Duel

by Jessixa Bagley and Aaron Bagley

(Simon & Schuster, paperback, 2023)

A rivalry between sisters culminates in a fencing duel in this funny and emotional debut graphic novel sure to appeal to readers of Raina Telgemeier and Shannon Hale.

Sixth grader Lucy loves fantasy novels and is brand-new to middle school. GiGi is the undisputed queen bee of eighth grade (as well as everything else she does). They've only got one thing in common: fencing. Oh, and they're sisters. They never got along super well, but ever since their dad died, it seems like they're always at each other's throats.

When GiGi humiliates Lucy in the cafeteria on the first day of school, Lucy snaps and challenges GiGi to a duel with high sisterly stakes. If GiGi wins, Lucy promises to stay out of GiGi's way; if Lucy wins, GiGi will stop teasing Lucy for good. But after their scene in the cafeteria, both girls are on thin ice with the principal and their mom. Lucy stopped practicing fencing after their fencer dad died and will have to get back to fighting form in secret or she'll be in big trouble. And GiGi must behave perfectly or risk getting kicked off the fencing team.

As the clock ticks down to the girls' fencing bout, the anticipation grows. Their school is divided into GiGi and Lucy factions, complete with t-shirts declaring kids' allegiances. Both sisters are determined to triumph. But will winning the duel mean fracturing their family even further?

Jessixa Bagley is children's book author-illustrator with a background in fine art and comics. She has had work featured in publications such as New American Paintings, The Chicago Reader, Nickelodeon Magazine, and Highlights Magazine. Her first picture book, Boats for Papa, received numerous awards and accolades including the 2016 SCBWI Golden Kite Award for picture book text and a 2016 Washington State Book Award. Her picture book Laundry Day received a 2018 Ezra Jack Keats Honor Award for writing. Many of her picture books are also Junior Library Guild Selections. In her work, she's drawn to animals and emotional themes often inspired by her own experiences. Jessixa also teaches and speaks about writing and illustration. She often illustrates for other writers and artistically collaborates with her husband, Aaron Bagley. Jessixa lives in Seattle with her husband and son.

Aaron Bagley is a human man who draws for a living. He likes to draw what he observes (people, boats, cats) and what he experiences (dreams, feelings, life events). His work has been featured in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Stranger, The Seattle Weekly, The Seattle Review of Books, and many more. Above all else, Aaron loves collaborating with his wife, Jessixa. Together, they've created picture book Vincent Comes Home and middle grade graphic novel Duel.

Angeline

by Anna Quinn

(Blackstone, hardcover, 2023)

A moving, lyrical, melancholy, and spiritual novel by the acclaimed author of The Night Child, in which Sister Angeline, unwillingly sent to a radical convent and confronting her tragic past, asks the deep question, follow your heart or follow the rules?

After surviving a tragedy that killed her entire family, sixteen-year-old Meg joins a cloistered convent, believing it is her life's work to pray full time for the suffering of others. Taking the name Sister Angeline, she spends her days and nights in silence, moving from one prayerful hour to the next. She prays for the hardships of others, the sick and poor, the loved ones she lost, and her own atonement.

When the Archdiocese of Chicago runs out of money to keep the convent open, she is torn from her carefully constructed life and sent to a progressive convent on a rocky island in the Pacific Northwest. There, at the Light of the Sea, five radical feminist nuns have their own vision of faithful service. They do not follow canonical law, they do not live a cloistered life, and they believe in using their voices for change.

As Sister Angeline struggles to adapt to her new home, she must navigate her grief, fears, and confusions, while being drawn into the lives of a child in crisis, an angry teen, an EMT suffering survivor's guilt, and the parish priest who is losing his congregation to the Sisters' all-inclusive Sunday masses. Through all of this, something seems to have awakened in her, a healing power she has not experienced in years that could be her saving grace, or her downfall.

In Angeline, novelist Anna Quinn explores the complexity of our past selves and the discovery of our present truth; the enduring imprints left by our losses, forgiveness and acceptance, and why we believe what we believe. Affecting and beautifully told, Angeline is both poignant and startling and will touch the hearts of anyone who has ever asked themselves: When your foundations crumble and you've lost yourself, how do you find the strength to go on? Do you follow your heart or the rules?

Anna Quinn is an American writer and teacher based in Washington State. She is the author of the novel The Night Child. Her writing has appeared in Psychology Today, Writer's Digest, Medium, Washington 129 Anthology, and Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 Anthology. She is the founder of the Writers' Workshoppe in Port Townsend, Washington. When she isn't writing, she's kayaking the Salish Sea or hiking in the Olympic Rainforest.

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma

by Claire Dederer

(Knopf, 2023, hardcover)

From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, Monsters is "part memoir, part treatise, and all treat" ( The New York Times). This unflinching, deeply personal book expands on Claire Dederer's instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?"

Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

CLAIRE DEDERER is the author of Love and Trouble, and the New York Times best-selling memoir Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, which has been translated into twelve languages. A book critic, essayist, and reporter, Dederer is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and has also written for The Atlantic, Vogue, Slate, The Nation, and New York magazine. She lives near Seattle with her family.

Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales: Fossils of Washington State

by Elizabeth A. Nesbitt and David B. Williams

(University of Washington Press, 2023, paperback)

From trilobites near the Idaho border and primitive horses on the Columbia Plateau to giant bird tracks near Bellingham and curious bear-like beasts on the Olympic Peninsula, fossils across Washington State are filled with clues of past life on Earth. With abundant and well-exposed rock layers, the state has fossils dating from Ice Age mammals only 12,000 years old back to marine invertebrates more than 500 million years old.

In Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales, renowned paleontologist Elizabeth A. Nesbitt teams up with popular science writer David B. Williams to offer a fascinating, richly illustrated tour through more than a half billion years of natural history. Following an introduction to key concepts, twenty-four profiles--each featuring a unique plant, animal, or environment--tell the incredible stories of individual fossils, many of which are on display in Washington museums. The spectacular paleontology of Washington is brought to life with details of the fossils' discovery and extraction, their place in geological time, and the insights they provide into contemporary issues like climate change and species extinction.

Elizabeth A. Nesbitt is curator emerita of invertebrate and micropaleontology at the Burke Museum and associate professor of earth science at the University of Washington. Her distinguished scientific contributions to the paleontology of the Pacific Northwest have earned many awards and honors, including having a whale named for her, the Maiabalaena nesbittae. David B. Williams is a naturalist, author, and educator. His many books include the award-winning Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound and Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle's Topography.

Plan A

by Deb Caletti

(Labyrinth Road, 2023, hardcover)

A sixteen-year-old girl's road trip across the country to get an abortion becomes a transformative journey of vulnerability, strength, and above all, choice. From the acclaimed author of A Heart in a Body in the World, this is both an achingly tender love story and a bold, badly needed battle cry about bodily autonomy and the experiences that connect us.

Ivy can't entirely believe it when the plus sign appears on the test. She didn't even know it was possible from . . . what happened. But it is, and now she is, and instead of spending the summer working at the local drugstore and swooning over her boyfriend, Lorenzo, suddenly she's planning a cross-country road trip to her grandmother's house on the West Coast, where she can legally obtain an abortion.

Escaping her small Texas town and the judgment of her friends and neighbors, Ivy hits the road with Lorenzo, who, determined to make the best of their "abortion road trip love story," has transformed the journey into a whirlwind tour of the world: all the way from Paris, Texas, to Rome, Oregon . . . and every rest-stop diner and corny roadside attraction along the way.

And while Ivy can't run from the incessant pressure of others' opinions about her body or from her own expectations and insecurities, she discovers a new world of healing and hope. As the women she encounters share their stories, she chips away at the stigma, silence, and shame surrounding reproductive rights while those collective experiences guide her to her own rightful destination.

Deb Caletti is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over twenty books for adults and young adults, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, a finalist for the National Book Award; A Heart in a Body in the World, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Girl, Unframed; and One Great Lie. Her books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and numerous other state awards and honors, and she was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. She lives with her family in Seattle.

Return to Valetto

by Dominic Smith

(FSG, 2023, hardcover)

From the bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos , Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto tells of a nearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from World War II.

On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village that survived centuries of earthquakes and landslides and became a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II, it has since been nearly abandoned, as residents sought better lives elsewhere. Only ten remain, including the widows Serafino--three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother--who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns.

But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers. The unwelcome guest is the captivating and no-nonsense Elisa Tomassi, who asserts that the family patriarch, Aldo Serafino, a resistance fighter whom her own family harbored, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. But like so many threads of history, this revelation unravels a secret--a betrayal, a disappearance, and an unspeakable act of violence--that has affected Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past?

Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto is a riveting journey into one family's dark past, a page-turning excavation of the ruins of history, and a probing look at our commitment to justice in a fragile world. It is also a deeply human and transporting testament to the possibility of love and understanding across gaps of all kinds--even time.

Dominic Smith is the author of six novels, including The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, which was a New York Times bestseller and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and was named a best book of the year by Slate, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Kirkus Reviews. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and The Australian, among other publications. He grew up in Sydney, Australia, and now lives in Seattle, Washington.

No Two Persons

by Erica Bauermeister

(St. Martin’s, 2023, hardcover)

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister's No Two Persons is "a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives."*

That was the beauty of books, wasn't it? They took you places you didn't know you needed to go...

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice's novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways--and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.

"With its beautiful parts that add up to a brilliant whole,No Two Personsmade my reader's heart sing."--*Nina de Gramont,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe Christie Affair

Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide and Let's Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.

