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:

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.

Page to Screen: My Cousin Rachel.

It was my idea, after all. Lately as we’ve seen readers and filmgoers gobbling up great twisty psychological suspense such as Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, I kept thinking they should make a fresh version Daphne Du Maurier’s classic tale of the devious anti-heroine known as My Cousin Rachel. Sixty-five years after its original publication, the book stands up extremely well, and makes a terrific suggestion for fans of gothic film and fiction including such modern descendants as Kate Morton, Sarah Waters, Lauren Forrey, Eleanor Wasserberg, Catronia Ward, John Harwood. I mean, it pretty much has it all – lush historical trappings, an irresistible villainess, passion, poison –  and it is desperately overdue for a fresh version. Check out the trailer for this 1952 potboiler starring Olivia deHavilland and “bright new star” Richard Burton (“Was she woman, or witch!? Madonna or murderess!? … She gives men the promise of ecstasy, and a life of torment!”)

Hugely fun on a rainy Saturday afternoon, but we’re definitely ready for something a bit more contemporary. I can’t wait to see the new film with Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin, which looks gorgeous and treacherous, as it should:

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Thrilling Tales, All Summer Long.

For over a decade, every other Monday at noon listeners have flocked to Thrilling Tales, the Library’s story time for grownups, spending their lunch hour rapt in suspenseful narratives. Janice Leadingham, a local bookseller said in a recent article in City Arts: “Especially for impatient people, it’s good because it slows things down a bit. For one hour, you can just be.” In a recent front page article in The Seattle Times, audience member Zachary Valenter said of Thrilling Tales emcee David Wright, “He’s one of the best storytellers I’ve ever listened to. We come every week that he does the show.”

Find out what the fuss is all about: drop by the Central Library at five minutes past noon on any of the following days, and remember just how fun it can be to sit back, relax and let someone else do the reading.

Monday, June 19: When it Changed, by Joanna Russ. After centuries isolated from Earth and a deadly plague, the lost interstellar settlement of Whileaway had survived and flourished. Then came its biggest challenge: visitors from home. From a master of feminist Science Fiction.

Monday, July 3: Dog on a Cow, by Gina Paoli. After picking up the wrong pair of hitchhikers, Dan finds himself at their mercy. But hey – everyone likes to hear a good story, don’t they? Wild, unpredictable thrills.

Monday, July 17: Little Girl Lost, by Richard Matheson. They woke at midnight to the sound of their daughter crying, despite the fact that their daughter wasn’t there. Twilight Zone terror from a master.

Monday, July 31: A Death, by Stephen King. A little girl is killed, and frontier justice fastens onto moronic Jim Trusdale as the killer, but Sheriff Barclay isn’t so sure they’ve got their man. The king of horror tries his hand at gritty western noir.

Upcoming Thrilling Tales from our Story Time for Grown Ups.

For over a decade, every other Monday at noon listeners have flocked to Thrilling Tales, the Library’s story time for grownups, spending their lunch hour rapt in suspenseful narratives. Janice Leadingham, a local bookseller said in a recent article in City Arts: “Especially for impatient people, it’s good because it slows things down a bit. For one hour, you can just be.” In a recent front page article in The Seattle Times, audience member Zachary Valenter said of Thrilling Tales emcee David Wright, “He’s one of the best storytellers I’ve ever listened to. We come every week that he does the show.”

Find out what all the fuss is about: drop by the Central Library at five minutes past noon on any of the following days, and remember just how fun it was to sit back, relax and be read to.