In 2021, as the border with Canada was still closed, Marc Onetto decided to head south and reach Idaho with his boat. This cruise took him from Seattle to the open Pacific Ocean off the Washington coast, to the famous bar at the Columbia River estuary and Astoria where the river cruise began. The 450-mile river navigation included 8 locks on the Columbia and lower Snake Rivers before he finally arrived in Lewiston, Idaho, at an elevation of 740 feet. Marc will share this navigation adventure and many beautiful pictures from the Columbia gorge waterfalls to semi-desertic landscapes in Eastern Washington and Oregon. In his talk Marc will also cover the controversial topic of the impact of the dams on the economy and on the salmon population. Marc Onetto, originally French, is based in Seattle and Sun Valley, Idaho. He is now retired after serving in senior management positions in major U.S. companies. Every summer, for many years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marc cruised the Inside Passage between Seattle and Southeast Alaska on his boat: a 65-ft Marlow Explorer. He named his boat Lapérouse after a famous French captain who explored the Pacific Northwest coast from Alaska to California ...

The Community Library's Writer-In-Residence at the Hemingway House, Jordan Salama, will discuss his forthcoming book: "Stranger in the Desert: A Family Story," which will be released in February 2024. Inspired by family lore, a young writer embarks on an epic quest through the Argentine Andes in search of a heritage spanning hemispheres and centuries, from the Jewish Levant to turn-of-the-century trade routes in South America. One Thanksgiving afternoon at his grandparents’ house, Jordan Salama discovers a large binder stuffed with yellowing papers and old photographs—a five-hundred-year wandering history of his Arab-Jewish family, from Moorish Spain to Ottoman Syria to Argentina and beyond. Combining travelog, history, memoir, and reportage, Stranger in the Desert transports readers from the lonely plains of Patagonia to the breathtaking altiplano of the high Andes; from the old Jewish quarter of Damascus to today’s vibrant neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. It is also a fervent journey of self-discovery as Salama grapples with his own Jewish, Arab, and Latin American identities, interrogating the stories families tell themselves, and to what end. Jordan Salama is a writer, reporter, and producer. His first book, "Every Day the River Changes," chronicling his journey down Colombia’s Río Magdalena and the lives of the ...