August 2017

  • New to our Digital Collections: Early Seattle Glass Plate Negatives

    Curious to explore rarely seen photographs from the life of a Seattle family from over 100 years ago? Now you can with 184 photographs from our Early Seattle Glass Plate Negative Collection, recently digitized and added to our online offerings. The collection features images of Seattle homes and buildings, the town of Index, the Cedar… Continue reading

  • Eyes on Art: Art Exhibitions

    Take your own sweet time. Peruse. Investigate. Gaze, fully and deeply. There is no substitute for an unfiltered viewing of a work of art. The encounter between the viewer and the object is personal and unmatched. Does it grab your attention? Are you compelled to look and not, merely, glance? Excited, indifferent, pleased or repulsed… Continue reading

  • The Fake News Survival Guide

    According to an analysis by Buzzfeed, during the last three months of the 2016 presidential election the top 20 fake online news stories had more Facebook engagements than the top 20 mainstream online news stories. Capable of swaying public opinion and potentially even influencing elections, the recently coined “fake news” is a kind of misinformation… Continue reading

  • Page to Screen: Never mind The Dark Tower – here comes IT!

    Okay, so the new film adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for. Many fans of the books feel the film entirely missed the mark, while newcomers to King’s elaborate mythos wonder what all the fuss was about. As a film sequel seems unlikely and it may be some time… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2017: Science Nonfiction or Science Fiction

    Book Bingo 2017 is nearly at its end, with just two weeks left to get your bingo or blackout and turn in your card. Have you been puzzling over the Science Nonfiction/Science Fiction category? Enjoy these ideas for avenues to explore. Science Nonfiction Continue reading

  • Solar Eclipse 2017: Reading for all ages

    Whether you’re reading in advance of the solar eclipse on August 21, or stockpiling suggestions to read afterward, here are a selection of books for readers of all ages; check out the full list in our catalog. Continue reading

  • Making a Library Purchase Suggestion

    “They have every other book in this 57 volume manga series, how can they not have volume two?!?!” Sometimes the library doesn’t have what you’re looking for. This can be a frustrating or confusing situation. The library is supposed to have everything, right? Sometimes it’s one part of a book series, or one movie of… Continue reading

  • Washington State Book Awards finalists for 2017!

    Take a look at this lineup of stellar authors from Washington state! These 32 books, published in 2016, are finalists in the 2017 Washington State Book Awards. Find the full list later in this blog post, or if you’re itching to place holds right away, check out the WSBA 2017 finalists in adult categories and… Continue reading

  • Library Reads: 10 top picks for September 2017

    Extra celebrating this month with the Library Reads Top Ten list — because two local authors are shining bright on this selection of books that librarians across the U.S. are loving! Our beloved Nancy Pearl, former librarian at The Seattle Public Library, has a debut novel you must place on hold now! And Jamie Ford,… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2017: Reread a Book You Read in School

    Although we are hard pressed to think of a single drawback to Book Bingo, it is true that for some readers it calls forth unwelcome memories of required reading. Yet the popularity of bingo and similar reading challenges and groups suggests that something appeals to us about being stretched beyond our habitual reading appetites. Might those same… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2017: Finish in a day

    As much as I enjoy being immersed in a great book for days on end, there is something particularly satisfying about finishing a book quickly. This year’s Summer Book Bingo again features the category “Finish in a Day.” For the sake of consistency, I have chosen to limit this list to books that average about… Continue reading

  • Hoopla for Comics

    Hoopla is an online streaming service available to Seattle Public Library patrons, offering 20 checkouts of movies, TV shows, music, and comics each calendar month, accessible on both web browsers and mobile devices. On mobile devices, the app, which is available for free through the Apple App store, Google Play, and Amazon, allows users to… Continue reading

  •  Languages of Land: Poems of Immigration and Exile

    Unaccompanied, you ventured into The Flayed City to find what? More Nomadologies, more Notes on the Assemblage and 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border. Before the Afterland, there was that City of Rivers flowing beneath a Night Sky with Exit Wounds.  It was The Other Side of Paradise and, yes, the air tasted of… Continue reading

  • New nonfiction – August 2017

    Food, scandal, food, memoir, and some more food – enjoy these new nonfiction titles coming out in August 2017. Continue reading

  • New fiction roundup – August 2017

    The dog days of summer are here – check out a book hot off the presses to round out your summer reading. Continue reading