fiction

  • Time is Fake!

    Time is Fake!

    “Happy” “New” “Year”? Celebrating the passage of time freaks me out. I feel unsettled by the acknowledgement that humans assign numbers and meaning to our spins through space and time. And we don’t even all use the same calendar! Time feels increasingly fake to me. I spent most of my college astronomy class either fighting… Continue reading

  • 2025 Staff Faves: Adult Fiction

    2025 Staff Faves: Adult Fiction

    Each year we ask our staff across the library for their favorite books published in the current year. Below you will find some of the fiction books that stood out to library staff in 2025. Find the full list of staff faves in our catalog: Seattle Staff Faves 2025: Fiction, Part 1 and Seattle Staff… Continue reading

  • Family Drama, Secrets, and Second Chances: 5 Fiction Picks for Fans of Dysfunctional Families

    Family Drama, Secrets, and Second Chances: 5 Fiction Picks for Fans of Dysfunctional Families

    Every family has its cracks – some small enough to laugh about, others deep enough to reshape a life. Fiction has always given us a safe way to explore the relationships that challenge us, comfort us, and occasionally derail the holiday dinner. These five novels from our new Lake City Branch display, Dysfunctional by Design… Continue reading

  • Kick Off with Women’s Soccer Part 2 – Fiction

    Kick Off with Women’s Soccer Part 2 – Fiction

    The National Women’s Soccer League season is off to a thrilling start! You may have seen my last post about the NWSL with library resources to get you prepped and excited for the season. Ready for women’s soccer to take over more of your brain space?  Here are some novels and movies so you can… Continue reading

  • A Peek at Peak Picks – March 2025

    We’re adding a dozen new books to Peak Picks in March! In fiction, Laila Lalami returns with a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance, in Dream Hotel; Amal El-Mohtar guides readers to follow the river Liss to the small town of… Continue reading

  • Staff Faves 2024: Adult Fiction

    Staff Faves 2024: Adult Fiction

    At the end of each year, Library staff weigh in on their favorite reads published that year and boy, did they deliver for adult fiction! With nearly 120 titles, we had to create two lists to fit all of the books that most moved SPL workers this year. Check out the lists in full or… Continue reading

  • Dive into Light Novels

    If you’ve never heard of light novels, you’re not alone; I didn’t really know what they were until a couple of years ago. Light novels are characterized as short, quick books, often featuring a handful of manga-like illustrations. Light novels originated in Japan and have grown in popularity all over the world. While they are… Continue reading

  • Have a Laugh With These 4 Funny Books

    Have a Laugh With These 4 Funny Books

    “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” by Rufi Thorpe proves that other people’s problems can be pretty funny — as long as they’re narrated by a chaotic heroine who is wisecracking and whip-smart. Nineteen-year-old Margo Millet was not exactly set up for success with a flighty mother and an absentee, former wrestling star father. But when Margo… Continue reading

  • Three on a Theme: Cozy Horror

    ‘Tis the season for terrifying tales! But do they all have to be terrifying? Could they also be cozy? Yes, they absolutely can be cozy! What constitutes a “cozy” horror story is highly subjective, but some common examples that folks reference are The Addams Family, Over the Garden Wall, Scary Stories to Tell in the… Continue reading

  • In the Deep Dark Woods

    Growing up with the woods at my back in Central Oregon, forests have always been closest to the sublime for me. Forests hold beauty, magic, mystery, and little bit of terror – there is nothing quite so eerie as the silence of the woods on a snowy winter’s day. Since moving to Seattle, with its… Continue reading

  • Haunted Houses

    When it comes to horror tropes, the haunted house is one of my favorites, and this year I’m in luck as we have a bounty of horror fiction featuring haunted houses to choose from. Given that horror is often seen as a lens on contemporary fears and anxieties, both as exploration and commentary, I wondered… Continue reading

  • New Fiction Round-up, June 2023

    New Fiction Round-up, June 2023

    Whether you’re traveling this summer or staying close to home, these new novels coming out in June will keep you busy with summer reading. 6/6: All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. CosbyFormer FBI agent Titus Crown is one year into his tenure as the first Black sheriff in Charon County, Virginia, when a murder leads… Continue reading

  • Short Books to End the Year

    As the end of the year approaches, perhaps you’re looking for a short read, either to help you hit a reading goal or to devour during some self-care time as 2022 finishes up. If so, check out one of these reads, all coming in at under 200 pages. The Singing Hills Cycle novels by Nghi… Continue reading

  • Something You Haven’t Read: Best Fiction Debuts of 2022

    Do you seem to be reading the same authors, and the same books, over and over and over? We’ve got the antidote: check out our list of stellar debut novels from 2022. Get in on the ground floor of these authors’ promising careers. Here’s a small sample of what you’ll find there: The Ghetto Within… Continue reading

  • Seattle Book Clubs Discuss Abortion

    We librarians often witness how life and literature interact, as topics of real world interest to our patrons swiftly show up in requests for reading material, and especially in titles for book clubs. One of the best things about such groups is how the focus on a book can help people to discuss a topic… Continue reading

  • Write On! Crafting the Novel, Creating Imaginary Lives

    Write On! Crafting the Novel, Creating Imaginary Lives

    Let’s start at the beginning, in that place From Where You Dream, at the first flash of a place, a line or a face.  Start, precisely, there, Creating Characters as you continue to construct, in your mind, the Architecture of the Novel you will write. Ok, maybe, you have to start at that other beginning.… Continue reading

  • Short and Sweet: Stories to Savor while Social Distancing

    As is the case for most folks these days, I am spending a lot of time alone. Under normal circumstances this would be the perfect time to tackle my to-be-read pile, but between phone and video catch-ups with friends and family and a seemingly endless amount of news to absorb, I’ve been finding it difficult… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reads with author Sara Donati

    Where the Light Enters is the latest from Sara Donati, a bestselling author known for her riveting and well-researched historical novels. We asked her to share her own reading list with us: I read a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction out of personal interest and professional necessity. My novels are deeply researched, so I spend… Continue reading