The Seattle Public Library - Programs & Events

Brinkley examines the pioneering environmental policies of President Theodore Roosevelt: an avid bird-watcher, naturalist, and the founding father of America's conservation movement. Douglas Brinkley is professor of history at Rice University and the author of the New York Times bestsellers, "The Great Deluge," "Tour of Duty," and "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc."

The bestselling author of "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" tells a tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love. Wells is an actor, playwright, and award-winning author.

McCann's new novel opens in 1974 with a tightrope walker running, dancing, leaping between the World Trade Center towers, stunning thousands of watchers below. Using the true story of Philippe Petit as a metaphor, McCann crafts a portrait of a city and its people. Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short stories and four novels, including "This Side of Brightness," "Dancer," and "Zoli," all of which were international best-sellers.

The bestselling author of "The Shadow of the Wind" returns to the gothic universe of the Cemetery of the Forgotten Books, the Sempere & Son bookshop, and the winding streets of Barcelona's old quarter, in a tale about the magic of books and the darkest corners of the human soul. Carlos Ruiz Zafón is the author of six novels, including "The Shadow of the Wind," the most successful novel in Spanish publishing history after "Don Quixote."

"World's End" is a book-length poem, first published in 1968, a haunting work in which the poet can see the century behind him, imagine the years ahead - and sense a falling-apart. A resident of Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California, William O'Daly is a poet, translator, and fiction writer. His published works include nine books of the late and posthumous poetry of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda ("The Sea and the Bells," "The Book of Questions," "The Hands of Day" among them), and a chapbook of his own poems, "The Whale in theWeb."

The bestselling author of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and "Peony in Love" tells the story of two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in Los Angeles. See explores tradition, the ravages of war and the importance of family in her latest novel.

Held on the University of Washington campus in 1909 and currently celebrating its centennial, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition brought exhibitors and visitors from all over the world and put Seattle and Washington into the national spotlight. Alan J. Stein is a HistoryLink.org staff historian and is the award-winning author of three previous HistoryLink books, "Safe Passage: The Birth of Washington State Ferries, 1951-2001"; "Bellevue Timeline: The Story of Washington's Leading Edge City from Homesteads to High Rises, 1863-2003"; and "The Olympic: The Story of Seattle's Landmark Hotel." Paula Becker is a staff historian for HistoryLink.org, where her essays document the dance marathon craze of the 1920s and 1930s, war-effort knitting on the home front during World Wars I and II, and the career of "The Egg and I" author Betty MacDonald, among numerous other subjects.

Alain de Botton explores the joys and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully evoking what other people get up to all day - and night - to make the frenzied contemporary world function. Alain de Botton is a writer of essayistic books that have been described as a 'philosophy of everyday life.' He has written on love, travel, architecture, and literature.

In "Gone Tomorrow," Reacher witnesses a suicide on a Manhattan subway and knows there is more than meets the eye. Soon he's in deep, trying to detonate a shocking secret for which both the feds and Al-Qaeda are willing to kill to keep from being revealed.

When the tanks rolled in to Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, 22-year-old Diane Wei Liang was one of thousands of students from Beijing University involved in the peaceful demonstrations. Liang is a graduate of Peking University. She has a Ph.D. in business administration from Carnegie Mellon University and was a professor of business in the U.S. and the U.K. for more than ten years.

From boom to bust, from rugged frontier justice along the original Skid Road to Jet City gumshoes and desperate dot.com deeds, take a walk on the wild side with this unique collection. Authors appearing included Bharti Kirchner, Brian Thornton, Thomas Hopp, Kathleen Alcala and Curt Colbert.

"Crawlspace" is a collaboratively written book-length poem by Seattle writers Daniel Comiskey and C.E. Putnam. It was originally commissioned by Doug Nufer for presentation at the Leg to Stand On reading series in 2005. Daniel Comiskey was coeditor of Monkey Puzzle, a magazine of poetry and prose, and literary manager for The Poet's Theater. Chris Putnam maintains P.I.S.O.R., The Putnam Institute for Space Opera Research.

Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library invites everyone to take part in Seattle Reads "My Jim," a project designed to foster reading and discussion of works by authors of diverse cultures and ethnicities. Nancy Rawles' novel re-imagines Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" from the slave's perspective. In the voice of Jim's wife, Sadie, "My Jim" tells the story of the family left behind when Jim escapes down the river with Huck Finn.

During the construction of a Port Angeles dry dock, this burial ground was discovered. In search of the story behind the story, Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes spent more than a year interviewing tribal members, archaeologists, historians, city and state officials, and local residents and business leaders.

Coates read from "The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood" and Locke read from "Black Water Rising." Coates, a former staff writer at The Village Voice and Time, has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and other publications. Locke has worked in film and television for more than ten years. She has written movie scripts for Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, and Twentieth Century Fox, as well as television pilots for HBO and Dreamworks. This event is part of Seattle Reads "My Jim," a program of the Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library.