June 2008

  • There’s a Lobster Loose!

    Lately, walking around the library, I’ve become aware of lots of beady little eyes peering at me from the shelves, and snapping claws reaching out. For some reason the past year or so has seen a strange red tide of books with lobsters on their covers. Not cookbooks, but novels – oddball comic novels in particular.… Continue reading

  • Book review: Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready

    When former con artist Ciara Griffin gets a job as a marketing intern at a dying radio station, she’ll do anything to stop a corporate takeover—even if that means exposing the DJs’ undead status in an effort to boost ratings. Wicked Game is a good story with a strong, engaging plot and interesting approachable characters. … Continue reading

  • Finding that elusive poem

    How do you find a poem when all you remember is the first line or the title? We have two excellent resources you can use to track down that elusive poem: one in print, the other online. In this post, let’s use the two volumes of the Granger’s Index: The Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry… Continue reading

  • Deborah Jacobs’ Nightstand Reading

    When I came to The Seattle Public Library almost eleven years ago, one of my key commitments was to help improve the library materials budget and the ability of Technical Services to streamline its work and get materials ordered and ready for the public more quickly. We even had an internal campaign we called: “The… Continue reading

  • Artist Oliver Herring at the Seattle Public Library

    On Saturday June 28, The Seattle Public Library downtown hosts an all day group performance of TASK by Oliver Herring. Co-sponsored by the Frye Art Museum, On the Boards, and the Tacoma Art Museum, the piece revolves around spontaneous interactions between a group of volunteer local performers working to complete “tasks” assigned first by the… Continue reading

  • The Decoration of Houses

    Here are some interesting books about interior design, plus some about unusual buildings: The Elements of Style: an Encyclopedia of Domestic Architectural Detail (edited by Stephen Calloway) For anyone who wants to restore their historic house, or for anyone interested in the history of house styles, this beautiful book is a goldmine of information and… Continue reading

  • Author crush: Ted Chiang

    In my tween and teen years, I devoured science fiction like Godzilla devoured Tokyo train cars. I read all the great authors and all the classic titles until I found myself, around age 19, sated. No more science fiction for me. I got it. Space. Aliens. The Future. A year or so ago, I subscribed… Continue reading

  • Bringing the Ghosts to Life – Doing House History Part 2

    Going back to the 1900 census to do similar searching, I learned that my house was not there at all, and so had apparently been built some time between 1900 and 1910. Useful information indeed! I focused now on the family I’d found, and now that I had a family name to go by, my search was… Continue reading

  • TV, TiVo or DVD?

    Take your pick — which couch potato format would you prefer? After sampling all three formats, I choose TV on DVD for my maximum viewing pleasure. The obvious virtues pertain — no commercial breaks, no need to skip activities that may occur and interfere with a television program and (for an addling brain) the ability… Continue reading

  • David and Brutus

    The gifts of a great artist can be used to further political ends. Jacques-Louis David, painter of the French revolutionary era, created several wonderful paintings that were fraught with political and social meaning, but are still notable on a purely artistic level. One such painting tells a remarkable story. Called Brutus, or Lictors Returning the… Continue reading

  • Buildings and Cities

    The Seattle Public Library has a large and varied collection of books about architecture and city planning. Here are a few that I find interesting and useful. I hope you enjoy them too. The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs’ classic ground-breaking attack on the planning of American cities,… Continue reading

  • Bringing the Ghosts to Life – Doing a House History

    People who live in old houses must sometimes be aware of the residents who came before them. Just for the briefest time, there may be a shadow, or a current of air—something that suggests another presence or, perhaps, earlier residents. Sometimes they have left some physical object behind, tossed in a corner somewhere … that… Continue reading

  • Metro Reads 2: What are you reading on the bus?

    Do you notice what people are reading? At a coffee shop? At the dentist’s office? On the bus? We notice — and not just because we work at a library. Sometimes we notice because we want a good book to read; sometimes we get excited because we read and loved that same book. Most of… Continue reading

  • Closing the Drawers: Photo collection focuses on a family’s 80 years in Fremont

    The Fremont Branch is hosting a display of photos tracing the history of a Scandinavian family and the Fremont home they shared for more than 80 years. The photos will be on display from June 17 through 30, with an Opening Reception in the Library this Thursday, June 19, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Michael Kleven… Continue reading

  • There are few limits to our determination…

    …to answer your questions.  Librarianship is a cooperative profession. If one of us can’t answer a reference question, we consult with our colleagues. But there are occasions when no one local can find the answer. Now, through the magic of the Internet, we can consult instantly with librarians across the country, or even on the… Continue reading

  • Book review: Dead to Me by Anton Strout

    When Simon Canderous accidentally drops his drink through the ghost of a beautiful woman, he knows things are going to get weird. Luckily, as the newest member of New York Cities’ Department of Extraordinary Affairs, “weird” is his profession. Armed with the ability to see the past of anything he touches (psychometry), Simon stumbles his… Continue reading

  • Tomatoes – are they safe?

    And what about lettuce? avocados? cantaloupe? Here are some links to university and government research with updates on how to be sure the fresh produce you bring home is safe to eat as well as nutritionally sound and just plain delicious. Salmonellosis Outbreak in Certain Types of Tomatoes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  The FDA… Continue reading

  • Sound Before Our Eyes

    Researchers have found a song recorded before Edison’s phonograph. A Frenchman used a phonautograph [a machine designed to record sounds visually, not to play them back] on April 9, 1860. The song is 10 seconds of a crooner singing “Au Clair de la Lune.” Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville went to his grave convinced that Edison… Continue reading