Seattle Arts and Lectures

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: Monsters

    Book Bingo NW 2025: Monsters

    What makes a monster? Is it feral and visually arresting – a furry creature with glowing red eyes and razor-sharp teeth? Maybe your frame of reference is mythological: Medusa and her snakes, Scylla’s six hideous heads rising from the sea. Do you imagine the uncanny and unnatural – Frankenstein in his lab, foisting life onto… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: Disability

    Book Bingo NW 2025: Disability

    One of the joys of Book Bingo is expanding reading beyond what you might ordinarily pick up, and hopefully discovering what Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop termed “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors:” books that offer both opportunities for self-affirmation and insight into the experiences of those different from us. Within the Disability category, there is… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: Dystopia

    Book Bingo NW 2025: Dystopia

    Whether offering hope in the dark or a warning about that which may well come to pass, dystopia challenges us to examine not only where we’re headed, but just as often where we already are; it allows us to bravely think and feel through anxieties of the present mapped onto nebulous future-spaces. While the future… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

    Book Bingo NW 2025: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

    If you talk to me for more than a few minutes, my passion for Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series will undoubtedly come up. I’ve read the books at least six times each, have had genuine arguments about whether I’m allowed to name my children after the characters, made custom iron-on attire for movie premieres on… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: Censorship

    Book Bingo NW 2025: Censorship

    While Summer Book Bingo has featured “Banned” as a category for many years (2015-2017) and “Banned or challenged book” in 2022, we still get reader requests to feature “Banned Books” as a category every year. As book bans are increasing, it’s not surprising that readers want to highlight this, but we mostly see the same… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: Found Family

    Book Bingo NW 2025: Found Family

    While stories of romantic love and family drama are easy to find, many of us, especially queer folks who might be estranged or abandoned by their families of origin, find community, solace, and meaning through a network of friends who become family – also known as “found family” or “chosen family,” which is one of… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: LGBTQIA+ Poetry/Essays

    Colleen Lindsay, Bookseller at Charlie’s Queer Books, offers suggestions to fill your “LGBQTIA+ Poetry/Essays” AND “Suggested by an Independent Bookseller” squares for Book Bingo NW 2024. Since we’re headed toward the last weeks of Book Bingo, I thought I’d share a few suggestions for a category that sometimes intimidates readers: queer poetry and essays. Don’t… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: In Translation

    This summer, check out a book in translation! Translated works allow the reader to find new stories and perspectives, delving into another viewpoint or geography through language and story. To fill the In Translation square on your Seattle Public Library #BookBingoNW2024 board, check out the titles suggested below, or find 25 more on this list:… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: Refugee/Immigrant Memoir

    Memoirs are a wonderful way to experience what Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop termed “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors,” the ways we as readers can see ourselves and others through books. Given that more than 120 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced, reading the stories of refugees and immigrants is particularly important for highlighting… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: Suggested by an independent bookseller, University Book Store

    Milo Michels, bookseller at University Book Store, offers suggestions to fill your “Suggested by an Independent Bookseller” square – and more – for Book Bingo NW 2024. Maybe you’re looking for a suggestion from an indie bookseller! Or maybe your bookseller was publicly nostalgia-weeping into a copy of Because Of Winn-Dixie the last time you… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: Fantastical

    To mark off your “Fantastical” Book Bingo NW 2024 square, let yourself be swept away to the realms of gods and monsters, magic and intrigue with the following titles, where everything is not quite as it seems… Godkiller by Hannah Kaner is an engrossing quest fantasy with unlikely friendships and found family set in a… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo 2024: Short Story Collection

    I have a confession – in the past I was not a fan of short stories. They always left me wanting MORE. But recently, I have evolved from a hater to a serious fan. There are so many incredible collections out now that are chock full of absolute bangers. Below, I’m highlighting four stunning short… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo 2024: Environmental

    With climate change dominating our daily lives, it’s no surprise that writers are tackling one of the most pressing and world-changing issues of our time. However, these authors are not all doom and gloom—themes of resilience and renewal shine in both fiction and nonfiction abound. Ranging in tone from irreverent to meditative, the following four… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: Friendship

    “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” — Anaïs Nin In 2023, one of our more popular Book Bingo categories was “Read With a Friend.” We often hear how often friends tackle Book Bingo… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: One Big Book

    Book Bingo NW 2024: One Big Book

    It’s time to read that daunting book. The big one. The good news: it will fill up two squares on your Book Bingo. As a few suggestions for you, I’ve provided a smattering of different genres. Hopefully one of them will appeal. For even more suggestions check out our booklist Book Bingo NW 2024: One… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: Suggested by an Independent Bookseller, Third Place Books

    Spencer Ruchti, Author Events Manager for Third Place Books, offers suggestions to fill your “Suggested by an Independent Bookseller” square – and more – for Book Bingo NW 2024. Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Zoë Perry Of Cattle and Men lays bare the brutal labor of the slaughterhouse trade—a bit… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: Sky Creatures

    Are you ready for dragons and birds and creatures that FLY? Check out these titles from the #BookBingoNW2024 Sky Creatures list! This was one of our top requested categories from staff and participants and we are thrilled to offer several suggestions. Spread your wings and try something new! Conversations With Birds by Priyanka Kumar –… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: Young Adult

    As a former teen librarian, I firmly believe that young adult books can (and should!) be enjoyed by people of all ages. I was so excited to see Young Adult as a category on this year’s Book Bingo and am thrilled to share some of my recent favorites that I think will appeal to teen… Continue reading