Tagged Fiction
Dena's Favorite Books of 2023
It's the 12th annual list of my favorite books — the 2023 edition! This year was a good reading year; I read over 300 books for the first time since 2019 (although my TV watching decreased dramatically). There's…
Indulge Yourself: Exploring Fanfic and Fan Culture with Field Teen Center
If you’re a teen who likes to read and write fan fiction, or if you know a teen who does, you’re in good company at the Field Teen Center . Fan fiction, also called "fanfic" or just…
Dena's Favorite Books of 2022
Welcome to Year 11 of my annual list of favorite books and the third year of pandemic reading! I've started getting my reading mojo back and have been spending a bit more time reading than watching tv this year—268 books read…
Explore Creative Careers with Field Teen Center!
Throughout the month of July, Field Teen Center recorded interviews with a voice actor, four game designers, and a comic book writer. If you’re interested in creative jobs or if you just want to learn more about how your favorite…
Ulysses at 100
February 2, 2022, will mark the centennial of the publication of James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses . Constructed as a modern parallel to Homer’s Odyssey , Ulysses takes place over the course of a…
Dena's Favorite Books of 2021
It's that time of year again for my annual list of favorite books from the Philbrick Hall Fiction Department at Parkway Central Library ! Welcome to the tenth anniversary of this yearly list and the second year of pandemic reading!…
Scary Reads for Autumn Chills | Horror Fiction Recommendations
Greeting fiends! The brisk winds of autumn are finally here, bringing colder nights for spooky reading... So much great horror fiction has been hitting our stacks, here are some of my current favorites. My Heart Is a Chainsaw by…
Women's History Month | Ursula K. Le Guin Honored with Commemorative Stamp
Ursula K. Le Guin 's award-winning writing often depicted futuristic alternative worlds steeped in the themes of politics, the natural environment, gender, religion, sexuality, and ethnography. Now her legacy will live on in a…
What Philadelphia Read in 2020
The longest year ever is coming to a close. (Amen.) That means that it’s time to peruse some Best of 2020 book lists! Across the web you can find tons of these kinds of lists. Two of my favorites are Book Riot’s Best Books…
Join Our New YA and Adult Multicultural Book Club!
Are you interested in reading new authors? Are you looking for a safe place to discuss literature and culture? Then this book club is for you! The YA / Adult Multicultural Book Club has a focus on authors of color and expanding cultural…
New Titles Coming to the Free Library in July!
In this time of self-reflection and evaluation of our own and our society's biases and attitudes around race, our suggestions include new titles in which race is a central theme, as well as a primer on voting and why it matters. We…
Curl Up with a Cozy Mystery
Are you looking for some binge-worthy reading that has nothing to do with the quasi dystopian reality outside your front door? Look no further than the literary comfort food that is the Cozy Mystery! Here is Goodreads' excellent…
Spring 2020 Author Events Preview
As we head into the roaring '20s, let’s look forward to the Spring 2020 Free Library Author Events schedule , highlight a few of our guests, and offer up some other important details... Tickets go on sale to the public today,…
Dena's Favorite Books of 2019
It's that time of the year again! Working in the Fiction Department of the Parkway Central Library means that I am always surrounded by excellent books to read. I read over 330 this year, and in narrowing it down to my top 30…
Happy Birthday to Kurt Vonnegut (and Kilgore Trout?)
Yes, I am one of those: I keep a list of books saved in my phone—books that I will eventually read once I reach that magical point of life when I stop desiring new books and therefore stop adding to the dang list—and…
New Titles Coming to the Free Library in October!
Our October suggestions are a mix of fantasy, history, romance, health, and adventure—truly, something for everyone—and they’re all coming to a neighborhood library near you this month! Young Children (Up to 2nd…
Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie!
In the course of a casual conversation with a new acquaintance this summer, chatter turned—as it inevitably does, when one of you works in a library—first to books, then to mystery novels, and then to my minor obsession with…
Fall 2019 Author Events: Cultural Connections
During this fall season of Free Library Author Events , we’re seeing a lot of cultural connections between our authors and speakers. Let’s talk about the events taking place two days in a row, both off-site at the same…
Celebrate National Read a Book Day!
Today is National Read a Book Day , and as a book lover and Free Library staff member it’s my sworn duty to encourage everyone I meet today to pick up a book, so expect some recommendations here. Reading can be so much more than…
Are You an N.K. Jemisin Fan Yet?
