Nonfiction
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Modern-Day Slavery series starts February 28
It is hard to believe and difficult to fathom that you could, today, in the 21st century, find yourself living next door to a slave. Author, Kevin Bales describes how a person might find him or herself in such a dire predicament in the book The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in American… Continue reading
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Science: Deep Thoughts, Deep Space
Physics of the Impossible: a scientific exploration into the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation, and time travel by Michio Kaku 2008 Kaku examines the stuff of science fiction – time machines, invisibility cloaks, starships – and uses the laws of physics to judge their feasibility. The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the seventeenth-century… Continue reading
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Zeppelin Attacks on England!
L-3 and L-4 were the first. Yarmouth and King’s Lynn on England’s south-east coast were their targets. Their flight paths traced over the countryside, covering over 130 miles for L-3 and considerably less for L-4 before returning to Germany. The L designation stood for luftschiff or airship. These airships were also called dirigibles. They had… Continue reading
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Genealogy 101: Why are genealogists fascinated with our immigrant records and why are they so hard to find?
With the exception of Native Americans, we are all descendants of immigrants from some other country. Arlene Eakle projected that between 1607 and 1980 “Over 40 million persons came from other places in the world to settle in the U.S” (Eakle, Arlene H. “Tracking Immigrant Origins” in Eakel, Arlene. The Source: A Guidebook of American… Continue reading
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Science: The Great Adventure
The Ghost Map: the story of London’s most terrifying epidemic– and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world by Steven Johnson 2006 This page-turner chronicles the spread of cholera in 1850’s London and profiles the doctor who tried to persuade a skeptical medical establishment that the disease was spread by contaminated water. Bretz’s… Continue reading
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Nightstand Reading: Newbery winner Rebecca Stead
This month’s guest blogger is Rebecca Stead, author of When You Reach Me, a middle-grade novel that just won the Newbery Medal (the most distinguished honor in children’s literature). Rebecca is in Seattle today to visit schools, chat with Nancy Pearl for an upcoming episode of Book Lust on the Seattle Channel and to read tonight… Continue reading
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Life Stories: Memoirs of Remarkable Lives.
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson While some accounts of life in the 1950s can make that decade seem sterile and flat, Bryson’s account is alive with action, fondness and vivid detail about his imagination-filled childhood and quirky parents. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers… Continue reading
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Life Stories: Biographies of Famous People
My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme The iconic chef of television and cookbook fame recounts her surprisingly saucy adventures with the French and their cuisine, from World War II onward. The descriptions of food and place are mouth-watering. The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown Our enduring fascination with the life of… Continue reading
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Soup’s On!
The New Year is already off to a flying start and everyday routines are back in full swing with work, school, homework, sports… You get the picture. As a librarian, I don’t work banker’s hours. I work “public service” hours, which include weekends and evenings, with a schedule that varies from week to week and… Continue reading
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Life Stories: Biographies of Challenging Lives
Running with Scissors: A Memoir, by Augusten Burroughs Part madcap adventure, part coming-of-age story and part intense reflection on a difficult childhood, Burroughs’ memoir relates his years in an eccentric foster home where nothing is out of bounds. Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s, by John Elder Robison Robinson, brother of Augusten… Continue reading
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J-O-B
Because you had a bad day You’re taking one down You sing a sad song just to turn it around You say you don’t know You tell me don’t lie You work at a smile and you go for a ride… With job classes being offered at a plethora of Seattle Public Library branches and… Continue reading
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Green Resolutions
The New Year is almost here! It is time to celebrate and reflect upon the past, while ruminating over the possibilities of change and new beginnings for the year to come. The act of setting goals and making resolutions can be empowering for children, as well as for adults. Consider taking on a family resolution… Continue reading
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Books for Giving 2009 – Children’s Nonfiction
Children’s nonfiction is not what it used to be – thank goodness! Today’s nonfiction is exciting, fun, and full of vibrant illustrations, as well as informative. Here are some appealing choices for all levels of readers and explorers: Animal Science: Caribou Crossing: Animals of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, by Andrea Helman; photographs by Art… Continue reading
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Maybe it will make sense now: ‘The Manga Guide to Calculus’
Even though the library’s digital book service Safari Books Online hasn’t been at the forefront of my pleasure reading (no page-turning fiction to be found here!), I thought I’d take a look through it the other day — maybe there would be SOMETHING in it for me. I immediately liked that you don’t have to download any software… Continue reading
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What’s in the Aviation Room?
When you think of Seattle as the birthplace of the Boeing Company, it might not come as a huge surprise that the Central Library has a Special Collection of historical materials on aviation. In fact, the Aviation Room originated with a startup gift from the Boeing Company in 1928. Items in this room range from… Continue reading
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Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol: What’s True?
Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Dan Brown is a publishing phenomenon. His novel The Da Vinci Code held the #1 spot on every major best-seller list in the country, and his books have been translated into more than 50 languages. His current best-seller, The Lost Symbol, again features Robert Langdon, a… Continue reading
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Life Stories: Biographies of Remarkable Women
Pacific Lady: The First Woman to Sail Solo Across the Pacific Ocean by Sharon Sites Adams, with Karen J. Coates Coates recounts the ocean crossing and stormy personal life of a brave pioneer, Oregon native Sharon Sites Adams, who in 1965 was the first woman to sail alone from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii. The… Continue reading
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A local book club shares!
I am a librarian. Do I read 24 hours/7 days a week? No. Do I read during my spare time? Sometimes a lot, usually not too much. Four years ago, a friend invited me to join a ladies’ book group in Lake Forest Park. Some of these ladies read tons more than me! This past year,… Continue reading