing. In this book, she'll help you do the same by helping you to change your mindset, fall back in love with your wardrobe and embrace more sustainable ways of shopping. Full of refreshing honesty and realistic advice, Bravo will inspire you to repair, recycle and give your unloved items a new lease of life without sacrificing your style.

Non-Fiction

More Bad Days in History : The Delightfully Dismal, Day-by-Day Saga of Ignominy, Idiocy, and Incompetence Continues by Michael Farquhar

available in April, hardcover, National Geographic

From the decadent palaces of ancient Rome to the modern Halls of Congress, this illuminating (sometimes disturbing) narrative features an almost endless array of misbehavior, amusing mishaps, and breathtaking misfortune over the ages and across the historical spectrum. This surprising and sometimes heartbreaking collection of mayhem and malady will leave you amused, intrigued, and horrified by day after day of hilarious catastrophe.

Thank You For Supporting This Locally Owned Business FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Art Artists in Residence : Seventeen Artists and Their Living Spaces, from Giverny to Casa Azul

by Melissa Wyse, illustrated by Kate Lewis available now, hardcover, Chronicle Books

This book invites you inside some of the most creative and inspiring homes of all time. For the 17 artists profiled here, a house or an apartment is not simply a place to eat and sleep; they transform everyday spaces into dynamic reflections of their individual artistic passions. You will gain a deeper appreciation of your favorite artists' work and may just discover a new favorite. Richly illustrated throughout, this petite jacketed hardcover offers a fascinating and inspiring blend of art history, interior design, and armchair travel.

We have drawing paper and journals, pens and paints — get ready to create!

Crafts Book a private self-guided tour at the Whatcom Museum! We are excited to offer private bookings at either the Lightcatcher or Old City Hall for groups of up to six people from the same household! Visit whatcommuseum.org/learn/tours/ to learn more. A unique opportunity to have the galleries to yourself! Whatcom Museum | whatcommuseum.org Lightcatcher building: 250 Flora Street Old City Hall: 121 Prospect Street

Village Books & Paper Dreams

Gift Cards For All Ages and

Any Occasion 50

Spring 2021

Vanishing Fleece : Adventures in American Wool by Clara Parkes

available in April, paperback, Abrams Press

A fast-paced account of the year Clara Parkes spent transforming a 676-pound bale of fleece into saleable yarn, and the people and vanishing industry she discovered along the way. By the end of the book, you’ll be ready to set aside the backyard chickens and add a flock of sheep instead. Simply put, no other book exists that explores American culture through the lens of wool.

Make Thrift Mend : Stitch, Patch, Dam, Plant-Dye & Love Your Wardrobe by Katrina Rodabaugh

available in April, hardcover, Abrams

Katrina Rodabaugh follows her bestselling book Mending Matters with a comprehensive guide to building (and keeping) a wardrobe that matters. Whether you want to repair your goto jeans, refresh a favorite garment, alter or dye clothing you already have—this book has all the know-how you’ll need. Woven throughout are stories, essays, and a slow fashion callto-action, encouraging readers to get involved or deepen their commitment to changing the destructive habit of overconsumption.

Building Community One Book at a Time

April is National

Poetry Month

Celebrate with Village Books

Poems, poems, poems galore! Join us in the virtual readings gallery for a variety of live poetry events. See pages 65-79 and villagebooks.com for event details and how to register.

Singer Come from Afar

Waymaking by Moonlight:

by Kim Stafford

New & Selected Poems

available in April, paperback, Red Hen Press

by Bill Yake

The five sections in Kim Stafford's Singer Come from Afar hold poems that summon war and peace, pandemic struggles, Earth imperatives, a seeker's spirit, and forge kinship. The former poet laureate of Oregon, Stafford May this book be the hidden spring you seek.

available now, paperback, Empty Bowl

Tuesday, April 27, 6pm KIM STAFFORD

BILL YAKE

For Young Women

You Don’t Have to be Everything : Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves edited by Diana Whitney

available in March, paperback, Workman

Created and compiled just for young women, You Don’t Have to Be Everything is filled with works by a wide range of poets who are honest, unafraid, and skilled at addressing the complex feelings of coming-of-age, from loneliness to joy, longing to solace, attitude to humor. Including work by Amanda Gorman, Sharon Olds, Kate Baer, and more, these unintimidating poems offer girls a message of self-acceptance and strength, giving them permission to let go of shame and perfectionism.

Thursday, March 11, 6pm Editor Diana Whitney will join authors Meg Weber & Jennifer Berney for an inspirational evening. Sunday, April 11, 7pm GROUP READING Solstice : Light and Dark Poetry Anthology

Saturday, April 17, 4pm Chuckanut Sandstone Writers GROUP READING Our Deepest Calling : A Decade of Writing in Community

available now, paperback

edited by Carla Shafer

The Carrying : Poems by Ada Limón

edited by Bethany Reid, Paul Marshall and Carla Shafer

20% OFF Poetry All APRIL!

available in April, paperback, Milkweed Editions

Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses. And still Limón shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives.

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Spring 2021

Enjoy 20% Off Poetry All April Change Sings :

Poetry Month with the kids

A Children's Anthem

by Amanda Gorman

available in September hardcover, Viking Books for Young Readers

In this stirring, much-anticipated picture book by inaugural Youth Poet Laureate and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes—big or small—in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves. With lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations that build to a dazzling crescendo by bestselling illustrator Loren Long, Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.

Pre-order Your Copy Today!

Celebrate National

Legacy : Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes

available now, hardcover, Bloomsbury

What a gem this book is! It’s a collection of poems by female black poets during the Harlem Renaissance, and includes full-color art from female black artists. Grimes adds a companion poem to each piece using the Golden Shovel method and the result is a beautiful duet between Grimes and the poets. This book is a celebration in every sense of the word. –Claire

Peaceful Poetry Contest - 2020

Spring 2021

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Every year, the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center (WDRC) coordinates the Youth Peace Poetry Contest to inspire Whatcom County youth to imagine what healthy and happy relationships, and their community as a whole, could look like. Local youth ages 4-18 are invited to explore any theme related to peace such as listening, respect, antibullying, friendship, and social justice through poems, raps, songs, stories, or any kind of short creative writing piece. As a proud sponsor, Village Books would like to join WDRC in thanking everyone who spent time this year envisioning peace and creatively writing. Enjoy!

