Submitted by Village Books
Fall is the perfect time of year to cozy up with a good book. No matter what genre you enjoy reading, Village Books has a title you will love. And, in addition to the extensive book selection available on Village Books’ shelves, Village Books also hosts a full calendar of events to enjoy. Among the many happenings at Village Books, throughout the year locally-based and traveling authors alike visit the popular bookstore to talk about titles and sign copies of their work. The following is a list of November author talks happening at Village Books. For more information about these and other events, visit Village Books’ website here.
Saturday, November 1, 4:00 p.m.
Kenneth Bennett, Exodus 2022 & Larry Weiner, Paradise Rot
In Exodus 2022, Joe Stanton is in agony. He is out of his mind over the death of his young daughter. Unable to contain his grief, Joe loses control in public, screaming his daughter’s name and causing a huge scene on San Juan Island. Thing is, Joe Stanton doesn’t have a daughter. Never did. And when the authorities arrive they blame the 28-year-old’s outburst on drugs. What they don’t yet know is that others up and down the Pacific coast, from the Bering Sea to the Puget Sound, are suffering identical, always fatal mental breakdowns. With the help of his girlfriend, Joe struggles to unravel the meaning of the hallucination destroying his mind. As the couple begins to perceive its significance and Joe’s role in a looming global ecological calamity, they must also outwit a billionaire weapons contractor bent on exploiting Joe’s newfound understanding of the cosmos, and outlast the time bomb ticking in Joe’s brain.
Kenneth G. Bennett is the author of the young adult novels, The Gaia Wars and Battle For Cascadia, and the new adult sci-fi thriller, Exodus 2022. The Gaia Wars series was optioned for film by Identity Films, LA in 2012.
Larry Weiner’s book, Paradise Rot, is about zombies. It is also about advertising people, gun runners, gay baristas, talking Chihuahuas, necrophiliacs, and weird people. But at heart, it’s about people. Dealing with apocalyptic weirdness at a posh Caribbean resort and trying to stake out a moral compass point in the midst of mass homicide to a Seventies pop soundtrack. It’s Jimmy Buffett and Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard and Don Draper taking turns whacking Anne Rice with a cricket bat.
Larry Weiner is the author of Paradise Rot (book one) and Once Again, With Blood (book two). He lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, two kids, and a gaggle of animals.
Saturday, November 1, 7:00 p.m.
Jana Harris: You Haven’t Asked About My Wedding Or What I Wore
For thirty years, poet Jana Harris researched the diaries and letters of North American pioneer women. While the names and experiences of the authors varied, Harris found one narrative often connected them: their most powerful memories were of courtships and weddings. Based on interviews of nineteenth-century frontier women conducted during the 1920s and ’30s, Harris uses her compelling poetry to resurrect a forgotten history. She captures the hope, anxiety, anger, and despair of these women through a variety of characters and poetic strategies, while archival photographs give faces to the names and details to the settings.
Jana Harris teaches creative writing at the University of Washington and at the Writer’s Workshop in Seattle. She is editor of Switched-on Gutenberg and author, most recently, of Horses Never Lie about Love.
Tuesday, November 4, 7:00 p.m.
Molly Gloss, Falling From Horse
In a new novel from the best-selling author of The Hearts of Horses and The Jump-Off Creek, a young ranch hand escapes a family tragedy and travels to Hollywood to become a stunt rider. In 1938, nineteen-year-old ranch hand Bud Frazer sets out for Hollywood. His little sister has been gone a couple of years now, his parents are finding ranch work and comfort for their loss where they can, but for Bud, Echol Creek, where he grew up and first learned to ride, is a place he can no longer call home. So he sets his sights on becoming a stunt rider in the movies — and rubbing shoulders with the great screen cowboys of his youth. On the long bus ride south, Bud meets a young woman who also harbors dreams of making it in the movies, though not as a starlet but as a writer, a “real” writer. Lily Shaw is bold and outspoken, confident in ways out of proportion with her small frame and bookish looks. But the two strike up an unlikely kinship that will carry them through their tumultuous days in Hollywood, and, as it happens, for the rest of their lives. Acutely observed, Falling from Horses charts what was to be a glittering year in the movie business through the wide eyes and lofty dreams of two people trying to make their mark on the world, or at least make their way in it. Molly Gloss weaves a remarkable tale of humans and horses, hope and heartbreak, narrated by one of the most winning narrators ever to walk off the page.
Molly Gloss is the best-selling author The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek, winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the Oregon Book Award, The Dazzle of Day, winner of the PEN Center West Fiction Prize, and Wild Life, winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award.
