LISTS

  • Mysteries for non-mystery readers

    “Oh, I would never read a mystery!” If you love crime fiction, you almost certainly have at least one of these in your life. They don’t mean to be snobs or anything, but mysteries? Um, no thanks. Life’s too short, they’ll say, to waste it on such frivolities. In the library, they don’t even know… Continue reading

  • Crime, Seattle Style: A Reading List.

    Some of our favorite mysteries set in the rainy streets of Seattle. Third & Forever, by Lowen Clausen Grace Stevens investigates a series of rapes involving college athletes, including one dating the daughter of her former partner, in this final chapter of a gripping trilogy by a former Seattle police officer. Queer Street, by Curt Colbert.… Continue reading

  • Crime: Presidential Thrills

    As if this election season wasn’t thrilling enough, we’ve compiled a little list of Presidential Thrillers for your reading delight. Can fiction possibly be stranger than truth? Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reads: Novelist Kim Fay shares her favorites

    Seattle native Kim Fay’s debut novel The Map of Lost Memories has been wowing the critics: Publisher’s Weekly called it “…intricate page-turner that will keep readers breathless and guessing,” while Booklist raved “Every word of this evocative literary expedition feels deliberately chosen, each phrase full of meaning.” Fay shared with us some of her favorite titles. Continue reading

  • Crime: Blood and Circuses.

    Recently I read a story as part of Thrilling Tales, Seattle Public Library’s storytime for grownups, that was a bit out there even for me: “Spurs,” by the obscure pulp writer Tod Robbins. (You can listen to it here – Fair warning: I had a cold, and I really chewed the scenery on this one). Published in 1923,… Continue reading

  • Murder at the Olympic Games

    I foolishly tried to resist getting caught up in the fervor, but it’s no use: once again my attention has been totally dominated by the Olympic Games. Such is the case for many of our patrons if the small talk at our service desk is any indication. There’s also been a run on all of our books about the Games,… Continue reading

  • London Calling: a Reading List.

    “London itself perpetually attracts, stimulates, gives me a play & a story & a poem, without any trouble, save that of moving my legs through the streets… To walk alone in London is the greatest rest.”   ~ Virginia Woolf, Diary, March 28, 1930. So you say your tickets to the London Olympics got lost the… Continue reading

  • Crime: If You Like Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series.

    In his 1950 essay The Simple Art of Murder, Raymond Chandler outlined the character of the modern detective, in words fit to quote at length: “…down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. … He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual… Continue reading

  • What we were listening to in 1962

    On the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair, we look back at that year’s popular books, music, movies and TV shows. This week: what we were listening to in 1962. I like to be in America! If we could travel back in time to a random Seattle living room circa 1962, chances are good we’d… Continue reading

  • What we were reading in 1962

    On the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair, we look back at that year’s popular books, music, movies and TV shows. This week: what we were reading in 1962. Although it was a forward-looking time, the single bestselling novel that year was a glance backwards: Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools, an allegorical novel set aboard… Continue reading

  • Crime: The Sherlock Holmes you don’t know.

    Arriving at the D’s in my Alphabet of Crime, I want to pay homage to Arthur Conan Doyle, or more specifically to his greatest creation. Sherlock Holmes is especially hot right now, but as arguably the most beloved series character in the history of fiction, he never really goes out of style. Of course you can… 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

  • Into the Unknown: Pacific Northwest Maritime and Overland Exploration

    While the story of Juan de Fuca’s tale of an inland route, later known as the elusive Northwest Passage is of doubtful reliability, the later major sea explorations of the Northwest Coast during the late eighteenth century are well documented. Noteworthy coastal explorers include Vitus Bering, Dionisio Alcala-Galiano, George Vancouver, Robert Gray. Lewis and Clark,… Continue reading

  • Top Trends: The Irresistible “-ist” List

    When you work at a library, some literary trends aren’t that hard to spot: you tend to trip over them. A while back we started seeing lobsters everywhere, which last year were replaced by tigers. We’ve done whole book displays over covers featuring just feet, or headless women. (One avid reader in Montreal is especially gifted at keeping an… Continue reading

  • Cult Classics: Into the Dark

    Strange things lurk in dark places. Another helping of titles that our readers keep coming back for, year after year. Andrews, V.C. Flowers in the Attic Shocking carnal secrets; torments of the body and the mind; for the Dollangangers, it’s all in the family. After 30 years, this lurid gothic tale is still going strong.… Continue reading

  • Cult Classics: Nightmare Visions

    Dystopian fiction is all the rage at the moment, but grim visions of the world as it might become, or as it already is, are nothing new. Here are some masterful views of our world glimpsed through a glass darkly that are perennially popular with our readers, and with good reason. Atwood, Margaret The Handmaid’s Tale A… 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

  • Books that are One with the Bike

    I’ve been reading some interesting books about bikes and bike riding, racing and commuting. Here are a few books that have an interesting angle or two. Sometimes the angle is from the ground looking up. Come and Gone: A true Story of Blue-Collar Bike Racing in America by Joe Parkin This is Parkin’s follow up to… Continue reading