GEOLOGY -- "Washington Rocks!" is a guidebook that brings geology to the people. And the authors from Eastern Washington University are bringing a program about the book to Auntie's Book Store in Spokane at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7. 

As I mentioned in a review of notable books earlier this year, this guide is for active people who want a reason to get out and look at rocks, as well as for road-trip gawkers who want to know what they're passing in the landscape.

According to the authors:

Active volcanoes, like Rainier and Baker, dominate Washington's western half, and Columbia flood basalt covers much of the eastern half, but scattered here and there are other equally amazing rocks and features that make the Evergreen State one of the most geologically interesting places in the entire country.

With this book as your guide, you can find limestone caves, billion-year-old gneiss, glacial moraines, petrified forests, fossilized palm leaves, upside-down sandstone beds, and ancient landslides. Or you can explore the mind-boggling canyons, waterfalls, and scabland carved by the torrential Missoula Floods, check out the glacially carved granite of the North Cascades, or watch sea stacks erode in the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean.