Authors & Books
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12 Ways to Enjoy Summer at the Library
Summer is here, and The Seattle Public Library is here for you. Head to your neighborhood library with your kids to pick up a Summer of Learning activity booklet, go to a fun program, check out some books, explore, and chill out! Here are 12 ways to turn up the summer fun and learning, library… Continue reading
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Book Bingo NW 2025: Hope
Besides being the Thing with Feathers, what is hope? How do we hold onto it and why? And if we have it, what do we do with it (or, what does it do for us)? The answers to these questions may be different for each person, but here are some reading suggestions to help fill… Continue reading
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Celebrate Pride With Four Books of Queer Joy and Resistance
Pride month in Seattle is both a celebration and a call to action — a time to reflect on the legacy of queer and transgender people and how we can continue to fight for a more just, inclusive future. This month, the library and Charlie Hunts, owner of Charlie’s Queer Books in Fremont, are sharing books that… Continue reading
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Keep Kids Learning All Summer: Summer of Learning Kicks Off Today
School’s almost out, but reading, learning and growing are in! The Seattle Public Library’s 106th annual Summer of Learning kicks off today with free activities, programs, and reading challenges designed to keep kids curious, creative and engaged all summer long. Get started by visiting your closest Library location (www.spl.org/Hours) to pick up a Summer of… Continue reading
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Book Bingo NW 2025: Dystopia
Whether offering hope in the dark or a warning about that which may well come to pass, dystopia challenges us to examine not only where we’re headed, but just as often where we already are; it allows us to bravely think and feel through anxieties of the present mapped onto nebulous future-spaces. While the future… Continue reading
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Book Bingo NW 2025: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor
If you talk to me for more than a few minutes, my passion for Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series will undoubtedly come up. I’ve read the books at least six times each, have had genuine arguments about whether I’m allowed to name my children after the characters, made custom iron-on attire for movie premieres on… Continue reading
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New Nonfiction Roundup – June 2025
Welcome to June! In addition to this month’s Peak Picks, June is abundant with books in the entertainment industry, along with a mix of the latest in memoir, self-care, and history. In music, Jonathan Gould takes a look at Talking Heads and the New York scene that transformed rock in Burning Down the House, while… Continue reading
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Super Summer Reading Series with KUOW: 3 Books, 3 Authors, 3 Events
Seattle summer reading just got better! This summer, the KUOW Book Club and the Library invite you to join a book club adventure featuring three books by local authors. Each month, read along with the KUOW Book Club’s selection, and then bring your friends (and your questions) to an event at the Central Library that… Continue reading
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New Fiction Roundup, June 2025
As the day length reaches its peak this month, I hope you’re well on the way with your summer reading journey! Whether that be vacation reading, reading outdoors, participating in Book Bingo, or something else altogether. Take a gander at June’s new releases for some inspiration, including new books by S.A. Cosby, Jess Walter, Taylor… Continue reading
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A Peek at Peak Picks – June 2025
Check out the eleven new books we’re adding to Peak Picks in June! In fiction, from Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & the Six) comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits in Atmosphere; from Leila Mottley, the… Continue reading
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Book Bingo NW 2025: Pacific Northwest Nature
Our region offers so many incredible opportunities to experience nature, from the mountains to the Puget Sound, from the Duwamish Green Belt to the Burke-Gilman Trail, to the University of Washington Arboretum right here in Seattle. Here are some reading suggestions to fill your PNW nature square for this year’s Book Bingo! Local author and… Continue reading
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Book Bingo NW 2025: Censorship
While Summer Book Bingo has featured “Banned” as a category for many years (2015-2017) and “Banned or challenged book” in 2022, we still get reader requests to feature “Banned Books” as a category every year. As book bans are increasing, it’s not surprising that readers want to highlight this, but we mostly see the same… Continue reading
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Book Bingo NW 2025: Found Family
While stories of romantic love and family drama are easy to find, many of us, especially queer folks who might be estranged or abandoned by their families of origin, find community, solace, and meaning through a network of friends who become family – also known as “found family” or “chosen family,” which is one of… Continue reading
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6 Books for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month, but often, Pacific Islander and Filipino books and authors are less acknowledged in publishing, articles and displays. Here are some Pacific Islander and Filipino voices to discover in May and beyond. “Kapaemahu,” a picture book by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, illustrated by Daniel… Continue reading
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Book Bingo 2025 Goes Big, and Begins Today
Your favorite summer reading adventure begins today, with a plot twist! Every summer we partner with Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) for Book Bingo, our summer reading program for adults and teens. For 2025, we are thrilled to share that King County Library System (KCLS) is joining the fun! Readers in all corners of King… Continue reading
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Nightstand Reads with Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times Critic and Author of ‘Storybook Ending’
Ready for some super summer reading recs? We asked Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times arts critic and author of the debut novel “Storybook Ending,” to share some of the books currently crowding her nightstand (virtual and physical). Come celebrate the release of “Storybook Ending” with Moira on Wednesday, May 28 at the Central Library! Registration is… Continue reading
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Historical Fiction for Teens
We’ve updated our list of historical novels for teens. While World War II continues to feed authors’ imaginations, there are also a lot of fantastic stories from other times. Here are a few of our favorites. In Kwame Alexander’s sequel to The Door of No Return, called Black Star, young Charley dreams of becoming the… Continue reading
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Local Pulitzer Prize Talent and More!
The 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced on Tuesday, May 5th, and Seattle (unsurprisingly a City of Literature) was represented incredibly well! Local author and illustrator Tessa Hulls won for Memoir or Autobiography with her incredible graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts, while local author Stacey Levine achieved finalist status for Fiction with Mice 1961, Seattle Times… Continue reading