February 2014

  • TEEN MOVIE TICKETS GIVEAWAY!

    Divergent Trivia = Free Movie! FOR TEENS: WIN A CHANCE TO SEE DIVERGENT (& CAST) BEFORE IT HITS THEATRES! Answer this trivia question & provide an e-mail address FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN! Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: New and Interesting Witches

    I’ve been on a witches kick lately, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the publication of a couple of these so that I can share them with you. Continue reading

  • The most depressing thing I have read in 2014

    We all want our health care professionals to have the best and most reliable information out there when they are deciding how to treat us, right? And if we are making a big decision about our health, we want to be sure we have the true facts, yes? Therefore, when I read this article with… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Reading List winners from ALA

    The American Library Association released its 2014 Reading List last month, with winners and runners-up in eight categories. What I especially like about the Reading List — besides the fact that it covers romance, mystery, science fiction and other genres that make up the bulk of what most of us read — is that the… Continue reading

  • Young Women Keeping it Short & Sweet

    Whenever I’m going through a condition I call “reader’s block” (a phase where no book is quite right and I can’t seem to dive into a story), short stories always bring me back. Most recently, these three collections, all by young women, have left me heartbroken, hopeful, and wistful, all the while marveling at the… Continue reading

  • Movie Mondays: When the Oscars Get it Right

    The 86th annual Academy Awards are imminent. The Oscars are the Super Bowl for film nerds and they can certainly cause just as much anguish and frustration as when <INSERT FAVORITE TEAM HERE> loses. Looking back over the Academy’s track record can be a dismal experience. There’s the year Driving Miss Daisy beat out Do… Continue reading

  • Interested in healing foods? Try our Ways to Wellness Program…

    Food can be your best medicine! This Sunday the Beacon Hill branch will host the talk Anti-Inflammatory Food for Health and Wellness, by family nutritionist Michelle Babb. She’ll discuss how chronic inflammation can be the root cause of many diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes. She’ll also teach you how to prepare low… Continue reading

  • Last chance to hear: the ’90s

    Here are a couple of my favorite albums from the ‘90s which, thanks to the wear of time and the tides of fashion, have only one copy remaining in the library’s collection. Place a hold on one of these today…they’re definitely worth the wait! Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996) Stereolab marries wonky vintage electronic bleeps and bloops to a… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Even More Hot Reads for Cold, Wet Nights

    It may be warm-ER but it still isn’t exactly toasty around here. And then there’s all that lovely, chilly rain to contend with… To keep warm on those damp, cold nights, I have a selection of paranormally hot reads to warm you up! If vampires are hot right now, then flying vampires must be even… Continue reading

  • Women risk takers: Beyond the Olympics

    Watching the Olympics this last week, it’s not hard be awed by all of the athletes, and particularly for the women who have pushed for full participation in Olympic sports. Clearly risk takers, they and their predecessors have also redrawn the boundaries which for so long have defined “proper” women’s roles. With the celebration of… Continue reading

  • Movie Mondays: 2013’s Other Black Films

                    2013 has been called a banner year for Black film, with the critical and commercial success of 12 Years a Slave, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Fruitvale Station and 42. But, as Slate’s Aisha Harris pointed out in her blog, not all Black films deal with the struggle for civil rights or battles… Continue reading

  • Mystery: Thanks to Dick Francis’s son, Sid Halley keeps going

    Dick Francis’s Refusal by Felix Francis Francis takes one of his father’s best characters and sets him against a man who is determined to undermine British horse racing. Sid Halley is able to turn the tables on his adversary and come out the winner. Francis writes a fast-paced novel in his dad’s footsteps and leads… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: More Hot Reads for Cold Nights

    Winter isn’t coming, it’s here. If you believe in Groundhog’s Day, we have six more weeks of this freezing cold weather to look forward to. So here are even more hot reads to keep you warm on those chilly nights. Continue reading

  • Local Tunes, Part One

    Let’s take a minute to represent Seattle and the immediate Pacific Northwest! We’re all one big family with lots of talent. Lucky for us, the Seattle Public Library seems to have noticed. Here are three local albums currently in our catalog: People Eating People (Seattle, WA), People Eating People Continue reading

  • Movie Mondays: Don’t Judge a Romance by most Rom-Coms

                      2013 was a year of great debates – about health care, gay marriage, recreational marijuana….and whether Love Actually is a good or a bad movie. It seems that for every person who defends its poignant charm, there is someone to deride it for its treacly sentimentality. In an effort… Continue reading

  • Listen List 2014: Outstanding Audio Awards

    Every year we five librarians on the Listen List panel review hundreds of new audio books, nominate and choose the twelve titles that are the very best in narration, production and story. Announced on January 26th at the American Library Association Midwinter conference in Philadelphia, this year’s Listen List is posted on the ALA website, where you… Continue reading

  • Gracias, Sylvia Mendez!

    Sylvia Mendez is part of one the most important families in the struggle for civil rights.  Her story became even more widely known when the children’s book, Sylvia and Aki by Winifred Conkling, was selected for The Seattle Public Library’s 2014 Global Reading Challenge.  The book chronicles two tragic events in American history—the internment of Japanese… Continue reading

  • Seattle Rep’s ‘Venus in Fur’

    We’re excited about the opening of the Seattle Repertory Theatre‘s production of David Ives’ Venus in Fur this Friday! A Broadway hit, this cheeky, sexy play finds playwright Thomas Novachek at a loss. There are simply no actresses talented enough to play his leading lady. Then in walks Vanda, a mysterious siren with the uncanny ability to inhabit his… Continue reading