Dive into our 2022-2023 Full-Spectrum Season! We can’t wait for you to embark on this adventure with us. Every title this season features a colorful connection. Scroll down for an overview of all the selections, including content heads-up so you can choose to experience the book (or not!) with confidence. If we missed something, please send us a message and we’ll look into addressing it as soon as we can.
You can purchase a season venue subscription for our Bushwick Book Club performances with our season partners Town Hall Seattle and Hugo House | Season Subscription
Please consider buying your Bushwick choices with our local bookstore partner, Third Place Books.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
September 24 | 7:30pm | Town Hall Seattle
There’s another universe beyond our own! In Philip Pullman’s beloved fantasy novel, twelve-year-old Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon must evade the oppressive Magisterium to investigate the “Dust”—a strange substance in the night sky that might reveal a path to parallel worlds.
“…propels readers along with horror and high adventure, a shattering tale that begins with a promise and delivers an entire universe.” —Kirkus (starred review)
Heads up: The Golden Compass’ epic adventure features kids in tough and scary situations, cruel adults, and some grisly moments and deaths.
Check it out: SPL
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
October 15 | 7:30pm | Hugo House
Not content with a painted portrait, Dorian decides to hold onto his youthful beauty at all costs—even if it means selling his soul. What’s the worst that could happen? Wildly controversial upon publication, The Picture of Dorian Gray is now a revered classic of Gothic literature.
“The saying “be careful what you wish for” has arguably never been more apt in literature than it is in this classic novel.” —The Guardian
Heads up: The Picture of Dorian Gray is out to give you the creeps—be prepared for death, drugs, nasty behavior, and a suicide.
Check it out: SPL
November 12 | 7:30pm | Town Hall Seattle
Have you ever woken up in a rocky wasteland and wondered where the hell you are? If that feeling was a book, it might be City of Orange, where our hero awakes in a post-apocalyptic landscape with no idea who he is and what happened to the world—or why that crow is talking to him…
“City of Orange belongs in a very narrow category, alongside Emily St. John’s Station Eleven, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road…David Yoon is willing to ask what ‘the End of the World’ really means — and provide the reader with a thoughtful, heartfelt answer.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Heads up: Despite a healthy dose of humor, City of Orange’s narrator must do what he can to survive, and at least one crow meets a grisly end.
Check it out: SPL
December 10 | 7:30pm | Hugo House
Story: Get down with the loudest ink in town! Three local authors—co-curation with Seattle poet Shin Yu Pai—inspire three musicians apiece, a gift of nine new songs in this one-night-only celebration of creativity and collaboration.
Featured authors/books: TBD
Themes: TBD
Heads-up: TBD
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
January 14 | 7:30pm | Town Hall Seattle
As her family gathers to celebrate Melody’s coming-of-age ceremony, even the killer soundtrack (Prince!) can’t stop memories from sneaking in. As they each reflect on the winding paths that brought them here, Red at the Bone moves through time to reveal the fears, hopes, and desires hiding in every heart.
“What we have here is an exquisitely wrought tale of two urban black families…It reads like poetry and drama, a cry from the heart that often cuts close to the bone.” —NPR
Heads up: Red at the Bone is a tender novel that deals with some heavy themes—sexual desire, gentrification, class, parenthood and birth—and touches on cancer and death.
Check it out: SPL
The Works of Margaret Wise Brown
February 11 | 7:30pm | Hugo House
Throughout the 1940s, Margaret Wise Brown single-handedly rewrote the book on children’s literature. Groundbreaking works like The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon (which the New York Public Library initially refused to buy) fused poetry and philosophy, captivating generations of readers.
“The first great wonder at the world is big in me. That is why I write.”—Margaret Wise Brown
Heads up: Brown’s writing style has been known to encourage poetic reasoning and independent thought. (In all seriousness: not much to worry about here).
Check it out: SPL
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
April 8 | 7:30pm | Town Hall Seattle
Cherished for over a hundred years, Anne of Green Gables follows red-haired Anne Shirley out of the orphanage and through a series of enchanting adventures. Imaginative and passionate, Anne has earned her place as one of the most well-known and adored heroes of twentieth century fiction.
“Anne, the main character, epitomises everything I hope to be: someone who takes joy in the world around her, and, with her fantasies … shares that joy around her.” —The Guardian
Heads up: A classic of young people’s literature, Anne of Green Gables is a gentle story that does include a death.
Check it out: SPL
May 13 | 7:30pm | Hugo House
What would it be like to have your life marked by not one but two pandemics? Meet Violeta, born in 1920 near the end of the Spanish flu’s rampage, who will live through the extraordinary march of history leading to the coronavirus pandemic. Told through letters, Violeta is a family epic from a master of the form.
“Violeta is full of life, a great sweeping story like a river in spate.” —The Scotsman
Heads up: Across its 100-year narrative, Violeta covers a lot of ground—large-scale dangers like disease, death, and natural disasters, along with personal perils like sexual assault and bullying.
Check it out: SPL
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
June 3 | 7:30pm | Town Hall Seattle
Decades before #vanlife would trend, William Least Heat-Moon responded to upheaval in his life by hitting the road in a 1975 Ford Econoline and chronicling the journey. (“A man who couldn’t make things go right could at least go.”) Without a destination, Least Heat-Moon traveled the country on America’s “blue highways”—rural, two-lane roads so-called because of their color in the road atlas. Part memoir and part travelogue, Blue Highways is an exploration of self and community, an enduring reminder that a country isn’t just a place—it’s people.
“Though the events take place more than 40 years ago, the book reads like a search for what currently ails us, because what ailed us then ails us now.” —New York Times
Heads up: Blue Highways travels deep into many rural parts of America in the politically charged post-Vietnam era of the late-1970s, capturing dialects, attitudes, and customs—warts and all.
Check it out: SPL
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