Northwest Passages Book Club

Prolific Author and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Humes takes the stage at the Spokane Central Library with Gonzaga Law dean Jacob Rooksby to talk about the book " The Forever Witness" a true crime story of solving a cold case murder from the 1980s using genealogical DNA.

New York Times bestselling author, Jamie Ford in conversation with Carolyn Lamberson about his research and the writing process behind "The Many Daughters of Afong Moy."Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Putsata Reang emigrated from Cambodia as an infant in her mother’s arms. Her mother fought off the boat captain's efforts to toss her child overboard, and that connection began their intricate relationship. Reang was raised in rural Oregon and spent time writing for The Spokesman-Review before the New York Times, Politico and The Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News. Her memoir, “Ma and Me” explores the legacy of trauma and cultural identity, and how Reang navigated her complicated upbringing. NAACP President and Spokesman-Review columnist Kiantha Duncan will discuss the book and the associated issues with feeling “other.”

The Northwest Passages Book Club meets for a discussion with author Jesse Walter, interviewed by author Shawn Vestal, at the Bing Crosby Theater in Spokane, Washington. The interview was centered on Walter releasing a new collection of short stories, "Angel of Rome"

Eli Francovich was dispatched as correspondent to cover the war in Ukraine for The Spokesman-Review. With approximately 30,000 Ukrainian refugees calling Spokane home, what happens in Ukraine has a little more impact in the Pacific Northwest. Francovich talks about his experience and shares his behind the scenes photographs.

Author Mary Cronk Farrell has written books about women who many have not heard of until she wrote the book. One of those is French photojournalist Catherine LeRoy, who went to cover the Vietnam War as a 21-year-old. Farrell spoke to the Northwest Passage Book Club Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at the Montvale Event Center in Spokane, Washington.

Author Sasha LaPointe sits down with Emma Noyes to talk about her book, "Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk", at a live session of The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages Book Club.An indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage in this bold, contemporary journey to reclaim her heritage and unleash her power and voice while searching for a permanent home. 2020 Washington State Book Award Finalist Elissa Washuta wrote: “Red Paint is a miraculous book. Sasha LaPointe walks us through the sites of her evisceration while rebuilding a home within her body using sturdy materials: rose quartz, cedar bark, red clay, and the words of her ancestors. With each potent sentence, she shows us what access to power looks like. She shows us how to become whole.”

Author Victorya Rouse, a Ferris High School English teacher focused on new arrivals in America, collected the stories of her immigrant students into a book called "Finding Refuge." She speaks with author Shawn Vestal about the book at a Northwest Passages event in Spokane on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021.

YA author Sundee Frazier talks about her new book, "Mighty Inside" with Kiantha Duncan at the Tuesday, Oct. 19th edition of the Northwest Passages Book Club at the Montvale Event Center. The story is based on her own families' experience as the first Black family to move into Spokane's Empire Avenue neighborhood in the 1940s.

From bestselling and award-winning author Sara Pennypacker comes the long-awaited sequel to Pax; this is a gorgeously crafted, utterly compelling novel about chosen families and the healing power of love. And who better to talk about this book with than Chris Crutcher?!? Order your copy of "Pax, Journey Home" from Wishing Tree Books!

Beginning with the Aronia berry and ending with zucchini, local author and poet Kate Lebo’s “The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly” is an alphabetical collection of memoirs and recipes taken from Lebo’s life.

Jennifer Longo visited virtually with the Northwest Passages Book Club to talk about her book "What I Carry," a novel about a teenage girl aging out of foster care. Molly Allen, co-founder of Safety Net, an organization that helps former foster kids, poses the questions.

Conversation about Maggie Shipstead’s new bestseller ,“Great Circle,” follows aviator Marian Graves through Prohibition-era Montana, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New Zealand, wartime London and beyond as she charts her own course through life and love. Nearly a century later, actress Hadley Baxter is cast as Graves in a biopic chronicling the events leading up to and following her disappearance over Antarctica.

From New York Times bestselling author of "Escape From Camp 14," a riveting and revealing account of one of the most persistent alternative facts in American history: the story of a missionary, a tribe, a massacre, and a myth that shaped the American West.

Author Eileen Garvin talks about her book "The Music of Bees" with Spokane writer Kris Dinnison on the Northwest Passages Livestream Tuesday, May 4, 2021.

Master Gardener Susan Mulvihill talks about her book "The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook" with book club coordinator Kristi Burns on the Northwest Passages Book Club livestream.Support local bookstores, and get your copy of "The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook" from Auntie's Bookstore!

Sabina Khan is the author of ZARA HOSSAIN IS HERE and THE LOVE & LIES OF RUKHSANA ALI in conversation with Mandy Manning.

The conversation with legendary author Paul Theroux that you just didn't want to end. There was nary a dull moment in this hourlong discussion with Spokesman-Review editor Rob Curley and topics ranged from his latest novel, "Under the Wave at Waimea" to his perspective on a lifetime of travel.

"Lilac Girls," the 1.5-million-copy bestselling novel by Martha Hall Kelly, introduced readers to Caroline Ferriday, an American philanthropist who helped young girls released from Ravensbruck concentration camp. Now, in "Sunflower Sisters," Kelly tells the story of her ancestor Georgeanna Woolsey, a Union nurse who joins the war effort during the Civil War, and how her calling leads her to cross paths with Jemma, a young enslaved girl who is sold off and conscripted into the army, and Ann-May Wilson, a southern plantation mistress whose husband enlists.

Author Adrienne Kisner joined a virtual gathering of the Northwest Passages Book Club to discuss her novel, “Six Angry Girls,” with Kristi Burns of the Spokesman-Review. Adulthood is overrated!