Linda J.

  • Book Buzz with Nancy Pearl

    Who could resist going to a program called “Book Buzz with Nancy Pearl”? Certainly not the thousands of librarians here in Portland this week for the Public Library Association Conference. Your Shelf Talk team was there, scoping out upcoming novels and nonfiction titles. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (coming out soon; available to place… Continue reading

  • Goodreads, Shelfari or Library Thing?

    I’ve bought and lost seven book journals in the past four years, and I’m finally ready to admit that I will never be the person who writes (actually writes, as in handwrites) about books as soon as I finish them. I won’t even be the person who types about books, not even a simple list… Continue reading

  • Cover art for Hunger Games #3 revealed — and here’s how you’ll know when you can put a hold on it

    Is it mean to tease you with the cover of a book that isn’t available yet? Maybe. But I thought you’d forgive me since now fans of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games can ramp up the anticipation for the August 24 release of Mockingjay. Read all about the trilogy at the Scholastic blog. Now, you know… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites from Magnolia, Ballard and Central librarians

    Paradise by A.L. Kennedy This is one brutal book. You’ll either love it or hate it. Hannah is in her mid-30s and works in corrugated box sales. She’s a hardcore alcoholic in love with Robert, also an alcoholic. From Scotland to Montreal their story unfolds like a train wreck. The writing is what makes this… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Novel suggestions for August nights

    The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz Andrew Danner is a well-respected mystery writer who one morning wakes up after brain surgery with no memory of having a tumor and no idea why he is being charged with murder. All the evidence points to his guilt, so he reluctantly agrees to plead guilty by reason of… Continue reading

  • ‘The Help’ reaches its tipping point

    There’s a lot to love about summer reading when you work in a library, but the best part is when people stop by to tell you what they’ve been reading. And that’s how, early in June, I found one of my favorite books of the past several years: The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  In this… Continue reading

  • When journalists turn to crime . . .

    The other day a journalism student came to the Library wanting to try a novel by Edna Buchanan, one of her favorite reporters, and we began talking about why some of our favorite mystery/thriller writers (e.g., Connelly and Buchanan, among others) earned their chops on the crime beat or as investigative journalists.  Of course there’s… Continue reading

  • Risks of Sunbathing Topless

    Just came across this delightful Literary Staycation post, with book recommendations from Margaret, a high school volunteer at the Teen Center at The Seattle Public Library. How can I now resist reading The Risks of Sunbathing Topless and Other Funny Stories from the Road when Margaret says, “By the end, I felt as if I’d been… Continue reading

  • Guaranteed no-pressure book group experience

    I clearly have the best job in the world, because I regularly get to go to a book group that does nothing but talk about good books — and lots of them. This isn’t your typical “let’s all read the same book and talk about it” book group. Instead, this is an informal group where… Continue reading

  • If you like Lee Child and his ‘Jack Reacher’ novels …

    Jack Reacher, a consummate loner and star of Lee Child’s novels, is a thinking person’s action hero. Intelligent, witty and unencumbered by possessions, Reacher drifts into a new town and meets injustice head on. He’s equal measure Dirty Harry and James Bond, always outwitting his opponents.  Child’s swift, cinematic thrillers continue to be among the… Continue reading

  • Discovering Oxford: Then and Now

    My small town roots drew me to a hefty arty book about the people in Oxford, Iowa, population 705.  But it was my love of a good story that kept me glued to The Oxford Project. In 1984, Peter Feldstein photographed 670 Oxford residents (the population then was 676) and displayed the 4×5 black and… Continue reading

  • Harry Potter versus Twilight: Who did you vote for?

    Yesterday Seattle teens tackled one of the biggest issues of 2009: Which is better, the Harry Potter or Twilight series? Three-hundred passionate Potter and Bella fans packed the auditorium at the Central Library for this hotly contested literary smackdown. The winner? According to the debate judges … Harry Potter!  A poll of the audience also… Continue reading

  • Researching names for babies, characters and all kinds of cats

    Earlier this year a group of librarians offered to help one of our pregnant coworkers name her babies (yes, babies—as in two!). Although she graciously declined our assistance, the conversation continued and headed, as it so often does when librarians confab, to research—in this case researching names for babies, pets and characters in novels.    … Continue reading

  • A shed of one’s own

    My husband and I have decided we need separate rooms. For more than a decade, we’ve shared a home “office” that hasn’t worked well for either of us. There’s no room for flat files for him, nor is there the quiet retreat I crave for writing. I look longingly at our friend John’s backyard music… Continue reading

  • The Oscars of children’s publishing

    For some of us, early this morning was as exciting as watching the Academy Awards. Thousands of us were glued to our laptops, trying to get into the American Library Association’s webcast of Youth Media Awards (and maybe there were some, like me, who missed the bus because of this obsession). Thousands more followed on… Continue reading

  • A few of our Fiction staff’s favorites from 2008

    The time between December 26 and January 1 is always pretty meager when it comes to news. I try to avoid TV news, radio shows and newspapers that fill their time and pages with their “look back at the year” and “top ten this” and “top ten that” features. Yet I absolutely canNOT resist any… Continue reading

  • Literally, the best gifts ever for a grammar lover

    Every few years, a book comes along that is an absolutely perfect gift for those brave souls who never confuse their pronouns nor mix their tenses. Four years ago, that book was Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss; three years ago it was Maira Kalman’s elegant, witty illustrations that made it imperative that I… Continue reading

  • Tips from a news junkie

    One of our librarians, Jesten, has me totally hooked on PressDisplay, an online library service featuring hundreds of U.S. and international daily newspapers. I knew Jesten was a total news junkie, but it was her post on Push To Talk this week that reeled me in—and ended up being extra handy for me. Recently I… Continue reading