Village Books & Paper Dreams - Fairhaven
Sun: 10am-8pm
Mon-Sat: 9am-8pm
 
Village Books - Lynden
Sun-Tues: 10am-5pm
Wed-Sat: 10am-6pm

VB Reads...Motherhood by the Book

Motherhood by the Book is led by Claire, book lover extraordinaire, mother, step-mother, and grandmother. The book group meets on the second Sunday of every month at 2pm in the Readings Gallery for an hour of spirited discussion of books that celebrate the trials, tribulations, and rewards of motherhood, and what it means to be a mother. This group is by no means exclusive to moms with kids still at home. We read fiction and non-fiction, older and newer titles, all with the theme of Motherhood. Authors do not usually attend.

Sunday, April 14, 2pm  

The Ugly Cry by Danielle Henderson

Abandoned at ten years old by a mother who chose her drug-addicted, abusive boyfriend, Danielle was raised by grandparents who thought their child-rearing days had ended in the 1960s. She grew up Black, weird, and overwhelmingly uncool in a mostly white neighborhood in upstate New York, which created its own identity crises. Under the eye-rolling, foul-mouthed, loving tutelage of her uncompromising grandmother—and the horror movies she obsessively watched—Danielle grew into a tall, awkward, Sassy-loving teenager who wore black eyeliner as lipstick and was struggling with the aftermath of her mother’s choices. But she also learned that she had the strength and smarts to save herself, her grandmother gifting her a faith in her own capabilities that the world would not have most Black girls possess.

Danielle Henderson is a TV writer (Maniac, Dare Me, Harper House), retired freelance writer, and a former editor for Rookie. She cohosts the film podcast I Saw What You Did, and a book based on her popular website, Feminist Ryan Gosling, was released by Running Press in August 2012. She has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, AFAR magazine, BuzzFeed, and The Cut, among others. She likes to watch old episodes of Doctor Who when she is on deadline, one of her tattoos is based on the movie Rocky, and she will never stop using the Oxford comma. Danielle reluctantly lives in Los Angeles.

The Ugly Cry: How I Became a Person (Despite My Grandmother's Horrible Advice) By Danielle Henderson Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780525559375
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - June 7th, 2022

Sunday, May 19, 2pm* NOTE: This is one week later than usual to avoid meeting on Mother's Day!

Brood by Jackie Polzin

Over the course of a single year, our nameless narrator heroically tries to keep her small brood of four chickens alive despite the seemingly endless challenges that caring for other creatures entails. From the forty-below nights of a brutal Minnesota winter to a sweltering summer which brings a surprise tornado, she battles predators, bad luck, and the uncertainty of a future that may not look anything like the one she always imagined. 

Jackie Polzin lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her husband and children. Brood is her first novel.

Brood: A Novel By Jackie Polzin Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780593311332
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anchor - July 26th, 2022

Sunday, June 9, 2pm

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamas O'Reilly

Séamas O’Reilly’s mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten (!) brothers and sisters, and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble, but Séamas was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars, and the actual location of heaven than the political climate.

Seamas O'Reilly is a columnist for the Observer and writes about media and politics for the Irish Times, New Statesman, Guts, and VICE. He lives in the London borough of Hackney with his family.

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: A Memoir By Séamas O'Reilly Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780316424264
Availability: Not in-stock currently-usually arrives within 1-14 business days
Published: Back Bay Books - March 12th, 2024

Sunday, July 14, 2pm

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

“You're a small thing,” Grandma writes, “and you must learn to fight.” Swiv's Grandma, Elvira, has been fighting all her life. From her upbringing in a strict religious community, she has fought those who wanted to take away her joy, her independence, and her spirit. She has fought to make peace with her loved ones when they have chosen to leave her. And now, even as her health fails, Grandma is fighting for her family: for her daughter, partnerless and in the third term of a pregnancy; and for her granddaughter Swiv, a spirited nine-year-old who has been suspended from school. Cramped together in their Toronto home, on the precipice of extraordinary change, Grandma and Swiv undertake a vital new project, setting out to explain their lives in letters they will never send.

Miriam Toews is the author of the bestselling novels All My Puny Sorrows, Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutmans, Irma Voth, Fight Night, and one work of nonfiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award. She lives in Toronto.

Fight Night By Miriam Toews Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781635579789
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - January 31st, 2023

Sunday, August 11, 2pm

Living High by June Burn

The remarkable story of June & Farrar Burn, their trust in life and courage to be unconventional, offers inspiration and a compass for today's world.

Living High: An Unconventional Biography By June Burn, Farrar Burn, Burn Skye (Compiled by) Cover Image
By June Burn, Farrar Burn, Burn Skye (Compiled by)
$30.99
ISBN: 9798218069315
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Village Books - March 28th, 2023

Sunday, September 8, 2pm

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

Celeste Ng is the number one New York Times bestselling author of the novels Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere, and Our Missing Hearts. Ng is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and her work has been published in over thirty languages.

Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel By Celeste Ng Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780735224315
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - May 7th, 2019

Sunday, October 13, 2pm

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

The winner of the National Book Critics Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyrical essays, written daily over a tumultuous year, reminding us of the purpose and pleasure of praising, extolling, and celebrating ordinary wonders.

In addition to The Book of Delights: Essays, Ross Gay is the author of three books of poetry, including Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Catalog was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry, the Ohioana Book Award, the Balcones Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call It Ballin’ and founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a nonprofit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. Gay has received fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He teaches at Indiana University.

The Book of Delights: Essays By Ross Gay Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781643753287
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Algonquin Books - August 16th, 2022

Sunday, November 10, 2pm

The Grass Dancer by Susan Power

Set on a North Dakota reservation, The Grass Dancer reveals the harsh price of unfulfilled longings and the healing power of mystery and hope. Rich with drama and infused with the magic of the everyday, it takes readers on a journey through both past and present—in a tale as resonant and haunting as an ancestor's memory, and as promising as a child's dream. 

Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and a native Chicagoan. She received an A.B. from Harvard/Radcliffe, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has been published in Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, Voice Literary Supplement, Ploughshares, Story, and The Best American Short Stories 1993.

The Grass Dancer By Susan Power Cover Image
$15.00
ISBN: 9780425159538
Availability: Not in-stock currently-usually arrives within 1-14 business days
Published: Berkley - April 1st, 1997

Sunday, December 8, 2pm

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Shelby Van Pelt lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her family. Remarkably Bright Creatures is her first novel.

Pre-Order Now Badge
Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Read with Jenna Pick By Shelby Van Pelt Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780063204164
Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now
Published: Ecco - March 4th, 2025