Auntie’s lands Montana author Rick Bass

Celebrated Montana author Rick Bass will read from his new book, “The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26) on Monday, 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave.

Bass lives with his family in the secluded Yaak River valley, just across the border from Bonners Ferry, Idaho. This book is a thoughtful and highly literary chronicle of a year in the marsh outside his window. The characters include his daughters and his neighbors, as well as a cast of dogs, bears, deer and moose.

Sample line: “As the snow shrinks to a dwindling skullcap over the mountain, the (glacier) lilies seem to be hurrying and hazing it along, nipping at its heels.”

This book should connect especially strongly with people in our part of the country.

The newest Sherman

“War Dances” (Grove Press, $23), the new collection of stories and poetry by Sherman Alexie, will come out in October.

An advance copy has arrived on our desk and we can now tell you that it contains a variety of stories about subjects including owls, break-ins and movies. It also contains a number of poems about subjects including airplane travel, ants and Chief Joseph.

It also contains a story in which the main character is a college intern, writing obituaries for The Spokesman-Review. In case you were wondering, yes, Sherman Alexie did indeed work as an intern at The Spokesman-Review.

His October book tour itinerary does not, as yet, include a Spokane date.

‘Fishes of the Columbia’

Sandpoint’s Keokee Books has just published Dennis D. Dauble’s “Fishes of the Columbia Basin,” a guide to the many kinds of fish life in the region.

Dauble is a retired fisheries biologist, who worked 35 years as a researcher and manager at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The book will be launched with a signing and slide lecture at Richland’s Battelle Auditorium, Thursday, 7 p.m.

No events have yet been scheduled in the Spokane area.