Books Honored With Alex Awards
One of the basic precepts of the American Library Association is to encourage reading. Now, for the first time, the ALA is bestowing what it calls the Alex Awards on books that, while intended for adults, also appeal to teenagers.
Ten books were honored:
Fiction - “The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours Inside the Mysterious Worlds of Our Minds and Bodies” (Simon & Schuster) by David Bodanis; “What Girls Learn” (Pantheon) by Karin Cook; “Snow in August” (Little, Brown) by Peter Hamill; “Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven” (Crown) by Dawn Turner Trice; and “To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop’s Bird Stump at Last” (Bantam) by Connie Willis.
Non-fiction: “Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America” (Crown) by Rebecca Carroll; “The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea” (Norton) by Sebastian Junger; “Into Thin Air” (Villard) by Jon Krakauer; “Lest We Forget: The Passage From Africa to Slavery and Emancipation” (Crown) by Velma Maia Thomas; and “All Over But the Shoutin”’ (Pantheon) by Rick Bragg.
Read free for fun
If you have reason to visit the campus at Gonzaga University, you might stumble across a trio of books likely to provide reading enjoyment.
Plus they’re all free.
“Charter” is an all-purpose journal that prints intelligent discourse on everything from “Mental Illness and Religious Experience in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Gerard Hopkins” (by senior Karen M. Teel) to “Hungary’s Transition to Democracy” (by senior Kris Gilroy).
“Reflection” is literary-minded and contains poetry, short stories, art and photography. The 63-page volume include the Costello Poetry prize winner Anna Stafford (“The Walk Past St. Al’s”) and honorable mentions Karen Phillips (“Las Vacaciones en Maruecos”) and Thomas Neville (“Heisenberg”).
Finally, “The Feminist Papers” is a publication of the GU Women’s Studies Club. Within its stapled pages you’ll encounter a mix of essays, poems and first-person testimonials written by women and men, that involve issues of feminism.
The reader board
Carolyn Hage Numemaker, author of “Downtown Spokane Images, 1930-49,” will sign copies of her book at Mel’s Nursery Floral & Gifts, 8800 N. Division, today from 2 to 4 p.m.
J. William T. Youngs, author of “The Fair and the Falls,” will lecture on “Expo ‘74: King Cole and the Rebirth of Spokane” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the J.F.K. Library Auditorium on Eatern Washington University’s Cheney campus.
Long Standing Bear Chief, an author and the director of Spirit Talks Press, will lecture on “American Indian Spirituality” at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.
Speaks Lightning, an author and representative of Spirit Talks Press, will lecture on “The Histories of the Pacific Tribes” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Bill Gulick, author of a trilogy of books on Washington state history - “Roll On, Columbia,” “Through the Cascades” and “Into the Desert” - will read from the final two volumes at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Vicky Cavin and Sally R. Rimmer, author and illustrator, respectively, of the children’s book “A Chair Full of Heart,” will read from the book at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Chris Peck, editor of The Spokesman-Review, will read from his book of collected columns, “A Good Life in the Pacific Northwest,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Janet May, author of the memoir “Return to Chewelah,” will read from her book at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Auntie’s Bookstore.