Would you like to “read local” this fall? From history to art to the great outdoors, there’s something for anyone interested in exploring the Pacific Northwest through 20 nonfiction books coming out this late summer and fall.
History buffs.
In Abandoned North Cascades, Debra Huron uncovers deserted buildings taken over by nature. Brad Holden uncovers the life of the “Johnny Appleseed of LSD” in Seattle Mystic Alfred M. Hubbard. Take a deep dive into two Seattle neighborhoods with Magnolia: Midcentury Memories, the third book from the Magnolia Historical Society, and Belltown Exposed where Staci Bernstein uncovers the storied history of the Belltown neighborhood. True crime fans will sink their teeth into Bryan Johnston’s Deep in the Woods, about the disappearance of 9-year-old George Weyerhauser in 1935.
Art and Design lovers.
From the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) comes Barbara Earl Thomas: The Geography of Innocence, highlighting the work of the Seattle-based artist as she reexamines Black portraiture; the accompanying exhibit is at SAM through January 2, 2022. Also from SAM is Frisson, featuring nineteen works of abstract expressionism recently acquired and on exhibit from October 15, 2021 to November 27, 2022. From the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds comes Kenjiro Nomura, American Modernist, which explores the work of the acclaimed Japanese-born artist who made a name for himself in Seattle.
In Paul Hayden Kirk and the Puget Sound School, Grant Hildebrand discusses forty key buildings from the influential 20th century architect. Mimi Gardner Gates recounts how a public-private partnership led to Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park. Garden designers, prepare to be delighted: Brian D. Coleman takes an exclusive look at twenty Private Gardens of the Pacific Northwest, while Valencia Libby reveals the history behind the first landscape gardening firm founded by women in The Northwest Gardens of Lord and Schryver.
Uniquely Northwest.
Revisit the best of Dan Savage’s advice on sex and relationships in Savage Love From A to Z and rediscover the origins of Bigfoot in Evergreen Ape by David Norman Lewis. Music journalist Dave Thomson chronicles Seattle from 1990 to 1994 in The Grunge Diaries while Taso G. Lagos revisits The Continental Restaurant, a University District staple until 2013, in Cooking Greek, Becoming American. Native-owned Children of the Setting Sun Productions bring the teachings of Coast Salish elders to light in Jesintel while Lowell Skoog unearths a century of Northwest ski culture in Written in the Snows. Finally, for a deep dive in city living, explore the intersection of capitalism and environmentalism in Northwest cities in Urban Cascadia and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice, by Nik Janos and Corina McKendry, while Josephine Ensign unpacks the relationship between the safety net and homelessness in Seattle in Skid Road.
~ posted by Frank B.
It is rare that a movie or TV show is better than the book it is based on. I mean, it happens, but it’s rare. Yes, some movies live up to or complement their source material, but most of the time they don’t. For starters, let’s take 2019 – remember 2019? – back when we were still going to movie theaters? Ah, seems like ages ago, doesn’t it? Skip these 2019 movies, and read the book (or listen to the audiobook) instead:
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? 
