Fiction

  • Retelling timeless tales

    Did you know that there is a series of amazing books which are retellings of mythical tales, each by a famous author?  I didn’t either!  But I came across the “Myth Series” while looking for something else, and was blown away.   The story of Penelope by Margaret Atwood?  The story of Atlas and Heracles by… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reading: Amy Stewart on plant books, and planting books.

    Most authors who write about plants are only of interest to the green thumbed, but Amy Stewart’s books are for everyone. Her latest – Wicked Plants: The Weed that killed Lincoln’s mother, & other botanical attrocities – might even save your life, or your pets’. Amy will be appearing around the area next week, including an evening… Continue reading

  • Novels by the numbers

    Being the unreconstructed English major that I am, I never suspected I could delight in a novel about a mathematician, but that was before I read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (thank you, Lillian, for the recommendation!).  In this little gem of a book, the housekeeper must re-introduce herself every morning to… Continue reading

  • Book Groups Read My Jim

    I have had the pleasure now of facilitating two book group discussions of this year’s featured work for Seattle Reads, My Jim by Nancy Rawles. What I have seen (and heard from others) about the reactions of readers to Rawles’ book is that it makes a powerful impression.  My Jim also gives readers plenty to… Continue reading

  • Want to read more African American historical fiction?

    Once you read Nancy Rawles’ My Jim, a compelling slave story about Sadie (the wife of Huck Finn’s friend Jim), who chose to remain a slave and stay with her family on the plantation, you will likely want to read other stories like it: narratives that sweep you back in time and make you think.… Continue reading

  • Writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Part II

    Here is a continuation of the Writers of the Harlem Renaissance post from Tuesday:  Jessie Redmon Fauset Though she is not very well-known today, Fauset was, along with Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most prolific African America writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Two of her four novels, There is Confusion and Plum Bun: A… Continue reading

  • Writers of the Harlem Renaissance: Part 1

    The period between the 1920s and the beginning of World War II marked a blossoming of African American literature, especially in New York. Events that precipitated this period, now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance, included a widespread migration to northern cities by African Americans from the South; job and educational opportunities for African Americans;… Continue reading

  • Life after Twilight

    Teens all over the nation—not to mention quite a few adults—are suffering from symptoms of withdrawal.  Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series is over, the fifth book is apparently not going to be published, and they have no idea what to read next.  If you or someone you know is suffering this terrible fate, the library wants to help.  We… Continue reading

  • Banned Book of the Month: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    Consistently among the most challenged books in schools and libraries, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has courted controversy since its original publication back in 1885, though not always for the same reason. It was first removed from the collection of the Concord Free Library in Massachusetts over its “rough, course and inelegant expressions.” I… Continue reading

  • Not Your Average Detective Story

    Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it’s still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. Because after disaster strikes, the important thing is… Continue reading

  • A Perfect Match: Psychologist-detectives on the case

    There’s something about the endeavor of psychology that lends itself perfectly to crime fiction.  Psychologists seem to be able to plumb the depths of human emotion in a way that gives them unique crime-solving insights, to which the rest of us mere mortals can only aspire.  We want to know their secret.  Why else would… Continue reading

  • Trying to get back a stolen life

    Editor’s note: Susan Hildreth, our City Librarian, will be checking in with us from time to time to let us know what she’s been reading. I just finished reading The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano. This is the story of Melody Grace McCartney who has been in the Federal Witness Protection Program for… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Three novels for spring getaways

    Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst Ten teams of two have been chosen to compete on “Lost and Found,” a reality television program in the form of a world-wide scavenger hunt. But each contestant hides a secret, and with the show’s producers throwing out twist after twist, those secrets slowly begin to come to light.… Continue reading

  • Book review: Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun

    In Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun by Victoria Laurie, ghost-hunting medium MJ Holliday signs on to film a reality TV series centered around her paranormal talent. When a murderer strikes at the hotel where MJ and her crew are staying (and where the TV show is set to be filmed), it quickly becomes apparent… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Three mysteries for spring

    Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann “Act naturally,” bleated the sheep attempting to evade notice. Standing around munching grass seems to be the most natural thing for sheep to do, but solving a murder mystery? When this Irish flock’s favored shepherd shows up dead in a field, our intrepid sheep detectives,… Continue reading

  • Publisher Crush: McSweeney’s Press

    These books are just too pretty! It’s the pretty ones that give me pause. As a clerk for The Seattle Public Library, I handle hundreds of books every day without being able to stop and look through any of them. But every once in a while one catches my eye, a real stunner, and I make… Continue reading

  • New literary craze has readers topsy-turvy!

    Readers of avant-garde literature are flipping over the latest experimental wrinkle in fiction. Inspired by the narrative hijinx of such post-modern stylists as the late David Foster Wallace, and Mark Danielewski (whose Only Revolutions asks the reader to rotate the book while reading), a bold new breed of writers and publishers are literally overturning the literary scene with what may be the… Continue reading

  • Close to you: Our fascination with ‘Siamese’ twins

    My book group recently read Lori Lansens’ novel The Girls about sisters in Canada who are conjoined twins. We were all a little hesitant to tackle it and not sure we’d be able to get past the subject matter to get to the characters and story, but Lansen’s writing made that concern a moot point, and we all… Continue reading