Fiction

  • Experiments with Fiction, Part 3

    No exploration of experimental fiction would be complete without reference to the Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Workshop of Potential Literature), or Oulipo. This literary circle, founded by the Surrealist Marcel Duchamp and some friends in France in 1960, literally plays with words. The group is famous for making an almost mathematical use of “constraints” to… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: The World’s Saddest Assassin

    I love fantasy with detailed world-building, complex characters and political intrigue, so I was pleased to come across Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice the first book in the Farseer trilogy. Assassin’s Apprentice starts when a six year old child, only known even to himself as “boy,” is dropped at the royal court by his grandfather. The boy, later… Continue reading

  • Crime: If you like J.A. Jance mysteries …

    Most of the J.A. Jance fans I know have a deep affinity for J.P. Beaumont, the Seattle detective who lets us see just enough of his personal life to make him real, then brings us right back to a tight focus on the case. We love his smart, brooding character; we’re crazy for the Seattle setting and we… Continue reading

  • Experiments with Fiction, Part 2

    In my first post on experimental fiction, I mentioned the Library of Congress and its creation of the term, but I didn’t communicate how idiosyncratically the term is used. The good people at the Library of Congress created the term, but applied it in ways that might puzzle the attentive reader. Why, for instance, does… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Friday: The Moon Over Miami

    It’s pretty much a granted that every science fiction and fantasy fan is only biding their time until moon colonies are a reality. We all secretly hope that permanent off-Earth habitation, open to the few brave souls ready to tame the unknown, will happen in our lifetimes. The technology is ready. In fact, the only… Continue reading

  • Crime: The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton

    Last week I talked about E.C. Bentley’s singular mystery Trent’s Last Case, which was dedicated to his old friend G.K. Chesterton; now that I’ve reached the C’s in my alphabet of crime, it seems only fitting to revisit Chesterton’s singular thriller, The Man Who Was Thursday, itself dedicated to Bentley. Although mystery fans will best… Continue reading

  • Crime: The Singular Pleasures of E.C. Bentley

    This year I’m reading my way through the mystery section, A-Z. Read along, won’t you? I’ve just had the best time reading E.C. Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case, a beguiling whodunit that prefigured crime’s Golden Age. It is 1913, and detectives are very much dominated by Sherlock Holmes and his countless imitators, such long forgotten ratiocinators as Sexton Blake, Duckworth Drewe,… Continue reading

  • An Alphabet of Crime: Killer B’s

    Arriving at the B’s in my project to read through the mystery aisle, I can’t help but notice some favorite darker mystery authors that I’d love to share. Next week I’ll try something new, but for now here are some old friends: Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black. Black has brilliance to spare. Having already written a layered spy novel to rival… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Epic Fantasy to Sink Your Teeth Into

      If you are a new fantasy reader, it can be hard to know where to start. I read so much fantasy as a child that I am mystified in retrospect why I ever stopped. But in trying to regain my fantasy footing, I have been disappointed and delighted at times by the range of… Continue reading

  • An Alphabet of Crime: Margery Allingham

    I made a couple of New Year’s resolutions involving crime this year: to start up a regular weekly crime column here in ShelfTalk, and to alphabetically read my way through the mystery section at the Central Library, two authors/letters each month. My colleague Linda has done this twice, up to the letter G anyway, and so I… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsongs

    A new year, a new column! Today marks the inaugural post of our new series Science Fiction Fridays. Every Friday librarians and people of interest will talk about their favorite science fiction and fantasy books, television, movies, art, music and whatever other newly discovered media we find interesting. The recent passing of Anne McCaffrey has… Continue reading

  • MISSING

    They say the first 24 hours are the most crucial when trying to locate a missing person. These stories don’t have that luxury… I was originally drawn to the book Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran because the story takes place in New Orleans and I have a certain fascination… Continue reading

  • Personalized teen book lists!

    Going on a road trip? Looking for an audiobook that both you and your teen can enjoy? Our teen services librarians are standing by to help. Use our Next 5 Books service to request suggestions for audiobooks that everyone in the family will enjoy. And of course, we’re also happy to suggest beach reads for… Continue reading

  • Start Spreading the News

    If there is any industry or service that has had to hear the braying prognostications of pessimistic doomsayers more than the library, it has to be the newspaper business. In that regard I feel a particular kinship with those who continue to toil tirelessly for the journalistic profession, especially if we are related by blood.… Continue reading

  • Summer reading: Suggestions from University Branch readers

    Kraken by China Mieville So far, the best of Mieveille’s works, reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere with more occult and police procedural thrown in, and more apocalypses than you can count! All for a giant squid.      ~ Anya The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence A play based on the life of… Continue reading

  • To Oz on a Nook

    One of the best things about using an e-reader, as I keep saying, is the tons of out of print wonderful books available now. (“Tons” I use metaphorically, because being e-books, they don’t weigh a thing.) I eagerly browse the OverDrive Gutenberg E-Books and have hit the jackpot a number of times. Lately, since it’s… Continue reading

  • Summer reading: Suggestions from Northgate Library readers

    Gotz and Meyer by David Albahari A very different take on the genocide of the holocaust, as imagined through the eyes of two non-commissioned SS officers assigned to drive the gassing trucks.        ~ Sharie  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley A quirky, slightly dark mystery solved by a quirky,… Continue reading

  • Cult Classics: Against the Grain

    Alternative to what? In a sea of sameness, the heroes of these cult classics march to the beat of their own drum. Brautigan, Richard Trout Fishing in America Drifting along with the flow of time, spinning in revelatory eddies, or striding against the cultural mainstream, we search for that elusive perfect spot to catch a… Continue reading