Each year at the Washington Library Association conference, a panel of librarians from around the state gather to share some of their favorite titles by Washington State authors from the past year. Here is our most recent slate, as presented at WLA in Wenatchee on March 31, 2023. First, fiction, and then, non-fiction. (Created March, 2023).
Murder at the Mission
Documents the early 19th-century story of the Whitman and Spalding missionary families, exploring how after becoming the first Americans to cross the Rockies by covered wagon they embarked on propagandist agendas that fueled a massive and culturally catastrophic westward migration.
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Availability: Available
View Murder at the MissionMount Rainier National Park
Illustrated with Molly Hashimoto's color sketches and watercolors, 'Mount Rainier National Park: An Artist's Tour' is a personal account of some of the human and natural history and flora and fauna found in the areas that are accessible via the main roads that encircle Mount Rainier National Park.
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View Mount Rainier National ParkMore American
Poet Sharon Hashimoto reconstructs a collective memory, conjuring the voices of grandparents, children, soldiers, and "those left to tell." In moving detail, these poems convey the realities of assimilation, service, and internment as experienced by Japanese Americans during, and in the decades following, the Second World War.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View More AmericanFlight Paths
The captivating, little-known true story of a group of scientists and the methods and technology they developed to uncover the secrets of avian migration.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Flight PathsMakini's Vegan Kitchen
Nationally renowned chef and entrepreneur Makini Howell shares her innovative plant-based recipes in this anniversary edition of the original Plum cookbook.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Makini's Vegan KitchenSewing Love
Sanae Ishida guides readers on a journey to loving the body they have right now as they learn to sew beautiful, simple handmade clothes.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Sewing LoveDancing With the Muse in Old Age
While focusing on creative engagement, Long's book is for everyone who is aging. It reflects the new ways of looking at old age as a potentially dynamic, happy, and productive time. It reviews the science on aging that shows that negative views of aging can actually cause decline.
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Availability: Available
View Dancing With the Muse in Old AgeThe Cottage Fairy Companion
Romanticize your life anywhere. The Cottage Fairy Companion helps readers open their eyes to the everyday magic right in front of them. It gives a new perspective by revealing the lessons nature teaches about finding beauty through the good times and the bad.
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View The Cottage Fairy CompanionFlush
An award-winning science writer examines the untapped potential of human feces as a source of potent medicine, sustainable power and natural fertilizer to restore the world's depleted lands.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View FlushAt Home on An Unruly Planet
From rural Alaska to coastal Florida, a vivid account of Americans working to protect the places they call home in an era of climate crisis. Ostrander pairs deeply reported stories of hard-won optimism with lyrical essays on the strengths we need in an era of crisis.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View At Home on An Unruly Planet