She has a PhD in literature from the University of Washington, and has taught there and at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City

by Jane Wong

(Tin House, 2023, hardcover)

In the late 1980s on the Jersey shore, Jane Wong watches her mother shake ants from an MSG bin behind the family's Chinese restaurant. She is a hungry daughter frying crab rangoon for lunch, a child sneaking naps on bags of rice, a playful sister scheming to trap her brother in the freezer before he traps her first. Jane is part of a family staking their claim to the American dream, even as this dream crumbles. Beneath Atlantic City's promise lies her father's gambling addiction, an addiction that causes him to disappear for days and ultimately leads to the loss of the restaurant.

In her debut memoir, Jane Wong tells a new story about Atlantic City, one that resists a single identity, a single story as she writes about making do with what you have--and what you don't. What does it mean, she asks, to be both tender and angry? What is strength without vulnerability--and humor? Filled with beauty found in unexpected places, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City is a resounding love song of the Asian American working class, a portrait of how we become who we are, and a story of lyric wisdom to hold and to share.

Jane Wong is the author of the poetry collections How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and Overpour. An associate professor of creative writing at Western Washington University, she grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

Again and Again

by Jonathan Evison

(Dutton, hardcover, 2023)

From one of America's greatest, most creative novelists comes Again and Again, a poignant and endlessly surprising story about love lost, found, and redeemed

Eugene "Geno" Miles is living out his final days in a nursing home, bored, curmudgeonly, and struggling to connect with his new nursing assistant, Angel, who is understandably skeptical of Geno's insistence on having lived not just one life but many--all the way back to medieval Spain, where, as a petty thief, he first lucked upon true love only to lose it, and spend the next thousand years trying to recapture it.

Who is Geno? A lonely old man clinging to his delusions and rehearsing his fantasies, or a legitimate anomaly, a thousand-year-old man who continues to search for the love he lost so long ago?

As Angel comes to learn the truth about Geno, so, too, does the reader, and as his miraculous story comes to a head, so does the biggest truth of all: that love--timeless, often elusive--is sometimes right in front of us.

Jonathan Evison is the author of the novels Small World; All About Lulu; West of Here; The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving; This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!; Lawn Boy; and Legends of the North Cascades. He lives with his wife and family in Washington State.

Where’s Joon?

by Julie Kim

(Little Bigfoot, hardcover, 2023)

"Kim's story is absolutely enchanting, but her stupendously vivacious illustrations prove even more memorable. Amplifying details immediately stand out from the first pages"--Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness

Where's Joon? is the highly anticipated sequel to Where's Halmoni?, the bestselling, award-winning debut by Julie Kim.

In this graphic novel picture book, Julie Kim beckons readers once again into a colorful, fantastical world filled with "jaw-dropping art" (School Library Journal), plenty of humor, and multilayered storytelling that illuminates the immigrant experience of traversing two worlds, both cultural and generational.

Jin is helping Halmoni in the garden for her birthday celebration, but where's Joon? Besides the big mess in the kitchen, Jin and Halmoni see no signs of Joon anywhere. Where could he have gone?

Luckily, Halmoni has a hunch. She sends Jin on an errand through her magical portal into the wondrous world of Korean folktales with its dazzling landscapes and curious characters. In this land of enchantment, Jin and Joon meet familiar friends and foe before reuniting to embark on a new mission to fix Halmoni's magic pot.

This beautifully illustrated graphic novel picture book is filled with delightful visual Easter eggs and includes Korean language as one of its story-telling tools that is reader friendly at all levels. In the back are illustrated translations of Korean text and further reading on the original Korean folktales that have inspired Julie Kim's books.

Another captivating and timeless book from Julie Kim, Where's Joon? is a beguiling tale about children's courage to face their fears and how love makes everything possible.

JULIE KIM is an author and illustrator living in Seattle, WA. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and has mainly done illustration work for various trade, educational, and nonprofit book publishers as well as for children's magazines. Where's Halmoni? was her debut book as author/illustrator and Where's Joon? is the sequel.

The Naturalist at Home: Projects for Discovering the Hidden World Around Us

by Kelly Brenner

(Mountaineers, paperback, 2023)

• Features 20 projects with clear descriptions of materials and tools, plus a few bonus activities

• Includes step-by-step instructions with charming, informative illustrations

• Tips for troubleshooting and taking the project to the next level

The Naturalist at Home emphasizes hands-on exploration with easy outdoor projects designed to help naturalists observe and study everything from invertebrates to mushrooms to mammals. Critically-acclaimed writer and naturalist Kelly Brenner developed these projects based on real techniques used by naturalists and scientists in the field. Easy to adapt, they are suitable for naturalists at all levels of experience and expertise.

