Authors & Books

  • Science On Tap – Brains and Brew in Seattle

     Brains and Brew – a perfect combination in this city of microbrewers and techies.  I am a huge fan of science writing in the vein of Stephen J. Gould, Carl Sagan and E. O. Wilson.  The only drawback I’ve ever found to science books is the lack of immediacy.  It takes years for a scientist… Continue reading

  • Flash Contest: Win Tickets to Marjane Satrapi!

    Shelf Talk has two tickets to An Evening with Marjane Satrapi at The Moore Theatre, this coming Monday, April 14, @ 7:30 PM. Marjane Satrapi is a critically acclaimed writer and comic artist who is best known for her film Persepolis, nominated for a 2007 Academy Award for Best Animated Film. Satrapi does an autobiographical talk… Continue reading

  • Remembering Kurt Vonnegut

    It’s been almost a year since Kurt Vonnegut died, but I’ve been thinking about him a lot. I recently read the final book he published during his lifetime, A Man Without a Country. It’s a concise collection of biographical essays that feel like they were written by your cantankerous, but highly intelligent and funny, old uncle.… Continue reading

  • The Arrival: power without words

    The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, is the wordless story of a man who leaves his home and emigrates to a new country. So simple, so universal, but the reader wonders: is it history? Science fiction? Fantasy? Fable? What are these strange machines and bizarre creatures? How will the man survive in this weird new world,… Continue reading

  • Tesla in the air!

    Every so often, someone will approach me at the library and ask for information about Nikola Tesla, often in the kind of knowing way that people ask about Bigfoot or aliens, rather than a scientist and inventor. Occasionally they’ll bend close and add in hushed tones that they want the straight dope about his death… Continue reading

  • Magical Realism, beyond Latin America.

    Authors such as Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez are well known for their wonderful stories rich in metaphor and infused with a sense of magic. The titles below are similar in style, but are written by authors from cultures other than those of Central and South America. The Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan. Louis… Continue reading

  • The Wine Is Fine

    Wine is happening in Washington in a big way! And this coming weekend is a primo opportunity to check out brand new wineries and varietals or old favorites. The Washington Wine Commission is sponsoring Taste Washington, including a Grand Wine Tasting at Qwest Field Event Center on Sunday, April 6 from 4-8 p.m. Who knew there… Continue reading

  • Frances Moore Lappé and Local Food Policy

    My local eating adventures have led me to think about issues such as who has access to local food, how housing developments are eclipsing nearby farmland and if another flood like the one in Lewis County is apt to destroy more farms and dairy herds anytime soon.  I’m certainly not the only one. For decades Francis Moore Lappé… Continue reading

  • Poetry Rules!

    April is National Poetry Month, and it’s rhyme time in Seattle. The sponsoring Academy of American Poets suggests 30 Ways to Celebrate the month. And whether you’re in to writing or reading or listening to poetry, there’s lots going on locally to help you do just that. The Seattle Public Library sponsors many poetry events… Continue reading

  • 30,000 Years of Art: The Story of Human Creativity

    30,000 Years of Art: The Story of Human Creativity Across Time and Space  inspires readers to think about art in a different way.  Accessible and not stuffy, this work looks chronologically across the centuries of art in a way that avoids the thematic conventions and classifications of the way we typically study art history. This… Continue reading

  • Book review: Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood

    I’ve never encountered a detective quite like Phryne (rhymes with “briny”) Fisher before – but now I’m totally smitten. Divinely elegant and stylish, this smart, confident woman turned her back on 1928 aristocracy to live independently in Australia. In one of my favorites, Murder in Montparnasse, Phryne steps in to help her friends Bert and… Continue reading

  • Cool women, hot mysteries

    The one thing these mysteries have in common: smart, independent, funny and resourceful women. These are today’s detectives — a little younger and a lot hipper than many of the sleuths you’ve met in long-running mystery series (you know, those series that have initials or numbers in their titles). If you’re looking for romantic suspense,… Continue reading

  • La Suma de los Días de Isabel Allende

    Our library serves people speaking many languages. Here is one of them. El último libro de Isabel Allende La Suma de los días es la continuación de Paula, el libro que Allende escribió después de la muerte de su hija Paula. La suma de los días nos transporta a California, lugar donde reside Allende. Así… Continue reading

  • Pirates in Polite Society: Wharton’s Buccaneers

    An unfinished book by a favorite writer always raises questions: How would it have ended? How would the story have changed as the author developed the characters and explored their lives? If the author started out with a plan, would that have changed as the book progressed? Stories inspired by real people and events also… Continue reading

  • Plush You!

    I love crafting.  However–and it pains me to admit this–I’m not very good at coming up with top notch project ideas.  I usually steal ideas from craft books.  So I get really excited when I find a great book like Plush You! Loveable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff, by Seattle artist and Schmancy owner Kristen Rask.   This book has dozens of full-color photos of cute,… Continue reading

  • Medieval Mysteries of Britain.

    If you find secret corridors and hemlock poison more interesting than gunfire, you may enjoy this collection of mysteries set in medieval England, Scotland and Ireland. Each of the books listed below is one of a series that revolves around a particularly engaging sleuth for whom the plagues, politics, and superstitions of the medieval world… Continue reading

  • Flower Frenzy

    It’s flower season here in the great northwest!  If you want to get up close to fields and fields of colorful tulips, don’t miss the 25th Annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. If you’d like to explore some of the fascinating history of these blooms, here is a bouquet of books exploring the appeal of flowers… Continue reading

  • The War in Fiction, part 3: The Pacific

    A war is not one story, but many. Here are some novels that view the war through many eyes, reflecting the diverse experiences of civilians and soldiers around the world whose lives were drawn into the Second World War. The Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan When Louis Belk is deployed to Alaska to head off and diffuse… Continue reading