Nonfiction

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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