Local young adult author Chris Crutcher reached out to teachers on Facebook on Wednesday morning offering to “visit” their newly online classes.

S.M. Hulse was raised and educated in Spokane. The author of “Eden Mind” took art classes to better help understand her main character, a painter named Jo Faber.

Author S.M. Hulse will join the Northwest Passages Book Club at a later date to discuss “Eden Mine.” Fascinated by the lesser reported ramifications of terror acts, her latest book, “Eden Mine,” explores the social and emotional impact of loving a family member even when they’ve done something unforgivable.

For author Sarah Hulse, writing has been a beloved and lifelong pursuit. Fascinated by the lesser-reported ramifications of terror acts, her latest book, “Eden Mine,” explores the social and emotional impact of loving a family member even when they’ve done something unforgivable.

Romance fiction authors Asa Bradley, Katee Robert, Rebecca Zanetti, and Lucy Gilmore discussed everything from odd fan interactions and the biggest misconceptions about the genre to their individual inspirations and nailing down how to write the perfect romance scene at last night’s Northwest Passages Galentine’s Day event.

After studying, working in and teaching physics for her entire career, it wasn’t until author Asa Maria Bradley moved to Washington and joined a local writer’s group that she considered writing a full-length novel. After experimenting with writing in different genres, Bradley finally turned to her Swedish roots and began work on her Viking Warriors series.

Citing security concerns, publisher cancels national book tour for controversial novel.

“American Dirt,” the novel by upcoming Northwest Passages Book Club author Jeanine Cummins, has received the stamp of approval from another book club – Oprah Winfrey’s coveted ranks.

At a bank in the border town of Nogales, a Mexican woman named Lydia attempts to withdraw cash from her dead mother’s account. She needs $11,000 to pay a smuggler to lead her and her 9-year-old son into the United States. But when the bank manager asks for documentation, Lydia can’t supply any. Less than two weeks earlier, her mother, her husband and the rest of her family were murdered at an afternoon barbecue. Lydia and her son, Luca, have since then been on the run. Up to this point, two-thirds of the way through Jeanine Cummins’ thrilling and devastating “American Dirt,” I’d devoured the novel in a dry-eyed adrenalin rush. Lydia, Luca and the teenage Honduran sisters they’re traveling with – who are fleeing gang violence – leap on top of freight trains. They endure kidnapping, rape and the constant threat of death. “If there’s one good thing about terror,” Lydia thinks wryly, “it’s that it’s more immediate than grief.”

After taking January off, Northwest Passages is ready to start tackling this year’s reading list. New novels, romance, running, they’re all on the schedule. In fact, some of it’s so new, you can’t buy it yet (but Auntie’s Bookstore can help you with preorders).

Reading is a cornerstone of conversation, and we like to talk at The Spokesman-Review. What newspaper doesn’t like a good story?

Olivia Hawker is the author of “One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow.” It’s also the pen name for San Juan Island writer Libbie Grant, who has also written historical fiction about ancient Egypt under the name Libbie Hawker. She was in Spokane Tuesday for a gathering of the Northwest Passages Book Club.

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.

Northwest Passages welcomes Olivia Hawker on Dec. 3. She’s the author of “One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow.”

The Spokesman-Review’s Inland Northwest Women of the Year were celebrated Thursday night at an event featuring former executive Karen Wickre and former “Marketplace” host Tess Vigeland.