New and Notable Northwest Nonfiction – 2019 edition
Guest blogger: Frank Brasile of The Seattle Public Library
Are you new to the Northwest, or a lifelong resident looking for some historical perspective? 2019 is shaping up to be an exciting year for publishing about our region, so let the reading begin!
The University of Washington Press is releasing a number of regionally relevant titles. Explore local fashion with Seattle Style by Clara Berg, which features garments and accessories from the collection at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). In Transit, Jim Kershner looks back at 125+ years of trolleys, trains and buses that have served the region. Sculpture on a Grand Scale by Tyler Sprague explores the work of Jack Christiansen, whose design of the Kingdome combined thin shell concrete with a modern aesthetic. Alexandra Harmon looks at Indian sovereignty following a controversial 1978 Supreme Court decision involving the Quinault and Suquamish tribes in Reclaiming the Reservation, while Understanding Northwest Coast Indigenous Jewelry by Alexander Dawkins examines the craft and history of indigenous artisans. A new edition of Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest by Arthur Kruckerberg is set to be released, and reprints of The Last Wilderness and Puget’s Sound explore the history of the Olympic Peninsula and Tacoma, respectively, from historian Murray Morgan. And, the three-volume Fishes of the Salish Sea by Theodore Pietsch will surely be as informative as it is beautiful. (We have it at the SPL Central Library as a reference book(but will require a trip to the Central library as it’s a reference book).
Arcadia Publishing & The History Press are known for their local histories, and this year’s releases are no exception. Sandra Pollard chronicles the life of Tokitae, the lone orca out of two dozen who survived life in a marine park in A Puget Sound Orca in Captivity. Brad Holden looks at the bootleggers and rumrunners in Seattle Prohibition, while Dorothy Wilhelm regales readers with incredible stories from the South Sound in True Tales of Puget Sound. And explore the greater west with Rails of the Northwest Through Time by Dale Peterka and U.S. Forest Service Stations of the West by Les Joslin.
Oregon State University Press has two releases of note this year: Northwest Voices examines the linguistic heritage of indigenous languages along with the development of English in the region, while Field Guide to the Grasses of Oregon and Washington profiles 376 species of grass, from rare natives to invasive species. . Washington State University Press published Citizen Jean by former reporter and City Council member Jean Godden. And finally, Serin Houston of the University of Nebraska Press looks at the role social values play in urban governance in Imagining Seattle.
Thank you to The Seattle Public Library and their Shelf Talk blog for sharing this post with us!