Artist Thamm offers unique look at local vets
Here’s a new local book release just in time for Memorial Day: “Vets: 50 Portraits of Veterans and Their Stories” (Gray Dog Press, $19.95), by local portraitist John Thamm.
Thamm spent months painting portraits of veterans – from World War II to Iraq – and collecting their stories.
Now he has put them all together in a large softcover volume. Most of the veterans are from the Inland Northwest; Thamm met many of them at the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Thamm is a well-known local artist, having served as a courtroom sketch artist for local newspapers and TV stations, as well as for CNN, ABC and the Associated Press. He has taught portrait workshops here and in the Netherlands, Mexico and Germany.
The book release event for “Vets” will be Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. at his gallery, the JF Thamm Gallery, 11 S. Washington St., as part of the First Friday art walk.
The book is also available at area bookstores and through www.GrayDogPress.com.
Okrent on liquor
Historian and Pulitzer finalist Daniel Okrent sent us a copy of his acclaimed new book “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” (Scribner, $30) with this intriguing note: “There’s only one sentence about Spokane in my new book, but it’s a pretty juicy one.”
He’s right.
The sentence reads, “Washington banned the in-state sale of liquor in 1916 but allowed individuals with permits to import it from other states; 34,000 permits were issued in Spokane County, where there were only 44,000 registered voters.”
That pretty much sums up Spokane’s attitude toward temperance.
Okrent’s book, a study of the grand social experiment known as Prohibition, has been getting excellent reviews around the country.
Readings of note
Here are some intriguing author readings this week:
• Morning Star – The Hamilton, Mont. author will read from her memoir, “Medicine Rock: A Journey of Vision and Healing,” about her travels with the Chippewa medicine man Sun Bear in the 1970s, while she was still grieving over the loss of a young son. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave., Wednesday, 7 p.m.
• J.R. Nakken – West Side author Nakken will read from her new novel, “Sweet Grass Season,” a love story about a woman who moves from Washington D.C. to the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana and finds love. Auntie’s, Thursday, 7 p.m.