BY ERIN JONES / SEATTLE CHANNEL MULTIMEDIA INTERN
There’s no better way to escape reality than picking up a good book. That’s why the Seattle Channel has put together a list of engaging books for you to read while you shelter in place during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. All featured on Seattle Channel’s Book Lust with Nancy Pearl program, you’ll find romantic suspense, science fiction, biographical, true crime and more. Browse our suggestions and learn more about the books and their authors in Nancy Pearl’s compelling interviews.
Kevin Young: “Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News”
Kevin Young is Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and a poetry editor at The New Yorker. Young thinks about the idea of truth and what threatens facts, an especially relevant topic in the era of misinformation, which has been widespread during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Kevin Young’s book “The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News” is a timely, revealing book that accurately exposes the historical narratives of America with carefully traced research. His book focuses on the American phenomenon of “hoaxing.” From re-writing history, to modern day “fake news,” Young’s analysis breaks down the root of the problems we face in today’s media-driven society.
Melinda Gates: “The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World”
Melinda Gates is known worldwide. She’s an inspiring businesswoman, philanthropist, and lover of stories. She believes the key to societal health is investing in girls and women. She states, “If you want to change society, you need to give women their voice.” Gates has been moved by the countless women that she has met over the last 20 years, and in these meetings, she saw a paramount opportunity to lift these women up by sharing their stories in her 2019 book “The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.”
This book is a collection of personal testimony about Melinda’s philanthropy work across the globe, leaders she admires, and untold stories of women who have impacted her life – it’s the feel-good book we all need right now.
Paul Yoon: “Run Me to Earth”
Novelist and short story writer Paul Yoon recently sat down with Nancy Pearl, and in her interview, Yoon says daily jogs are instrumental in expanding his mind and helping him cope with heavy subject matters… Sage advice under the current circumstances.
In Yoon’s Book Lust interview , he discusses “Run Me to Earth,” his new book that follows three orphans from Laos during the 1960s to 70s, a time when the United States Air Force and the CIA dropped two million tons of ordnance on their home country in an effort to defeat communism. It’s a story of trauma, survival, and healing told in Yoon’s signature poetic style.
Jayne Ann Krentz: “All Night Long”
Author Jayne Ann Krentz defines her book “All Night Long” as a “romantic suspense” novel.
The book’s protagonists, Irene Stenson and Pamela Webb, were best friends until Irene was dropped off at home one night and walked into a murder-suicide scene with the bodies of her parents on the kitchen floor. Irene fled to northern California and found herself at a lodge who’s hazel-eyed owner, Luke Danner sparked an interest in her. This book is the perfect combination of romance, scandal, and secrets for readers who love a good page-turning story.
Neal Stephenson: “Fall; or Dodge in Hell”
Inspired by the social media industry, algorithms, and new technology, Neal Stephenson’s novel, “Fall; or Dodge in Hell,” is a timely, mind-blowing reading experience.
The science-fiction epic is about humans who continue into their afterlife as digital souls in a simulated reality. When main character Richard “Dodge” Forthrast is declared brain dead by doctors, his wishes to have his body cryonically survived for the purpose of future revival were fulfilled. When Dodge’s brain is scanned, his connectome (a map of neural connections) is saved digitally, revealing a new world he can live in.
Martha Brockenbrough: “The Game of Love and Death”
Martha Brockenbrough wrote the novel “The Game of Love and Death” for teens. Inspired by Greek mythology, two of the main characters of her book are named Love and Death. Set in Seattle in 1937, teens Flora and and Henry grew up a few blocks away from each other. Flora, an African American girl, and Henry, a white boy, fall in love. What they don’t know, is that they are pawns being played in a game by Love and Death.