Her Name was Susan by Beckett F., age 12

Cascades Montessori Middle School

What Is Peace

by Rowan G., age 12,

Kulshan Middle School

What is peace Her hair was long, Peace can be hard to find with a clouded mind and black as her eyes Peace is the fir trees in the wind and cascaded down her shoulders Peace is the fire dying in the dark Her skin was dark, Peace is sometimes being alone And her spirit bright Peace is a forest undisturbed by man Her laugh was like the gentle rain Peace can occur in many ways yet for you to discover After, the biggest storm But the truth about peace is that it can be whatever you want Her name was Susan. She sat in class, her eyes intent Her chin sitting, on her palm Her family was quiet, But she brought joy, by Vivi L., Age 10 and I think she liked to laugh Happy Valley Elementary School by Lucy B., age 12 Her father had skin Kulshan Middle School I am a little cat. The color of the night sky, and I don't know where I'm at. Children laugh. Her name was Susan I feel a little rough, Children play. Once I heard her called a name but I am not that tough. Children leave peace in their wake. on the playground out front I look a little strange, Children leave It was a hot fall day, and I heard her cry but I am not bad. love, I looked up, and there she was I like to say mew, peace, Crying in the sun but I do not climb the yews. and harmony. A couple kids snickered, but I did not They slip and slide, Instead I stared along they run and play, Then one day, she didn't come to school with each other. Her name was in the news They leave peace everywhere they go, by Adelyn B., age 10 I saw a black and white photo of her but, Cordata Elementary School in the newspaper most importantly, Read on page 52. Of course she was smiling they leave friendship. I knew, even before the trial, the officer wasn't going to jail I don't know a lot But I know Keep an eye on whatcomdrc.org for the 2021 contest submission information and Her name was Susan encourage all youth who would like to be involved in this exciting competition to submit their poems. If you have any further questions, send an email to youth@whatcomdrc.org.

The Hairless Cat

Friendship

Peace Dove

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Spring 2021

WHAT

LOCAL KIDS were

-2020-

READING

Top Sellers for the Young & Young at Heart

National

1. Dog Man: #09 Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey 2. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds 3. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 4. What Makes You Smile as Big as the Moon by Margie Kimberley 5. Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure by Jeff Kinney 6. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys 7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #15 Deep End by Jeff Kinney 8. Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi 9. The Elephant’s Guide to Hide and Seek by Kjersten Hayes 10. Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer 11. This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell 12. A Whale of the Wild by Rosanne Parry 13. Dog Man #08 Fetch-22 by Dav Pilkey 14. When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed 15. New Kid by Jerry Craft

Children’s Book Week May 3-9, 2021

READING IS

S U P IS A ERPO W ER!

There’s no need for kids to don a cape or leap tall buildings in a single bound to take part in the 2021 Children Book Week festivities, but a passion for reading surely helps. This year’s celebration, hosted by Every Child a Reader and the Children’s Book Council (CBC), will follow the theme “Reading Is a Superpower,” as a nod to the educators, librarians, booksellers, and caregivers who have encouraged kids to continue reading during the pandemic. To help kids discover their own superpowers and tap into their interests, the CBC will offer the Superpower Challenge—a variety of themed activities in different categories such as STEM, the arts, and community engagement. Watch cbcbooks.org to participate.

Village Books donates 10% of all kids’ book purchases made during Children's Book Week to the children’s departments of the city and county libraries! 54

Spring 2021

Shop 24 hours a day at villagebooks.com

YOUNG READERS Their Families & Educators

PICTURE BOOKS My Monster and Me by Nadiya Hussain, illustrated by Ella Bailey available in March, hardcover, Viking Books for Young Readers

A touching story about a little boy whose worry monster follows him everywhere he goes. It's there when he gets dressed, when he wants to play with his toys, and even when his friends come over to visit. How can he escape his worries? Having struggled with anxiety for as long as she can remember, Nadiya Hussain, winner of The Great British Bake Off, has written this heartfelt story to help give children and parents the tools they need to talk about worries and anxiety, to ensure that no child suffers in silence.

Milo Imagines the World AND the Spanish Version

Milo Imagina el Mundo

by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson available now, hardcover, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

While Milo and his sister travel to a detention center to visit their incarcerated mother, he observes strangers on the subway and draws what he imagines their lives to be. As Village Books children's book buyer Kendra says, "we've all tried to imagine the lives of people that pass by us and it can also be hard at times to imagine the situations others have experienced. This book helps illustrate the empathy we harvest when we learn each others stories by talking to our neighbors and making new friends."

The Tree in Me by Corinna Luyken

available in March, hardcover, Dial Books

Through poetic text and exquisite illustrations of children reveling in nature, this picture book explores the various ways we as human beings are strong, creative, and connected to others. As Corinna Luyken did in her award-winning My Heart, she again provides an invigorating conversation-starter that contains a world of truths—about self-esteem, community, and living a meaningful life. A Pacific Northwest talent!

Thank You for Shopping Local. It Matters!

Fatima's Great Outdoors by Ambreen Tariq, illustrated by Stevie Lewis

available in March, hardcover, Kokila

Have you dreamt of your next camping trip lately? Do you have fond memories of camping with your family? Exciting tales of animals near your camp or bugs crawling into your tent or just remember building a fire? This book is filled with beautiful memories and captures the tug nature has on your heart that calls you back! –Kendra

Hugo and the Impossible Thing

by Renée Felice Smith and Chris Gabriel, illustrated by Sydney Hanson available in March, hardcover, Flamingo Books

At the edge of the forest stood the Impossible Thing. All animals in the forest often wondered what was beyond the Impossible Thing, but no one had ever tried because getting through it would be ...impossible. So why even bother? That's when a brave little bulldog named Hugo decides he just might be up for the challenge. With determination and some unexpected help from his friends, Hugo learns that what may seem impossible might just be possible after all.

Champ and Major : First Dogs

by Joy McCullough, illustrated by Sheyda Abvabi Best available now, hardcover, Dial Books

A new picture book about Champ and Major, President Joe Biden's two adorable dogs! Major is the first shelter dog in the White House, and Champ can't wait to show him around. Champ and Major's dad, Joe Biden, just got a really important job: He's the new president of the United States! Champ is excited to be back to the White House—he got to visit it when his dad was the vice president, before the family adopted Major, and he knows about all the important work that happens there. Be ready for some fun!

Spring 2021

SPRING HOLIDAYS Celebrating Passover

Happy Easter, Corduroy by Don Freeman illustrated by Jody Wheeler

Meet the Matzah

A Sort-of Passover Book

available now, board book, Viking Books for Young Readers

by Alan Silberberg

available in March, hardcover, published by Viking Books for Young Readers

Corduroy is ready to celebrate Easter. Join him as he enjoys the springtime weather, decorates Easter eggs, and prepares for the arrival of the Easter Bunny. Ages 0-3

From the creator of Meet the Latkes comes the zaniest retelling of the Passover story starring an earnest matzah and his bready friends! Ages 3-5

Hannah and the Ramadan Gift

Passover Ultimate Sticker Book

by Qasim Rashid Illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel

by DK

available in April, published by Viking Books for Young Readers

available now, paperback, DK Children

Discover the story of Passover and learn how it is celebrated today in this engaging sticker book for young children. Ages 5 -9

Human rights activist Qasim Rashid celebrates with this timely story full of warmth and heart about the observance of Ramadan and the power of good deeds. Ages 3-7

Picture Book Subscription Gift Fun & Good for Them, Easy for You! Let us help you all year round! With our picture book subscription program, we'll take care of everything for you. Our experienced children's book buyer hand-selects each beautiful picture book then we wrap and ship it directly to the young reader of your choice. Easy!

Surpise Books in the Mail? Best Thing EVER! The Spring Book

by Todd Parr available now, hardcover, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

New York Times bestselling author Todd Parr captures the beauty of Spring with his signature blend of kid-friendly art and text in this sweet book about the wonders of a season. 4-8 years old.

