From giant fleas to railway crashes to 'Blanket Bill,' enjoy summer reading with ties to Whatcom County

If you're looking for some quick summer reading, several new articles with ties to Whatcom County just came out.

In The New York Times, Bellingham resident Carol Kaesuk Yoon provides a fascinating and hilarious account of her and her husband's endeavor to photograph a live specimen of the world's largest flea.

Yoon is a science writer for the Times, and her husband, Merrill Peterson, is a biology professor at Western Washington University and the curator of Western's insect collection.