Books

A couple of weeks ago, we began an office pool.

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Feb. 28, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana. (Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.) HARDCOVER FICTION 1. "The Crossroads: A Joe Pickett Novel" by C.J. Box (Putnam) Last week: ...

Winter is still here, and for some of us that means extra time for catching up on reading.

Maya Jewell Zeller is upfront that writing a memoir – and the truth-telling it requires – is a radical act.

It is impossible to tell whether the stain on Sue Aikens gray hoodie is diesel or coffee. There is what looks like an entire taxidermic bear standing in the middle of her cabin, which is to say, the middle of her bedroom-kitchen-living-room. Oddly, it isn’t out of place.

In 1909, Spokane became home to a landmark event in the United States labor movement.

In the introduction to “Down River, Deep Root: A Spokane Poetry Anthology,” Sarah Rooney, one of the anthology’s editors, wrote, “Spokane is incredibly liminal, that feeling of steering away from the pothole you’ve come to encounter every day until one day it’s filled. Still, you navigate to avoid the space and save your car’s suspension.”

Tribal police officers have been receiving more attention recently through the fictional AMC thriller series “Dark Winds.” But James “Jim” Wynecoop is offering his own, true account of being a Spokane Tribal Police officer in a book that gives a look into the work of tribal police and his life on the reservation.

The season’s latest comics include a collection of new short stories by Joe Ollmann, a bizarre story of Paris overrun by monsters and a sedate reflection on restaurant life.

A book detailing the life of Shasta Groene, the 9-year-old survivor of Coeur d’Alene’s infamous Wolf Lodge family murders, has been nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Jasper and Satchel Sieniewicz can’t believe it was a one man job.

In his latest novel, “So Far Gone,” Jess Walter describes a scene where Rhys – an isolated ex-journalist who’s been estranged from his family for years – is taking his grandson Asher to a chess club because his daughter is missing.

If you go What: David Guterson will talk about his latest novel, “Evelyn in Transit,” with Jess Walter on the Northwest Passages stage. When: 7 p.m. Feb. 5 Where: Gonzaga’s Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, Coughlin Theater Tickets: $10 general admission online at

Dean Koontz’s new novel, “The Friend of the Family,” takes the best-selling author in a new direction as the master of suspense tries his hand at historical fiction for the first time, with a tinge of magical realism.

As a child growing up in north Seattle, “Snow Falling on Cedars” author David Guterson was keeping score on a chalkboard for his brother’s junior high basketball game. When another child, Ani Sakya, disagreed with the score, Guterson made an insult about the kid’s mom. Sakya threw Guterson on the ground, and Guterson’s arm broke in the fall.

Chuck Klosterman’s “Football” is a strange book – an impassioned collection of essays about the game that would make an awkward gift for the fan in your family. Though its release is timed to the height of the NFL postseason, Klosterman often seems inclined to put you off watching the sport. He muses at length about classic players and statistics, only to lament the dead-endedness of the debates they inspire. He broods on the sport’s structural absurdities and moral questionability. He predicts its eventual decline and death. As he puts it in the introduction, “I love football, but I don’t want to take it to the prom.”

What you first notice about a Dean Koontz book is his name.

Best-selling author Dean Koontz writes often and lovingly about the dogs in his life, including three golden retrievers who retired or otherwise needed a “career change” from Canine Companions for Independence, an organization he has long supported.

“Stop the presses,” on- and off-the-record conversations, hostile editor meetings.