Many fantastic authors make their home in the Pacific Northwest (including Debbie Macomber, Patricia Briggs, Jamie Ford and Dav Pilkey). This list highlights just a few of them as well as some books set in our region.
The Cure For What Ales You by Ellie Alexander – Amateur sleuth and brewer Sloan Krause prepares to debut a new ale at a spring festival in Leavenworth while contending with her past – and a murder related to it.
Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur – When his sister’s best friend, on whom he has had a crush for years, comes to Seattle, dating app creator Brendon Lowell, taking cues from his favorite rom-coms, plans to woo her until he discovers that real love doesn’t need to be a perfect as the movies.
Unfollow Me: Essays on Complicity by Jill Louise Busby – A cultural commentator presents this memoir-in-essays in which she provides a deeply personal, razor-sharp critique of white fragility (and other words for racism), respectability politics (and other words for shame) and all the places where fear masquerades as progress.
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt – When a frontier baron known as the Commodore orders Charlie and Eli Sisters, his hired gunslingers, to track down and kill a prospector named Herman Kermit Warm, the brothers journey from Oregon to San Francisco, and eventually to Warm’s claim in the Sierra foothills, running into a witch, a bear, a dead Indian, a parlor of drunken floozies, and a gang of murderous fur trappers.
Love at First Spite by Anne E. Collins – Falling in love is the ultimate payback in this delightful, breezy Seattle-set romcom about an interior designer who teams up with an enigmatic architect at her firm to get revenge on her ex the only way she knows how: by building a spite house next door.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad – Looking at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child, this dramatic story follows Vänna who comes to the rescue of a 9-year-old Syrian boy who has washed up on the shores of her small island and is determined to do whatever it takes to save him.
Small World by Jonathan Evison – The novel opens with a train accident outside Seattle in 2019, then jumps back and forth between the riders and their ancestors in the 1850s, showing the connections over time and distance, and the wide array of people who settled in the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s. (Releases in January)
Love & Saffron by Kim Fay – When 27-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter—as well as a gift of saffron—to 59-year-old food writer Imogen Fortier, so begins an enduring friendship that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy and the unexpected in their own lives. (Releases in February)
Mighty Inside by Sundee Frazier – Melvin Robinson wants a strong, smooth, He-Man voice… But the thought of starting high school is only making his stutter worse. And Melvin’s growing awareness that racism is everywhere, not just in the South where a boy his age has been brutally killed by two white men, but also in his own hometown of Spokane is making him realize that he can’t mutely stand by.
Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid: The Fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change by Thor Hanson – The leading natural historian and author of the award-winning books Buzz, Feathers, and The Triumph of Seeds examines how plants and animals are responding to climate change by adjusting, evolving and sometimes dying out.
No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper – Tells the stories of three women brought together by a mass shooting at a bar in Boise, Idaho. Angie’s husband, Cale, was at the bar during the shooting (an outing he kept secret from his wife) and is now in a coma; Tessa was tending bar on the fateful night and believes Cale saved her life; and Joyce is the mother of the shooter who must come to terms with her role in the tragedy.
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt – Describes the exploits and adventures of Helga Estby, who, in 1896, walked across America, from Washington to New York, with her teenage daughter Clara in an effort to save her family’s farm.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey – A childless couple working a farm in the brutal landscape of 1920 Alaska discover a little girl living in the wilderness, with a red fox as a companion, and begin to love the strange, almost-supernatural child as their own.
Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim – After her desperate family sells her to a courtesan school, Jade befriends JungHo, an orphan boy begging on the streets of Seoul, and must decide to pursue her dreams or risk everything in the fight for independence.
The Healing of Natalie Curtis by Jane Kirkpatrick – In 1902, classically trained pianist and singer Natalie Curtis journeys to the West where she finds the haunting melodies, rhythms and stories of Native Americans and makes it her mission to save these ancient songs which are being silenced by the government.
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune – After he dies, a curious and powerful being gives Wallace one week to cross over to the land of the dead, and Wallace, who finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life, sets about living a lifetime in seven days.
So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018 by Ursula K. Le Guin – Redolent of myths, history, nursery rhymes, and the natural world, LeGuin bookends a long, daring, and prolific career.
Deep River by Karl Marlantes – Forced from their home by Russian imperialism, three Finnish siblings find their new lives in the Pacific Northwest challenged by the rapid development and labor movements of the early 20th-century logging industry.
