That Sandra Day O’Connor found herself the highest-ranking woman ever in American government was no accident. Evan Thomas vividly sketches the attributes she used to clear the high barriers to female ascendancy: a knack for brushing past insults, relentlessness belied by a pretty smile, an almost superhuman level of energy and, not least, a heroically supportive husband.

Spokane Public Library has been named a finalist for the prestigious National Medal for Museum and Library Service awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Curt and Ana Warner, and Washington AG Bob Ferguson are among the upcoming guests of the Northwest Passages Book Club.

In “The Bird King,” a novel that begins with considerable promise, G. Willow Wilson whips up a head-spinning blend of realism, fantasy and history. The novel opens in the court of Granada (the last, weakened emirate of Muslim Spain), where a young woman in the sultan’s harem, Fatima, covertly visits a palace mapmaker, Hassan. To allay their boredom, the two friends play at completing the story of a literary classic, “The Conference of the Birds,” of which the palace owns only a partial manuscript. Their friendship is complicated. A gay man, Hassan is tolerated because of his talents: His maps can bend space and make a tower or tunnel appear where none existed before. Hassan’s creations are a window for Fatima whose life is constrained by the suffocating boundaries of the harem. The sultan’s mother, Lady Aisha, humors her and allows her to read Plato, but when summoned, Fatima is obliged to appear in the sultan’s room. As a protagonist, Fatima ranges from self-assured (she wants “to be sultan,” she tells the sitting ruler) to brittle; even Hassan is wary of how judgmental she can be.

Miller will appear in Spokane for two free events on Oct. 24. The first is at 1 p.m. at the Spokane Valley Event Center, 10514 E. Sprague Ave., and the second is at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Library, 906 W. Main Ave.

Here are some things that might surprise you about the local libraries.

Pearl talks about her next book, the novel that is keeping her up at night, and the evolving role of libraries.

Doug and Sherry Clark collaborate on a new book celebrating their favorite artist: Spokane’s Mel McCuddin.

“In Accelerated Silence” will be published by Milkweed Editions in February 2020, and Matson will receive $2,000.

It took Crigger about six months to write “The Woman Who Built a Bridge,” which was published in October through Wolfpack Publishing.

Amy Dresner chronicled her journey to sobriety in “My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean.”

Sharma Shields joins the Northwest Passages Book Club on March 13.

Kate Lebo, Mark Anderson, Laura Read and Megan Cuilla will guide participants through the writing process. In the end, the pieces will be an anthology and cookbook.

Goldfarb released his debut book “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” last June, about the time he and his wife moved from Connecticut to Spokane.

Matson comes as part of EWU’s Visiting Writers Series.

Kate Quinn follows her word-of-mouth best-seller, “The Alice Network,” with another compulsively readable historical novel about courageous women who dare to break the mold of what’s expected of them. At the heart of “The Huntress” is a woman accused of committing unspeakable war crimes against children in Poland during World War II. The novel begins with this unnamed woman on the run, afraid that her past has finally caught up with her. From there, the novel breaks into three storylines, told by three narrators, in alternating timelines. Quinn effectively uses this structure to deliberately reveal the past in an increasingly suspenseful story about characters who will risk their lives to track down Lorelei Vogt, known as the Huntress.

Author Sharma Shields explores the Manhattan Project and greek mythology in her new novel.