May 2023

  • #BookBingoNW2023: Manga or Graphic Novel

    Here at the library, we have so many great manga and graphic novel titles that it can be hard to decide what to read next! Here are some suggestions for your Summer Book Bingo reading: Those Who Helped Us by Seattle-born Ken Mochizuki (author) and Kiku Hughes (illustrator, Displacement), blends a fiction and nonfiction Japanese… Continue reading

  • A Peek at Peak Picks – June 2023

    Ten books are joining Peak Picks in June! In fiction, the first Black sheriff of a Small southern town battles racism while on the hunt for a serial killer in S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed; the first novel from Roxane Gay Books follows two queer Nigerian students amid the passage of new anti-gay laws… Continue reading

  • On Your Bookmark: Summer Book Bingo Starts Today

    On Your Bookmark: Summer Book Bingo Starts Today

    Grab a stack of books, a friend and start reading — Seattle’s favorite summer reading contest is on! The Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts & Lectures just launched this year’s Summer Book Bingo, which encourages people to read for pleasure and to talk about books with friends, coworkers and neighbors. Need a refresher? Book… Continue reading

  • Finding Moments of Calm with Photography Books

    Finding Moments of Calm with Photography Books

    Lately, I’ve been finding moments of calm by perusing the library’s many photography books. Flipping through pages of art and photos can bring a much needed pause from all of the screens around us. In honor of National Photography Month, here are some photography books that I’ve enjoyed:   Seeing Silence: The Beauty of the… Continue reading

  • May is Older Americans Month

    May is Older Americans Month

    It’s Older Americans Month! We want to celebrate and honor our elders and challenge the narrative on aging not just in May, but throughout the whole year. Our society tends to view aging in a negative light and it doesn’t have to be that way; aging is beautiful, and it’s an experience that all humans… Continue reading

  • Seattle Reads Turns 25 and We’re Celebrating With Julie Otsuka

    It’s hard to imagine, but back in 1998, citywide book clubs didn’t really exist. Enter Nancy Pearl and Chris Higashi, who were with the Washington Center for the Book (then affiliated with the Library). They came up with the concept of encouraging readers across a community to read the same book, and discuss it. They… Continue reading

  • Don’t Go Down That Causeway: Island Mysteries

    One of my favorite takes on the locked room mystery is the island mystery, where characters are trapped on an inaccessible island with a murderer and must solve the mystery to save themselves. The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves For 50 years, a group of friends has reunited on Holy Island every five years. This… Continue reading

  • What’s new in Pacific Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy

    The Pacific Northwest has always been a little different, as these wildly imaginative recent Fantasy and Science Fiction titles by NW authors attest. Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton. Facing a battle in Seattle against a mutant horde, Cheeto loving crow S.T. takes Dee, the sole surviving human, under his wing, in the hilarious sequel… Continue reading

  • Fiction Medley for Teens

    May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, and Mental Health Awareness month. Here are some great teen novels celebrating and exploring these identities and experiences. In The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum, Hoodie’s somewhat limited life in the Orthodox Jewish quarter isn’t so bad until he meets and… Continue reading

  • Taking a Stand for the Right to Read with Books Unbanned

    If you’ve followed the news about the unprecedented increase in book bans and challenges nationwide, you’ll be happy to know that The Seattle Public Library is doing something about it. On April 29, we announced that we are joining Brooklyn Public Library to offer a free Books Unbanned e-card for teens and young adults (ages… Continue reading

  • New fiction roundup, May 2023

    May brings a bounty of summer reads, with novels about dance and other art forms, historical sagas, several books about books, and much more! 5/2: Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah In a near-future United States, two women convicts are the top gladiators in the Chain-Gang All Stars reality TV death matches, competing for… Continue reading

  • Walking, Rolling, and Driving in the Accessible Outdoors

    The days are longer, the sun is (somewhat) back, and the weather is taking a turn for the more comfortable. That means it is time to get outside and enjoy all that the great outdoors has to offer, be it your neighborhood park, the shores of Lake Washington, or the not-so-distant mountains. If you are… Continue reading

  • New Nonfiction Roundup – May 2023

    The busy spring publishing season heats up in May! We’re highlighting the month’s most anticipated releases in history, food, science, biography & memoir, current events and self care. Jonathan Eig recounts the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. in King: A Life, the first full biography of MLK in decades, while two books consider the… Continue reading

  • A Peek at Peak Picks -May 2023

    Ten new books are joining Peak Picks this month! In fiction, two women gladiators fight for their freedom in a for-profit prison in Nana Kwame Adjel-Brenyah’s Chain Gang All-Stars; a legendary Chinese pirate queen fights to save her fleet in Rita Chang-Eppig’s Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea; a young woman insinuates herself… Continue reading