It’s Horror Season

As the weather turns chill and the darkness creeps earlier and earlier, it’s time to stay inside with a scary read. From a family jumping through alarming hoops to get an inheritance, to two variations on the creepy haunted house, monsters lurking at the window, and much more, there’s something to spook everyone.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
In 1860s England, Elsie, pregnant and recently widowed, travels to the crumbling country estate of her husband’s family. Kept company by only a few servants and her husband’s cousin, Elsie discovers a realistic life-size wooden figure in the attic garret. As the figure and others like it begin popping up around the house, seemingly moving of their own free will, violent deaths begin to occur. Is Elsie going crazy? Or is something more sinister at play?

Longer nights: Stranger tales

You can feel it in the air, can’t you: Autumn is just around  the corner, and here at the library that means gathering around to hear some spooky stories. Once again this Fall, we’ll be presenting our ‘Ales from the Crypt spooky story time in bars around town (visit the Booktoberfest page soon for details, or mark your calendar now for one of these dates: Tuesday Oct 22, 8 p.m. – Palace Art Bar, Georgetown; Sunday, Oct 27, 8 p.m. – Tippe & Drague Alehouse, Beacon Hill; Wednesday, Oct 30, 8 p.m. – Floating Bridge Brewing, University District. We will also have a pair of spooky readings as part of this year’s LitCrawl.

For those who prefer to get scared in broad daylight, don’t miss our regular lunch hour Thrilling Tales program as we shift into the spooky season of the year:

Monday, September 9, noon: The Painted Smile, by William Kent Krueger. Ten-year-old Oliver believes he’s Sherlock Holmes, and he isn’t the only one: just ask Professor Moriarty. Krueger’s homage to Arthur Conan Doyle is full of fun surprises.

The best of genre reading in 2018

Coordinated by the American Library Association, each year a group of librarians from across the country form The Reading List Council with the goal to identify the year’s best books across eight genres. Here are the 2019 winners (for books published in 2018) in Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, and Women’s Fiction, plus the short list of runners up in each category. Find new titles in the genre you love, or branch out and find something new to try. You can also find this full list in our library catalog.

Adrenaline

Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman
Managing CIA safe houses in 1979 West Berlin, Helen overhears a secret conversation that sends her on the run. Thirty-five years later, a tragedy leads Helen’s daughter to dig into her mother’s secret past, unaware that her mother’s old enemies are still watching.

Friday the 13th: Stream the Screams

It’s Friday the 13th, which always makes me want to curl up with a good horror flick…or even a bad one. But I’m sure I’m not the only one, and DVD wait lists can sometimes crush those plans…however with our streaming services a horror flick is just a click away with your library card.

Want to get your horror fix without a wait list! Go to Kanopy and Hoopla to stream now!

My favorites from Kanopy:

What We Do In the Shadows – A great little horror comedy mockumentary from New Zealander’s Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi who wrote, directed, and starred in the film.

“Housemates Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are three vampires who are trying to get by in modern society; from paying rent and doing housework to trying to get invited into nightclubs. They are just like anyone else – except they’re immortal and must feast on human blood. When their 8000 year-old roommate Petyr, turns 20-something human hipster Nick, into a vampire, the guys must guide him through his newfound eternal life.”

Le Guin, Allende, Bradbury & More, This Spring at Thrilling Tales!

This Spring Thrilling Tales, the library’s popular story time for grown ups, is branching out with new monthly evening events in addition to our regular lunch hour gatherings. Now in its 15th year, the program celebrates the joy of story with live readings of compelling, intriguing, wondrous and suspenseful stories. Here’s what’s coming up in the months ahead.