Submitted by: Village Books
Note: Village Books will close at 3pm on Tuesday, February 4 for inventory!
Wednesday, February 5, 7pm
Excellence NW Workshop with Monique Stefens
Topic: Love
Each of us is worthy of self-love and acceptance from those closest to us. Why does that seem difficult to achieve? Join Monique as we explore two authors who invite us to identify what gets in our way and how to celebrate individual passions, personalities and other uniqueness.
D. Monique Stefens is an international facilitator and coach with a Masters in Adult & Higher Education (WWU), and ties in British Columbia, California and Washington. This, combined with life experience and a decade of life coaching lay the foundation for transformative conversations within interactive workshops.
Tuesday, February 11, 7pm
A Conversation with Diane Rehm at Sehome High School!
When My Time Comes: Conversations about Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right to Determine When Life Should End
Join us for an evening with beloved radio personality, Diane Rehm, as she discusses her new book. About When My Time Comes: through interviews with terminally ill patients, and with physicians, ethicists, spouses, relatives, and representatives of those who vigorously oppose the movement, Rehm gives voice to a broad range of people who are personally linked to the realities of medical aid in dying. The book presents the fervent arguments–both for and against–that are propelling the current debates across the nation about whether to adopt laws allowing those who are dying to put an end to their suffering. With characteristic even-handedness, Rehm skillfully shows both sides of the argument, providing the full context for this highly divisive issue.
With a highly personal foreword by John Grisham, When My Time Comes is a response to many misconceptions and misrepresentations of end-of-life care; it is a call to action–and to conscience–and it is an attempt to heal and soothe our hearts, reminding us that death, too, is an integral part of life.
From Diane Rehm, renowned radio host–one of the most trusted voices in the nation–and best-selling author: a book of candor and compassion, addressing the urgent, hotly contested cause of the Right-to-Die movement, of which she is one of our most inspiring champions.
Soon to be a public television documentary of the same name, featuring the author.
DIANE REHM hosted The Diane Rehm Show, distributed by NPR, from 1979 to 2016, when it had a listening audience of two-and-a-half million. She now hosts a podcast for WAMU-NPR, On My Mind. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Diane Rehm will be in conversation with local author, Phyllis Shacter, author of Choosing to Die: A Personal Story: Elective Death by Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED) in the Face of Degenerative Disease. In Choosing to Die, Ms. Shacter shares her love story and the brave territory she traversed when her husband decided to voluntarily stop eating and drinking (VSED) rather than live into the late stages of Alzheimer’s. Her book is a profound personal account of a couple’s struggle to conquer the fear of death. Phyllis is a retired teacher, business consultant, life coach and currently does public speaking.
Tickets are available at Village Books or on Eventbrite (standard taxes and fees apply) and are $30 for one person which includes a copy of When My Time Comes OR $40 for two people and one copy of When My Time Comes.
Friday, February 15, 7pm
Holly J Hughes
Hold Fast Poetry!
In Holly J. Hughes’s second full-length collection, Hold Fast, she turns her attention to challenging times both personally and politically, asking in an epigraph: “What will we cling to in the confusion of the tides? What structures of connection will hold us in place?” In poems both moving and compassionate, she excavates past memories while witnessing the present moment, turning to the places, communities, writers and family who sustained her—and celebrating the “ten thousand sorrows and ten thousand joys” that she invites us all to hold fast. Holly J. Hughes is the author of Hold Fast, Passings, and Sailing by Ravens, co-author of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, andeditor of the anthology, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. Her chapbook Passings received an American Book Award in 2017; four poems were set to music by composer Edie Hill in a choral piece titled “Spectral Spirits.” After teaching writing at the college level for several decades, she now lives on the Olympic peninsula, where she leads writing and mindfulness workshops in Alaska and the Northwest and consults as a writing coach.
Tuesday, February 18, 7pm (doors and music at 6:30pm)
Chuckanut Radio Hour Featuring Melissa Anne Peterson at the Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Vera
Violet
Pacific NW Fiction!
Join us at the Firehouse as we welcome this brand-new voice in fiction that is taking the Pacific NW literary world by storm. Vera Violet recounts the dark story of a rough group of teenagers growing up in a twisted rural logging town. There are no jobs. There is no sense of safety. But there is a small group of loyal friends, a truck waiting with the engine running, a pair of boots covered in blood, and a hot 1911 with a pearl pistol grip.