Wednesday, November, 5, 7:00 p.m.
Ina Zajec, Please, Pretty Lights
It’s September when good girl Via Sorenson stumbles into a Seattle strip club, drunk and alone on her twenty-first birthday. Matt and Nick, best friends, bandmates, and bouncers, do their best to shield her from their sadistic cocaine-trafficking boss, Carlos. They don’t realize her daddy issues come with a forty-million-dollar trust fund and a legacy she would do anything to escape. She is actually Violetta Rabbotino, who had been all over the news ten years earlier when her father, an acclaimed abstract artist, came home in a rage, murdered her mother, then turned the gun on himself. Young Violetta was spared, hidden behind the family Christmas tree, veiled by the mysticism of its pretty lights whose unadulterated love captivated and calmed her. Now, desperate to shed her role as orphaned victim, Via stage dives into a one-hundred-day adventure with Matt and Nick, the bassist and drummer of popular nineties cover band Obliviot. The rock-and-roll lifestyle is the perfect distraction, until she is rattled by true love. As Christmas looms closer, her notorious past becomes undeniable. How will she ever untangle herself from her twisted string of pretty lights?
Ina Zajac is an experienced journalist, avid people watcher, and lover of quirk and contrast. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Western Washington University and a master’s degree in mass communication, with an emphasis in women’s studies, from Arizona State University. Zajac’s fiction writing is heavily influenced by her fascination with music, art and her hometown Seattle. Visit her at www.inazajac.com/.
Friday, November 7, 7:00 p.m.
James P. Lenfestey, Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage to Cold Mountain
In this transformative new book, award-winning poet and essayist James Lenfestey makes an epic journey across the world to find the Cold Mountain Cave, a location long believed to exist only in myths, and the ancient home of his idol Han Shan, author of the Cold Mountain poems and a legend in the history of both Chinese and international poetic tradition. Lenfestey’s voyage takes him from the Midwestern US to Tokyo to a road trip across the expanse of China with frequent excursions into the country’s rich historical and cultural landmarks. As he makes his way to the cave, Lenfestey learns more than history or geography, he discovers his identity as a writer and a poet. Interspersed with poems by both the author and Han Shan, Seeking the Cave will appeal to lovers of travel narrative and poetry alike.
An award-winning academic, advertising executive, and journalist, James P. Lenfestey has since published four full poetry collections and a book of personal essays. He is currently the chair of the Literary Witnesses poetry series and lives in Minneapolis.
Saturday, November 8, 4:00 p.m.
Devrah Laval, Leap to Freedom: Healing Quantum Guilt
Devrah Laval dissects the deepest origins of guilt and unravels the only permanent solution. Through real-life examples we discover the many faces of guilt and come to realize how it has undermined our lives. This book is a comforting companion to anyone who has felt the pain of not being good enough or believed they did something wrong, but it is also a journey of discovering the spiritual solution to guilt that is our gateway to freedom.
Devrah Laval is an international bestselling author of both The Magic Doorway into the Divine and her recently released book: Leap to Freedom: Healing Quantum Guilt. At the age of twenty-nine, Devrah Laval, master counsellor, facilitator, and author had a life-altering mystical experience along with a miraculous physical healing that awakened her to her own true nature. She went from being an international model and dancer to embarking on a life-long mystical journey. Since that time, Devrah has devoted her life to studying with many masters and guru’s to deepen this and other experiences. She has facilitated groups and individuals to help them discover and experience their Truth and pure love. Visit Devrah’s website: http://devrahlaval.com.
Sunday, November 9, 4:00 p.m.
Bob Simmons, Readings from the late Greg Palmer’s book, Cheese Deluxe: A Memoir
Cheese Deluxe: A Memoir is a collection of mostly true tales about a group of high-school seniors during their last summer together. They’re blessed with good fortune, brimming with bright prospects, and poised on the brink of the tremendous social and political change that is brewing out in the great world. The center of their world is the Samoa Drive-In, a classic teen hangout and purveyor of the Cheese Deluxe, the world’s best burger. The time is 1965 and the place is Mercer Island, a suburb of Seattle known for its fancy waterfront homes, excellent school system (Barack Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, graduated from Mercer Island High School five years earlier), inept sports teams, and teenagers with too much time on their hands and too much money in their pants. Recreational drug use is still just a blip on the horizon, young women are eagerly looking forward to a new and widening range of opportunities, and a generation of young men face a world where their choices are narrowed by a looming war in Southeast Asia.
Cheese Deluxe author Greg Palmer was chief cook and masterful chronicler of life at the Samoa Drive-In during the summer after his high-school graduation. Often a participant and sometimes an observer, Palmer tells fourteen memorable and moving stories of that pivotal time when he and his compatriots embarked on their coming-of-age adventures, then gathered at their favorite burger joint to horse around and ponder the greater and lesser mysteries of existence while downing several tasty Cheese Deluxes and a side of fries. Palmer was a writer of books, plays, articles, speeches, advertising, and news, reviews, feature stories and documentaries for commercial and public television and radio for more than forty years. At the tender age of 27, he won the prestigious Peabody Award for radio humor. He was the Arts and Entertainment editor at KING TV in Seattle for 13 years, during which time his work won thirteen regional Emmy awards, the Ohio State Award for Children’s Television, and several other accolades.
Bob Simmons is a part-time writer, part-time actor, and full-time admirer of the work of the late author, playwright, television reporter and producer, Greg Palmer. Bob and Greg were close friends and cellmates in the King-5 TV newsroom in Seattle for many years. Bob freelances mostly true stories to Crosscut.com and the Cascadia Weekly. He has helped actuate a number of untrue stories in Bellingham, including Inherit the Wind, Our Town, On Golden Pond, Into the Woods, and The Producers.
Tuesday, November 11, 7:00 p.m.
Frances McCue, Mary Randlett Portraits
Known for both her landscapes and portraits, Mary Randlett began documenting iconic Northwest artists like Mark Tobey and Morris Graves in 1949. In 1963, Theodore Roethke asked her to photograph him in his Seattle home, hers were the last pictures taken of the poet before his death, and they garnered international attention. In addition to Graves, Tobey, and Roethke, Mary Randlett Portraits includes renowned artists Jacob Lawrence and George Tsutuakawa; writers Tom Robbins, Henry Miller, and Colleen McElroy; arts patrons Betty Bowen and Richard Fuller; and more. Randlett’s portraits are known for their effortless intimacy, illuminating her subjects as few ever saw them, something noted by many of those whom she photographed. The portraits are accompanied by biographical sketches written by Frances McCue, which blend life stories and reflections on the works with Randlett’s own reminiscences. McCue also provides an essay on Randlett’s life and professional career.
Frances McCue is an award-winning poet, essayist, and arts administrator. The founding director of the Richard Hugo House, McCue currently teaches writing and literature as a writer-in-residence at the University of Washington’s Undergraduate Honors Program. Her first book of poetry, The Stenographer’s Breakfast, won the Barnard New Women’s Poetry Prize, and her most recent book of poetry, The Bled, won the 2011 Washington State Book Award for poetry. She is also the author, with photographs by Mary Randlett, of The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs: Revisiting the Northwest Towns of Richard Hugo. Mary Randlett has been photographing the Northwest for almost eighty years. Her works are held in at least forty permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution.
Thursday, November 13, 7:00 p.m.
Jackie Kloosterboer, My Earthquake Preparedness Guide
If you missed your chance to listen to Jackie talk about earthquake preparedness in the early fall, Village Books is welcoming her back for another presentation. The time to prepare is now, before the earthquake strikes. Once the “Big One” hits, it’s too late. Kloosterboer wishes she could predict when the next earthquake will strike and how it will impact individuals, families and pets. But she can’t, nobody can. What she can tell people is how to prepare in advance to get through the disaster. Her guide talks about having an emergency plan in place outlining what needs to happen before, during, and after an earthquake. These steps are just a few of the valuable tips covered in the pages of this guidebook.
Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in emergency preparedness for more than 15 years. As Coordinator of the City of Vancouver’s Public Education Program, Jackie presents more than 100 Emergency Preparedness sessions each year to individuals and business groups, taking them step by step through the process of how to prepare their family members and pets for whatever disaster comes their way. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of Emergency Preparedness.
Sunday, November 16, 4:00 p.m.
C.J. Prince; Mother, May I?
Join local author C.J. Prince for a reading from her new collection of poetry. “C.J. Prince’s poems brim with tenderness, compassion and empathy…, ask the unanswerable questions, deal with ‘the ways of love,’ as well as, ‘the weft of pain,’ and reveal to discerning readers that forgiving can indeed be a two-way street,” writes Bellingham author Paul Fisher.
C.J. Prince found the Muse on the tar-spattered shores of Summerland, California, in fourth grade, where she gouged words into sand. She’s been writing ever since. Her credits include stage, screen and TV scripts. She wrote for Colorado newspapers for 18 years. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, and she is the author of the novel, Canvas Angels. Prince lives in the Pacific Northwest with husband Michael E. Berg, two Papillons, and one rescued orange marmalade tabby. She teaches Tai Chi and studies the dress code of cedars, the vocal symphony of ravens and the length of a moonbeam at midnight.
Monday, November 17, 7:00 p.m.
Jim Heynen, Ordinary Sins: Stories
From a bar hosting its nightly Sad Hour to the moonlit sandbox of a retired army general, Jim Heynen’s new collection of short-short fiction, Ordinary Sins, presents us with character sketches of strange yet fascinating men and women who resonate far beyond their brief moments in the spotlight. Modeled after the work of Theophrastus’ Characters—brief, verbal snapshots of people created by a Greek philosopher in antiquity, discovered by the author in his impressionable youth—Heynen captures not just the quirks and eccentricities of his characters, but also their humanity. Guilty of only ordinary and forgivable sins, we meet a man who consistently jingles his keys despite the organized and fruitful life he leads, a girl so enamored with cherries that they begin to blossom out of her ears, and a man who takes up writing to discover what it means to be anonymous. In all these brief interactions we see not just the rich characters Heynen has created, but ourselves. Augmented by the deeply evocative illustrations of renowned artist Tom Pohrt, Ordinary Sins will appeal to story lovers and collectors of beautifully made books alike.
Jim Heynen was born in a farmhouse near Sioux Center, Iowa, and attended a one-room schoolhouse. He’s written nearly twenty books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, including The Fall of Alice K.
Tuesday, November 18, 7:00 p.m.
Gary Ferguson, The Carry Home: Lessons from the American Wilderness
A haunting meditation on wilderness, conservation, and grief by the critically-acclaimed nature writer in his most intimate and riveting book yet, The Carry Home is both a moving celebration of the outdoor life shared between Gary and his wife Jane, who died tragically in a canoeing accident in northern Ontario in 2005, and a chronicle of the mending, uplifting power of nature. Ferguson’s memoir offers a powerful glimpse into how the natural world can be a critical prompt for moving through cycles of immeasurable grief, how bereavement can turn to wonder, and how one man rediscovered himself in the process of saying goodbye.
For the past twenty five years Gary Ferguson has traveled thousands of miles down the rivers, trails and back roads of North America: trekking 500 miles through Yellowstone to write Walking Down the Wild, wandering through the seasons with the first 14 wolves released into Yellowstone National Park for The Yellowstone Wolves: The First Year, spending a season in the field at a wilderness therapy program for the best-selling Shouting at the Sky. He has written for a variety of publications, from Vanity Fair to The Los Angeles Times. He is also the author of 22 books on science and nature, including the award-winning Hawks Rest, published by National Geographic Adventure Press. Ferguson is a keynote presenter at conservation and outdoor education gatherings around the country, and is currently on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop Masters of Fine Arts program, at Pacific Lutheran University.
Thursday, November 20, 7:00 p.m.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a tenant farmer and part-Indian mother. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than four decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. After receiving her PhD in history at the University of California at Los Angeles, she taught in the newly established Native American Studies Program at California State University, Hayward, and helped found the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies. Her 1977 book The Great Sioux Nation was the fundamental document at the first international conference on Indigenous peoples of the Americas, held at the United Nations’ headquarters in Geneva. Dunbar-Ortiz is the author or editor of seven other books, including Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico. She lives in San Francisco.
Friday, November 21, 7:00 p.m.
Todd A. Warger, Murder in the Fourth Corner: True Stories of Whatcom County’s Earliest Homicides
Murder in the Fourth Corner is a new local non-fiction book published by Chuckanut Editions. Referring to the fourth corner of Washington State, this book is a series of true crime stories highlighting the more unsavory history of early Bellingham and Whatcom County. Both city and county have had a vivid history of slayings, not making the region any more unique than anywhere else. There were beheadings, shootings, stabbings, poisoning, hangings, strangling and bludgeoning. Murder in the Fourth Corner contains thirteen stories dating from 1880 to 1933. Read about: Murders on the Delta, Two Deaths of Snowball Wallace, The Maple Falls Monster, Tunnel No. 21, and, The Barber of Bellingham, and try to solve such mysteries as, Who Butchered the Elk Street Butcher? And, Foul Play in White Horn.
Todd A. Warger is an Emmy Award nominee for the documentary film, The Mountain Runners. He is a recipient of the Washington State Historical Society’s 2008 David Douglas award for the documentary film, Shipyard. He is also the co-author of Images of America: Mount Baker. He lives in Bellingham, Washington.
Saturday, November 22, 4:00 p.m.
Eric Liu, A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey ad the Chinese American Dream
In many ways, Chinese Americans today are exemplars of the American Dream, going from servitude to success in 150 years. The Census tells us that Chinese Americans today have among the highest incomes and highest levels of education of any ethnic group in America. But this simplified narrative obscures too much—the Chinese Americans still left behind, the erosion of the American Dream itself, and the anxiety generated now by China’s rise. As Chinese Americans reconcile competing beliefs about what constitutes success, virtue, and belonging, they hold a mirror up to their country in time of deep flux. What does it mean to be Chinese American in this moment of China and America? In A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream, Eric Liu explores the complex dimensions of American identity through searching, personal essays in which he traces his family’s history, culture, and future. He considers the meaning of Confucius in modern life; the unseen role of Chinese Americans in shaping how we read the Constitution; his daughter’s aspects of her Chinese inheritance; and the all-too American idea of Tiger parenting.
Eric Liu is an author, educator, and civic entrepreneur. His first book, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, was a New York Times Notable Book featured in the PBS documentary Matters of Race. He is also the author of Guiding Lights, an Official Book of National Mentoring Month, and co-author of the bestselling Gardens of Democracy. Eric served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and later as the President’s deputy domestic policy adviser. He is a columnist for CNN.com and regular contributor to TheAtlantic.com and lives in Seattle with his family.
Saturday, November 22, 7:00 p.m.
Ted Rall, Afer We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests: Unembedded in Afghanistan
Ted Rall’s new book is the result of his intrepid reporting: an unflinching account of America’s longest war by a truly groundbreaking graphic journalist. Rall spent months filing daily reports via satellite, and now his talents as a reporter and award-winning graphic novelist shine in this singular account of life in twenty-first-century Afghanistan. A mix of travelogue, photography, and comics, After We Kill You… vividly portrays the realities of what really happened when America went to war.
Ted Rall is the author and illustrator of many graphic novels and books of political criticism and travel writing, including The Year of Loving Dangerously, Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?, and The Book of Obama: How We Went from Hope and Change to the Age of Revolt. He currently lives in East Hampton, New York.
Sunday, November 23, 4:00 p.m.
Layth Matthews, The Four Noble Truths of Wealth: A Buddhist View of Economic Life
The way we think about wealth and livelihood affects our personal experience and our world dramatically. Yet we rarely contemplate the heart of prosperity, which may be why it feels like we are struggling personally, and accelerating toward crisis globally. Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths illuminate the foundation of a wealthy outlook, which makes economic life more workable and creates a better world at the same time. The Four Noble Truths of Wealth is an introduction to Buddhism with application to the challenges and opportunities that money and livelihood present. The book also includes some comments on ethical business and sustainable economics from a Buddhist point of view. From the vastest point of view the world is primordially pure and rich, inside and out, already. Our challenge is to recognize the inherent richness of every situation as the authentic starting point of relating with the world sustainably. Things are more workable than we imagine, we only need to train ourselves to see it. This book presents the basis for making the journey from egocentric poverty mentality to a wealthy outlook, which is the ultimate wealth.
Layth Matthews is a Buddhist teacher and mortgage broker based in Victoria, BC. He was Director of the Victoria Shambhala Centre from 2010-2013 and has been practicing, studying, and teaching meditation since 1979. Layth facilitates meditation retreats for groups across North America.
Tuesday, November 25, 7:00 p.m.
Ronald Lee Geigle, The Woods
Washington DC political veteran Ronald Geigle, who was born and raised in Washington State, will discuss his new historical novel, The Woods. He will focus on what he calls “The Great Cathedral of the Northwest Woods,” using photos from Whatcom Museum’s Darius Kinsey collection, and highlights from the novel. The Woods is set in the turbulent world of labor unrest and big-timber logging in the Pacific Northwest during the waning days of the Great Depression. It portrays the lives and dreams of those who struggled to overcome the hard times and were transformed by them. Its fast-paced plot is driven by sabotage, betrayal, union violence, corporate greed, and economic survival.
Ronald Geigle grew up in Seattle and graduated from the University of Washington. He has spent more than 30 years in Washington DC as a legislative aide, speechwriter, and partner in a public relations agency. He won fiction-writing awards from the National Press Club for chapters from his novel, The Woods.
