#BookBingoNW2022: Hobby or skill

It’s summertime in Seattle! Whether you plan to take your Subaru and hit the trail, set up a hammock by the ship canal, or you’d rather crank your window unit and relax inside with your fur babies, there’s an unending variety of new hobbies or skills you can try out or just read about, from self-care and relaxation to money-making side hustles.

In Knitting for Radical Self-care: A Modern Guide Brandi Cheyenne Harper offers tips for finding time for knitting creativity along with ten patterns inspired by revolutionary women of color; each come with detailed instructions, and Harper’s reflections on each woman’s personal and wider impact.

NPR’s Podcast Start Up Guide: Create, Launch, and Grow a Podcast on Any Budget by Glen Weldon is an all-encompassing guide to podcasting, including how to select a topic and tell each story to engage and grow your listeners.

#BookBingoNW2022: Non-binary/genderqueer/two-spirit author or character

Happy Pride and Summer Book Bingo, y’all! Gender can be messy and wonderful and specific and fluid; a source of anxiety for some and self-contentment for others. These authors and their characters, stories, and poems explore the infinite spectrum of human identities and experiences.

Maia Kobabe’s cathartic graphic memoir Gender Queer follows eir exploration of self, including how to come out as non-binary and ace, bonding with friends over queer slashfic, and the tumult and confusion that accompany adolescent crushing.

In their latest collection of poetry, Homie, Danez Smith reflects on the intersections of personal loss, race, and queerness.

The nine stories of the debut collection Manywhere by Morgan Thomas witness Southern queer and genderqueer characters tenaciously finding themselves reflected in the annals of history.

Comic Book Cool Cats

It’s kitten season (April-October) and cats are absolutely everywhere right meow, including in just about every type of comic book or manga story you could imagine.

In Cat Massage Therapy by Haru Hisakawa, world weary workers find relief from the most unexpected of feline massage professionals.

Catboy by Benji Nate sees Olive’s wish to hang out with her cat Henry “like a person” come very precisely true, when her best cat friend becomes her best cat-person friend. Adulting and style abound in this hilarious and beautiful collection of the weekly webcomic.

A Man and His Cat by Umi Sakurai is really all in the title. An older gentleman adopts a seemingly unwanted cat from a local pet store. Does each have what the other is looking for? Read on and find out in this purrfect slice-of-life manga!

Staying Healthy with Your Library: Search the Catalog for Health Topics

In this Shelf Talk consumer health series, we’ve covered a variety of ways of accessing health information through Library databases, but what about the Library’s bread and butter, materials in the online catalog? Don’t worry, we’ve got you. In addition to discovering much of the material in some of our databases, you’ll find hundreds of health-related books, audiobooks, music CDs, and DVDs in the online catalog.

To access The Seattle Public Library’s online catalog from your own device, sign in with your library card number and PIN, then navigate to the online catalog.

Once you’re in the Library’s online catalog, you have a few options. You can start with a simple keyword search, try a more specific subject search, look for a list compiled by other users and librarians, or construct a more complex advanced search.

Staying Healthy with Your Library: LGBTQ History & Culture

With materials from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including major international activist organizations, local, grassroots groups, and governments, the database LGBTQ History & Culture (also known as the Archives of Sexuality and Gender) collects an incredible set of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. Use this resource to investigate how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many more topic areas.

To access this database from your own device, sign in with your library card number and PIN, then select LGBTQ History & Culture from our list of Online Resources.