December 2008

  • The Women

    “Anger and resentment can stop you in your tracks. That’s what I know now. It needs nothing to burn but the air and the life that it swallows and smothers. It’s real, though – the fury, even when it isn’t. It can change you… turn you… mold you and shape you into something you’re not.… Continue reading

  • More Fun with Physics

    Can physics be fun?  Understandable?  Even for the non-scientist?  Take it from this dyed-in-the-wool English major, the answer is “yes!” –  if you read the right books.  Here are a few to try: Physics of the Impossible: a scientific exploration into the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation, and time travel  by Michio Kaku  Kaku… Continue reading

  • December Question of the Month: An irregular series

    The reference librarians at Seattle Public Library are pretty darn amazing. They don’t know everything, instead they know where to find everything. As part of an irregular series of posts we salute the talented and dedicated reference staff at your local library. Names and other identifying information have been removed from the questions we showcase.… Continue reading

  • From the Page to the Screen: Revolutionary Road

    Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road is a novel that has been lauded by critics and adored by other writers, but it has not garnered the same attention it deserves from readers. Sure, readers keep discovering Yates, but he doesn’t get the same kind of name recognition as other American writers like John Updike and John Cheever.… Continue reading

  • Last Minute Gift Ideas: Best Musicals

    Need help finding a last-minute gift for Broadway-loving friends? Here are a few suggestions of recent original cast recordings that should brighten their holidays! Three of these shows were nominated for the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical and the fourth one is in the running for a nomination for 2009. “In The Heights”, by… Continue reading

  • A Vitamin D Deficiency Rx: A Little “Light” Reading

    As we approach the winter solstice with its abbreviated daylight, many of us in the Pacific Northwest find ourselves in need of a little light therapy. To infuse some much-needed luster into our lives, we’ve compiled an eclectic-and electric-selection of books, music, and videos. Cozy up in a chair and read by the radiant warmth… Continue reading

  • Watching the Weather with Cliff Mass

    Normally we don’t write about new books that are already slammed with holds and Cliff Mass’ new book, The Weather of the Pacific Northwest, certainly fits that description with over 300 holds on it already. But the weather outside is frightful…well, at least unusual. Since I’ve been glued to his weather blog over the weekend, I thought you… Continue reading

  • Bus Talk

    Perfect! For once, the bus and I are in sync. I arrive at my bus stop just in time to catch the #12 down Madison to the Central Library. Rarely do Metro and I have such synergy. Even better, a friend of my partner’s is gettng on the bus and we sit down and chat it up. After… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Dogs and strays.

    Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck If this book doesn’t make you want to take a road trip, I don’t know what will. The first paragraph so completely captures the urge to travel that I feel profoundly moved every time I read it. At age 58, Steinbeck sets out to rediscover… Continue reading

  • Loving in Limbo

    In the movie Wristcutters: A Love Story we find Zia, played by Patrick Fuget, who is severely depressed after his girlfriend breaks up with him and decides to commit suicide by slitting his wrists. Too bad the pearly gates are not his afterlife, but rather a rundown desert limbo with fellow suicide committers. When Zia finds… Continue reading

  • Historical Fiction

    OK, I admit it, I know more about history from reading novels than from reading nonfiction.  But what’s wrong with that?  If you read novelists who are sticklers about historical accuracy, you can enjoy a good story, immerse yourself in a different time, and learn something in the process. Unlike some readers who never want to… Continue reading

  • Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Adults

    I can remember attending story hour at the Magnolia branch library when I was a kid, just as thousands of children still do each year at libraries all over the city. I’ve never stopped loving stories, but as I grew older they stopped having a storytime for me. So I started one myself, and every other week for the past… Continue reading

  • Books for Giving: Board Books for Children

    One of the best gifts you can give to a child is a lifelong love of reading, and it is never too early to start. Plant a reading seed and watch it grow! Here are some fun suggestions for the youngest “readers” on your gift list: Tractor, Tractor by David Bedford Hard-working farm tractors provide… Continue reading

  • Visiten nuestra página en español!

    La biblioteca pública de Seattle añade páginas en español al Web de la biblioteca. El pasado 19 de noviembre la biblioteca pública de Seattle lanzó la nueva sección en español en el Web de la biblioteca. La nueva sección en español contiene cerca de 30 páginas adicionales de información como: Visite la biblioteca Calendario de… Continue reading

  • Teen Books for Giving

    Are you panicking because you have a teenager (or two) to shop for this holiday season? Never fear – Shelf Talk is here to help.  Hayden, Jennifer and I, three of Seattle Public Library’s Teen Services Librarians, read dozens of teen books all year long, and they’ve selected their favorites from 2008 just for you.… Continue reading

  • Give, Baby, Give!

      I’ve been hearing a lot of people wondering out loud about what they can do to be involved in their community these days.  Maybe it’s the holiday season gaining importance now that the Presidential election has come to an end.  Maybe it has to do with a certain speech that many of us heard… Continue reading

  • Books for Giving: Nonfiction for Children

    Here are a few of our children’s librarians’ choices for great nonfiction books for children: Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteauby Jennifer Berne This dreamy picture book biography tells the story of the young French boy who fell in love with the sea and grew up to become the world’s most famous oceanographer.  L Is… Continue reading

  • The Secret Lives of Authors: Literary gossip

    What does it mean to know a lot about writers’ personal lives? That I am a literary snoop?  Why is it that I can remember that Jean Korelitz Hanff is married to poet Paul Muldoon, that the mother of  YA author Margo Rabb died at a young age of cancer, that Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman… Continue reading