Love and Magic

Sometimes on a dreary day, there’s nothing better than escaping into a book with the perfect mix of magic and romance. Here are some titles to start with:

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In the city of Loisail, Nina arrives for her first season among high society, but she struggles to control her telekinetic powers which are treated as a source of shame. When she meets the well-known telekinetic performer Hector, he begins to teach her how to embrace her gifts.

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

This installment to the Practical Magic series goes all the way back to Maria Owens, a fierce and independent woman born in the 1600s. After having her heart broken, she grapples with her complicated relationship with love.

Enchanted Hacienda by J.C. Cervantes

After being fired and going through a breakup, Harlow returns to the family farm in Mexico, where her family cultivates magical flowers. Once there, Harlow finds connection with her community, her family’s magic and a stranger named Ben.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

In this gothic Beauty and the Beast retelling, Opal grew up hearing about the legendary Starling House, previously owned by the mysterious author E. Starling. When Opal is hired by Arthur, the house’s last heir, she believes it’s her ticket out of town. But Opal finds herself increasingly drawn into the strange magic that surrounds the house, and Arthur.

~posted by Chris

These Books Became 2024 Oscar-Nominated Film Adaptations

The Seattle Public Library’s Reader Services team recently debuted a new monthly column in the Seattle Times. Read the article by Reader Services librarian Misha Stone on the Seattle Times website or below, where it’s republished with permission.   

The Seattle Public Library loves to promote books and reading. This column, submitted by the library, will be a space to promote reading and book trends from a librarian’s perspective. You can find these titles at the library by visiting spl.org and searching the catalog.

Film adaptations of books often inspire audiences to go find those books that they may have missed when they were first published. This is especially heightened when the Academy Awards roll around and give an extra boost of attention to the film adaptations of the year.

Ahead of the 2024 Academy Awards, we highlight three novels that were adapted into Oscar-nominated films in 2023, each a worthy complement to the films they inspired and providing many of their own delights and twists.

“Poor Things” by Alasdair Gray

Often described as a feminist “Frankenstein,” “Poor Things,” by Scottish author Alasdair Gray, was published in 1992 and won the Whitbread Award Prize that same year. While the film, starring Oscar contender for best actress Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, departs from Gray’s Glasgow setting, it does capture the madcap, ribald and provocative tone of its source material.

The novel and the film follow the same arc, telling the story of Bella Baxter (played by Stone), a woman reanimated with the brain of her unborn child, and her Lothario suitor, Duncan Wedderburn (played by Mark Ruffalo, who is also up for an Oscar this year for best supporting actor). Bella is a tornado of pleasurable pursuits, and her childlike sensibility and greedy consumption of sensual experience fuel her puckish disregard for social norms.

Gray’s novel folds experiment and eccentricity in its every page, constructed by letters and diary entries with medical diagrams and illustrations spliced throughout. The cheeky, raunchy splendor of this irreverent novel animates the adaptation and provides fertile ground to explore the complexity — and discomfort — of its characters and themes. Another reason to read the book: It boasts a surprise ending with a deliciously complex corkscrew conundrum.

Take Flight with Dragon Reads

Between the Year of the Dragon, the popularity of Fourth Wing, and the release of a new book in the legendary YA series The Inheritance Cycle, I’ve got dragon books on my mind. Try one of these titles to get into the spirit, with options for all ages!

Dragon fantasy romance doesn’t always have to be serious and scary. You can tell from the title that That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming will be a fun ride, perfect for when you want your scaly dragon demon story to come with a good dose of banter, fluff, and spice. When spice farmer Cinnamon imbibes a little too much mead one night, she stumbles into an injured dragon demon named Fallon. Sparks fly as they embark on a quest to save their world from a monster Cin believed to be a goddess.

Also try Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, and When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill.

Teen fiction has plenty of dragon tales to offer too; check out the brand-new So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole. 17-year-old Faron was chosen to lead the fight against the dragon-riding colonizers of her country, the Langlish, successfully driving them out. But when her sister becomes permanently bonded to an enemy dragon and Faron is told the dragons—and those connected to them—must be killed, Faron must decide where her loyalties lie.

Also check out Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, and Fireborne by Rosaria Munda.

Let’s not forget dragon books for kids and families! Perhaps the most popular is the Wings of Fire series, starting with The Dragonet Prophecy, but my personal favorite is The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill, the coziest graphic novel I’ve ever read. It features a blacksmith apprentice Greta who finds a lost tea dragon in the marketplace and becomes immersed in the world of dragons. Great for readers of any age!

You may also enjoy Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott, City of Thieves by Alex London, and Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin.

~ posted by Jane S.

Talking Tolkien

“All we have to decide, is how much Tolkien to enjoy with the time that is given to us.”

Ok, maybe that isn’t quite the encouraging quote Gandalf gives to Frodo in Moria, but it can certainly still motivate to action! Currently our own Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) group, in an extraordinary cinematic showing, is presenting all three Hobbit movies AND the Lord of the Rings trilogy now through February 15th at the newly re-opened SIFF Cinerama. To celebrate the occasion, let’s talk Tolkien!

Scholar, soldier, translator, writer; who was Tolkien? In Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth by Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien archivist at the Bodleian Library, you get an impressive compilation of essays, maps, personal letters, and artwork displaying the creative process behind Tolkien’s creation of Middle-Earth. Exploring how World War I affected Tolkien’s writings, Tolkien and the Great War: the threshold of Middle-Earth touches on his early life, then moving into how his firsthand experience in the trenches of World War I influenced the stories he wrote.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: the gift of friendship focuses on the famous academic camaraderie and friendship between Tolkien and Lewis. From their religious debates to their writing styles, see how these two extraordinary icons helped each other on their literary and personal journeys.

New Year, New Series

2024 has begun, and with it, a whole new slate of reading goals! Perhaps you want to pick up a new hobby to meet a New Year’s resolution, or want to try new-to-you genres. Another great way to bring in the new year is with a new book series! Here are some great series starters in a variety of genres to get you going.

One of my all-time favorite romance writers is Talia Hibbert, who writes funny, flawed, disabled, fat, and cranky heroines, best known for her steamy Brown sisters series. Start with Get a Life, Chloe Brown, the first in the series. The titular Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer programmer who lives most of her life in a predictable routine. When she narrowly misses getting hit by a car on her daily walk, Chloe decides life is too short to be boring. She creates a list of ways to spice up her life, but never imagines the shake up that comes from her hot new building superintendent, Red. Keep going to see how Chloe’s sisters find their happily ever afters!