WA Do I Read Next: Recent Non-Fiction Faves by Washington Authors

rablogspl

Apr 17

Each year a group of librarians from around the state take the stage at the Washington Library Association conference to share some of their favorite recent titles by Washington State authors. This year's presentation took place on March 31, in Wenatchee, with Andrea Gough and David Wright of Seattle Public Library, as well as Jenna Zarzycki of King County Library and Sheri Boggs of Spokane Regional. Here are some of the non-fiction titles we shared:

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Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World, by William Alexander.
The humble tomato turns out to be the perfect topic for this rollicking, highly informative micro history that whisks readers from the conquest of the Americas to the invention of Catsup and the rise of Domino's Pizza.
Skid Road: on the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in An American City, by Josephine Ensign.
The ideal book for Seattlites seeking a better and more nuanced understanding of the long history of homelessness in our city.
Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, by Angela Garbes.
A persuasive and necessary look at America's vast and largely unrecognized - and racialized and gendered - shadow economy build around caregiving. Long overdue.
Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West, by Blaine Harden.
The 1847 "Whitman massacre," as it came to be known, was a seminal event in the settlement of the Pacific Northwest. Harden digs beneath the myth to reveal how the deaths of the Whitmans were provoked, and then exploited for private gain.
Dancing With the Muse in Old Age, by Priscilla Long.
In this encouraging survey of older creators who continue to grow and flourish in their later years, Long emphasizes the importance of creative approaches to aging for young and old alike, against the ravages of internalized ageism.