These projects bridge the gap between sophisticated science experiments and easy nature activities and between reading about nature and experiencing it in a real and tangible way. They are simple to carry out, and naturalists can repurpose items they have at home, find them at a thrift store, or purchase inexpensive tools and materials. Detailed descriptions of organisms, along with the author's hand-drawn illustrations, help naturalists visualize what they may discover.

A naturalist, writer, and artist based in Seattle, Kelly Brenner is the author of Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World, a finalist for the PNBA and Washington State book awards. Her writing has appeared in Popular Science, Crosscut, National Wildlife Magazine, and The Open Notebook among others. Brenner earned a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Oregon and a certificate in nonfiction writing from the University of Washington. She shares her observations of the natural world, as well as folklore, books, and poetry, on metrofieldguide.com.

100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife

by Ken Jennings

(Scribner, hardcover, 2023)

From New York Times bestselling author, legendary Jeopardy! champion, and host Ken Jennings comes a hilarious travel guide to the afterlife, exploring destinations to die for from literature, mythology, and pop culture ranging from Dante's Inferno to Hadestown to NBC's The Good Place.

Ever wonder which circles of Dante'sInfernohave the nicest accommodations? Where's the best place to grab a bite to eat in the ancient Egyptian underworld? How does one dress like a local in the heavenly palace of Hinduism's Lord Vishnu, or avoid the flesh-eating river serpents in the Klingon afterlife? What hidden treasures can be found off the beaten path in Hades, Valhalla, or NBC'sThe Good Place? Find answers to all those questions and more about the world(s) to come in this eternally entertaining book from Ken Jennings.

100 Places to See After You Dieis written in the style of iconic bestselling travel guides--but instead of recommending must-see destinations in Mexico, Thailand, or Rome, Jennings outlines journeys through the afterlife, as dreamed up over 5,000 years of human history by our greatest prophets, poets, mystics, artists, and TV showrunners. This comprehensive index of 100 different afterlife destinations was meticulously researched from sources ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh to modern-day pop songs, video games, and Simpsons episodes. Get ready for whatever post-mortal destiny awaits you, whether it's an astral plane, a Hieronymus Bosch hellscape, or the baseball diamond fromField of Dreams.

Fascinating, funny, and irreverent, this light-hearted memento mori will help you create your very own bucket list--for after you've kicked the bucket.

Ken Jennings is the New York Times bestselling author of Brainiac, Maphead, Because I Said So!, and Planet Funny. In 2020, he won the "Greatest of All Time" title on the quiz show Jeopardy! and in 2022, he succeeded Alex Trebek as a host of the show. He is living in Seattle during his mortal sojourn, but his posthumous whereabouts are still to be determined.

The Wok

by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

(Norton, hardcover, 2022)

J. Kenji López-Alt's debut cookbook, The Food Lab, revolutionized home cooking, selling more than half a million copies with its science-based approach to everyday foods. And for fast, fresh cooking for his family, there's one pan López-Alt reaches for more than any other: the wok.

Whether stir-frying, deep frying, steaming, simmering, or braising, the wok is the most versatile pan in the kitchen. Once you master the basics--the mechanics of a stir-fry, and how to get smoky wok hei at home--you're ready to cook home-style and restaurant-style dishes from across Asia and the United States, including Kung Pao Chicken, Pad Thai, and San Francisco-Style Garlic Noodles. López-Alt also breaks down the science behind beloved Beef Chow Fun, fried rice, dumplings, tempura vegetables or seafood, and dashi-simmered dishes.

Featuring more than 200 recipes--including simple no-cook sides--explanations of knife skills and how to stock a pantry, and more than 1,000 color photographs, The Wok provides endless ideas for brightening up dinner.

J. Kenji López-Alt is a chef, parent, and New York Times best-selling author of The Food Lab and Every Night Is Pizza Night. He is a wildly popular New York Times food columnist; the chief culinary advisor for Serious Eats; and the host of Kenji's Cooking Show, which has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

The Food Lab

by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

(Norton, hardcover, 2015)

Ever wondered how to pan-fry a steak with a charred crust and an interior that's perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge when you cut into it? How to make homemade mac 'n' cheese that is as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? How to roast a succulent, moist turkey (forget about brining!)--and use a foolproof method that works every time?

As Serious Eats's culinary nerd-in-residence, J. Kenji López-Alt has pondered all these questions and more. In The Food Lab, Kenji focuses on the science behind beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that often, conventional methods don't work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results using new--but simple--techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes with over 1,000 full-color images, you will find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and much more.

J. Kenji López-Alt is a chef, parent, and New York Times best-selling author of The Food Lab and Every Night Is Pizza Night. He is a wildly popular New York Times food columnist; the chief culinary advisor for Serious Eats; and the host of Kenji's Cooking Show, which has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Every Night Is Pizza Night

by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Gianna Ruggiero

(Norton, hardcover, 2020)

Pipo thinks that pizza is the best. No, Pipo knows that pizza is the best. It is scientific fact. But when she sets out on a neighborhood-spanning quest to prove it, she discovers that "best" might not mean what she thought it meant.

