Jared M.

  • Your Next 5 Books: A column of our favorite reader’s advisory questions

    In this column we regularly highlight a Your Next 5 Books submission that we find interesting, funny, unique, or useful to other readers. Submit Your Next 5 Books entry now, or stop by and see us in person, and maybe you could see your (anonymous) reading habits on Shelf Talk! Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: The Wonderful Worlds of Walton

    Jo Walton is simply a joy to read. Whether it’s her fiction or her reviews, musings and recaps over at the Tor blog. If you ever want a list of great science fiction to read, I highly recommend reading the older blog entries of her rereads of the Hugo winners. What’s so beguiling about Walton… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: The past is never past

                                 “The past is obdurate.”                                                                 ― Stephen King I love a good time travel story. And I mean all sorts of time travel stories. I like the ones where people go back in time to change things in their own lives. I like the distant past stories of people attempting to fit in to… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Friday: The Moon Over Miami

    It’s pretty much a granted that every science fiction and fantasy fan is only biding their time until moon colonies are a reality. We all secretly hope that permanent off-Earth habitation, open to the few brave souls ready to tame the unknown, will happen in our lifetimes. The technology is ready. In fact, the only… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Dark Fantasy for Dark Times

    Maybe it’s the snowstorms and freezing rain, or the post-holiday blues, but I’ve been hankering for some dark fantasy lately. For those uninitiated to the charms of this sub-genre, dark fantasy is very different from the high epics of the Tolkien school of fantasy. The heroes are rarely heroic, the villains are horrendous, and the… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsongs

    A new year, a new column! Today marks the inaugural post of our new series Science Fiction Fridays. Every Friday librarians and people of interest will talk about their favorite science fiction and fantasy books, television, movies, art, music and whatever other newly discovered media we find interesting. The recent passing of Anne McCaffrey has… Continue reading

  • Fear and Loathing in the Library

    While I do enjoy a good old fashioned Gothic ghost story from time to time, I have to come out of the closet with a deep, dark secret: I like my horror as bloody, gruesome and gory as possible. I like it when bones are broken, heads are severed and every excruciating detail of the… Continue reading

  • Other kids

    So it’s pretty much a given that everyone in Seattle is on the hold’s list for Just Kids, Patti Smith’s new memoir about her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. And while that book is all sorts of amazing, there are several other musician memoirs that don’t have a huge holds ratio and just might tide… Continue reading

  • World Fantasy Awards Nominees 2011

    The World Fantasy Awards were just announced a frew weeks, and it is a doozy of a list! I defy anyone to read the list of nominees for novel of the year and not conclude that these fantasy novels were some of the best literature written this year. The library currently has copies of all the… Continue reading

  • Aliens, cowboys and the return of Vinge

    After a decade of silence, the wonderful science fiction and fantasy author Joan D. Vinge has returned to the publishing world with her novelization of the new movie Cowboys and Aliens. Now before you cringe at the thought of a movie novelization, read on! Vinge, though she has authored almost 20 different books, is probably… Continue reading

  • In honor of Joanna Russ

    In honor of the recent passing of author and critic Joanna Russ, I thought I would put together a short list of just a few of my favorite feminist science fiction and fantasy stories. For those of you who are not familiar with her work, Joanna Russ was one of the most ferocious and fearless… Continue reading

  • What to read while waiting for A Game of Thrones

    It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since the Lord of the Rings hit theaters, and the world was instantly smitten with High Fantasy–visions of hobbits dancing through our heads! If you loved Tolkien’s Middle Earth and always craved something more after devouring the books, then HBO’s new adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s A… Continue reading