Nonfiction

  • What I Made: Handmade Graduation Card

    Seattle is home to a thriving DIY culture.  As part of an occasional series of posts, we feature hand-made items created by staff at The Seattle Public Library and the library books, CDs, and DVDs that showed them how to do it themselves. We hope you’ll draw inspiration from their creations and check some of… 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

  • NurtureShock: Research that will make you go hmmm …

    I stumbled across Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman’s book NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children after I was gifted a copy of Newsweek with their incendiary cover-story (September 14, 2009 issue) entitled “Is Your Baby Racist?” I should mention that a teenager gave me this particular magazine issue as a tongue-in-cheek gift at my baby shower. In their Newsweek… Continue reading

  • What I Made: A Treehouse for My Daughter

    Seattle is home to a thriving DIY culture.  As part of an occasional series of posts, we feature hand-made items created by staff at The Seattle Public Library and the library books, CDs, and DVDs that showed them how to do it themselves. We hope you’ll draw inspiration from their creations and check some of… 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

  • March Question of the Month – an irregular series

     The reference librarians at Seattle Public Library are pretty darn amazing. They don’t know everything, instead they know where to find everything. As part of an irregular series of posts we salute the talented and dedicated reference staff at your local library. Names and other identifying information have been removed from the questions we showcase.… Continue reading

  • Pursuing the bird of a lifetime: Birders and birding resources

    We are a group not to be ignored. The numbers of birders in the United States totals approximately 48 million individuals who generate some $82 billion in expenditures toward equipment and trips near and far to pursue the bird of a lifetime. These figures come courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One can… 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

  • More Books Worth Talking About

    Good titles for book discussions come from all over the place, and provoke all kinds of responses. Here is a diverse international blend: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery Nobody guesses at the unplumbed depths hidden behind the veiled eyes of the self-taught drudge Renée or the precociously suicidal 12-year-old Paloma, until one man… Continue reading

  • Be a Part of World Water Day.

    How often do we really stop and think about the water we consume each day? Not just the eight glasses we’re supposed to drink on a daily basis, but the water from the dishwasher, the laundry, washing our cars, brushing our teeth and that daily shower or pot of coffee. It’s an understatement at this point… Continue reading

  • What I Made: Embroidered & Embellished

    Seattle is home to a thriving DIY ethic and culture.  As part of an occasional series of posts, we feature hand-made items created by staff at The Seattle Public Library and the library books, CDs, and DVDs that showed them how to do it themselves. We hope you’ll draw inspiration from their creations and check… Continue reading

  • Books worth talking about.

    As sure as the Seattle Winter turns to Spring, and then back to Winter again, readers will come to the library looking for something new for their book group. Here are some of our suggestions for books that will inspire discussion, and even complement each other in interesting ways. Man in the Dark, by Paul Auster… Continue reading

  • Science: Our Family Tree

    The Richness of Life: the essential Stephen Jay Gould by Stephen Jay Gould  2007  A wide-ranging collection of essays culled from 3 decades of writing by the paleontologist known for being the passionate voice of popular science. The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: an intimate portrait of Charles Darwin and the making of his theory of evolution… Continue reading

  • What I Made: Rich Chocolate Ice Cream. Mmmm. Jealous yet?

    Seattle is home to a thriving DIY culture.  As part of an occasional series of posts, we feature hand-made items created by staff at The Seattle Public Library and the library books, CDs, and DVDs that showed them how to do it themselves. We hope you’ll draw inspiration from their creations and check some of… Continue reading

  • Warship Under Sail – Interview with Lorraine McConaghy

                                                          Some of you may know local historian, Lorraine McConaghy, through MOHAI’s Nearby History workshops. A member of the Pacific Northwest Historian Guild, McConaghy has been writing, talking and teaching  the history of Seattle and its environs for years. With her new book, Warship Under Sail, McConaghy delves into the history of the United States Navy… Continue reading

  • Science: The Big Picture

    The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier 2007   This exuberant guided tour of the major fields of science highlights issues big (global warming) and small (ice cream melting), making it all understandable and fascinating. The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking 2001 One of the greatest scientific… Continue reading

  • Library Day at Seattle Art Museum

    If you’re a Seattle Public Library cardholder, you probably already know that your library card gives you free access to books, DVDs, CDs, eBooks, databases and many more resources. But did you know that this Sunday only it’s also a free ticket to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM)? That’s right, Sunday, February 28 is Seattle… Continue reading