Spring 2021

Visit the book recommendations tab at villagebooks.com for details and to sign up today!

What Makes You Smile As Big As the Moon by Margie Kimberley, illustrated by Michelle Marques

Paige's Picks Profits from the sales of this book support children's literacy.

available now in paperback AND hardcover

With beautiful watercolor illustrations and playful verse, What Makes You Smile As Big As the Moon? takes young readers on a journey through identifying their own thoughts and emotions. Each page invites interaction and self-reflection with BIG emotions on a level early learners can seamlessly engage with. A bio page in the back of the book tells you the real stories of the kids in the book, and a reading guide gives parents and teachers tips on how to deepen social learning.Truly a great, educational read-aloud book you can keep revisiting! –Chelanne

Building Community One Book at a Time

BLACK HISTORY Celebrating

Little Ones

Middle Readers

Antiracist Baby Picture Book

Clean Getaway

by Ibram X. Kendi, Illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky

by Nic Stone

avialable now, hardcover, Kokila

From bestselling author Nic Stone comes a timely middle-grade road-trip story through landmarks of the Civil Rights movement and the map they lay for contemporary race relations. Ages 8-12

From the National Book Awardwinning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist is a picture book that empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves Ages 3 and under

Betty Before X

Kamala Harris :

by Ilyasah Shabazz, with Renée Watson available now, paperback, Square Fish

Rooted in Justice

by Nikki Grimes, Illustrated by Laura Freeman available now, hardcover, Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Discover the incredible story of a young daughter of immigrants who would grow up to be the first woman, first Black person, and first South Asian American ever elected Vice President of the United States in this moving picture book biography of Kamala Harris. Ages 4-8

Your Name Is a Song

by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow available now, hardcover, The Innovation Press

A celebration that reminds all of us about the beauty, history, and magic behind names. Ages 5-10

Dear Justyce

available now, paperback, Yearling

Betty Before X is a powerful middle-grade fictionalized account of the childhood activism of Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s wife, written by their daughter Ilyasah Shabazz. Ages 10-14

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

available now, paperback, Rick Riordan Presents

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richlyimagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods. Ages 10+

Young Adult

by Nic Stone

available now, hardcover, Crown Books for Young Readers

The stunning sequel to the bestseller Dear Martin. Incarcerated teen Quan writes letters to Justyce about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas. Ages 14 +

The Black Kids

by Christina Hammonds Reed available now, hardcover, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give, this unforgettable comingof-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots. Ages 14 +

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

available now, hardcover, Balzer + Bray

International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood. Ages 14 +

Spring 2021

American Library Association

Children's

Book Awards

Celebrating Quality, Diversity, and Equality

The Newbery Medal,

the most recognizable children’s book award, was named for 18th-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal was named in honor of 19th-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. The award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honors his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

Stonewall Book Award The first and most enduring award for LGBTQIA+ books is the Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association's Rainbow Round Table—honored for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience.

Additional Awards Include The Schneider Family Book Award for books that

The Michael L. Printz Award is an

embody an artistic expression of the disability experience.

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

promotes Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and is awarded based on literary and artistic merit.

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

The Pura Belpré Award

is awarded annually by the American Library Association honoring a Latino writer and an illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience. One or more Honor books are recognized each year as well.

Read more about these and additional award-winners at ala.org. 58

Spring 2021

Open Daily - See villagebooks.com for store hours

Middle Readers The Elephant in the Room

Starfish

Spring Fiction

by Lisa Fipps

by Holly Goldberg Sloan

available in March, hardcover, Nancy Paulsen Books

available in March, hardcover, Dial Books

Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth birthday party, she's been bullied about her weight. Now she's found her safe space--her swimming pool--where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world. In the water, she can stretch herself out like a starfish and take up all the room she wants. Fortunately, Ellie has allies in her dad, her therapist, and her new neighbor, Catalina, who loves Ellie for who she is. With this support buoying her, Ellie might finally be able to unapologetically be her own fabulous self. A novel in verse!

Since her mother returned to Turkey to rectify an immigration problem, life has been difficult for American-born Sila Tekin. But things change when Sila accompanies her father to work outside their Oregon town. There she meets a grandfatherly man who only months before won the state lottery. Their new alliance leads to the rescue of a circus elephant named Veda, and then to a friendship with an unusual boy named Mateo, proving that comfort and hope come in the most unlikely of places.

Graphic Novel Turtle in Paradise :

The Graphic Novel

by Jennifer L. Holm and Savanna Ganucheau available in May, paperwork, Random House

The graphic adaptiation of this bestselling, Newbery Honor-winning historical fiction novel will be released in May! Life isn’t like the movies. But then again, 11-yearold Turtle is no Shirley Temple. She’s smart and tough and has seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it’s 1935 and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. Filled with adventure, humor and heart, Turtle in Paradise is an instant classic.

Historical Fiction

Ground Zero : by Alan Gratz

available now, hardcover, Scholastic

Two kids. One devastating day. Nothing will ever be the same. In time for the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, master storyteller Alan Gratz (Refugee) delivers a pulse-pounding and unforgettable take on history and hope, revenge and fear—and the stunning links between the past and present. "A contemporary history lesson with the uplifting message that humanity’s survival depends on us working for, not against, one another. A must-have." —School Library Journal

Non-Fiction The Outdoor Scientist : The Wonder of Observing the Natural World

by Temple Grandin

available in April, hardcover, Philomel Books

What are the aerodynamics of skipping stones or the physics of making sandcastles? Do birds use GPS to navigate their migratory routes? In this book, Dr. Temple Grandin, an inventor and world-renowned scientist, introduces readers to geologists, astrophysicists, oceanographers, and many other scientists who unlock the wonders of the natural world. She shares her childhood experiences and observations, whether on the beach, in the woods, working with horses, or gazing up at the night sky. This book explores all areas of nature and gives readers the tools to discover even more on their own.

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The Impossible Climb Young Readers Adaptation: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and a Climber's Life

by Mark Synnott, adapted for Young Readers by Hampton Synnott available now, hardcover, Viking Books for Young Readers

Have you watched the movie Free Solo? Do you want to know more about rock climbing? Do you feel inspired by other triumphs and daydream about accomplishing something that seems out of reach? The Impossible Climb tells the gripping story of how a quiet kid from Sacramento, California, grew up to capture the attention of the entire globe by redefining the limits of human potential through hard work, discipline, and a deep respect for the natural world.

Spring 2021

Women's History Month March is

Becoming: Young Readers Adaptation by Michelle Obama

Celebrate. Investigate. Make a Difference.

available in March, hardcover, Random House Children's Books

Michelle Obama’s worldwide bestselling memoir, Becoming, is now adapted for young readers! Michelle Robinson was born on the South Side of Chicago. From her modest beginnings, she would become Michelle Obama, the inspiring and powerful First Lady of the United States. This volume is an honest and fascinating account of her life led by example. She shares her views on how all young people can help themselves as well as help others, no matter their status in life. She asks readers to realize that no one is perfect, and that the process of becoming is what matters, as finding yourself is ever evolving. In telling her story with boldness, she asks young readers: Who are you, and what do you want to become?