Join Pipo as she cooks new foods with her friends Eugene, Farah, Dakota, and Ronnie and Donnie. Each eating experiment delights and stuns her taste buds. Is a family recipe for bibimbap better than pizza? What about a Moroccan tagine that reminds you of home? Or is the best food in the world the kind of food you share with the people you love?

Warm and funny, with bright, whimsical illustrations by Gianna Ruggiero, Every Night Is Pizza Night is a story about open-mindedness, community, and family. With a bonus pizza recipe for young readers to cook with their parents, Every Night Is Pizza Night will make even the pickiest eaters hungry for something new.

J. Kenji López-Alt is a chef, parent, and New York Times best-selling author of The Food Lab and Every Night Is Pizza Night. He is a wildly popular New York Times food columnist; the chief culinary advisor for Serious Eats; and the host of Kenji's Cooking Show, which has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Gianna Ruggiero is a concept artist, video game developer, and illustrator. Every Night Is Pizza Night is her debut children's book. She lives in Oakland, California.

The Enemy at Home

by Kevin O’Brien

(Kensington, paperback, 2023)

As WWII rages overseas, a serial killer preys on women working in Seattle's factories in this provocative blend of vivid, richly detailed historical fiction and taut suspense from New York Times bestselling author Kevin O'Brien

"Tantalizing...had me guessing and turning pages right up to the final, shocking reveal-which I never saw coming." -Charlie Donlea, bestselling author of Twenty Years Later "Fast-paced, suspenseful, and intriguing... Super enjoyable." -Elizabeth George, #1 New York Times bestselling author "A sweeping, addictive story of bravery and sacrifice...Authentic period detail creates a suspenseful, chilling atmosphere in this grand historical novel." -Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author

1943, Seattle. While raging war reshapes the landscape of Europe, its impact is felt thousands of miles away too. Before the war, Nora Kinney was one of countless housewives and mothers in her comfortable Capitol Hill neighborhood. Now, with her doctor husband stationed in North Africa, Nora feels compelled to do more than tend her victory garden or help with scrap metal drives . . . At the Boeing B-17 plant, Nora learns to wield a heavy riveting gun amid the deafening noise of the assembly line-a real-life counterpart to "Rosie the Riveter" in the recruitment posters. Yet while the country desperately needs their help, not everyone is happy about "all these women" taking over men's jobs. Nora worries that she is neglecting her children, especially her withdrawn teenage son. But amid this turmoil, a sinister tragedy occurs: One of Nora's coworkers is found strangled in her apartment, dressed in an apron, with a lipstick smile smeared on her face. It's the beginning of a terrifying pattern, as women war-plant workers like Nora are targeted throughout Seattle and murdered in the same ritualistic manner. And eclipsing Nora's fear for her safety is her secret, growing conviction that she and the killer are connected-and that the haven that was her home has become her own personal battlefield . . .

"Nobody writes suspense better than Kevin O'Brien. Read The Enemy at Home, but do so with the lights on." -Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author "A compulsively unputdownable, keep-you-guessing-to-the-end, pages-flying whodunit. Packed with compelling, complicated characters in a fascinating and meticulously-researched time and place." -Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is "The curves in the plot kept me reading late into the night (while checking the locks on my doors!)." -Erica Bauermeister, New York Times bestselling author of No Two Persons

Kevin O'Brien is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty suspense novels. Before his books landed him on the bestseller lists, he was a railroad inspector who wrote at night. He moved from the train tracks to becoming a full-time author in 1997, when his novel, Only Son, was picked up by Reader's Digest and optioned for film. Since then, his books have been translated into fourteen languages. Born and raised in Chicago, O'Brien now lives in Seattle, where he is on the board of Seattle 7 Writers, a collective of bestselling, award-winning authors. He can be found online at KevinOBrienBooks.com

Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career

by Kristi Coulter

(MCD, hardcover, 2023)

A candid, intensely funny memoir of ambition, gender, and a grueling decade inside Amazon.com, from the author of Nothing Good Can Come from This.

"A unique and brilliant book." --Oliver Burkeman, author ofFour Thousand Weeks

What would you sacrifice for your career? All your free time? Your sense of self-worth? Your sanity?

In 2006, Kristi Coulter left her cozy but dull job for a promising new position at the fast-growing Amazon.com, but she never expected the soul-crushing pressure that would come with it.

In no time she found the challenge and excitement she'd been craving--along with seven-day workweeks, lifeboat exercises, widespread burnout, and a culture driven largely by fear. But the chase, the visibility, and, let's face it, the stock options proved intoxicating, and so, for twelve years, she stayed--until she no longer recognized the face in the mirror or the mission she'd signed up for.

