Books

NANTUCKET, Mass. – “I’m trying to think of how bored I would have to be to say, ‘I’m now going to organize my bookshelves,’ ” Elin Hilderbrand told me as we surveyed the floor-to-ceiling collection in the hallway of her Nantucket home last month. “Maybe if there was a blizzard for five days and I had absolutely nothing else to do?”

It’s way more than a book club.

Books about haunted houses fly off library shelves this time of year. For patrons who want a possibly more hair-raising experience, libraries have stepped into the realm of the supernatural: many now lend out ghost-hunting kits, complete with instructions on how to use the equipment.

Based on formal measures like GDP growth and unemployment, the U.S. economy is humming along. The American worker? Not so much. Consumers are still smarting from the legacy of historic inflation as they try to cover essential needs, whether groceries, housing or child care. Labor strikes, protesting the long-term erosion of wages and benefits, have hit industries from Hollywood to shipping. On top of that, the return-to-office debate, raging since the pandemic, has divided upper management from the rank-and-file.

Whether she’s writing a poem, essay, column, story or something in between, humorist Tiffany Midge is known for her sharp pen and perspicacious vignettes. A historian by day, Devon Mihesuah has written countless nonfiction books and papers about the desecration of Native graves, racism, genocide, boarding schools, activism, Native women, and so much more, and through this lens writes fiction firmly planted in Choctaw history and beliefs. On Tuesday, at Auntie’s Bookstore, they will discuss Indigenous horror and read from their most recent books, the poetry collection “Horns” for Midge, and story collection “The Bone Picker” and horror novel “The Hatak Witches” for Mihesuah. 

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Oct. 19, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2024 Circana. (Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2024, PWxyz LLC.) HARDCOVER FICTION 1. "The Waiting: A Ballard and Bosch Novel" by Michael Connelly ...

There has only been one dinosaur fossil found in Washington state, and it’s Kelly Milner Halls’ mission to tell you all about it.

Anne Snyder is editor-in-chief of Comment Magazine and author of the 2019 book, "The Fabric of Character: A Wise Giver's Guide to Renewing Our Social and Moral Landscape." Snyder plans to bring such perspectives to a Whitworth University's election year series talk, "Social Architecture: Creating a Scaffold of Social Life for the Common Good," 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Bing Crosby Theater. Northwest Passages is co-hosting the event.

We grow up hearing about “character.”

It’s been two years since the Emmy-winning comedian and author Trevor Noah retired from hosting “The Daily Show.” Though he keeps his fan base informed of his thoughts on politics and culture via his weekly podcast, “What Now? With Trevor Noah,” he’s more distant from the rush of news than he once was.

“Perma Red” author Debra Magpie Earling knew her Aunt Louise as the woman who ran for miles for help when a rattlesnake bit Earling’s mother, Florence. Dirty Butterfly sent the rattlesnake because Louise refused to marry her son.

Kenny G wants you to know that he doesn’t like the term “smooth jazz.” “For me,” the saxophonist says in his new memoir, “Life in the Key of G,” “it evokes a feeling of something that’s too light, too fluffy, and not strong enough.”

NEW YORK – It didn’t take long for someone to spot Maury Povich on the street.

In Jamie Quatro’s fiction, a person is a burning thing: a voracious creature, hot with emotional, sexual and spiritual needs; prey to the squalid demands of embodied existence. Surely it’s my imagination, but when I read Quatro – whether her story collection, “I Want to Show You More” (2013), her debut novel, “Fire Sermon” (2018), or her new book, the novel “Two-Step Devil” – I can’t shake the sense that the pages feel warm to the touch. I see, in my mind’s eye, her sentences threaded with muscle and sinew, letters glistening with sweat and blood.

Determining which movie to watch has never been such an undertaking. With so many streaming services at our disposal, it can take as long to choose a title as it would to watch the first act.

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 31, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2024 Circana. (Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2024, PWxyz LLC.) HARDCOVER FICTION 1. "The Women: A Novel" by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's) Last week: 3 ...

As the U.S. Congress reached a historic low of public approval this year, and amid polarizing partisan politics, few Americans might have realized the path to the bottom began in Spokane.