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls : 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World

by Rebel Girls & Elena Favilli available now, hardcover, Rebel Girls

The latest installment in the New York Times bestselling Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series, featuring 100 immigrant women who have shaped, and will continue to shape, our world.

Leading the Way : Women in Power

by Janet Howell & Theresa Howell available now, hardcover,

In this engaging and highly accessible compendium for young readers and aspiring power brokers, Virginia Senator Janet Howell and her daughter-in-law Theresa Howell spotlight the careers of 50 American women in politics—and inspire readers to make a difference.

Committed to strong community journalism Proudly telling stories about the people, businesses and organizations doing good things around Whatcom County

Spring 2021

Shop 24 hours a day at villagebooks.com

YA RC .

Reading Recommendations

VB's Young Adult Review Committee

Enjoy these reviews of the latest and greatest Young Adult books to hit the streets in recent and upcoming months. Don't miss our in-store Y.A.R.C. display, which is always up-to-date and evolving with reviews by young adults for young adults! What better way to find out what teens are reading than to go straight to the source?

A Pho Love Story

Time Travel for Love and Profit

by Loan Le

available now, hardcover, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers .

by Sarah Lariviere

available now, hardcover, Knopf for Young Readers

Nephele Weather is an aggressively weird mathematical genius determined to redo her freshman year of high school. At first, all Nephele wants is to regain her best friend and become popular, but her time travel experiment soon gets out of hand. I absolutely loved Time Travel for Love and Profit. It will leave the reader pondering questions of existence, ethics, love, and science, and how these forces interconnect. I would recommend this book to everyone; it’s one of those stories that quietly works its way into your soul and refuses to leave. –Isabel F. age 16

Love in English by Maria E. Andreu

Sing Me Forgotten

available now, hardcover, Balzer and Bray

Love in English is a quirky love story centering on 16-year-old Ana, who has just immigrated to the US from Argentina and speaks very little English. Starting out in American high school, the author draws on her own experiences as an immigrant to show how hard and lonely it is to not speak the language of your peers. The novel also explores the difficulties in reuniting as a family, as Ana and her mother came to the US four years after Ana's father. After finding friends and mistakes too, Ana comes to learn that love means finding your voice - in any language. –Kamden I. age 17

Young Adult Reviews Established in 2014, this program offers teenagers and young adults the opportunity to read yet-to-be-published books, also known as ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies). In exchange for this privilege, they write reviews as recommendations for Village Books customers. Enjoy these and find many more on our Y.A.R.C. web page. Find them under Book Picks in the Readers Corner at villagebooks.com!

Thank You for Shopping Local. It Matters!

Linh and Bao’s families hate each other. As restaurant rivals, they’ll do anything to get ahead, but Linh and Bao don’t hate each other, in fact, they’re not sure why their families do, especially since the feelings seem to go deeper than who makes better pho. So when they’re paired together to review restaurants for their school’s newspaper, they become friends, dating in secret, even though their parents’ feud threatens to tear them apart. Sweet and heartfelt, Loan Le’s A Pho Love Story is a delightful debut. You’ll be charmed by the romance, touched by the family dynamics, and left craving a giant bowl of pho. –Emma W. age 24

by Jessica S. Olson

available now, hardcover, Inkyard Press

Isda is a gravoir, a subset of disfigured humans that can alter memories through song. In Channe, people like her are killed due to their immense power. Now she lives in the deep dark depths of an opera house, using her powers to keep the opera patrons happy. All is good until she meets Emeric, a boy whose past hints at an opportunity to break free from the gilded cage she has been in since birth. Sing Me Forgotten, based on The Phantom of the Opera, is rich and dark and leaves you questioning how far you too would go to taste freedom. –Aria S. age 19

We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire by Joy McCullough

available now, hardcover, Dutton Books for Young Readers

We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire is a beautiful and intensely angry book. In prose, we follow Em as she deals with rage and guilt after a judge lets her sister’s rapist go free without prison time. In verse and illustrations, we follow Marguerite de Bressieux, a fifteenth-century noblewoman legendary for going after rapists, as Em learns about and tells her story with the help of a nonbinary classmate. It’s truly a perfect read for right now. –Gretal M. age 21 Turn the page for more Y.A.R.C. reviews!

Spring 2021

YA RC Plus! .

That Way Madness Lies :

The Sky Above Us

15 of Shakespeare's Most Notable Works Reimagined

available in April, hardcover, Philomel Books

edited by Dahlia Adler

available in March, hardcover, Flatiron Books

From Victorian vampires to soulmates who see color only when they meet, this anthology features fifteen young adult authors and re-imagines Shakespeare’s works in ways you won't soon forget. Edited by Dahlia Adler, this entire collection is excellent, but some of the more standout retellings included The Taming of the Shrew, Sonnet 147, and The Merchant of Venice. That Way Madness Lies is perfect for any Shakespeare fan. –Emma W. age 24

The Cost of Knowing

by Natalie Lund

After a plane crash resulting in the death of three high school boys, the lives of the people closest to them begin to fall apart. All three girls have lost something valuable: a boyfriend, a best friend, and a brother. All they can do is ask question after question. Because how are they supposed to move on if the people they thought they knew couldn’t move on with them? A compelling narrative following the perspectives of three friends, The Sky Above Us explores mental health and how no one grieves the same. –Claire V. age 16

by Brittany Morris

available in April, hardcover, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

The Cost of Knowing is a powerful book. It is a story of how it feels to be a Black kid in America, but also what it’s like to be cursed with knowledge of the future. Whenever Alex touches something, he can see into its future, so when he sees his brother dying, he knows he must make the most of his time. This book is brimming with intense sadness, but also vibrant joy in the face of hardship; it’s definitely a must-read. –Isabel F. age 16

Pre-Order Your Copies Today!

Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga

available in May, hardcover, Balzer + Bray

Middle Grade Fiction

A powerful story of friendship, loss, and forgiveness, The Shape of Thunder is both hopeful and sincere. After Cora’s sister is killed in a school shooting that Quinn’s brother is responsible for, Cora struggles with grief, and Quinn with guilt. It seems the only way to make things okay–and heal their friendship - is to travel back in time. Their story captures the feeling that you need to fix everything, and the realization that you can’t. I couldn’t put this book down, even when it made me cry. –Louisa M. age 17

For work, play, and everyday. Maika Zippered Backpacks & Purses Making Everyday Goods Delightful

Hooray for these cool, fun, and stylish bags! The purse is the perfect addition to any spring wardrobe and the backpack fits all your essentials PLUS your laptop— form AND function! These bags feature vegan leather, sturdy recycled canvas, and eco-friendly pigment inks. All of the designs are hand drawn and hand printed with love.

Spring 2021

Building Community One Book at a Time

The Electric Kingdom

Young Adult

by David Arnold

available now, hardcover, Viking Books for Young Readers

When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, on a voyage to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth, these few survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England, each on their own quest to find life and love in a world gone dark.

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

available in March, paperback, Macmillian

This is a Grease meets Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda which will break your heart completely and then put it all back together. Ollie and Will had a summer fling, but when Ollie ends up at Will's school its a Sandy and Danny situation but a little more complicated—Will is not out. While this is a romance, there is also the dealing of grief of losing a family member and leaning on friends during dark times. –Jenni

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

available now, hardcover, Dutton Books for Young Readers

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship— Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Fire Keeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

available in March, hardcover, Henry Holt & Company

In Fire Keeper's Daughter, author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about Daunis, a Native teen who witnessed a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. As the deceptions--and deaths-keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she'll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she's ever known.

Yolk

by Mary H.K. Choi available in March, hardcover, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

From New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi comes a funny and emotional story about two estranged sisters and how far they’ll go to save one of their lives—even if it means swapping identities. Jayne and June Baek are nothing alike. June is three years older, a classic first-born, know-it-all with a problematic finance job and an equally soulless apartment (according to Jayne). Jayne is an emotionally stunted, self-obsessed basket case who lives in squalor, has egregious taste in men, and needs to get to class and stop wasting Mom and Dad’s money (if you ask June). Once thick as thieves, these sisters who moved from Seoul to San Antonio to New York together now don’t want anything to do with each other. That is, until June gets cancer. And Jayne becomes the only one who can help her.

As Far As You'll Take Me by Phil Stamper

available now, hardcover, Macmillian

Love is a Revolution by Renee Watson

available now, hardcover, Bloomsbury

Nala wants to find love and thinks she finds it with Tye. But does she need to lie about who she really is to earn his love? This beautiful romance is about loving ourselves enough to not need to change for others. It’s also about family. An absolute must-read from the author of Newbery Medalwinner Piecing Me Together. –Claire

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

With a one-way ticket, Marty takes to London on an adventure of selfdiscovery. After years of being sheltered and with his parents horrible reaction to him coming out, Marty starts anew to figure out who he can be. A beautifully realistic, touching adventure of figuring oneself out and the stumbles along the way. –Jenni

Visit us 24/7 at villagebooks.com Spring 2021

AL VIRTU

VB Reads

BOOK

GROUPS

Village Books is not currently hosting book groups in person, however the following groups are meeting online and would love for you to join them—from the comfort of your own couch! To register and see additional reading selections go to Book Groups under the Readers Corner tab at villagebooks.com.

VB Reads...

Motherhood by the Book The book group meets on the second Sunday of every month at 2pm on Zoom, for an hour of spirited discussion of books that celebrate the trials, tribulations, and rewards of motherhood - both fiction and non-fiction. This group is by no means exclusive to moms with kids still at home. Join us! Sunday, April 11 –The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray

Sunday, March 14 –The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

by Melinda Gates

GENERAL VIRTUAL VB READS with Paul and Kelly Monday, April 5 –The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen Monday, May 3 –Home by Marilynne Robinson

ALL GROUPS

OPEN TO ALL

Village Books

VIRTUAL

BOOK GROUP

Lynden Front Streeters

One of our popular Lynden-based book groups will be back soon–virtually! Details coming soon.

Participants receive 15% off all book group reading selections. Just mention the group when paying!

Join Village Books co-owners Kelly Evert and Paul Hanson for a lively discussion of books from a variety of genres. We meet via Zoom the first Monday of the month at 7pm. Registration is required.

VB Reads...

Join this virtual discussion whenever it fits into YOUR schedule!

Armchair Historians Let's chat, discuss, and dissect the most current and interesting history being written. We meet via Zoom the second Monday of the month at 7pm. Registration is required. • March 8 & April 12, 7pm - A two month discussion! –No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin • Monday, May 10, 7pm –The Black Prince of Florence:: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro De' Medici by Catherine Fletcher

Spring 2021

facebook.com/mandysbookclub/

Join Mandy’s Book Club, powered by Village Books, and escape into a new book each month! Check out the Mandy’s Book Club Facebook Page to stay up to date and join the discussion. Sustainable Connections

Climate Action Book Club

3rd Thursday in June & October, 8pm – watch for details.

Building Community One Book at a Time

VIRTUAL

Check out this great selection of upcoming virtual events.

Literature LIVE!

VB’s Literary Events Program

EVENTS

from the comfort of your couch

Additions & changes to this schedule will occur so check out

VillageBooks.com

to stay updated–or even better, let us come to you! Register online for the Village Books eNewsletter!

MARCH Whatcom READS 2021 Virtual Author Events

You can register to watch the events live! We are currently using Crowdcast or Zoom for these exciting live events.

www.crowdcast.io/villagebksbham You can watch many past events on our YouTube channel! Be one of the first to subscribe! Search "Village Books YouTube" in your favorite brower.

Subscribe To the Village Books YouTube Channel

Read the book. Join the conversation!

Thursday, March 4, 1pm A Conversation with ESI EDUGYAN –Washington Black Join us as Shu-Ling Zhao interviews author Esi Edugyan on Crowdcast. Free and open to all! Registration available at villagebooks.com.

Thursday, March 4, 7pm An Evening with ESI EDUGYAN Join us as the WhatcomREADS community gathers to hear author Esi Edugyan speak about her novel, Washington Black on Crowdcast. She will be interviewed by Mary Kinser. This is a free event and all are welcome. Registration available at villagebooks.com. Read the book. Join the conversation!

Friday, March 5, 11am The Art and Craft of Writing with Esi Edugyan Observe as Esi Edugyan leads a writing craft discussion with Western Washington University students. Moderated by Dr. Scott Linneman. Register through whatcomreads.org for this live Zoom event. Pre-registration is required for all events.

Read more about these and additional upcoming events at

villagebooks.com With instructions/links to join in!

Thank you for supporting Literature Live Events! FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

Saturday, March 6, 4pm SUSANNE PAOLA ANTONETTA in conversation with

Brenda Miller –The Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here Susanne Antonetta’sThe Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here is a book that unfolds multiple stories in lyric pieces. It juxtaposes the history of a family that encompasses addiction and mental illness with the questions raised by the author’s Christian Scientist and spiritualist grandmother May: what is consciousness? Does Mind create the world, or does the world create it? What is death? Susanne Paola Antonetta is also the author the forthcoming The Devil's Castle, as well as and four books of poetry. Awards for her writing include a New York Times Notable Book, an American Book Award, a Library Journal Best Science book of the year, and others. Antonetta will be joined by local author Brenda Miller. Miller is the author of five essay collections, including An Earlier Life, which received the Washington State Book Award for Memoir. Her poetry chapbook, The Daughters of Elderly Women, received the 2020 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. Her work has also received six Pushcart Prizes. She is a professor of English at WWU and Associate Faculty with the Rainier Writing Workshop.

Wednesday, March 10, 7pm Whatcom Writers and Publishers

VIRTUAL SUPPER CLUB

Keep turning for more events!

Spring 2021

VIR

TUAL

Literature

LIVE!

