January 2012

  • Experiments with Fiction, Part 1

    I recently read a strange little book by Tao Lin, called Eeeee Eee Eeee. It is fiction, a novel of sorts, although its characters are almost uniformly flat and disaffected (including the dolphins and the bears), anything resembling a plot dissolves after a few pages of slightly bored or mildly anxious introspection, and the language… Continue reading

  • A reading list for Downton Abbey addicts

    We know—you’ve heard. The New York Times is mad about it. The Guardian is obsessed with it.  All of your friends on Facebook go on and on about it. Lovers of British period drama (and even quite a few newcomers) agree: the BBC’s Downton Abbey is the greatest thing since crumpets. But what is it, exactly,… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: He Was A Friend Of Mine

    There are some movies that mean more to you because of when you saw them. They can bear repeated watchings because they are just that good or because some combination of story and nostalgia provides a kind of comfort food. One such movie for me is the science fiction sleeper, “Enemy Mine” (1985). Starring Dennis… Continue reading

  • Crime: The Singular Pleasures of E.C. Bentley

    This year I’m reading my way through the mystery section, A-Z. Read along, won’t you? I’ve just had the best time reading E.C. Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case, a beguiling whodunit that prefigured crime’s Golden Age. It is 1913, and detectives are very much dominated by Sherlock Holmes and his countless imitators, such long forgotten ratiocinators as Sexton Blake, Duckworth Drewe,… Continue reading

  • Question of the Month: A January Jingle

    Following on the heels of my recent post about non-Christmas winter songs, here’s a related post regarding Jingle Bells, one of those great songs that we can sing right on through to the vernal equinox! A patron had one of his great-grandfather’s letters dated Oct. 22, 1863. In it, the great-grandfather says, “Mother wrote that… Continue reading

  • How do I love the Seattle Public Library? Let me count the ways.

    Today’s guest blogger is Diana E. James, author of the newly published Shared Walls: Seattle Apartment Buildings, 1900-1939 (and co-author of one of our library’s own talented teen librarians). How do I love Seattle Public Library? Let me count the ways. Where else would a staff-person patiently sift through a drawer of maps until the perfect one… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reads: Stewart O’Nan shares his reading list

     A review in the Washington Post of The Odds started with this: “Stewart O’Nan seems incapable of writing a false line” and later said “O’Nan is an author you learn to trust, no matter what he’s writing about.”  Many of our librarians and readers feel the exact same way, and that’s why we’re thrilled to have… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Dark Fantasy for Dark Times

    Maybe it’s the snowstorms and freezing rain, or the post-holiday blues, but I’ve been hankering for some dark fantasy lately. For those uninitiated to the charms of this sub-genre, dark fantasy is very different from the high epics of the Tolkien school of fantasy. The heroes are rarely heroic, the villains are horrendous, and the… Continue reading

  • An Alphabet of Crime: Killer B’s

    Arriving at the B’s in my project to read through the mystery aisle, I can’t help but notice some favorite darker mystery authors that I’d love to share. Next week I’ll try something new, but for now here are some old friends: Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black. Black has brilliance to spare. Having already written a layered spy novel to rival… Continue reading

  • Everything and the Kitchen Sink: Social Realism in post-war Britain

    The rain falls hard on a humdrum town This town has dragged you down And everybody’s got to live their life And God knows I’ve got to live mine… So goes the opening verse of The Smiths‘ classic song, “William, It Was Really Nothing,” a brilliant pastiche of British post-war, kitchen sink dramas. The Manchester… Continue reading

  • It’s okay to read teen books …

    Here are just a few novels I found displayed with this sign at the Central Library: Fire by Kristin Cashore The First Part Last by Angela Johnson City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson Supernaturally by Kiersten White The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Epic Fantasy to Sink Your Teeth Into

      If you are a new fantasy reader, it can be hard to know where to start. I read so much fantasy as a child that I am mystified in retrospect why I ever stopped. But in trying to regain my fantasy footing, I have been disappointed and delighted at times by the range of… Continue reading

  • An Alphabet of Crime: Margery Allingham

    I made a couple of New Year’s resolutions involving crime this year: to start up a regular weekly crime column here in ShelfTalk, and to alphabetically read my way through the mystery section at the Central Library, two authors/letters each month. My colleague Linda has done this twice, up to the letter G anyway, and so I… Continue reading

  • Novelist Adam Johnson’s insights into North Korea

    Editor’s note: We are thrilled to have Adam Johnson here today talking about books about North Korea and one of his research trips for his novel The Orphan Master’s Son. I must admit that I’m a huge fan of The Seattle Public Library—its yellow tubes and downhill stacks, the way rain sheets off the glass… Continue reading

  • Judging a book by its author photo

    I was on a tight budget in 1989 when a book cover totally seduced me and weakened my fiscally conservative resolve. I’d already read most of the stories in Raymond Carver’s collection Where I’m Calling From when I saw the Vintage paperback at Elliott Bay Book Company. But that photo. I couldn’t walk away. That… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsongs

    A new year, a new column! Today marks the inaugural post of our new series Science Fiction Fridays. Every Friday librarians and people of interest will talk about their favorite science fiction and fantasy books, television, movies, art, music and whatever other newly discovered media we find interesting. The recent passing of Anne McCaffrey has… Continue reading

  • Into the Unknown: Pacific Northwest Maritime and Overland Exploration

    While the story of Juan de Fuca’s tale of an inland route, later known as the elusive Northwest Passage is of doubtful reliability, the later major sea explorations of the Northwest Coast during the late eighteenth century are well documented. Noteworthy coastal explorers include Vitus Bering, Dionisio Alcala-Galiano, George Vancouver, Robert Gray. Lewis and Clark,… Continue reading

  • Heavy Rotation 2011: The Year of the Mix

    For many reasons, 2011 was my Year of the Mix — as in mixtape, or more accurately, mix CD. I made about a half-dozen mixes over the course of the year for various friends and family members, and received about as many, if not more, in return. Each mix I received exposed me to music I’d never heard… Continue reading