Fiction

  • Seattle Picks: Short Classics

    We’re often asked for suggestions of shorter classics. Sometimes the reader has an assignment where the teacher or professor says “read a classic” and leaves it wide open. Sometimes the reader wants to explore classics, but feels a little intimidated. And sometimes the reader just wants a book that doesn’t weigh a lot. Our Short Classics booklist is one of… Continue reading

  • Pie v. Cake

    Cake and cupcakes are still going strong in the Seattle area. Metropolitan Market has a huge mountain of little boxes with specialty cupcakes in them, and I saw a pink cupcake maker at Fred Meyer. When asked, the baker at Met Market said cake sells better than pie. Some of pie lovers admitted liking cake more often… Continue reading

  • Too good to miss: Josephine Tey

    I recently discovered classic mystery author Josephine Tey. A patron and a colleague had told me about her years ago, and I filed the name away until Nancy Pearl mentioned Tey as well. And like many other readers in Seattle, when Nancy Pearl says something is good, you move that book or author to the front… Continue reading

  • Seattle Picks: Book Group Best Bets

    Is your book group in need of some new books to discuss? Try these new titles that are already becoming book group darlings! Bloodroot by Amy Greene  In lovely, lyrical Appalachian cadence, family members take turns narrating the life of a willful, heartbreaking and bewitching woman, Myra, from the Great Depression to the present time. Continue reading

  • Telling downloads: Top downloadable books

    Did you know that the company the library uses for digital books (OverDrive) publishes its top ten lists of titles downloaded every month? Me either. I took a look at the top ten adult fiction and nonfiction titles downloaded from libraries in the U.S., Canada and the UK to see if I could glean any… Continue reading

  • And They Lived…

    As children our parents read us stories with happy endings; it’s just part of the innocence of childhood and into adulthood we come to expect that big Hollywood ending. The first movie I saw that didn’t go the way I wanted it to was My Best Friend’s Wedding starring Julia Roberts. I was angry that… Continue reading

  • Armistead Maupin is a man I dreamt up

    A couple of weeks ago I checked out Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel by Armistead Maupin and felt positively giddy about my reunion with the characters I’ve gotten to know so well through all eight novels. It was way back in 1976 when Tales of the City began running in weekly… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Two novels for teen readers

    Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford Each of the three Sullivan sisters has committed a crime against Almighty, their rich and powerful grandmother. She threatens to cut their entire family out of her will, leaving her vast estate to Ponchos for Puppies (the most ridiculous charity on earth) if the culprit who has… Continue reading

  • Royal Reading

    My latest favorite author is Alison Weir because she writes so elegantly and compellingly of medieval and Renaissance Britain, focusing especially on the lives of female rulers.  Better yet, this esteemed historian has in recent years branched out into luxuriously detailed, historically accurate novels that bring to life great historical figures. I recently read Weir’s… Continue reading

  • Let them read cake

    Having just celebrated my birthday, I’ve been thinking about cake for some time and have noticed a trend: we need cake now more than ever.  In an unofficial cake cookbook census taken by *me,* statistics indicate a rise in the Library’s purchase of how-to-bake-cake books. The library owns ten cake cookbooks published from 1991 to… Continue reading

  • Place your holds now!

     Moon Over Manifest won the Newbery Medal this morning, Ship Breaker took home the Printz, and A Sick Day for Amos McGee received the Caldecott Medal. Check out the full list of winners from the ALA’s Youth Media Awards 2011. And here’s a neat trick: You can search award titles easily in our catalog. Here are… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Two novels to start the year

    Our newest edition of “Staff Favorites” — with book recommendations for children, teen and adult readers —  is hot off the press and on its way to your favorite branch. Here are a couple of novels included in the brochure: One Day by David Nicholls The classic story of boy meets girl with a twist:… Continue reading

  • Books for the college-obsessed parent

    Last summer I texted my son to tell him I was bringing home a copy of  Colleges That Changes Lives. His reply, via text: “Shouldn’t all colleges change lives?” I should end this post right here, because that says it all. Nope. I can’t leave it alone, no matter how hard I try to not… Continue reading

  • #1 New York Times best sellers 1942-2010

    The end of the year always puts me in a nostalgic mood. I am reminiscing about some of the #1 best sellers of the NY Times since the list began in 1942. The Robe, a religious novel,  topped the charts in 1942. Then we have the best sellers that were considered risqué for their time:  Forever… Continue reading

  • Torgny is #1

    There are a lot of wonderful things to say about the Swedish author Torgny Lindgren. However, we don’t have room here, and so I will simply say that Mr. Lindgren is the greatest living novelist. Of course that is only my opinion; others might suggest prolific writers such as James Patterson, Joyce Carol Oates, or… Continue reading

  • Who is like Flavia de Luce?

    After you find The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, what’s left but the plate? If you loved Alan Bradley’s child sleuth Flavia de Luce as much as I did, you can’t help feeling bereft at the end of this brilliantly funny “cozy” mystery in which she prevents a family catastrophe – the conviction… Continue reading

  • Brain Candy: MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead and Unfinished

    Admit it, you (munch, munch) love that candy. Well, do you have a sweet tooth for brain candy? Recently I read MaryJanice Davidson’s latest in the Betsy the Vampire Queen aka the “Undead” series, Undead and Unfinished. I went through the novel faster than a package of Fizzy Cola gummies…and it left me with a mild… Continue reading

  • It’s the End of the World As We Know It

    The leaves are falling, the bubble has been popped for awhile now, and the holidays are right around the corner, which means it’s the best time to read dystopian fiction! Knowing these characters have it worse of then we do definitely puts a spring back in my step. In Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde… Continue reading