Thursday, March 11, 6pm MEG WEBER –A Year of Mr. Lucky, JENNIFER BERNEY –The Other Mothers, and DIANA WHITNEY –You Don’t Have to be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves

Join us for this great line-up of talented authors! A Year of Mr. Lucky: when Meg Weber—a recently divorced, queer, single parent - is ready to date again, she meets Mr. Lucky, a smart dominant with similar interests. But not all goes as planned. This memoir chronicles her journey of erotic encounters, explorations of self-worth, submission, pain, pleasure, and healing. The Other Mothers offers an intimate look at what many queer couples go through when they decide to conceive a child. Author Jennifer Berney uses her own experience as a launching point to explore the patriarchal history of the fertility industry, the value of community, and the meaning of family. You Don’t Have to Be Everything is an inclusive, illustrated poetry anthology for teen girls. Voices like Maya Angelou and Margaret Atwood speak candidly of desire, rage, shame, belonging, self-love and identity. The poets give girls permission to embrace the fullness of who they are— and who they are becoming.

Friday, March 12, 7pm LAUREN GEERTSEN in conversation with Heather Deranja –The Invisible Corset: Break Free from Beauty Culture and Embrace Your Radiant Self

No matter how much we try to tell ourselves to love our bodies and accept our flaws, most women cannot. Why is it so hard for women to feel confident about their bodies, or even just accept them? In The Invisible Corset, Lauren Geertsen helps women liberate themselves from false narratives and reclaim their joy. Learn to love your body—for real this time. Lauren Geertsen is an author and Body Connection Coach. Her holistic health website, EmpoweredSustenace.com, has supported over 40 million readers. Heather Deranja, RD is a cognitive behavior specialist and gut health expert. She helps individuals heal from autoimmune conditions and mental health disorders.

Saturday, March 13, 2pm KAZUO ISHIGURO in conversation with

RUTH OZEKI –Klara and the Sun

Ticketed Event!

Join us for an afternoon with Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, as he discusses his new novel Klara and the Sun with Ruth Ozeki! This is a ticketed event where one ticket includes event access, one copy of Klara and the Sun, and a book plate signed by Kazuo Ishiguro (while supplies last)! See details on page 15.

Spring 2021

Tuesday, March 16, 6pm KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE –Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World

Earth’s Wild Music is at once joyous and somber, a thoughtful gathering of new and selected essays spanning Kathleen Dean Moore’s distinguished career as a tireless advocate for environmental activism in the face of climate change. Music is the shivering urgency and exuberance of life ongoing. In a time of terrible silencing, Moore asks, who will forgive us if we do not save nature’s songs? Kathleen Dean Moore is the author and co-editor of many books about our moral and emotional bonds to the wild, reeling world, including Wild Comfort, Moral Ground, and Great Tide Rising. A philosopher and activist, Moore writes from Corvallis, Oregon, and Chichagof Island, Alaska. This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.

Thursday, March 18, 6pm EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL –The Glass Hotel

Fiction!

From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events–a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea. In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives. Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award.

Friday, March 19, 6pm LISA IVERSEN, SUMMER STARR, CHRISTINA GREENÉ, and DR. TRACEY PSYCHER –Whiteness is Not an Ancestor: Essays on Life and Lineage by White Women

Join the editor and contributors of this collection for a moderated discussion on gender and White privilege. This event is co-sponsored by Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University. In Whiteness is Not an Ancestor, 12 white women from the US, Canada, and UK write about whiteness in their lives and family histories influenced by immigration, colonialism, slavery, and war. Themes explored include innocence, grief, privilege, race, and belonging. Read more about each of these talented authors at villagebooks.com.

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TUAL R I V

Literature

Saturday, March 20, 1pm SAMANTHA SHANNON

LIVE!

in conversation with

Amanda Joy –The Mask Falling: A Bone Season Novel

Join us for a riveting conversation between these two stellar fantasy authors. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Season and The Priory of the Orange Tree, comes the stunning fourth novel set in the world of Scion. The Mask Falling is a gripping, fantastical new addition to this "intoxicating urban-fantasy series" (NPR.org) that will leave readers begging for more" Amanda Joy is an author and bookstagrammer. Her debut, A River of Royal Blood, is a Junior Library Guild Selection.

Wednesday, March 24, 6pm KRISTIN HANNAH in conversation with

Christina Dodd –The Four Winds

Fiction!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression. Texas, 1934. In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation. Kristin Hannah is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels. Kristin is a former-lawyer-turned writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. Christina Dodd is a bestselling author who builds worlds filled with suspense and adventure, and creates some of the most distinctive characters in fiction today.

VB READS VIRTUAL

Book Groups

Village Books currently hosts multiple book groups via Zoom. See page 64 for details and find additional meeting times, reading selections, and register to join in at VillageBooks.com. All are welcome!

Chuckanut Writers

Workshops & Classes Village Books and WCC Community & Continuing Education program have created a writing instruction collaboration called Chuckanut Writers to support writers— at all stages of their writing journey—throughout the year. Turn to page 28 for upcoming classes and go to whatcom.edu for more information and to register.

Thursday, March 25, 7pm STEVE MORSE in conversation with Denisa Anderson –60 Years in the Schoolhouse: Life After the Bell, A Memoir

Don't miss this conversation between two beloved Bellingham educators as they discuss Steve Morse's new book! 60 Years in the Schoolhouse is a memoir of his experiences as a student, a teacher, and a principal. He uses humorous stories and reflections to illustrate the life lessons he learned and how they impacted his work as a professional educator and his growth as a human being. Steve Morse retired in 2019 after 40 years in public education. He was an effective principal and administrator in Bellingham for 26 of those years. He pioneered restorative discipline practices and utilized the arts and humor to make school fun and interesting. He currently lives in Birch Bay. Steve will be in conversation with Denisa Anderson, former librarian at Roosevelt Elementary School. Proceeds from sales of 60 Years in the Schoolhouse will be donated to the Bellingham Public Schools Foundation by the author!

Monday, March 29, 6pm Spanish Open Mic The Spanish Open Mic is BACK! Join us on Zoom and support our Spanish-language writers and poets, followed by the traditional Open Mic at 7pm! Pre-registration to read is required and spaces are limited so please email Seán at sean@seandwyerauthor.com to secure your spot! Spanish open mic is held the last Monday of each month at 6pm on Zoom.

Monday, March 29, 7pm VIRTUAL 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. Pre-registration to read is required and spaces are limited so please email Seán at sean@seandwyerauthor.com to secure your spot! Open mic is held the last Monday of most months at 7pm.

Tuesday, March 30, 7pm JACQUELINE WINSPEAR –The Consequences of Fear: A Maisie Dobbs Novel Calling all mystery fans! Join us as we celebrate the release of the latest installment in the bestselling Maisie Dobbs series with the one and only Jacqueline Winspear. As Europe bends under the weight of German might, Maisie's discoveries could have disastrous effects in this compelling installment in what Tom Nolan of The Wall Street Journal says is a "series that seems to get better with every entry." Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. In addition to the award-winning Maisie Dobbs series, she is the author of non-fiction works including her new memoir, This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing.

Please Note Event Start Times As They Vary Additions and changes will occur – watch villagebooks.com for updates!

Live Discussions Turn for more upcoming events.