Unsparing, absurd, and wickedly funny,Exit Interviewis a rare journey inside the crucible that is Amazon. It is an intimate, surprisingly relatable look at the work life of a driven woman in a world that loves the idea of female ambition but balks at the reality.

Kristi Coulter is the author of Nothing Good Can Come from This, which was a finalist for the 2019 Washington State Book Award. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. She is a former Ragdale Foundation resident and the recipient of a grant from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Her work has appeared in The Awl, Marie Claire, Vox, Quartz, and elsewhere. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

The Mushroom Hunters: A Hidden World of Food, Money, and (Mostly Legal) Adventure

by Langdon Cook

(Ballantine, paperback, 2023)

"A beautifully written portrait of the people who collect and distribute wild mushrooms . . . food and nature writing at its finest."--Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia

"A rollicking narrative . . . Cook [delivers] vivid and cinematic scenes on every page."--The Wall Street Journal

In the dark corners of America's forests grow culinary treasures. Chefs pay top dollar to showcase these elusive and enchanting ingredients on their menus. Whether dressing up a filet mignon with smoky morels or shaving luxurious white truffles over pasta, the most elegant restaurants across the country now feature one of nature's last truly wild foods: the uncultivated, uncontrollable mushroom.

The mushroom hunters, by contrast, are a rough lot. They live in the wilderness and move with the seasons. Motivated by Gold Rush desires, they haul improbable quantities of fungi from the woods for cash. Langdon Cook embeds himself in this shadowy subculture, reporting from both rural fringes and big-city eateries with the flair of a novelist, uncovering along the way what might be the last gasp of frontier-style capitalism.

Meet Doug, an ex-logger and crabber--now an itinerant mushroom picker trying to pay his bills and stay out of trouble; Jeremy, a former cook turned wild-food entrepreneur, crisscrossing the continent to build a business amid cutthroat competition; their friend Matt, an up-and-coming chef whose kitchen alchemy is turning heads; and the woman who inspires them all.

Rich with the science and lore of edible fungi--from seductive chanterelles to exotic porcini-- The Mushroom Hunters is equal parts gonzo travelogue and culinary history lesson, a fast-paced, character-driven tour through a world that is by turns secretive, dangerous, and quintessentially American.

Langdon Cook is the author of Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager, which The Seattle Times called "lyrical, practical and quixotic." Cook has been profiled on the Travel Channel , in Bon Appetit, WSJ magazine, Whole Living, and Salon.com, and his writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Sunset, Gray's Sporting Journal, and Outside. He is also a columnist for Seattlemagazine and has been the recipient of many grants and awards. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.

Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit

by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

(Little Brown, paperback, 2023)

Deepen your connection to the natural world with this inspiring meditation, "a path to the place where science and spirit meet" (Robin Wall Kimmerer).

In Rooted , cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth?

Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt's highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways--from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness--and wildness--that sustains humans and all of life.

In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Oliver, Haupt writes with urgency and grace, reminding us that at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit we find true hope. Each chapter provides tools for bringing our unique gifts to the fore and transforming our sense of belonging within the magic and wonder of the natural world.

Lyanda Lynn Haupt is a naturalist, ecophilosopher, and author of Mozart's Starling, The Urban Bestiary, Crow Planet, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent, and Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds. A winner of the Washington State Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, she lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter.

Drake the Super-Excited, Overeager, In-Your-Face Snake: A Book About Consent

by Michaele Razi

(Little Bigfoot, hardcover, 2023)

This fun and clever picture book about boundaries and consent, by the creator of Frank the Seven-legged Spider, will be welcome by anyone looking for opportunities to share these concepts with young children in an approachable way.

With growing awareness of the importance of teaching the concepts of consent and personal space at an early age,Drake the Super-Excited, Overeager, In-Your-Face Snakeis perfect for families looking for ways to have a conversation with young children about boundaries, healthy communication, respect, and body autonomy. With a humorous approach and expressive, relatable characters, kids can learn about consent through this fun story.

Drake is a very friendly snake, who loves to play with his friends, but he can be a little over-eager and disruptive when he joins in their play. He also loves to give big hugs, but he doesn't always ask first, and his friends don't always like to be hugged.

When his friends become too uncomfortable with his hugs and no longer want to play with him, Drake realizes he needs to find other ways to approach showing his affection and engaging in play.

Will Drake learn how to show his affection and how to ask to join in playtime without making his friends uncomfortable? Find out in this endearing book that addresses the importance of consent in an empathetic, positive, and kid-friendly way.

Michaele Razi is a children's book writer and illustrator. She loves children's books of all kinds: picture books, early chapter books and middle grade books. She enjoys all genres but she especially likes to read (and write) characters who are silly, funny and a little bit naughty. She lives outside of Seattle with her family and her two rascally cats.

