Fiction

  • Staff Faves: Coming-of-age stories

    Durable Goods, Joy School and True to Form by Elizabeth Berg Immerse yourself in the mind of plucky Katie Nash, the 13-year-old Army brat with a poetic soul who shares wry observances of her world of tan lines, junk food and bad hair. Set in the late 50’s and early 60’s, this trilogy is told… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reads: Debut novelist Laurie Frankel shares her summer reading

    We’re excited  about novelist Laurie Frankel’s debut novel, The Atlas of Love, the story of a young single graduate student in Seattle who becomes pregnant and with the help of friends raises her baby, Atlas. Library Journal said, “Frankel’s debut is a wonderful literary treat that offers a fresh twist on the modern family.” Laurie,… Continue reading

  • Loving fiction to the soles of my feet

    If you spend a lot of time in the fiction stacks, you may have noticed shoes and feet gracing the covers of many adult novels and teen novels. This certainly isn’t a new trend, but it does seem more prevalent in the last five years for all sorts of novels (not just chick lit, which,… Continue reading

  • Read-aloud tongue-twisters

    Some picture books are just meant to be read aloud. Your voice flows over the words as you unravel the story for little (or big) ears. Others are meant to be read aloud even though they are written to be hard to read aloud — with rhymes that trip you up and wordy mouthfuls that make them… Continue reading

  • Personalized reading suggestions for teens in Seattle!

    For all you teens in Seattle — our incredible teen services librarians are ready to help you find a book you WANT to read. All you have to do is use the Ask-a-Librarian form to tell us a little bit about what you like to read. We’ll get back to you in a day or two… Continue reading

  • Amar a Frank de Nancy Horan

    Our library serves people speaking many languages. Here is one of them. Below is a review of Amar a Frank, the Spanish-language translation of the novel Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Frank Lloyd Wright es un arquitecto que es contratado por Edwin y Mamah Cheney para construir su casa. Al cabo de unos años se vuelven a… Continue reading

  • A Different Kind of Beach Read

    Personally, I’ve never understood the concept of a “beach read.”  I like to read the same kind of books at home by the fire (note to self: put in fireplace soon) in the middle of winter as I do while lying on a wrinkled, too small towel on the hot sands at the beach.  Here… Continue reading

  • Children’s novels: Summer adventures away from home

    Have you noticed that there’s something extra appealing when you get the parents out of the way in a children’s novel? I certainly don’t intend for that to sound disprespectful or malicious, but I find stories especially satisfying when the child is out on his or her own, often in unfamiliar situations. Summer settings are ideal for… Continue reading

  • Weird Titles Sell Books

    Why do authors and publishers get “clever” with titles? Is it just to sell books, or also to make a point? Let’s take a few examples and see. Let’s start with Amy Bloom’s A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You. This memorable collection of short stories features characters beset by physical frailties… Continue reading

  • Less Is More

    Who likes short shorts?  How short can a story be and still be a story?  The term flash fiction (aka microfiction, sudden fiction, postcard fiction, prosetry, short short story) originated in the early 1990s, but has roots going back as far as Aesop and his fables.  Some flash fiction has an exact word count –… Continue reading

  • Building (and Closing) Bridges

    The South Park Bridge has had a long and glorious life.  Built in 1931, it tenderly carries over 20,000 automobiles a day over the Duwamish River to and from the Boeing area and the South Park neighborhood . The South Park Bridge is a lifeline for South Park’s main business district, consisting of vibrant, friendly restaurants… Continue reading

  • The Modern Widower

    The neighborhood is alive with gardeners mowing lawns,                                        and trimming hedges,                  the mechanized hiss of twirling sprinklers           and for those just joining us,            it’s a beautiful day and Hailey is dead and I have nothing to do, nowhere to be. ~ How to Talk to a Widower From 1960s TV sitcoms such as the Andy Griffith… Continue reading

  • A Great Library of the Past and Present

    There are good libraries. There are great libraries (we like to think that Seattle Public Library is a great library, thanks to the citizens of Seattle). There are also legendary libraries.  Perhaps the most seductive of those legendary libraries is the Great or Royal Library of Alexandria. The tragic destruction of the Museion of Alexandria, popularly… Continue reading

  • Today is National Bookmobile Day!

    Smack dab in the middle of National Library Week is the first annual National Bookmobile Day.  The Seattle Public Library is celebrating by bringing our oldest bookmobile in for the afternoon and parking it right outside our Central Library.  SPL’s Mobile Services provides access to library resources for people who cannot reach the library because… Continue reading

  • Brooklyn Stories: Part One

    I wanted to live in Brooklyn ever since I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when I was a teenager. I felt suffocated by the boredom of small town Wisconsin life and yearned for the big city, where there was a wide diversity of people, cultures, languages; tall buildings, ports, bridges, subways, trains. Brooklyn had… Continue reading

  • Still More Books Worth Talking About

    Here is another mixed batch of literary food for thought, and for discussion. The Condition, by Jennifer Haigh The McKotch family unravels during the summer of 1976 when 13-year-old Gwen is diagnosed with Turner’s syndrome, leaving her forever trapped in the body of a child. Twenty years later, the three siblings are still dealing with… Continue reading

  • Great writers born in 2010, so far.

    It seems as though we’ve lost an awful lot of writers in 2010, and the year’s still young. Many will remember where they were when they heard J.D. Salinger was gone, and the recent deaths of Robert B. Parker, Dick Francis, Kage Baker, Louis Auchincloss, Barry Hannah, Erich Segal, Howard Zinn and others have made this… Continue reading

  • Book Buzz with Nancy Pearl

    Who could resist going to a program called “Book Buzz with Nancy Pearl”? Certainly not the thousands of librarians here in Portland this week for the Public Library Association Conference. Your Shelf Talk team was there, scoping out upcoming novels and nonfiction titles. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (coming out soon; available to place… Continue reading