Spring 2021

APRIL Thursday, April 1, 6pm JESSICA H. STONE –Blood On a Blue Moon:

Mystery!

A Sheaffer Blue Mystery

Join us for an evening with one of our favorite local authors! Sheaffer Blue can’t hold a job, a boyfriend, or her place in line at the liquor store. But she can solve murders. In Blood on a Blue Moon, she tackles corrupt politicians and killers who torch an elderly woman and blow up the neighborhood. “…a perfect mystery. Highly recommended!” —Michelle Cox, The Henrietta and Inspector Howard series Jessica H. Stone (Jes) is the author of The Last Outrageous Woman and Doggy on Deck. She collects fountain pens and lives in a small town by the sea. Read more at Jessicahstone.com.

Saturday, April 3, 7pm BJORN DIHLE in conversation with Joe Scott –A Shape in the Dark: Living and Dying with Brown Bears Nature of Writing Series

In A Shape in the Dark, Bjorn Dihle blends personal experience with historical and contemporary accounts to fully explore the world of brown bears, from frightening attacks to the animal’s place in Native cultures to the ways habitat degradation and climate change are threatening the species. Dihle is a wilderness and wildlife film guide as well as a contributing editor for Alaska Magazine and Hunt Alaska Magazine.He is the author of Haunted Inside Passage: Ghosts, Mysteries, and Legends of Southeast Alaska and Never Cry Halibut: And Other Alaska Hunting and Fishing Tales. He lives on Douglas Island in Southeast Alaska with his family. Joe Scott leads Conservation Northwest’s trans-boundary grizzly bear recovery and habitat connectivity efforts in the North Cascades and southwestern BC, working collaboratively with several First Nations, research biologists, governments and other conservation organizations. This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute

Monday, April 5, 6pm KATE LEBO

Tuesday, April 6, 6pm LINDA MOORE KURTH in conversation with

Ann Bodle-Nash –God, the Devil, and Divorce: A Transformative Journey Out of Emotional and Spiritual Abuse

Linda Moore Kurth was shocked when her Christian counselor declared, “If you divorce your husband, Satan will win!” Wrestling with the prospect of leaving her husband of 25 years, Linda was caught between the conservative Christian view of divorce and what she believed God was telling her. Her memoir touches on both faith issues and marital abuse, issues too many Christian women have faced in the past and are still impacted by today. Linda M. Kurth is a writer and a divorced and remarried Christian living with her husband in the home of their hearts in Washington’s Skagit Valley. She writes for both children and adults. Ann Bodle-Nash is a writer of fiction and non-fiction and a radio journalist for KSVR FM Community Radio, in Mt Vernon, Washington. She is a member of the Skagit Valley Writers League, and her work is represented in various publications.

Friday, April 9, 6pm BARBARA CLARKE –The Red Kitchen in conversation with Cami Ostman The Red Kitchen is an inspirational memoir about finding a way out of family drama. The memoir covers a funny, chaotic childhood, adolescent angst, married years, a life-changing time in Kenya, and much more. Barbara Clarke is a writer and grant writer living in Bellingham, WA. She is completing Pre-existing Conditions: A Memoir concerning working as an executive in the health insurance industry and its public perils. Cami Ostman, founder of The Narrative Project, has published a memoir, Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, and has co-edited several anthologies.

in conversation with

Saturday, April 10, 6pm CLYDE FORD

Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with recipes)

George Dyson –Think Black: A Memoir

Kim Addonizio –The Book of Difficult Fruit: Inspired by 26 fruits, the essayist, poet, and pie lady Kate Lebo expertly blends natural, culinary, medical, and personal history. In this work of unique invention, difficult fruits serve as the central ingredients of 26 lyrical essays (and recipes!) that range from deeply personal to botanical, from culinary to medical, from humorous to philosophical. The entries are associative, often poetic, taking unexpected turns and giving sideways insights into life, relationships, self-care, modern medicine, and more. Lebo's unquenchable curiosity leads us to intimate, sensuous, enlightening contemplations. The Book of Difficult Fruit is the very best of food writing: graceful, surprising, and ecstatic. Kate Lebo is the author of the cookbook Pie School and coeditor of Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter and Booze. She lives in Spokane, WA, where she is an apprenticed cheesemaker. Kim Addonizio is the author of seven poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry. Her poetry collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. Addonizio’s awards include two fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim, two Pushcart Prizes, and other honors. This event is brought to you by four Pacific NW independent bookstores, Village Books, Third Place Books (Seattle), Browser's Books (Olympia), and Auntie's Books (Spokane).

Spring 2021

in conversation with

We're welcoming these two fantastic authors BACK to the Virtual Readings Gallery and this time the tables are turned! In his thought-provoking and heartbreaking memoir, an award-winning writer tells the story of his father, John Stanley Ford, the first black software engineer at IBM, revealing how racism insidiously affected his father’s view of himself and their relationship. Clyde W. Ford is an award-winning author of 13 works of fiction and non-fiction. He is currently a speaker for Humanities Washington, an affiliate of the NEA, where he presents a program entitled, "Let's Talk About Race," around the state. He lives in Bellingham, Washington. George Dyson, a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, is an independent historian of technology whose books cover a broad range of subjects. His newest book, Analogia, presents a startling look back at the analog age and life before the digital revolution—and an unsettling vision of what comes next. Dyson lives in Bellingham.

TUAL R I V

Literature

Celebrate National Poetry Month! – 20% OFF ALL POETRY ALL APRIL –

LIVE!

Sunday, April 11, 7pm Poetry! GROUP READING –Solstice: Light and Dark of the Salish Sea Join us in celebrating national poetry month with this group of local poets! Solstice: Light and Dark of the Salish Sea, edited by Carla Shafer is a collection by well-known Bellingham poets that is lavish with the seasonal chiaroscuro pleasures unique to the northwest. These 29 poets offer an incredible journey through place and feelings during the summer and winter solstices, even while dark the season of the pandemic confined everyone close to home. The poetry takes you out into the gardens, forests and shorelines near the Salish Sea where descriptions of the changes of light and dark will awaken you to your deepest relationships with your world and the people around you.

Tuesday, April 13,6pm KRISTIN BECK in conversation with

Jennifer Robson –Courage, My Love

Book Launch!

Courage, My Love is the story of the women in 1943 who faced and fought the German occupation in war-torn Italy. With the men in their lives captured, executed, or missing, Francesca and Lucia are two such women who stepped to the front lines of the resistance in Rome. Kristin Beck is a former teacher and she holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Washington and a Master's in Teaching from WWU. Jennifer Robson is the bestselling author of six novels set during and after the two world wars including Somewhere in France and Goodnight from London. Her sixth novel Our Darkest Night: A Novel of Italy and the Second World War, was just released in January. A former editor, she currently lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband and children.

Saturday, April 17, 4pm Chuckanut Sandstone Writers –Our Deepest Calling

Poetry!

