If You Like Game of Thrones

“Wait – what?! Literally NONE of this happened on TV!!”

Frustrated that George RR Martin’s “Game of Thrones” series still isn’t finished, or that the TV spinoff is? Either way, if you’re looking for fresh  fantastical worlds to lose yourself in, replete with political machinations, bloodthirsty scheming and shocking twists, here are some recent epic fantasy series starters for you to dive into.

• The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
  Jude was just seven when her parents were murdered and she and her sisters were stolen away to the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, but is despised by Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. Black brings GOT style plotting and betrayal to the world of the Fey.
• The Wolf, by Leo Carew.
  In this promising debut, Roper – the young heir to the Black Kingdom of the Anakim – ascends to a beleaguered throne as enemy forces, rival rulers and devious underlings converge to steal his power – and his life. Will the young cub rise to meet the challenge? Time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: the North remembers.
• City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
  In this brilliant debut, the young trickster Nahri accidentally calls forth a djinn warrior, drawing her into a world even more treacherous than the one she knows, and into an otherworldly power struggle that continues in the even more gripping sequel, The Kingdom of Copper.
• Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  This bloody, visceral fantasy debut by Booker Award winning James is packed with shocking action and a fascinating array of exotic creatures and beings: small wonder many are calling it “the African Game of Thrones.”
• An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
  The Scholars may have been conquered by the Warriors, but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Seeking to rescue her brother, young Laia infiltrates the Martial Kingdom’s elite academy posing as a slave, setting wheels in motion that just might lead to a revolution.

You’ll find many more great titles for GOT fans in our If You Like Game of Thrones list, in the library catalog.

     ~ Posted by David W. 

Three on a Theme: There’s a Rabbit on Your Book

Two new novels and one of last year’s fiction gems have an obvious link with a distinct long-eared creature on the cover. What these books really have in common, however, is within their pages of bitingly funny fiction.

Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum (May 2019)
It’s been ten years since we’ve been treated to a novel by the hilarious Kirshenbaum, and this new one is worthy of a celebration. In Rabbits for Food, Bunny, a novelist, heads into a clinical depression as she waits for a therapy dog that never arrives. How could this possibly be funny? Well,

#BookBingoNW: published when author was under 35

Book Bingo 2019 is now underway, and we know many of you are out there pouring over your 2019 bingo cards planning what to read, so today I’m here to help you fill the “published when author was under 35” square. Here are some suggestions for fiction, nonfiction and memoir published when the author was younger than 35; you can find even more ideas in this list.

FICTION

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: Comics and Graphic Novels

Seattle Reads recently celebrated Vietnamese American cartoonist Thi Bui’s comics memoir The Best We Could Do. Bui is one of many, many great Asian American and Pacific Islander American cartoonists. In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, librarians at The Seattle Public list created a list of work  from some of these brilliant cartoonists. Below are a few selections.

Blame This on the Boogie by Rina Ayuyang

Vibrant, kinetic colored pencil drawings gorgeously illustrate Ayuyang’s memoir full of touching and hilarious stories of Filipino American culture, Pittsburgh, music, dance, motherhood, and pop-culture fandom.

Summer Book Bingo — let the reading begin!

It’s time for our fifth season of Summer Book Bingo for grownups! We know you can’t wait to see this year’s categories, so here you go.

First thing you need to do to get started on Book Bingo: head on over to your neighborhood library and pick up a card!  You can also download cards in English and Spanish at our Book Bingo site. Write down the titles/authors of books you read between May 15 (today!) and Sept. 3, 2019 that fit challenges on your bingo card. This year you’ll see familiar categories (read a book recommended by a librarian or an independent bookseller, read a book set in the Northwest), as well as new challenges such as reading a book about music, science, or a subject you wish you’d studied in school. For the DIY (do it yourself) category, read a cookbook, a craft book, or any kind of book that teaches you how to make something (we won’t be asking if you actually made the thing, as reading about making the thing can be super enjoyable). And for that category in the bottom row that takes up TWO squares? Put the title of one BIG book you read. You can decide how many pages this needs to be for it to be a challenge for you: 500 pages? 600? 1,000?? It’s up to you. REALLY. You decide. (We suggest, however, that you do make a note of the page count, along with the title and author.)