Announcing Washington State Book Award finalists for 2018!

Congratulations to the finalists in the
2018 Washington State Book Awards

Place a hold on these winning Washington titles here!

Fiction:
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, of Seattle (Flatiron Books)
The Cold Eye by Laura Anne Gilman, of Seattle (Simon & Schuster)
The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper, of Seattle (HarperCollins)
Solar Reboot by Matthew D. Hunt, of Clearview (Matthew D. Hunt)
George and Lizzie by Nancy Pearl, of Seattle (Touchstone)
Duplicity by Ingrid Thoft, of Seattle (Putnam)

Nonfiction:
Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, from River to Table by Langdon Cook, of Seattle (Ballantine Books)
Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, of Seattle (Little, Brown & Company)
Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil to Life by David R. Montgomery, of Seattle (W.W. Norton)
Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean by Jonathan White, of Orcas Island (Trinity University Press) Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal by David B. Williams and Jennifer Ott, of Seattle, and the Staff of HistoryLink (HistoryLink and Documentary Media)
Ghosts of Seattle Past, various authors, curated and edited by Jaimee Garbacik, formerly of Seattle (Chin Music Press)

#BookBingoNW2018: About the Environment

One of the many things I appreciate about the Book Bingo categories is that quite a few can be filled by both fiction or nonfiction, leaving the choice up to the reader. Today let’s look at the “About the Environment” category, which at first glance lends itself primarily to nonfiction, and instead see what fiction we could read.

T.C. Boyle has written several novels in which environmental concerns play

That Encouraging Voice in Your Ear

I’m a self help fan who hates reading self help books. When it comes to encouraging words, I want to hear them, preferably while I go about my household chores, tend my garden, or take a walk in the park. These encouraging little talks between me and my iPod are just the thing to add more creation to my recreation, or to revivify a draining commute. Here are a few recent self-help audiobooks written and read by seasoned performers that make for great listens.

Creative Quest, by Questlove.

#BookBingoNW: Suggested by a Young Person

We asked our young patrons at the Central Library Children’s Center to suggest books for our adult Book Bingo players and they delivered! These young people know their kid lit – they suggested classics both modern and older, video game tie-ins, realistic fiction, fantasy, adventure – there’s something for every reader of any age. Find the full list here: #BookBingoNW2018: Central Library Children’s Center patron suggestions for “Suggested by a Young Person”

Gregor the Overlander, the first novel by Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games trilogy, is something of an urban Alice in Wonderland. I’m not a fantasy reader, but once I picked it up I was hooked! I devoured the first hundred pages in one sitting.

Thrilling Tales is Off to the Races!

This summer, Thrilling Tales (the Library’s Story Time for Grown Ups) takes listeners off to the races with a pair of horse racing tales,  and then out into the rose garden with Shirley Jackson to dig into dark underside suburbia, before heading to the seashore to grapple with aliens from another world, and from the briny deep! Come join us this August and September for live readings suspenseful and strange, either at noon (bring along some lunch), or at 7 p.m. with Thrilling Tales After Dark! All story times are under an hour, and are absolutely free. Here’s what’s coming up: