Summer book club concludes with reflection on irreplaceable old-growth forests

The KUOW Book Club and Seattle Public Library are continuing our summer reading series this month with Lynda V. Mapes' latest work, "The Trees Are Speaking: Dispatches from the Salmon Forests."

If you missed our previous summer picks, check out my conversations with Corinne Manning, Ijeoma Oluo, and Kim Fu.

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Mapes' new book just came out in April and is already being hailed as essential reading for anyone interested in environmental stewardship. In a nutshell, the book considers how old-growth forests play an irreplaceable role in the environment, but much like the forests themselves, it's so much more than that.

Here's the plan:

• Read the first six chapters by August 18.
• Join Mapes and me at the Seattle Central Library on August 27 for a live conversation.
• Finish the book by August 29.

As per usual, I’ll send out a newsletter at the halfway point and when we finish the book to share our conversation.

I'll include the audio and video from the live event in the last newsletter, but I encourage everyone to attend if you can. Tickets are free, and attendees will have an opportunity to ask Mapes questions.

Register to attend here.

This event will conclude our summer reading series with Seattle Public Library. My live conversations with Oluo and Fu in June and July respectively were enlightening and enlivening, with a level of audience participation that I truly appreciate. I expect no less for our final event. I hope to see y'all there.

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Spoiler alert: As we wrap up this stellar summer series, I'm happy to report I already have our September read locked in, too.

We'll be reading Seattle author Daniel Tam-Claiborne's debut novel, "Transplants." And Daniel is set to join me for an interview to conclude our reading.

"Transplants" follows two young women — one Chinese and one Chinese American — on a university campus in rural Qixian, where they're both met with hostility. Together, they learn what it means to be their truest selves in a world that doesn’t know where either of them belong. It's an exploration of race, love, power, and freedom.