Our Deepest Calling, edited by Bethany Reid, Paul Marshall and Carla Shafer who contributed their poems along with a rich array of stories and poems by Kathryn Duncan Johnson, Sheila Mary Dunn, Janet Hamilton, Judith Solana-Mayer, Loretta Tobin, and Louise Vlasic. These writers, associated with Everett Community College faculty, staff and community, practiced writing together to shed light on how they live and dwell in language as expressions of memory and hopes. Here they delve into the complexities of family, love of landscape and ideas while “keep[ing] the flames of writing, questing and questioning alive.”

Tuesday, April 20, 7pm NATHAN BARNES –Washington Wildflower Hikes: 50 Destinations

& Pacific NW Wildflowers: A Pocket Reference

SUPPER CLUB

Join Nathan Barnes as he discusses the latest publications by him and his brother, Jeremy! From flower-filled alpine meadows to streams lined with delicate Scouler’s corydalis blooms, Washington offers something for every hiker—and flower lover. Brothers Nathan and Jeremy Barnes expertly guide readers on 50 trails to spectacular seasonal floral displays, with each handpicked route showcasing a specific species and including turn-by-turn route descriptions, a detailed topo map, history of the area, and information about other wildflowers found along the trail. Nathan Barnes, along with his brother, Jeremy, founded the popular website and hiking resource hikingwithmybrother.com in 2009. They are known for including historical background, detailed maps, and vibrant photos for every hike. They are the authors of two other guides, Alpine Lakes Wilderness: The Complete Hiking Guide and Hiking Through History Washington, they both live in Seattle. This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.

Village Books is pleased to join forces with Whatcom Writers and Publishers to co-host their monthly virtual supper club. The second Wednesday of each month, we host a guest author or explore a new topic to connect Whatcom Writers and industry speakers. Check villagebooks. com for updates on selected topics!

Thursday, April 22, 7pm BILL YAKE –Waymaking by Moonlight:

Wednesday, April 14, 7pm Whatcom Writers and Publishers

Friday, April 16, 6pm LAURIE BUCHANAN

Mystery!

in conversation with

Ashley Sweeney –Indelible: A Sean McPherson Novel #1 Murder at a writing retreat, but this one isn't imaginary. Authors only kill with words. Or do they? A psychopathic serial killer takes on the persona of a writer-in-residence at Pines & Quill, a secluded writing retreat in Fairhaven, Washington, where he plans to murder his next victim. A cross between Dr. Dolittle, Nanny McPhee, and a type-A Buddhist, Laurie Buchanan is an active listener, observer of details, payer of attention, reader and writer of books, kindness enthusiast, and red licorice aficionado. She and her husband live in Boise, Idaho. Seasoned journalist, teacher, activist, and author Ashley Sweeney is the winner of the 2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award for her debut novel, Eliza Waite. Her latest novel is Answer Creek.

New & Selected Poems

Waymaking By Moonlight is the definitive collection of 50 years of Bill Yake's observant, thoughtful, lyrical, and startling poems—poems of the natural world and the curious ways of humankind. It is an intimate journal of phenomena, discoveries gathered from the backcountry, as well as from the shelves of libraries and second-hand bookstores. Bill Yake has been making and publishing poems that celebrate the nature of the Pacific Northwest since the late 1960s. He’s worked lookouts, road construction, and cemeteries; fought forest fires, and during his 25-year career with Washington State's Department of Ecology as an environmental scientist and engineer, Bill diagnosed malfunctioning sewage treatment plants and tracked poisons in water, fish, and sediment. His writings have appeared widely in publications serving environmental, scientific, and literary communities. This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.

Additions and changes will occur – watch villagebooks.com for updates!

Turn for more upcoming events.

Spring 2021

TUA VIR

Literature

LIVE!

Saturday, April 24, Independent Bookstore Day! From Bellingham to Brooklyn, booksellers and book lovers will celebrate Saturday, April 24th as Independent Bookstore Day. For the seventh year in a row, we're celebrating the things that make independent bookstores special. We’ll have limited edition literary items for sale as we do every year so check our website for updates.

Tuesday, April 27, 6pm KIM STAFFORD –Singer Come from Afar

Poetry!

We couldn't think of a better way to close out National Poetry Month than by hosting Kim Stafford. Please join us for the launch of his latest collection, Singer Come from Afar. This book considers war and peace, pandemic struggles, Earth’s imperatives, and forging kinship. Stafford views the writing and sharing of poetry as an essential act of testimony for the healing of the world. May this book be the hidden spring you seek. Kim Stafford is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, and the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose. In 20182020 he served as Oregon’s poet laureate. This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.

Monday, April 26, 6pm Spanish Open Mic

Mark Your Calendar

The Spanish Open Mic is BACK! Pre-registration to read is required and spaces are limited so please email Seán at sean@seandwyerauthor.com to secure your spot! Spanish open mic is held the last Monday of each month at 6pm on Zoom.

Monday, April 26, 7pm Open Mic 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. Pre-registration to read is required and spaces are limited so please email Seán at sean@seandwyerauthor.com to secure your spot!

Thursday, May 13, 7 pm An Evening with SAUL WEISBERG & Friends After 35 years of serving as the Executive Director of the North Cascades Institute, naturalist, poet and visionary nonprofit leader Saul Weisberg is retiring. The nationally-renowned environmental education organization based right here in Whatcom and Skagit counties has grown from an idea that emerged around a campfire with Saul and friends to a robust organization that reaches over 27,000 learners every year in programs like Mountain School, Youth Leadership Adventures and a wide-range of adult classes and field excursions. Join us for a fun evening of storytelling, sharing favorite nature books and a conversation facilitated by journalist William Dietrich.This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.

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Spring 2021

Center

360.676.0122 I whatcomdrc.org I 206 Prospect Building Community One Book atSt a Time

WHAT WHATCOM WAS -2020-

READING

Whether you're looking for your next favorite read or just interested in seeing what's keeping your neighbors up at night, this is the list for you! A reflection of local interests and national movements, desires for enlightenment and for escape, these are the reads of our times.

V B in Fairhaven

Top Sellers

1. Washington Black by Esi Eugyan 2. A Promised Land by Barack Obama 3. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 4. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 5. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 6. The Overstory by Richard Powers 7. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo 8. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 9. Urban Trails Bellingham by Craig Romano 10. Untamed by Glennon Doyle 11. Hiking Whatcom County by Ken Wilcox 12. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey 13. Circe by Madeline Miller 14. What It’s Like to Be a Bird by David Allen Sibley 15. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy 16. Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad 17. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett 18. 52 Women of Whatcom by The League of Women Voters 19. Dune by Frank Herbert 20. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson 21. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 22. Breath by James Nestor 23. Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump 24. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 25. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

FH: 360.671.2626 • LY: 360.526.2133 • villagebooks.com

26. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk 27. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds 28. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 29. All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny 30. When My Time Comes by Diane Rehm 31. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander 32. My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem 33. Normal People by Sally Rooney 34. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson 35. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 36. Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi 37. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 38. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver 39. What Makes You Smile as Big as the Moon by Margie Kimberley (reviewed on page 56) 40. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Spring 2021

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1200 11th St. Bellingham, WA 98225 360.671.2626 villagebooks.com Whatcom County’s Favorite Bookstore since 1980 In Historic Fairhaven & Downtown Lynden

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