S-R Book Club celebrated regional authors
We began The Spokesman-Review Book Club in November 2002 with a simple intent: We wanted to tap into the book-club craze by celebrating the literature of the Pacific Northwest.
And for six years we did exactly that. By highlighting the talents of writers native to the region, who had adopted the region or who tackled one or another of its more important issues, we created a virtual encyclopedia of regional literature.
That encyclopedia, which exists online at www.spokesman review.com/interactive/bookclub, features the fiction of such writers as David James Duncan, Marilynne Robinson, Ivan Doig, Sherman Alexie, Ursula Hegi, David Guterson, Chuck Palahniuk, Claire Davis, John Keeble, Ken Kesey, Denis Johnson, Michael Dibdin and more.
It includes the nonfiction work of Timothy Egan, Mary Clearman Blew, Kim Barnes, Moritz Thomsen, Mitch Finley, Jon Krakauer, Linda Lawrence Hunt, Jonathan Raban, Norman Maclean, Peter Chilson, Bill Hayes and Derrick Jensen.
And don’t forget the poetry of Robert Wrigley, the young-adult tales of Chris Crutcher, Teddy Davis and Terry Trueman, the science fiction of John Dalmas, the short stories of Thom Jones and Native American voices of James Welch and Debra Magpie Earling.
Everything runs its course, and that includes book clubs. In the S-R’s latest configuration, we’ve decided to suspend our own book club. The book lists, author feature stories and interviews will remain online for those who want to seek them out.
Do so, and then seek out the books themselves. The authors are certain to appreciate it.
End of literature?
Get Lit!, Eastern Washington University’s annual literary festival, has added another author to its 2009 lineup.
Nonfiction writer Paul Roberts, author of such books as “The End of Food” and “The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World,” will speak at 7:30 p.m. April 15 at Spokane Community College’s Lair Auditorium.
Roberts, who lives in Leavenworth, Wash., has been published in most major U.S. publications, from the Washington Post to Rolling Stone magazine. His appearance is co-sponsored by EWU and SCC.
Get Lit! will be held in Cheney and Spokane from April 10 through 19. Tickets will go on sale in January.
For information, call the Get Lit! office at (509) 368-6587.
Stories wanted
Steve Oliver, Spokane-based author of the “Moody” series, is looking for stories to include the anthology of mystery writing he’s looking to publish under the tentative title “Dead Night in Spokane.”
You can contact him by e-mail at darkcitybooks@darkcitybooks.com.
Oliver, the former owner of the long-defunct mystery bookstore Dark City Books, has published another compendium of local crime stories, “Spokane Crime Stories 1908.” E-mail him at the same address to receive order information.
Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.
Book talk
•Auntie’s Youth Book Group (“The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey,” by Trenton Lee Stewart), 2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206. Note: This is the final meeting of the group.
The reader board
•David Ash (“Haiku for Coffee Lovers”), signing, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore.
•M.D. Kincaid (“Alaska Justice”), Larry Telles (“A Brief History of the Silent Screen and the World at That Time”), signings, 1 to 4 p.m. today, Coeur d’Alene Hastings, 101 E. Best Ave. Call (208) 664-0464.
•Therese Marszalek (“Extraordinary Miracles in the Lives of Ordinary People: Inspiring Stories of Divine Intervention”), signings, 7 to 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore outlet, Spokane International Airport. Call (509) 624-5608.
•Niki Anderson (“What My Cat Has Taught Me About Life: Meditations for Cat Lovers”), signing, 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, North Side Hastings, 7706 N. Division. Call (509) 483-2154.