In my version of a perfect world, there are two kinds of fiction readers: Those who have already read (and loved) multi-award-winning author N.K Jemisin 's work and those who will. Soon. If you find yourself in neither category (!),…
Short Story Book Club
Introducing a new book club at the Parkway Central Library! On the second Monday of each month, we’ll meet from 6:00-7:30 pm in the Philbrick Hall department to discuss a collection of short stories. The collection we'll be…
LitFinder
Discover literature content from more than 150,000 full-text poems, 840,000 poem citations and excerpts, 7,100 full-text short stories and novels, 3,800 full-text essays published in the 16th-20th centuries, 2,400 full-text speeches, and…
Claire Messud | This Strange Eventful History: A Novel
In conversation with Laura McGrath, Assistant Professor of English at Temple University “Among our greatest contemporary writers” ( The Miami Herald ), Claire Messud is the author of The Emperor’s Children , a cutting portrait of…
Colm Tóibín | Long Island: A Novel
“His generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” (Los Angeles Times) , Colm Tóibín is the author of an impressive list of novels, short stories, essays, plays, poetry, and criticism. His novels The…
Stacey Abrams | Rogue Justice: A Thriller
In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster, Tracey Matisak Introduced by State Rep. Donna Bullock Stacey Abrams is the Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics at Howard University. After serving…
Julia Alvarez | The Cemetery of Untold Stories: A Novel
Barbara Gohn Day Memorial Lecture In conversation with Rebeca L. Hey-Colón, Professor of Latinx Studies, Temple University Awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama in 2013, poet, essayist, and fiction writer Julia Alvarez…
Rebecca Serle | Expiration Dates: A Novel
In conversation with Jo Piazza Acclaimed for her “knack for writing beautiful stories that speak to the anxiety of forging a new road for oneself” (Bustle), Rebecca Serle is the New York Times bestselling author of One Italian Summer,…
Jenny Jackson | Pineapple Street: A Novel
In conversation with Lexy Bloom “A delicious new Gilded Age family drama—almost a satire—set in the leafy enclaves of Brooklyn Heights” ( Vogue ), Jenny Jackson’s Pineapple Street tells the story of three women navigating the shoals…
Tamron Hall | Watch Where They Hide: A Jordan Manning Novel
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition. Tamron Hall is the Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer of the eponymous program Tamron Hall , ABC Disney’s second longest running nationally…
Xochitl Gonzalez | Anita de Monte Laughs Last: A Novel
“Packed with richly imagined characters and vivacious prose” ( Esquire ), Xochitl Gonzalez ’s debut novel Olga Dies Dreaming tells a tale of family secrets, Latinx politics in a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood, and romance set…
Tommy Orange | Wandering Stars: A Novel
In conversation with Tailinh Agoyo Tommy Orange is the author of There There , a novel of “pure soaring beauty” ( The New York Times ) that tells the story of 12 interconnected Native Americans living in Oakland, California. A…
Marcus Anthony Hunter | Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition. Co-promoted by the American Constitution Society The Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences Division, Professor of Sociology & African American…
Maura Cheeks | Acts of Forgiveness: A Novel
In conversation with Zoe Sivak Maura Cheeks is the author of Acts of Forgiveness , a debut novel that imagines a contemporary moment in which our government has approved reparations for Black Americans—but only if they can prove they…
Phillip B. Williams | Ours: A Novel
In conversation with Airea D. Matthews Phillip B. Williams is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, Thief in the Interior , which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and a Lambda Literary Award; and Mutiny , which was a…
Paul Lynch | Prophet Song: A Novel
In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for Prophet Song , a “brilliant, haunting” and “crucial book for our current times ( The Guardian ) that tells the dystopian but plausible…
Kiley Reid | Come and Get It
In conversation with Niela Orr A “hilarious, uncomfortable and compulsively readable story about race and class” ( TIME ), Kiley Reid ’s novel Such a Fun Age tells the story of a young Black babysitter and her well-intentioned but…
Susan Muaddi Darraj | Behind You Is the Sea: A Novel
Susan Muaddi Darraj won the 2016 American Book Award, the 2016 Arab American Book Award, and was a finalist for the Palestine Book Award for A Curious Land , a collection of linked stories that follows the denizens of a Palestinian…
Sigrid Nunez | The Vulnerables: A Novel with Henry Hoke | Open Throat: A Novel
Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for The Friend , a “beautiful” novel “crammed with a world of insight into death, grief, art, and love” ( The Wall Street Journal ) in which a woman is forced to adopt her deceased best…
Alice McDermott | Absolution
In conversation with Nomi Eve “Filled with so much universal experience, such haunting imagery, such urgent matters of life and death” ( The New York Times ), Alice McDermott’ s bestselling novels include Someone ; Charming Billy ,…
Cristina García | Vanishing Maps: A Novel
In conversation with Rebeca L. Hey-Colón, Professor of Latinx Studies, Temple University Cristina García is the author of eight “languid and sensual, curt and surprising” ( The New York Times Book Review ) novels, including The Lady…
Melissa Broder | Death Valley: A Novel with Hilary Leichter | Terrace Story: A Novel
Melissa Broder is the author of Milk Fed , the “sensuous and delightfully delirious tale” ( O, The Oprah Magazine ) of a calorie-obsessed lapsed Jewish woman who falls under the spell of a zaftig Orthodox frozen yogurt store employee.…
Tim O'Brien | America Fantastica: A Novel
In conversation with Andy Kahan Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture “As good as any piece of literature can get” ( Chicago Sun Times ), Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics…