Seattle Nonfiction
Take a trip through the many stories of Seattle with these adult nonfiction books, published 2023-2025, and selected by our librarians. (Created August 2025)
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The Forging of A Black Community
With a new foreword and afterword, this second edition of The Forging of a Black Community is essential to understanding the history and present of the largest black community in the Pacific Northwest. (Publisher’s description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Mud Ride
Turner, guitarist for the Seattle grunge band Mudhoney, offers his recollections about the rise and fall of the grunge scene. … his book, with its insider's perspective, takes music fanatics on an enjoyable romp through the grunge heyday. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Deciding to See
[This] eye-opening, inspiring, and hopeful linked-essay collection recounts the amazing everyday encounters of city bus driver, Nathan Vass whose life's motto is if you give kindness, you'll get kindness. Vass tests this theory on the roughest nighttime routes in Seattle. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: In-library use only at this time
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The Sound of Seattle
This rockin' paperback explores the musical evolution of Seattle through the lens of 101 songs spanning 80 years, examining the most prominent and important music and musicians to come out of our corner of the country, with a foreword by Pearl Jam legend Mike McCready. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Seattle Walks
One of America's most walkable cities, Seattle rewards urban trekkers with expansive scenery and architectural and historical riches. The second edition of this acclaimed guidebook offers eighteen walks chosen for interest and easy accessibility. Williams's compelling stories bring the city to life, revealing often-overlooked details of Seattle's past and present. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Wild in Seattle
A collection of essays on the geology, animals, plants, and architecture that shape Seattle. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Revolutionary Feminists
Revolutionary Feminists tells the story of the radical women's liberation movement in Seattle during the 1960s and 1970s from the perspective of one of its founding members, Barbara Winslow. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City
In this delightful memoir in essays, Chinese American poet Wong reflects on her experiences growing up on the Jersey Shore as the child of immigrants and later life as an English professor. With a poet’s ear for language and a satirist’s eye for human foibles, Wong masterfully marries her personal story with larger questions about Chinese American identity. This is a winner. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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