When the Larch Turn Gold – Jan 6, 2026
Every autumn, the alpine larches of Washington’s Enchantment Lakes Basin turn to gold, and for 60 consecutive years, first Bill and Peg Stark and later Greg and Kathi Shannon return to witness the brief, glowing miracle: Golden Week.
In 1959, the Starks first visited the now-famous Enchantment Lakes, one of the most breath-taking landscapes in the Cascade Mountains. They named many of the features and fought to preserve the ancient basin. In the 1980s, they introduced the Shannons to the Enchantments, and the journey will call them year after year, regardless of forest fires and rockslides, wild weather and illness, shaping the lives of the two couples in unexpected and profound ways.
For Kathi, the annual pilgrimage grows harder as she battles a debilitating illness that remains undiagnosed for years—and ultimately leads the Shannons to both loss and gratitude during their final high-country pilgrimages.
An evocative memoir grounded in the wild heart of the Pacific Northwest, WHEN THE LARCH TURN GOLD is a love letter to nature and friendship.
Seven Trees – Nov 11, 2025
In the summer of 1970, nineteen-year-old Annie Burgh is trying to hold together her small-town Washington state newspaper while the nation splinters over the Vietnam War.
When her editorial draws the attention of a desperate stranger, Annie finds a draft dodger named John on her doorstep, asking for her help to escape to Canada. Over five tense days, Annie hides John at her family’s abandoned homestead in the canyon country, but John isn’t exactly who he claims to be.
As Annie uncovers his story, she learns secrets hidden in her own family’s past, from a vanished ancestor to her mother’s mysterious death. Soon, she must decide what she’s willing to risk for truth and love.
Set against the backdrop of a changing America, Kathi Rivers Shannon’s SEVEN TREES is a haunting coming-of-age novel about conviction and the blurred lines between right and wrong.