Set against the backdrop of a decaying Pacific Northwest lumber town, Vera Violet is a debut that explores themes of poverty, violence, and environmental degradation as played out in the young lives of a group of close-knit friends. Melissa Anne Peterson’s voice is powerful and poetic, her vision unflinching.
MELISSA ANNE PETERSON grew up in a rainy working-class logging town in Washington State. She received a BA and BS in writing and biology from The Evergreen State College and an MS from the University of Montana. She has worked in endangered species recovery in Washington and Montana for twelve years. Her writing has been published by Camas, Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment, Oregon Quarterly, and Seal Press.
Location: Firehouse Arts and Events Center, 1314 Harris Avenue, 98225
Musical guests: Louis Ledford and Kristin Allen-Zito!
Thursday, February 20 at 7pm
Emily Thuma
All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence
During the 1970s, grassroots women activists in and outside of prison forged a radical politics against gender violence and incarceration. All Our Trials explores the work of these activists who placed criminalized women, and the multiple violences they confronted, at the heart of their organizing. Drawing on extensive archival research, Emily Thuma traces the making of this anticarceral feminism at the intersections of movements for racial and economic justice, prisoners’ and psychiatric patients’ rights, and gender and sexual liberation. In the process, she illuminates a crucial chapter in a struggle that continues in today’s movements against mass incarceration and for transformative justice.
Emily Thuma is an assistant professor of politics and law at the University of Washington, Tacoma. All Our Trials is her first book.
Wednesday, February 26, 4pm
Cindy Baldwin
Beginners Welcome Middle Grade Fiction!
The acclaimed author of Where the Watermelons Grow is back with a story perfect for fans of Lynda Mullaly Hunt and Ali Benjamin, about finding friendship after a tragic loss.
Annie Lee’s daddy won’t stop leaving his record player on. His whiskers are in the sink every morning. And he always keeps the TV turned to Duke basketball. Except Annie Lee’s daddy died eighty-three days ago. Annie Lee doesn’t like the word “ghost,” but whatever is going on isn’t making things easier for her and Mama. Just like in her debut, Where the Watermelons Grow, Cindy Baldwin brings her signature twist of magic to this authentically heartfelt story.
Cindy Baldwin is a Carolina girl who moved to the opposite coast and is gamely doing her part in keeping Portland weird. As a middle schooler, she kept a book under her bathroom sink to read over and over while fixing her hair or brushing her teeth, and she dreams of someday writing just that kind of book. Her debut middle grade novel, WHERE THE WATERMELONS GROW, received multiple starred reviews and was an Indies Introduce title, Indie Next pick, Bank Street Best Book of 2019, and Washington Post KidsPost Summer Book Club selection.
Thursday, February 27, 6:30pm
Elaine Weiss at WWU’s Performing Arts Center Main Stage
The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
Free Community Event!
Join us for a very special evening with Elaine Weiss, author of The Woman’s Hour. The League of Women Voters* is pleased to present this FREE Centennial Celebration event to our community. Read and share this riveting account of the last push to ratify the 19th Amendment!
*Co-sponsored by the Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education and Village Books, with support from the Washington Sates Women’s Commission’s Votes for Women Centennial Grant. Convenient, free parking is available.
Saturday, February 29, 7pm
Tamara Jacobi
Wildpreneurs: A Practical Guide to Pursuing Your Passion as a Business
What’s your wild business idea? Ignite your inspiration and redefine “the box”. This presentation uses storytelling and film shorts to explore how Wildpreneurs around the globe took the leap and brought passion, purpose, profit and freedom into creating their dream business. Hit the reset button on conventional business and tune into what makes Wildpreneurs come ALIVE.
For the rising number of free spirits seeking inspiration and a trail map to leave their safe but soul-crushing day jobs and chase their dreams, real-life Wildpreneur Tamara Jacobi shares her story, alongside the wisdom of Wildpreneurs globally, offering insight into what it takes to successfully make the leap. Prepare for an exploration of infinite possibilities for designing your life—personally and professionally.
Born in Vermont, Tamara’s free-spirited inspiration was sparked by family expeditions that included mountaineering Mexico’s volcanos, bike-packing the USA’s Continental Divide and kayaking the Sea of Cortez. This unique upbringing, combined with her degree in Environmental Economics at Middlebury College (VT), prompted Tamara to look beyond the status quo and create her wild business. Tamara founded the Tailwind Jungle Lodge in 2007. Her unique business on the Mexican Pacific attracts thousands of international guests and has become a venue for inspiration, adventure and fresh perspective.