Pasta for All Seasons: Dishes That Celebrate the Flavors of Italy and the Bounty of the Pacific Northwest

by Michela Tartaglia

(Sasquatch, hardcover, 2023)

Authentic Italian flavors and cooking techniques join forces with seasonal, regional ingredients for a delicious and deceptively simple collection of 50 pasta dishes for vegetarians, meat-lovers, and pescatarians alike.

Fresh ingredients, fresh pasta, innovative dishes. What's not to like? Rising Seattle chef Michela Tartaglia has developed 50 seasonal recipes that showcase the best of Northwest seafood, produce, and meat in creative, deeply satisfying pasta dishes.

Using favorite ingredients such as salmon and clams and foodie favorites like nettles and chanterelles, this book offers home cooks dishes that are as comforting as a favorite spaghetti or fettucine dish but as bold and exciting as a hot new restaurant entrée. In addition, a pasta primer helps home cooks make fresh pasta at home and choose the right pasta shape for the right sauce or dish.

Recipes include:
- Conchiglie Rigate with Pacific Northwest Wild Fiddlehead Fern, Leek, and Walnut Pesto, Fiore Sardo, and Aleppo Pepper
- Orecchiette with Pacific Northwest Spot Prawns, Purple Asparagus, and Lemon
- Pipe with Pacific Northwest Morels, Pancetta, Walnuts, Ricotta, and Saffron
- Bucatini all'Amatriciana with Billy's Heirloom Tomatoes
- Creste di Gallo with Eggplant, 'Nduja, Supersweet Tomatoes, and Ricotta Salata
- Pappardelle with Golden Chanterelles, Sausage, and Thyme
- Spaghettoni with Red Beet Pesto, Burrata, Basil, and Calabrian Chili Oil
- Rigatoni with Pacific Northwest Elk Ragú, Juniper Berries, and Bay Leaves
- Casarecce with Pacific Northwest Manila Clams, Chickpeas, and Cherry Tomatoes
- Lasagna Casalinga: Lasagna from the Forest

This collection of creative yet accessible recipes will up your pasta game all year long. Buon appetito!

Michela Tartaglia is an Italian native, born in the province of Turin, Piedmont. She moved to Seattle in 2006 after completing her master's degree in philosophy at Alma Mater Studiorum-Univeristy of Bologna, and has since made Seattle her adopted city. Her passion for linguistics and languages is captured in her first book, Una Mela al Giorno, published in Italy by Nomos Edizioni. She is a chef by heart more than by trade. She cofounded Pasta Casalinga, an intimate lunch spot in the heart of Pike Place Market. Since its opening in 2018, it's become a destination for locals and visitors alike.

Menewood

by Nicola Griffith

In the much anticipated sequel to Hild, Nicola Griffith's Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change.

Making a much-anticipated return to the world ofHild, Nicola Griffith'sMenewoodtransports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking's court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.

But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin's heels. War is brewing--bitter war, winter war. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead--and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must summon the determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, Hild draws strength from the fierce joy she finds in the natural world, as, slowly, her community takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, learning what it means to gather and wield true power. And she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future.

In the last decade, Hild has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling.Menewoodexceeds it in every way.

Nicola Griffith (she/her) is a dual UK/US citizen living in Seattle. She is the author of award-winning novels including Hild and Ammonite, and her shorter work has appeared in Nature, New Scientist, New York Times, etc. She is the founder and co-host of #CripLit, holds a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University, and enjoys a ferocious bout of wheelchair boxing. She is married to novelist and screenwriter Kelley Eskridge.

Stomp and Shout: R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll

by Peter Blecha

(University of Washington Press, hardcover, 2023)

Long before the world discovered grunge, the Pacific Northwest was already home to a singular music culture. In the late 1950s, locals had codified a distinct offshoot of rockin' R&B, and a surprising number of them would skyrocket to success, including Little Bill and the Bluenotes, the Wailers, Ron Holden, Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Kingsmen, Merrilee Rush, and the Sonics.

With entertaining accounts gleaned from hundreds of interviews, Peter Blecha tells the story of music in the Pacific Northwest from the 1940s to the 1960s, a golden era that shaped generations of musicians to come. The local R&B scene evolved from the area's vibrant jazz scene, and Blecha illuminates the musical continuum between Ray Charles (who cut his first record in Seattle) and Quincy Jones to the rock 'n' rollers who forged the classic jazz-tinged "Northwest Sound." DJs built a teen dance circuit that the authorities didn't like but whose popularity pushed bands to develop crowd-friendly beats. Do-it-yourself enthusiasts launched groundbreaking record companies that scored a surprising number of hit songs.

Highlighting key but overlooked figures and offering a new look at well-known musicians (such as an obscure guitarist then known as Jimmy Hendrix), Blecha shows how an isolated region launched influential new sounds upon an unsuspecting world.

