Nonfiction

  • At the River I Stand screening at the Douglass-Truth Branch

    At the River I Stand, a film detailing the strike of Memphis sanitation workers in 1968 will be screened at Douglass-Truth Branch in the Gayton Family Meeting Room on May 16, 2013 at 6:30 PM. King went to Memphis to support and advise the strike, and there he lost his life. Continue reading

  • Documentaries from SIFFs gone by

    As I pore over the hundreds of screenings at the Seattle International Film Festival every year, I find myself focusing on two categories – documentaries and Scandinavian films. Here are some of my favorite documentaries from SIFFs gone by. Every Little Step is about the making of “A Chorus Line” on Broadway. Yes, it’s about actors… Continue reading

  • Learning history from comic books

     I didn’t think I was a fan of comic books, but after reading Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, my view of comic books completely changed.”I found that the comic book format particularly makes learning history more enjoyable due to its lively pictures and brief narrative. I recently read three American history comic books that I happened… Continue reading

  • Your Next 5 Books: poetic post-apocalyptic and police procedurals

    In this column we regularly highlight a Your Next 5 Books submission that we find interesting, funny, unique, or useful to other readers. Submit Your Next 5 Books entry now, or stop by and see us in person, and maybe you could see your (anonymous) reading habits on Shelf Talk! Continue reading

  • Get Your Garden On!

     Now that the nice weather has started revving up, everyone I know is looking for excuses to be outside. When it comes to gardens, I’m of the plant-it-and-hope school, but if you’re ready for some hands-on advice to get started, or to further your skills, here are some inspiring books and local resources to check out!  Continue reading

  • Behind the scenes in North Korea

    If you’ve been following international news lately, you have probably noticed a spike in rhetoric and tension coming out of North Korea, and corresponding political maneuvering from South Korea and the United States. Fortunately for information buffs, in the past five years several excellent non-fiction books have been published that provide us a rare peek… Continue reading

  • Money Smart Week: Household Budgeting

    Like many good things, sound financial planning starts at home. It’s your money and you work hard for it – do you know where it all goes? All the places money can go in our daily lives – why it goes there, where it should go (and should not go), where it could go to in… Continue reading

  • Money Smart Week: Making sense out of saving money

    Remember when your parents first got you that cute little piggy bank? It was a big deal because it symbolized a financial rite of passage and instilled a growing sense of independence. And after completing a series of mundane tasks or chores you could triumphantly deposit your hard earned money into it at the end… Continue reading

  • Money Smart Week: Eliminating credit card debt

    Credit card debt can feel like a heavy burden. It can be frustrating and anxiety provoking to pay high interest rates month after month. Paying only the minimum payment each month keeps many cardholders in “perma–debt,” a state many families have come to accept as normal. But never fear – there is hope. You can… Continue reading

  • Money Smart Week: Learn to invest

    Investing information is notoriously steeped in jargon and the underlying concepts themselves aren’t exactly the most user-friendly. Whether you are planning to start investing on your own, or just want to be more informed when you talk to your broker, there are many different tools you can use to get up to speed. Of course,… Continue reading

  • Happy Money Smart Week!

    This week Shelf Talk is highlighting financial literacy topics for Money Smart Week! Money Smart Week is a national campaign to help increase consumer awareness about all things money. Hundreds of different organizations participate, including libraries. The campaign started in Chicago in 2002 and has quickly spread across the country. There are a myriad of… Continue reading

  • Let’s Celebrate Volunteer Appreciation Week April 21-27

    Have you ever wanted to make a difference in the world? Do you find yourself horrified by events in the news? Are you shocked by things that happen in society? Do you ever witness the injustices that happen to others? Do you ever wish there was something you could do to help? Continue reading

  • Happy Birthday Akira Kurosawa!

    While Akira Kurosawa’s status as the greatest director of all time is debatable, we’re all agreed that Seven Samurai is the best movie ever made, right? Good, I’m glad we got that all squared away. Akira Kurosawa was born 103 years ago today. A few short months later, in August of 1910, the University Branch… Continue reading

  • Was the movie as good as the painting?

    We’re all familiar with movies based on books—and how they often don’t measure up to the written word. But what about movies based on paintings? A film that takes us inside a single painting, dramatizing its imagery as the primary action or narrative, is certainly not a new idea. This newspaper article from 1921 describes… Continue reading

  • Make Stuff and Be Happy

    Ok, so there are a lot of us out there who are creative and could use a couple of extra bucks in our pockets, am I right? It struck me as time for a brief how-to to help bridge that gap between the makers and the market. Here are some outlets to investigate, and some… Continue reading

  • Your Next 5 Books: Traveling to Thailand

    In this column we regularly highlight a Your Next 5 Books submission that we find interesting, funny, unique, or useful to other readers. Submit Your Next 5 Books entry now, or stop by and see us in person, and maybe you could see your (anonymous) reading habits on Shelf Talk! Continue reading

  • Extreme outdoors

    Although I’m fairly wimpy in “real life,” I enjoy the vicarious experience of reading about other peoples’ travails in harsh climates. Here are some favorite tales of true adventure and survival (with a bit of history thrown in): The Cruelest Miles by Gay Salisbury When isolated Nome, Alaska, was struck by a diphtheria epidemic in… Continue reading

  • Tricky books

    An amazingly wide range of questions come across our library information desks, I’m sure every librarian has their favorites. My current favorite was from an earnest young man of around seven years of age who was interested in “tricky books.” I tried to show him magic books with no satisfaction. Of course there just isn’t… Continue reading