October 2015

  • October Takeover: Halloween Traditions

    ~posted by Selby Tonight is THE night for the dead to crawl out of the underworld and roam the streets. Where are the best places to celebrate both in the US and around the world? In the USA Sleepy Hollow, New York. As home of Washington Irving’s chilling tale about a headless horseman who terrorizes… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Trick-or-Treat Mysteries

    ~posted by Lori T.           With cauldrons bubbling, ghost shrieking and the things that go bump in the night, the mystery side of Halloween comes to life.  A person cannot be too careful on All Hallows Eve for the bump in the night could be a dead body falling from great… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Werewolf Fiction

    ~ Posted by Lindsay S. It was discovered on the eighth day of our October Takeover that we didn’t have any posts planned about werewolves. I declared this deficiency a travesty and a crime against Halloween, and promised to rectify the mishap immediately. The truth is, I don’t know all that much about werewolves, but… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Terrible, Terrible Movies

    ~posted by Carrie M.  There are some people who live for a good blockbuster horror film. You know, A-list actors, huge budgets, and tons of high-end special effects, that sort of thing. Sure, those kinds of horror movies are all but guaranteed to give you thrills and chills, but where are the laughs? For a… Continue reading

  • Octover Takeover: A Young Adult Halloween

    ~posted by Meranda T. The supernatural abounds in teen novels. After searching through many of them, I choose a few with strong iconic Halloween characters in them. I feel these books would be great reads for October. First up is Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. It was an entertaining book to read and I found… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Treats, Not Tricks

    ~posted by Kara F.  Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito While not overly spooky, these two recipes, the milk chocolate malted brownies with chocolate ganache and chocolate cinnamon chipotle sugar cookies, were decadent and divine! I had to give it a shot. Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Vampire Fiction

    ~ Posted by Lindsay S. Vampires and Halloween go together like candy corn and garbage cans–they just makes sense. I’ve been a big fan of vampires for many, many years (I even wrote some posts about them awhile back), and so I feel very comfortable telling you that nothing says autumn, pumpkins, and trick-or-treating like… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Fall Foods!

    ~posted by Selby G. One of the best things about the fall is eating. It is the harvest season but the cold weather also makes us want warm comforting food. Hot soups, filling casseroles and baked goods galore are what the fall is all about. Here are some cookbooks to help you eat your way… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Frankenstein

    ~posted by Tyler N. Mary Shelley’s classic story of hubris and horror has been retold and adapted so many times that in some ways to read the original work is something of a shock.  The creature brought to life by Victor Frankenstein resembles so little the moaning, stiff-legged monster with green skin and neck bolts,… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Ghostly Reads

    ~ posted by Andrea G. October is a haunting month. There’s Halloween, of course, with its ghosts and ghouls and spooky stories. But there’s also a nostalgia for the passing of summer as dying leaves accumulate on the ground, and in the Northwest there’s the slow encroachment of rainy darkness. If you want to revel… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Advice for when you become a Zombie

    ~posted by Carrie M. I don’t want to be the one to say I told you so, but I TOLD YOU SO! The zombie apocalypse started and you ignored my previous post, thus getting yourself bitten by a stinking, shambling corpse. Now you find yourself roaming night and day on your decaying legs in a… Continue reading

  • Billy Bloch and the Germania Café

    ~posted by Jade D. Did you know October is Archives month? In a belated nod to German-American Day (October 6) and the various Oktoberfests (and Booktoberfests) happening this month, we decided to highlight some recent German-flavored additions to our digital collection. Now a part of our Seattle Historic Photograph Collection, these photographs depict the life… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Literature in Horror Films – from Book to Scream

    ~posted by The Spoiler October is synonymous with horror movies, but horror is a tricky label to apply to literature. Often relegated as less legitimate, horror injects itself seamlessly into many genres – literary fiction, sci-fi, erotica or paranormal. In honor of the scariest month of the year and a genre that refuses to be narrowed down, here are… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Graphic Novel Classics

    ~ posted by Becky B. “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read” — Mark Twain Does the idea of reading a work of classic literature give you the shivers? Do you approach Victorian prose with a sense of fear and dread? You’re not alone; the classics strike… Continue reading

  • Delicious Nightmares, Anyone?

    A tree, not unlike some of the ancient giants of a Pacific Northwest forest, is an unfriendly presence in Jonathan Auxier’s children’s horror novel, The Night Gardener. A novel perfect for scaring yourself silly in these dark, damp days of autumn. You may never look at a tree in your garden in the same way ever… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: Books About Bodies

    ~posted by Selby G. “It is difficult to put words to the smell of decomposing human. It is dense and cloying, sweet but not flower-sweet. Halfway between rotting fruit and rotting meat.” ― Mary Roach, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers With a description like that it is not difficult to understand why most living… Continue reading

  • October Takeover: How to Avoid Becoming a Zombie

    ~Posted by Carrie M. Of all the potential “what-if” tragedies that could completely change our lives forever, the most popular by far is the much anticipated zombie apocalypse. With so much “zombie culture” surrounding us today, many people may go into the event feeling overconfident. Sure, you’ve seen The Walking Dead and Z Nation, and… Continue reading

  • The 2015 Man Booker Prize, Explained!

    ~posted by Michael W. Yesterday, the Man Booker prize was awarded to A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. Now it’s time to reserve your copy. You might be saying, “Wait! I don’t know anything about this book, this author or this strange-sounding prize it supposedly won!” You might be saying, “Bah! There… Continue reading