Peter Blecha was a founding curator at Seattle's music museum, EMP (now MoPop). He is a staff historian and contributing editor with HistoryLink.org. This is his tenth book.

The Laughter

by Sonora Jha

(Harpervia, hardcover, 2023)

"Sonora Jha expertly inhabits the perspective of a man so terrified of the old world slipping away, he can't see the ground shifting beneath his feet. A deliciously sharp, mercilessly perceptive exploration of power, The Laughter explores how 'otherness' is both fetishized and demonized, and what it means to love something--a person, a country--that does not love you back."--Celeste Ng, New York Times-bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts

A white male college professor develops a dangerous obsession with his new Pakistani colleague in this modern, iconoclastic novel.

Dr. Oliver Harding, a tenured professor of English, is long settled into the routines of a divorced, aging academic. But his quiet, staid life is upended by his new colleague, Ruhaba Khan, a dynamic Pakistani Muslim law professor.

Ruhaba unexpectedly ignites Oliver's long-dormant passions, a secret desire that quickly tips towards obsession after her teenaged nephew, Adil Alam, arrives from France to stay with her. Drawn to them, Oliver tries to reconcile his discomfort with the worlds from which they come, and to quiet his sense of dismay at the encroaching change they represent--both in background and in Ruhaba's spirited engagement with the student movements on campus.

After protests break out demanding diversity across the university, Oliver finds himself and his beliefs under fire, even as his past reveals a picture more complicated than it seems. As Ruhaba seems attainable yet not, and as the women of his past taunt his memory, Oliver reacts in ways shocking and devastating.

An explosive, tense, and illuminating work of fiction, The Laughter is a fascinating portrait of privilege, radicalization, class, and modern academia that forces us to confront the assumptions we make, as both readers and as citizens.

Sonora Jha is the author of the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son and the novel Foreign. After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a PhD in media and public affairs. Sonora's op-eds, essays, and public appearances have been featured in the New York Times, on the BBC, in anthologies, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism and lives in Seattle.

Dog Days: Your Furbaby Memory Book

by Susanna Ryan

(Sasquatch, hardcover, 2023)

This whimsical and useful memory book allows you to record everyday adventures with your dog; the charming illustrations will delight you as you fill out the pages and return to them again and again.

This is the book every pet parent needs to chronicle the best moments with their canine furbaby. TikTok videos are great and all, but don't you want a brag book you can add to, look back at, and display for all of your pup's admirers?

The beginning section allows you to record background information about your pooch, including:
- final name (and other names in the running)
- origin story
- tricks they know
- favorite toys

Use the rest of the journal as you're inspired, adding to over time and recording memories as they're happening, filling out pages about:
- good days together
- memorable walks
- road trips

Author and illustrator Susanna Ryan infuses each page with her signature humor and charm, making this a memory book you'll adore filling out almost as much as you adore your furbaby.

started the Instagram comic series Seattle Walk Report in 2017. Her first book,  Seattle Walk Report, was published in 2019. Her work has appeared in  Seattle magazine, The Stranger, Seattle Refined, The Evergrey, and the Seattle Review of Books, as well as on KOMO News and 107.7 The End.

Tulips: A Little Book of Flowers

by Tara Austen Weaver

(Sasquatch, hardcover, 2023)

This fascinating celebration of the tulip reads like a "very smart love letter to cultivating beauty" and features 40+ vintage-inspired full-color botanical illustrations (Seattle Times).

"Delightful...Next time you are lucky enough to be someone's houseguest, consider arriving with a bouquet of either one of the Little Book of Flowers." --The New York Times

After a drab winter, tulips triumphantly emerge from the spring garden, a colorful symbol of rebirth. These humble bulbs have been celebrated, stolen, carried across oceans; at times they have been considered as precious as rubies. Happily for us, these days they are affordable luxuries--and easy to grow as well.

This charming little hardcover book includes:

• 40+ full-color botanical illustrations

• basic botany and history

• everything you need to know to grow gorgeous blooms in the garden

• tips for creating beautiful arrangements

• quotes, lore, and notable gardens and growers

Like a bouquet of tulips, this book is the perfect hostess gift or Mother's Day present for gardeners and flower lovers. It's part of the collectible mini gift book series Little Book of Natural Wonders.

TARA AUSTEN WEAVER is an award-winning writer, editor, and avid gardener. She is author of several books, including Orchard House (finalist for the Washington State Book Awards), Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest, and the Little Book of Flowers series. She is trained as a Permaculture Designer, Master Gardener, and Master Composter/Soil Builder. Tara writes frequently about gardening, agriculture, food, art, travel, and social justice.

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

by Timothy Egan

(Viking, hardcover, 2023)

A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting story of the Klan's rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them.

The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he'd become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows - their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman - Madge Oberholtzer - who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees.

A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.

Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of nine other books, most recently the highly acclaimed A Pilgrimage to Eternity and The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction.