Staff Favorites

  • Staff Faves: The Lovers and The True Deceiver

     The Lovers by Vendela Vida Yvonne returns to Datca, Turkey, the place where she and her late husband, Peter, honeymooned twenty-eight years ago. As soon as she settles in a large, empty mansion where she’s staying for her vacation, a week that was supposed to be a restorative good time proves to be the same… Continue reading

  • In the South Park Stacks: Short & Sweet

    The South Park Branch features staff and patron recommendations throughout the library, as displayed on plastic-encased shelf talkers. Here are a few to check out: Petite Sweets by Beatrice Ojakangas If you prefer your desserts to be “just a bite” Continue reading

  • A book I’d overlooked

    Walking around the library I have to deliberately ignore the shelves sometimes, shutting out the siren song of all those stories crying out to be read. Some I’ve always meant to read, but many more are perfect strangers to me: little worlds languishing on the lower shelves, waiting to be opened. One especially beguiling title… Continue reading

  • More Staff Favorites for Children: Chapter Books II

    George’s Secret Key to the Universe, by Lucy and Stephen Hawking J HAWKING George’s parents do not approve of computers – or any other technological amenities.  So, when George stumbles into the lives of his neighbors, he discovers a brave new world.  Annie and her scientist father, Eric, have a computer which produces a portal… Continue reading

  • More Fall Staff Favorites for Children: Chapter Books

    1,001 Cranes, by Naomi Hirahara J HIRAHAR Folding 1,001 origami cranes was not Angie’s idea.  Her parents, on the verge of divorce, have sent her to her grandparents outside of L.A., where displays of good luck cranes are part of their floral business.  Angie is not a happy camper.  At first, she is all thumbs… Continue reading

  • More Fall Staff Favorites for Children: Picture Books II

    Egg Drop, by Mini Grey E GREY Ever wonder what really happened to Humpty Dumpty? Well, in this modern day tale, an egg dreams of flying, finds a tall, tall tower, and WHEEEEE!,… he jumps!….SPLAT!!  In Humpty Dumpty fashion, his friends rush to put him back together, but, alas, to no avail. Read this book… Continue reading

  • Fall Staff Favorites for Children: Picture Books

    Augustus and His Smile, by Catherine Rayner E RAYNER              Stunningly bold illustrations and simple text are artfully paired to tell the tale of a tiger who sets off to find his lost smile.  Augustus searches the jungles, mountains, deserts, and oceans of the world without success.  In the end, he discovers that his smile comes… Continue reading

  • Even More Summer Staff Favorites for Children

    Gully’s Travels, by Tor Seidler J SEIDLER Gully lives a happy life of luxury, residing in Manhattan and travelling to Paris with his professor. Everything changes when his master rejects him and he is forced to live a simpler life-style with a happy-go-lucky family. Gully tries to solve the riddle of why he was abandoned… Continue reading

  • More Summer Staff Favorites for Children: Historical Fiction

    The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, by Kristin Levine J LEVINE Prepare to fall in love with the narrator of this story! Dit tells the tale of a memorable year in tiny Moundville, Alabama, during World War I, the year he meets and befriends Emma.  Dit provokes a blatantly racist sheriff to shoot at… Continue reading

  • Summer Reading: A few favorites from Montlake

    Books pictured here include: Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman Two Rivers by T. Greenwood The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay Two… Continue reading

  • More Summer Staff Favorites for Children: Fantasy Chapter Books

    Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep by Eleanor Farjeon J FARJEON Elsie Piddock was a born skipper from the age of three and, by the time she was seven, the fairies had heard of her.  They taught her the most fantastical skips anyone ever saw.  As Elsie grows older, her skipping is almost forgotten, becoming… Continue reading

  • More Summer Staff Favorites for Children: Picture Books

    Beware of the Frog by William Bee  E BEE Mrs. Collywobbles lives all alone on the edge of a dark, scary forest, with no one to protect her except for her pet . . . frog?  Yes, but this is no ordinary frog, as the Greedy Goblin, Smelly Troll, and Giant Hungry Ogre all discover,… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Starbucks and Animal Ignorance

    Looking for a summer read? Here are two suggestions from librarians at our Fremont Branch and downtown at the Central Library:  How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gates Gill This goes down like a Mocha Frappuccino on a chilly day. Gill grew up in… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Nonfiction books get thumbs-up from our librarians

    Things the Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Oliver Everett Early in this absorbing memoir, Mark Oliver Everett states: “Thanks to my ridiculous, sometimes tragic, and always unsteady upbringing, I was giventhe gift of bone-crushing insecurity.” If, like me, you appreciate the simple honesty of that statement, then read this book. The author is better known… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Dogs and strays.

    Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck If this book doesn’t make you want to take a road trip, I don’t know what will. The first paragraph so completely captures the urge to travel that I feel profoundly moved every time I read it. At age 58, Steinbeck sets out to rediscover… Continue reading

  • Some books we’re thankful for.

    Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote Capote’s first published novel displays thoroughly his skills at poetic description. This is a story of illusions from the inner self of Joel, a sensitive young man, as he copes with the strange household that becomes his home. Coming from New Orleans, he passes through Biloxi and with… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Non-Fiction Thrills.

    The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks by Susan Casey “The killing took place at dawn and as usual it was a decapitation, accomplished by a single vicious swipe.” Thus begins this intriguing look at the great white sharks that congregate every fallat the Farallon Islands, just… Continue reading

  • Tom’s Midnight Garden

    I have just read again one of my very favorite children’s books, Tom’s Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce, a book that like all the best children’s books can be read with a great deal of pleasure by adults. I know that I find new depths every time I read it. It is a fantasy about… Continue reading