Third Place Nooks

What’s Up with All of Seattle’s Little Free Libraries?

The community boxes have spawned creative counterparts, from mini art galleries to an auto trading garage. But they’re more than just sidewalk ornaments.

08/01/2023 By Taylor McKenzie Gerlach

Bookkeeper

Bill Gates Shares His Holiday Book List for 2022

And a literary scavenger hunt awaits.

11/21/2022 By Angela Cabotaje

Bogged Down

Can Annie Proulx’s New Book Meet Climate Crisis Urgency?

The former local’s book on environmental history—Fen, Bog and Swamp—aims to revitalize our views of wetlands.

09/27/2022 By Stefan Milne

Parental Controls

What Banned Books Week, 40 Years After Its Founding, Means for Seattle Readers

Our liberal bubble doesn’t shield us from a rising tide of book bans nationwide, nor should it foreclose critical engagement with controversial titles.

09/23/2022 By Sophie Grossman

Summer Book Report

Pacific Northwest Beach Reads

School is out and self-motivated erudition is in. If a Seattle summer ever materializes, these are the local authors you should bring to the beach.

06/22/2022 By Taylor McKenzie Gerlach

Slaying Storytime

How a Seattle Illustrator’s Picture Book Ignited a Pizza Boycott

Levi Hastings's Big Wig children's book about drag is embroiled in big controversy.

06/17/2022 By Taylor McKenzie Gerlach

Met Recs

June Pick: A Memoir by Sonic Boom Cofounder Nabil Ayers

The son of a jazz-funk titan reflects on creating a pillar of Seattle's music community and his complicated relationship with his father.

06/08/2022 By Sophie Grossman

Serious Business

Jon Mooallem’s New Book Finds Beauty in Being Ugly

In Serious Face, the Bainbridge Island–based writer quietly exalts the imperfection of everything, from the way we handle catastrophes to his own face.

05/20/2022 By Sophie Grossman

Summer Reading

Orcas Island Lit Fest Draws Luminaries from the Puget Sound and Beyond

The San Juans, already a compact creative hotbed, become the epicenter of the region’s flourishing literary scene the first weekend of June.

05/18/2022 By Sophie Grossman

On the Page

Kim Fu Conjures Metaphorical Monsters

In her recent short story collection, the Seattle author employs surrealism to get closer to the truth.

04/29/2022 By Sophie Grossman

On the Page

Jane Wong Reads Between the Lines in How to Not Be Afraid of Everything

The Seattle poet unearths buried memories and unspoken truths in her latest collection.

04/04/2022 By Sophie Grossman

Hot stuff

Bridgerton Is Back for a Steamy Second Season

Seattle author Julia Quinn enjoys the ride as her romance novels return to Netflix.

03/15/2022 By Allison Williams

War Stories

A Seattle Author Traces His Family's Holocaust Survival in Soviet Ukraine

Maksim Goldenshteyn's So They Remember chronicles an overlooked atrocity in an area facing similar peril today.

03/07/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Profile

The Scientific Methods of J. Kenji López-Alt

He interrogates the chemistry of smash burgers and probes the elements of wok cooking. But outside J. Kenji López-Alt’s Seattle kitchen, one of America’s most influential home cooks gets a little more reactive.

02/24/2022 By Allecia Vermillion