Fiction
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#BookBingoNW2020: Uplifting
What better way to announce Book Bingo 2020 then with a teaser square?! Not to mention a square that is much needed. Here are a few books to get you started on completing your Uplifting square! And keep an eye out for the full downloadable card in early May. We have to start with… Continue reading
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Always Open: Fictional Libraries and Bookstores
While we all ache and yearn to return to the dusty stacks where we find so much enjoyment, enlightenment, and entertainment, here are a selection of available eAudiobooks featuring Libraries and Bookstores that are always open! Midnight at Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan, read by Madeleine Maby This dark and suspenseful thriller starts with… Continue reading
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Comic Cuisine
Before social-distancing, I thought I was a pretty decent home cook. Now, after eating nothing but my own cooking for two weeks, I’ve discovered that I only know about five recipes. For anyone in a similar boat, the library has nearly 2,000 digital cookbooks to inspire your cooking adventures. Personally though, most of those cookbooks… Continue reading
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Short and Sweet: Stories to Savor while Social Distancing
As is the case for most folks these days, I am spending a lot of time alone. Under normal circumstances this would be the perfect time to tackle my to-be-read pile, but between phone and video catch-ups with friends and family and a seemingly endless amount of news to absorb, I’ve been finding it difficult… Continue reading
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Travel to Other Worlds with Digital Comics
The toilet paper is gone. Small businesses are closed. The freeways are empty. Our hands are raw from washing them so often. Life feels surreal. Are we in an apocalyptic comic? Lest we start to wonder if reality is fiction, take a look at other weird worlds through Hoopla’s digital comics. Continue reading
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It Could Always Be Worse
I don’t know about you, but the idea of being quarantined for a few days sounded like a great idea with all the books and movies I have on my list. Now that I am stir crazy and want to get out of the house that is highly inadvisable, so I decided to put together… Continue reading
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Speculative Short Stories to Read or Listen to Online
Friday the 13th of March was a dynamic scene at the Central Library, with patrons queuing for help to find good books to read during the library’s closure, and the DVD aisles packed with browsers. I miss assisting patrons in person in finding a great story to read or watch – though do visit my… Continue reading
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Bus Reads for March: Quarantine Edition
Commuting to Seattle by bus five days a week gives me a lot of reading time, but in the world of quarantine being home does too! Here’s what I read at home in March: The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman. Sad and beautiful. I tend to shy away from any books that have… Continue reading
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Escapist Reading
Times being what they are you may be finding yourself at home more than usual. We are going through a stressful time as a city, county, state and country. It seems like the perfect time to escape into a good book. Below are some books that will pull you into another world. If you’re feeling… Continue reading
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The Women of DC
Tired of the Joker and Batman? Let’s take a look at the women of DC comics from the library and our digital comics collection in Hoopla! Harleen by Stephan Spkecj focuses on Dr. Harleen Quinzel before she became Harley Quinn. A true origin story it shows us how she was manipulated by the Joker in… Continue reading
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Throwback Thursday: March 31, 2008
Seattle Reads, the arts, and gentrification was the topic in our Throwback Thursday post on March 31, 2008. If you have picked up this year’s Seattle Reads novel, The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu you’ve had a chance to get one novelist’s take on some of the issues and pressures that can… Continue reading
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Girl, someone is out to get you
“Woman in peril” is a plot device as old as time, and one that enjoys continued popularity. In this reader’s opinion, when it’s done well you get a great female character with agency to make her own decisions, fighting to save herself. Here are three suggestions for recent thrillers that follow women as they puzzle… Continue reading
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New fiction roundup, March 2020
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Bus Reads for February
Commuting to Seattle by bus five days a week gives me a lot of reading time. Here’s what I read on the bus in February: Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera. This novel reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing and I can’t quite tell you why. Three women, Gertrude, Retta and Annie, from… Continue reading
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If You Like Charles Portis (True Grit)
There are generally three or four big successes in the life of a good book. If an author is lucky, sales peak when a book is first published, and they spike again should the book be made into a movie or if it wins a major award. Most reliably of all however is that warm… Continue reading
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Fantastic Librarians of the Future!!
Many years ago – back in the ‘oughts – we did a couple of popular posts on librarians in fiction, and in fantasy. Since then, librarians have only stepped up their fictional game, appearing in more and more novels, not so surprising when we consider that many authors basically grew up in libraries. They pop… Continue reading
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2020 Adaptations: From Book to Screen
Books are increasingly becoming Hollywood’s most treasured manna–the star-stuff that inspires the year’s buzziest television films and movies. Here are some books and series coming to screens big and small this year: Let’s start with adaptations with Northwest ties! Continue reading
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February is American Heart Month
Four years ago, at the age of 44, I had a heart attack. I was one of the lucky ones because women who have heart attacks are much less likely to survive. Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women, causing 1 in 3 deaths each year. – American Heart Association A new book… Continue reading