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire – Verity Price, trained from birth as a cryptozoologist -a monster hunter- attempts to pursue a career in professional ballroom dance, but dangerous cryptids and the Covenant’s newest operative keep getting in the way of her passion. First in the InCryptid series. (McGuire is a prolific author and also writes under the name Mira Grant.)
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow – In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers. Meanwhile, Effie is fighting her own family struggles, pitted against literal demons from her past. Together, these best friends must navigate through the perils of high school’s junior year. But, everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice at the worst possible moment. Soon, nothing in Portland, Oregon, seems safe. To save themselves from drowning, it’s only Tavia and Effie’s unbreakable sisterhood that proves to be the strongest magic of all.
More Than We Remember by Christina Suzann Nelson – After a life-altering car accident, one night changes everything for three women. As their lives intersect, they can no longer dwell in the memory of who they’ve been. Can they rise from the wreck of the worst moments of their lives to become who they were meant to be?
The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve Olson – The award-winning author of Eruption presents a gripping narrative account of the creation of the atomic bomb that shares the less-remembered work of World War II scientists who helped manufacture the plutonium for the bombs in America’s nuclear arsenal.
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen – Posing as a royal to rob the nobles blind, 17-year-old Vanja Schmidt is thrilled by her luck until she crosses the wrong god and is cursed to turn into the jewels she covets unless she can pay back her debts—quickly.
The Cascade Killer by Rob Phillips – As a Fish and Wildlife police officer, Luke McCain and his partner -a yellow Lab named Jack- spend their days patrolling the rivers, lakes and forests of the wild and scenic Cascade Mountains in Eastern Washington. After hunters discover human remains inside a bear’s stomach, McCain is thrust into the investigation. As more dead women are found in McCain’s region, authorities suspect a serial killer is prowling the mountains he knows best. McCain will need his knowledge as an outdoorsman, and his instincts as an investigator, to track the psychopathic predator before he kills again.
The Beadworkers: Stories by Beth Piatote – This brilliant debut collection of stories, set in the landscapes and lifeworlds of the Native Northwest, draws on indigenous aesthetics and forms to offer a powerful, sustaining vision of Native life in the Americas.
Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest – A psychic with scattershot, inconsistent abilities, Leda Foley, joins forces with a Seattle PD detective, Grady Merritt, whom she accidentally saved from a doomed flight, to solve a cold case and catch a killer.
The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All by Josh Ritter – Filled with heart, humor and magic, this lyrical, sweeping novel about the last days of the lumberjacks is told by of one of the greatest lumberjacks of all who recounts tales rife with murder, mayhem, avalanches and bootlegging in the tiny timber town of Cordelia, Idaho.
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter – Enduring the corruption of their union employment, two young day laborers in early 1900s Spokane are respectively drawn to a feminist activist and a vaudeville singer whose experiences reflect an unjust world on the brink of upheaval.
White Magic: Essays by Elissa Washuta – Throughout her life, Cowlitz writer Washuta has been surrounded by cheap facsimiles of Native spiritual tools and occult trends, “starter witch kits” of sage, rose quartz, and tarot cards packaged together in paper and plastic. Following a decade of abuse, addiction, PTSD, and heavy-duty drug treatment for a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, she felt drawn to the real spirits and powers her dispossessed and discarded ancestors knew, while she undertook necessary work to find love and meaning
Ms. Marvel: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona – Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City — until she’s suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm!
Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West by David Wolman & Julian Smith – Traces the lesser-known role of three Hawaiian cowboys who indelibly shaped the early-20th century West, detailing how their careers influenced post-annexation Hawaiian identity, island ranching and the rodeo culture of Cheyenne.
Dad Bakes by Katie Yamasaki – Dad rises before the sun, goes to work at the bakery where he kneads, rolls, and bakes bread, and as the world starts its day, Dad heads home to his young daughter where they play, read, and bake together. This lovely, resonant picture book was inspired by muralist Yamasaki’s work with formerly incarcerated people.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao – Offering herself up as a concubine-pilot for the alien-battling giant transforming robots in order to assassinate the man responsible for her sister’s death, 18-year-old Zetian discovers her true destiny as an Iron Widow pilot and must use her strength to force her society to stop failing its women and girls.