March 2021

  • 2021 Audiobook Awards: And the Winners Are…

    2021 Audiobook Awards: And the Winners Are…

    This month saw two major audiobook awards: the Grammys and the Audies. We have a full list of nominees and winners in our catalog, here, but here are at least some of the audiobooks that went home holding trophies this month. The winner of this year’s Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album… Continue reading

  • New Always Available eBook Collection

    I love living – and being a librarian – in a city of readers, but I won’t lie: the eBook hold queues can be intense. New this month are 170 eBooks that are always available – no holds, no wait! Here are some highlights to get you started. Book Club Picks Continue reading

  • Short Stories: Tiny Windows into Other Worlds

    During this pandemic, I’ve heard from so many people – normally avid readers of long novels – that they are having trouble focusing on full-length books. I, too, have found myself in the same boat. Thank goodness for short stories!  Sometimes I forget about these gems, but quite a few book groups (including two that I belong… Continue reading

  • Bulosan at 75: Contemporary Filipino/Filipinx Memoirs

    Bulosan at 75: Contemporary Filipino/Filipinx Memoirs

    Carlos Bulosan’s fictionalized memoir America is in the Heart was published 75 years ago this month. The passionate and incendiary account captures the brutality and casual cruelty meted out to Filipino migrants in America, persecution that would continue as the poet and labor organizer was subsequently blacklisted and targeted by the FBI. By the time… Continue reading

  • Read Something: Gripping

    Read Something: Gripping

    “If it’s not gripping you, you’re reading the wrong book.”   – Nick Hornby This week we Read Something gripping. What makes a book gripping is in the eye of the beholder. Some readers are gripped by a fast-paced covert-ops thriller with a high body count; others would use gripping to describe a well-realized, vivid work… Continue reading

  • 21 Irish Novels for the 21st Century

    21 Irish Novels for the 21st Century

    Let’s just get this out of the way: this St. Patrick’s Day list of 21 Irish Novels for the 21st Century is absurdly incomplete. Where are Colm Tóibín, Emma Donoghue, Roddy Doyle or William Trevor? There’s no Anne Enright, or John Boyne, or John Banville or his alter-ego Benjamin Black; no Tana French or Ken Bruen… Continue reading

  • Make It Long

    Last week I suggested that reading shorter works could kickstart a reading habit stalled due to short attention span. But maybe you’re a reader who wants a loooooong read. Short novellas have fast pay off, but the reader does have to do the work of getting into the world created by the author. A long… Continue reading

  • Keep It Short

    How are our attention spans these days? I had a project to keep me reading last year, but in 2021 I have lost my reading focus. To try to get back in the groove I’ve been turning to novellas, short works that tell a complete story in less than 200 pages. I’m hoping the momentum… Continue reading

  • A guide to exploring new genres

    Each year, groups of librarians from across the country hole up in a room (this year, a virtual room) to discuss and select the best books from the year before. The Notable Books List features literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; the Listen List is all about outstanding audiobooks; and The Reading List, which I want… Continue reading

  • The Irresistible Lure of Russian Literature

    Recently, a curious thing happened in the Library’s beloved Peak Picks collection (still very much available at a curbside location near you, by the way); we featured a not unscholarly explication 19th Century Russian literature. Admittedly, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, in which four Russians give a master class on writing, reading, and… Continue reading

  • Ninth Annual Seattle Asian American Film Festival

    The ninth annual Seattle Asian American Film Festival (SAAFF) takes place from March 4 to March 14 and showcases feature-length and short format films by and about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across North America, with an emphasis on filmmakers from the Pacific Northwest. Check out the festival’s 123 films here, many of which are PNW-centered. Snag tickets… Continue reading

  • Catalog magic: finding new authors via additional contributors

    At the library, we are always excited to help you find new authors to explore, although our current ability to hang out and talk books is limited by pandemic closures. Fortunately, our catalog has some neat ways to help you slide from one author you like to another, and today I’d like to highlight the… Continue reading