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CUSICK — The Pend Oreille County Library District announces the fifth annual Pend Oreille County Reads book selection and author visit.
This year’s author is Sharma Shields with her book “The Cassandra.”
Shields will be at the Calispel Valley Library in Cusick at 12:30 p.m. and at the Metalines Community Library in Metaline Falls at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2 and at Create Arts Center, 900 Fourth St. in Newport, at 6 p.m.
Wednesday, June 3 for a presentation on her book and a Q-and-A session.
A light luncheon will be served at noon prior to the Calispel Valley event.
Multiple copies of the book will be available at all library locations beginning April 13 and are available as eBooks or audiobooks on Libby and Hoopla, the Library’s free reading apps.
“The Cassandra” revolves around Mildred Groves, an unusual young woman. Gifted and cursed with the ability to see the future, Mildred runs away from home to become a secretary at the Hanford Research Center in the early 1940s. Hanford, a construction camp in remote south-central Washington, exists to test and manufacture a mysterious product that will aid the war effort.
Only the top generals and scientists know that this product is processed plutonium, for use in the first atomic bombs.
Mildred is delighted to be part of a communal effort after a lifetime spent as an outsider. But her new life takes a dark turn when she starts to have prophetic dreams. As the men she works for come closer to achieving their goals, her visions intensify, and she is forced to make a choice: to do nothing, or to summon the courage to question the status quo.
This reimagining of the Greek myth of Cassandra is based on a real, World War II compound that the author researched meticulously. A timely novel about patriarchy and militancy, The Cassandra looks deep into man’s capacity for destruction, and the resolve and compassion it takes to challenge the powerful.
Shields is the author of a short story collection, “Favorite Monster” (Autumn House Press 2012), and three novels, “The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac” (Henry Holt 2015), “The Cassandra” (Henry Holt 2019) and “Duckling” (forthcoming from Henry Holt in 2027). Shields’ short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Electric Lit, Catapult, Slice, Slate, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, Fugue and elsewhere, and they have garnered such prizes as the 2020 PNBA Award, a 2020 Artist Trust Fellowship, 2016 Washington State Book Award, the Autumn House Fiction Prize, the Tim McGinnis Award for Humor and the A.B. Guthrie Award for Outstanding Prose.
She managed a small press, Scablands Books (now dormant), and is a contributing editor for Moss.
Shields has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State and is currently the Writing Education Specialist for Spokane Public Library. In autumn of 2025, Shields received a Humanities Washington Changemaker Award for her library service and contributions to the Inland Northwest literary community.
For questions about this event, contact Library Director Mandy Walters at [email protected] or at 800-3663654 x 502.
