The Seattle Public Library - Programs & Events

Book-It performs an hour-long staged reading from Timothy Egan's critically acclaimed book, "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis."

Beyond the buzz over hot new spots serving the latest "it" food, some of Seattle's best chefs are defying trends in favor of the simply delicious - and keeping customers with their consistency, creativity and individuality. Nancy Leson will moderate a conversation with Lark's John Sundstrom, Hajime Sato of Mashiko, Holly Smith from Café Juanita and Rick Yoder of Wild Ginger. Learn how this talented group keeps it fresh without giving in to food fads.

Join the Washington Center for the Book and Jack Straw Productions for readings by 12 literary artists, selected for the program by curator Stephanie Kallos. This event features readings by: Daemond Arrindell, Dennis Caswell, Larry Crist, Kate Carroll de Gutes, Josephine Ensign, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Jay McAleer, Peter Munro, Emily Perez, Judith Skillman, Corry Venema-Weiss and Chelsea Werner-Jatzke. The purpose of the Jack Straw Writers Program is to introduce local writers to the medium of recorded audio, encourage the creation of new literary work and provide new venues for the writer and their work. The program was created in 1997. Each year, a single curator selects 12 writers/writing teams out of dozens of applicants based on artistic excellence, diversity of literary genres and a cohesive grouping of writers.

How did America become "one nation, indivisible"? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers and innovators. He treks through vast swaths of territory -- from Pittsburgh to Portland, Rochester to San Francisco and Seattle to Anchorage -- introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today's United States. Winchester is the best-selling author of many books, including "The Professor and the Madman," "The Man Who Loved China," "A Crack in the Edge of the World," and "Krakatoa." In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by her Majesty the Queen.

When Theo is abandoned by his father and taken in by the family of a wealthy friend, he finds his new home on Park Avenue is bewildering. Theo clings to a small, mysteriously captivating painting, which ends up drawing him into the art underworld. "Drenched in sensory detail, infused with Theo's churning thoughts and feelings, sparked by nimble dialogue, and propelled by escalating cosmic angst and thriller action, Tartt's trenchant, defiant, engrossing, and rocketing novel conducts a grand inquiry into the mystery and sorrow of survival, beauty and obsession, and the promise of art." -- Booklist starred review Tartt is the author of "The Secret History" and "The Little Friend," which have been translated into 30 languages. "The Goldfinch" is her first novel in 11 years.

Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, "Umbrella" is set around a mental asylum in North London. It is a sprawling, fragmented, stream-of-consciousness story that is centered on a psychiatrist and his patient, Audrey De'Ath. She has been catatonic for decades due to encephalitis lethargica -- the sleeping sickness that Oliver Sacks wrote about in "Awakenings." "Self's novel is an epic, but also a love story, and even a kind of fairytale. ...[I]t unfurls in anarchic flux, like an old-school experimental video. There are no chapters and few paragraph breaks. Scenes dissolve in mid-sentence. Phrases burst suddenly into italics... it holds you fast with a weird charm." -- The New York Times Self is the acclaimed author of six story collections, a book of novellas, six works of journalism and eight novels, including "Great Apes."

Follow Hillary Clinton's transformation from popular-but-polarizing politician to America’s envoy to the world. As secretary of state, Clinton set out to repair America's image around the world. For four years, BBC foreign correspondent Kim Ghattas had access to Clinton and her entourage. "Ghattas presents a close-up look at the touchiest of diplomatic issues in the first Obama administration, from the Arab Spring uprisings to WikiLeaks. . . a rich portrait of the different perspectives on U.S. power and influence around the world as well as her own personal experiences and ambivalence about the U.S." - Booklist starred review Ghattas has been the BBC's State Department Radio and TV correspondent since 2008. She traveled regularly with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She was previously a Middle East correspondent for the BBC and the Financial Times, based in Beirut. Her work has appeared in Time magazine, the Boston Globe, NPR and the Washington Post.

McDermott's newest novel is an intimate and revealing portrait of Marie, an Irish Catholic girl who grows to adulthood in Brooklyn in the 1930s. McDermott is the author of six previous novels, including "After This," "Child of My Heart" and "At Weddings and Wakes." She has been nominated for a Pulitzer three times. She lives with her family outside of Washington, D.C.

Enjoy the vocal jazz stylings of Mercedes Nicole, who brings a rich, expressive voice that is deepened by vulnerability and ardor to cover classic Etta James numbers. Her performance reveals an unending passion for probing the lyric, melodic and rhythmic nuances of her material, backed up by a quintet of award-winning local jazz musicians. Song selections may include: At Last, Tell Mama, I Just Want to Make Love to You, Prisoner of Love, Good Morning Heartache, Sugar on the Floor, God Bless the Child, Dance with Me Henry, Since I Fell For You Vocalist Mercedes Nicole has performed at many venues and festivals. Her popular tribute shows include Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington and Etta James. Pianist Bill Anschell has received a number of awards for his jazz playing, both in ensembles and for solo work. Bassist Phil Sparks is among the leading bassists in Seattle and has performed with nearly every top jazz group in the city. He records extensively with many of the Northwest's top names. Drummer Jamael Nance has performed with several leading jazz musicians on both the East and West coasts. Saxophonist Darryl Barber began his studies at the Brazil Academy of Music, then continued at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has received awards for outstanding musicianship and has studied saxophone under John Handy, Hadley Caliman and Joe Henderson

Love a good story? Come to the scene of the crime, the edge of adventure and timeless realms of wonder. Sit back, relax and escape from the everyday as we bring you gripping short stories expertly read -- and well-calculated to keep you in suspense! This week, enjoy more classic scary stories. More ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night!

Love a good story? Come to the scene of the crime, the edge of adventure and timeless realms of wonder. Sit back, relax and escape from the everyday as we bring you gripping short stories expertly read - and well-calculated to keep you in suspense! This week, get into the Halloween spirit with classic scary stories by Mark Twain, Washington Irving and others.

Moving back and forth through time, from memories of his daughter to the intolerable present, Harding creates a devastating portrait of a father as he descends utterly into his grief. "Drawing upon the same New England landscape and family as his Pulitzer Prize–winning debut, "Tinkers," Harding deftly captures loss and its consequences in this gorgeous and haunting follow-up. ["Enon" is] an elegiac portrait of a severed family and the town of Enon itself..." - Publishers Weekly starred review In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Harding has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers. He was a fiction fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Harvard University and Grinnell College.

Since the dawn of the nuclear age, the dilemma has been: how do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? Schlosser argues that through a combination of human fallibility and technological complexity, America’s nuclear weapons still pose a grave risk to mankind. Written with the vibrancy of a first-rate thriller, "Command and Control" interweaves the minute-by-minute story of an accident at a nuclear missile silo in rural Arkansas with a historical narrative that spans more than fifty years. It depicts the urgent effort by American scientists, policy makers, and military offices to ensure that nuclear weapons can’t be stolen, sabotaged, used without permission, or detonated inadvertently. Schlosser is the author of New York Times bestsellers "Fast Food Nation" and "Reefer Madness." His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and The Nation.

Morrie Morgan finds himself back in Butte as the chief editor for the Thunder, a fledgling union newspaper brave enough to challenge the ruthless Anaconda Company and its stranglehold on the copper boomtown. He is thrust into a world of corporate intimidation and union politics, gangsters and bootlegging, set largely against the backdrop of the old-fashioned newsroom. Ivan Doig is a third-generation Montanan, former ranch hand, newspaperman and magazine editor with a Ph.D. in history. He is the author of 14 books, including "The Bartender's Tale" and his classic memoir, "This House of Sky." He lives in Seattle.

"Who Asked You?" is an intimate look at the burdens and blessings of family and about trusting your own judgment even when others don’t agree. McMillan's signature voice and unforgettable characters bring universal issues to brilliant, vivid life in a wicked, hilarious, bold and deeply human story about how a family falls apart and then stitches itself together. McMillan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including two that have been adapted into feature films: "Waiting to Exhale," a watershed work in contemporary fiction about black women, and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." The recipient of the Essence Award for Excellence in Literature, McMillan is also the author of "A Day Late and a Dollar Short," "Disappearing Acts" and "Getting to Happy."