Book World: 50 notable works of fiction in 2019
Wed., Dec. 11, 2019
As 2019 hurdles to an end, the staff book lovers at the Washington Post picked out their favorite reads of the year.
Books
It’s a book club, right? Northwest Passages 2019 in review
Wed., Dec. 11, 2019
Reading is a cornerstone of conversation, and we like to talk at The Spokesman-Review. What newspaper doesn’t like a good story?
Help Northwest Passages turn #GivingTuesday into #GivingNewsDay
UPDATED: Tue., Dec. 3, 2019
You can help The Spokesman-Review reach our fundraising goal with a donation to the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund through the Innovia Foundation. Donations will help bring two government reporters to our newsroom to report on state and federal issues.
Best and brightest: Spokane-area women, past and present, blaze trails
UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 12, 2019
Earlier this fall, The Spokesman-Review honored 15 women for the work they have done to improve the quality of life in the Inland Northwest. (Revisit those stories at spokesman.com/sections/women-of-the-year/.) On Thursday night at the Bing Crosby Theater, we’ll give these fine community members a proper shoutout during a special Women of the Year event with the Northwest Passages Book Club. Joining us will be two impressive women who talk about “Making Life Work on Your Terms.” Karen Wickre is a former executive at Google and Twitter, and Tess Vigeland is a former reporter and host for the public radio business magazine “Marketplace.” Joining them onstage to moderate the conversation will be Mary Cullinan, president of Eastern Washington University.
Dinnisons continue to support local artists at Boo Radley’s, Atticus
Wed., Nov. 6, 2019
After carrying Christ Bovey prints for several years at Atticus, Andy and Kris Dinnison helped the artist create his first book, “Vintage Spokane: The Art of Chris Bovey.”
Former ‘Marketplace’ reporter Tess Vigeland finds a fulfilling life without a Plan B
UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 5, 2019
Vigeland, an award-winning broadcast journalist, will be in Spokane on Nov. 14 in conversation with tech executive Karen Wickre.
Here’s one ‘high-verbal, low-math girl’ who thrived in the tech world
UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 5, 2019
Wickre, a former executive at Google and Twitter, will be in Spokane on Nov. 14 for a Northwest Passages Book Club event with journalist Tess Vigeland.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen to speak at Coeur d’Alene Resort
UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 23, 2019
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer,” will give the Idaho Humanities Council’s distinguished humanities lecture on Friday at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.
Impeachment inquiry puts author Tom Mueller in TV spotlight just before Spokane appearance
UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 23, 2019
Mueller spent the last seven years researching, writing about and interviewing whistleblowers. Just weeks ahead of the release of his book, “Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud,” a whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump made international news and sparked an impeachment inquiry.
Which Timothy Egan book will you bring to Bing?
Sun., Oct. 20, 2019
The phrase “Spokane’s own” comes to mind as Timothy Egan returns for a stop on his book tour.
Teacher Madeline Miller headlines Spokane Is Reading
Sat., Oct. 19, 2019
In Homer’s epic “The Odyssey,” the hero Odysseus and his men land on the island of Aeaea, where they encounter Circe, a powerful witch who is the daughter of the sun god Helios.
She’s hooked on her books: ‘Matchmaker’ to open Wishing Tree Books in South Perry soon
Fri., Oct. 18, 2019
Books spilled from dozens of boxes and towered in stacks on shelves. Janelle Smith was in her element.
Spokane novelist Chris Crutcher finds the truth in Rene Denfeld’s ‘The Butterfly Girl’
Tue., Oct. 15, 2019
‘The Butterfly Girl’ is a novel for every literary aficionado of that pitch-perfect who-done-it with characters so true, you really care who done it.
‘The Butterfly Girl’ by Rene Denfeld: What the critics are saying
Tue., Oct. 15, 2019
Denfeld is bringing her tour in support of “The Butterfly Girl” to Spokane on Oct. 23 for an evening with the Northwest Passages Book Club.
‘The Green River Killer and Me’: Rene Denfeld looks back on a harrowing moment from her youth
Tue., Oct. 15, 2019
“The man looked like all the men in the cars – he looked ordinary. But ordinary men, I had discovered, could be the most dangerous of all.”
Sue Monk Kidd’s next novel imagines a married Jesus
Sat., Oct. 12, 2019
NEW YORK – Sue Monk Kidd’s next novel is very much a work of fiction. “The Book of Longings” is the fourth novel by the author known for such bestsellers as “The Secret Life of Bees” and “The Invention of Wings,” a 19th century slavery narrative that Oprah Winfrey chose for her book club. “The Book of Longings” is told from the point-of-view of a restless young woman from the Galilee region named Ana who meets Jesus when he’s 18 and eventually marries him. Kidd draws upon historical research, but Ana is entirely invented.
Michelle Obama’s next project is a companion to ‘Becoming’
Mon., Oct. 7, 2019
Michelle Obama’s first book since “Becoming” is more about her readers than about herself
Books: Twenty years after ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ Stephen Chbosky delivers a thrilling surprise
Sat., Oct. 5, 2019
“Imaginary Friend” is Stephen Chbosky’s first new novel in 20 years, and it comes as a complete surprise. Chbosky’s only other published work, 1999’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” concerned a trio of self-styled misfits navigating the complexities of high school, adolescent angst, sexual confusion and assorted personal traumas. Over the years, the book has led a charmed life acquiring millions of readers and serving as the basis for a popular film adapted and directed by Chbosky. Those many readers now have something new – and unexpected – to contemplate. Weighing in at more than 700 pages, “Imaginary Friend” is an all-out, not-for-the-fainthearted horror novel, one of the most effective and ambitious of recent years. Who would have guessed?
American Life in Poetry: ‘Rain Changing to Snow’
Sat., Oct. 5, 2019
I’d guess that at least every other person reading this column did at one time, as a child, carry home some animal that he or she wouldn’t be able to keep.
Timothy Egan comes home to share ‘A Pilgrimage to Eternity’ with Northwest Passages Book Club
UPDATED: Thu., Oct. 3, 2019
Seattle writer Timothy Egan, the National Book Award-winning author of “The Worst Hard Times,” as well as “The Big Burn” about the Great Fire of 1910, is coming to his hometown of Spokane on Oct. 29 to celebrate the release of his latest book with the Northwest Passages Book Club. Egan’s new book strays from the historical journalism for which he has become known. “A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith” chronicles Egan’s travels along the Via Francigena, a 1,200-mile medieval route that runs from Canterbury to Rome, where he sought an audience with Pope Francis.