Mid-Columbia Reads 2016

The Mid-Columbia Reads literary festival encourages communities throughout the Mid-Columbia region to engage with the same books and come together to explore and celebrate the written and spoken word. This program is intended to build community through the collective experience of reading, thinking, and discussing ideas and themes that raise important social issues. We also strive to build future readers and writers in our region.

Mid-Columbia Libraries and our partners are proud to announce the 2016 selections for Mid-Columbia Reads, "Circling the Sun" by Paula McLain and "The Pout-Pout Fish" by Deborah Diesen. Pick up a free copy of this year’s selections at event locations throughout the community (while supplies last).

We will be hosting Paula McLain on Thursday, October 20 at 7 pm at Kennewick High School's Art Fuller Auditorium. Deborah Diesen has had to cancel her events due to a family emergency. We hope to be able to reschedule her visit in the future. Be sure to pick up a free copy of the book at your local library's Pout-Pout Fish storytime or other Mid-Columbia Reads event while supplies last. 

As part of the Mid-Columbia Reads festival, locations throughout the community will host various author events and writers workshops to promote and celebrate the written word. Check the schedule of events for more information.

And, don't miss the Recovering the Classics art exhibit on display October 1-31 at the Kennewick library. Mid-Columbia Libraries is proud to be the Washington state host site for the show, a collection of 50 classic book covers re-imagined by modern artists. Click here to learn more.

About the Book

Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller "The Paris Wife," now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. "Circling the Sun" brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, author of the classic memoir Out of Africa.

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.

Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.

Set against the majestic landscape of early-twentieth-century Africa, McLain’s powerful tale reveals the extraordinary adventures of a woman before her time, the exhilaration of freedom and its cost, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

-From the publisher

About the Author

The author has had to cancel her events due to a family emergency. We hope to be able to reschedule her visit in the future. Be sure to pick up a free copy of the book at your local library's Pout-Pout Fish storytime or other Mid-Columbia Reads event while supplies last. 

Deborah Diesen is the bestselling author of "The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark." She grew up in Midland, Michigan, and started writing poems at a young age. She has worked as a bookseller and a librarian, and now works for a small nonprofit organization, but her greatest joy comes from writing for children. She lives with her family in Grand Ledge, Michigan.

-From the publisher