library staff

  • Tomatoes – are they safe?

    And what about lettuce? avocados? cantaloupe? Here are some links to university and government research with updates on how to be sure the fresh produce you bring home is safe to eat as well as nutritionally sound and just plain delicious. Salmonellosis Outbreak in Certain Types of Tomatoes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  The FDA… Continue reading

  • Sound Before Our Eyes

    Researchers have found a song recorded before Edison’s phonograph. A Frenchman used a phonautograph [a machine designed to record sounds visually, not to play them back] on April 9, 1860. The song is 10 seconds of a crooner singing “Au Clair de la Lune.” Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville went to his grave convinced that Edison… Continue reading

  • Climbing the stairs of Queen Anne

    Wednesday, May 28, was a banner evening for attendees at the annual meeting of the Queen Anne Historical Society at the Queen Anne Branch. Thomas Horton, an architectural designer, gave a fascinating and colorful presentation on the public stairways of Queen Anne Hill, showing various types of stairs, the materials of which they are made and some history of… Continue reading

  • In space, no one can hear you read…

    So, there you are bobbing along weightlessly — another dull evening orbiting Earth. How do you pass the time? Well, if you’re on the International Space Station, you do have some entertainment options! Thanks to a Freedom of Information request, NASA recently released a list of all the books, movies, and music currently on the… Continue reading

  • Summer reading program — for adults!

    It’s Summer Reading time! String up the hammock, pour a glass of lemonade and dive into those beach reads you’ve waited all winter to enjoy. Read, or listen to, three books, write brief reviews and turn in your entry form at any Seattle Public Library. Your reviews will be anonymously displayed to give your neighbors ideas… Continue reading

  • An Ode to Almost Summer — and author Marisa de los Santos

    It’s almost summer. Enjoy the smell of fresh grass clippings, the taste of iced tea with lemon and mint, the feel of a lazy doze in a hammock and the pleasure of a duo of charming, literate, feel-good novels by author Marisa de los Santos. The author’s first novel, Love Walked In, describes the warm… Continue reading

  • The New Wing Luke Museum Opening

    From its humble beginnings in a converted garage, the Wing Luke Asian Museum once again opened its doors to the public on May 31, 2008 as a newly expanded 60,000 square foot facility. It is located at 719 South King Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. As the nation’s only pan–Asian Pacific American museum, WLAM engages… Continue reading

  • Can you name this monster?

    Recently we hosted a Beholder statue from Dungeons & Dragons outside the Central Library’s 4th Avenue entrance.  My brain had been blocked with a confusion spell so I had to look up the name of the monster on the Wizards of the Coast site where I found this news item about filming a commercial in Seattle. Did you… Continue reading

  • Ghost Singer as Author

    As I read a recent Seattle Times review of the traveling production, My Fair Lady, the name Marni Nixon “jumped out” at me. The former Seattlite was playing the non-singing role of Higgins’ mother. What a surprise, she’s still active, I thought. A long time admirer of hers, I wondered what would it be like… Continue reading

  • Fun with Physics

    I wonder how many readers are alive to the fun of physics? Nuclear and quantum physics especially seem so intimidating, but they have stimulated remarkable works of whimsy and creativity, well worth a look— Among the first is George Gamow’s Mr. Tompkins series, originally published before the second world war, and now available in paperback… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Three novels to try this summer

    My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki Documentary filmmaker Jane Tagaki-Little gets her big break when she is assigned to travel the U.S. in search of wholesome beef-eating families for a Japanese TV show, My American Wife, sponsored by a large beef-exporting conglomerate. The show is supposed to encourage more beef consumption in Japanese viewers,… Continue reading

  • Time Travelers or Of Slavery, Then and Now

    You’re sitting on a plane and, unbeknownst to you, an age-old dilemma is being replayed. There are no chains. There is no auction block, but your seatmate is enslaved. Sound farfetched? It isn’t; slavery persists in the 21st century. It is a global phenomenon and is harder to recognize and, therefore, more difficult to address.… Continue reading

  • The Genesis Suite

    Have you heard about the Genesis Suite? In 1944, Hollywood composer/arranger Nathaniel Shilkret commissioned leading composers of the day (Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Milhaud, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Tansman and Toch) to write a piece based on the book of Genesis. The seven-movement work (Shilkret himself wrote one of the movements) premiered in 1945 in Los Angeles. In the early… Continue reading

  • All Robbins all evening: a Pacific Northwest Ballet Preview

    Discover the artistry of choreographer Jerome Robbins at a lecture and video preview of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s program, All Robbins. All Robbins includes three ballets: Fancy Free, In the Night and The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody) with music by Leonard Bernstein and Chopin. Doug Fullington, Educational Programs Manager at PNB will discuss the… Continue reading

  • Historic Preservation in Fremont

    If you’re familiar with Fremont you know it has old and interesting architectural treasures gracing its streets. Ever wondered what the history of these buildings might be? Come to the Fremont Library during the month of May and see the marvelous display provided by the Fremont Historical Society celebrating preservation and adaptive reuse of historic… Continue reading

  • Destination Venice

    If your interest is piqued by ancient cities with mazes of streets and canals, of hidden plots and secrets, then you must like reading about Venice. The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt begins on January 29. 1996 the day the Fenice Opera is destroyed by fire. Berendt’s citizen interviews reveal the intricacies of… Continue reading

  • Cheese Festival at the Market — and some cheese in fiction

    This weekend is the fourth annual Pike Place Market Cheese Festival, where you can learn how to make cheese at home, taste artisanal cheeses from all around the world and listen to cheese experts extol the virtues of cheese in all its stinky, delicious variety. I hope you have a good time. I won’t be… Continue reading

  • Reflecting on Baltic Rites of Spring IV

    After weeks of cold weather, co-hosts Leszek Chudzinski and Maryte Racys awaited this year’s Baltic Rites of Spring with trepidation. To produce a joyful celebration, Primavera’s arrival at 1000 Fourth Avenue (the Central Library) in Seattle was an absolute must. Would She ever arrive? Finally, She appeared on April 26! Trumpets flared and Thousand Winds,… Continue reading