Explore and Discover

Let’s craft: Getting cozy with crochet

Posted on October 16, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Abra Cole As we are entering the Season of the Scarf once again, I’m developing a new obsession with a certain yarn-based craft. I consider myself an artistic person, but I have never dabbled in the realm of fiber arts. Until recently, that is! Two years ago, cross stitch became my gateway craft, and […]

Taking care of you: Modern day self-care

Posted on September 27, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Susan Goertz September means many things to many people—leaves changing color, shortening days, pumpkin spice everything. Did you know that September is also Self-Care Awareness Month? You wouldn’t think people would need tips on how to take it easy and pamper themselves. How hard can it be to slow down and breathe, right? Yet […]

Banning books silences stories: Reading a banned book celebrates your intellectual freedom

Posted on September 18, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Melissa Rhoades Banned Books Week is September 23–29 this year. Did you know that at least 23 of the 100 books on PBS’s 2018 Great American Read book list have been banned or threatened with a ban in the United States? That means almost one-fourth of America’s “most loved” novels (as determined by popular […]

Plan Well, Age Well: Explore issues related to retirement and aging

Posted on September 11, 2018 at 6:00 am

You’re never too young or too old to prepare for your future. No matter your age, you can start planning for your retirement years now, and if you’re already retired, this is a great time brush up on your knowledge of downsizing, financial planning, long-term care, care management, Medicare and Medicaid, and Social Security. The […]

How to Identify a Dragon

Posted on August 21, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Caitlin Wheeler When I was young, I loved C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. I especially loved The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a book that, in my eight-year-old estimation, had everything a book ought to: quests, nightmares, magic spells, enchanted islands, warrior mermaids, anthropomorphized stars, and of course, dragons. Eustace Claren […]

The Great American Read book list and half-time report

Posted on August 7, 2018 at 6:00 am

By Dana Mannino Welcome to August—a great time for a summer reading half-time report! My summer reading looked a lot like this picture of the bulletin board in the staff break room at Spokane Valley Library. Waaaay back in May, PBS launched The Great American Read, a program that highlights 100 of America’s beloved books […]

The art of saving seeds

Posted on July 31, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Abra Cole In a remote vault located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, nearly one million seed varieties are stored. The purpose of this immense storage facility is to ensure the genetic future of these seed varieties, should any of the gene banks located around the world suffer catastrophic disaster. One hundred […]

Microadventure: Day trip to Stonerose for fossils

Posted on July 24, 2018 at 6:00 am

By Rachel Edmondson Even though I’ve lived in the Spokane area for over 15 years now, every once in a while I find out about something and wonder how I’ve never heard about it before. This past fall I learned about the Stonerose Interpretive Center. While it’s a bit of a drive from Spokane (about […]

Happy birthday! A reading list of authors with July birthdays

Posted on July 17, 2018 at 6:00 am

By Nathaniel Youmans This one’s for all you with summer birthdays out there. Remember in grade school when the end of the year drew close and teachers, even more burnt out than their students, had to find some reason (summon the willpower) to celebrate students with summer birthdays? At my elementary school, this took the […]

Tags: authors, birthdays, books, fiction, poetry, poets, reading

Perfect pairings: Recipes to devour while binge watching

Posted on July 10, 2018 at 6:00 am

By Susan Goertz I’m a summer person. Long summer days swimming around the lake and baking dry on the shore, hiking through the woods, picking berries, tending to my ever expanding garden—it doesn’t get much better. After a long, sun-drenched day, I want to grill up something yummy and then collapse on the couch for […]