The Blog Wants to Know: Jan. 2026

We’re starting up another year of “The Blog Wants to Know” where we ask staff members questions about their everyday lives. Stay tuned all year for some great recommendations, shared memories, and heartfelt words of advice from our amazing library staff!

For this month’s question, we’re looking into 2026 with hope, promise, and accomplishment.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish this year? It can be big or small. It can be a trip you hope to take, a project you hope to finish, or a professional or personal goal that you hope to achieve. 

Kathy, Public Support Services: “To go on a trip with my sister now that she has retired. Hoping to convince my husband that we should go to Michigan and see the grand baby.”

Dawn S., Youth Services Coordinator: “I hope to take better care of myself this year.”

Shane, Public Support Services: This year, my goal is to practice tarot more often and pull and interpret at least one card per day. To facilitate this goal, my partner got me a Writual Journal for this year. It’s a helpful addition that combines astrology with tarot. It has card spreads for moon phases, monthly pages, and you can also use it for daily to-do lists and other journaling. So far, I haven’t missed a day!”

Hannah, Assistant Director: “I set the goal to journal every day. Nothing fancy, just dumping a random stream of consciousness onto a piece of paper. I love stationary, and I recently branched out into the fountain pen world and splurged on a Midori Codex 1 day 1 page journal.”

Ashley, Interlibrary Loan and Cataloguing: “In February 2026 I will turn 40!  This always seems like such a big number but I am going to try to make it fun rather scary.  I have dubbed 2026 ‘My Fortieth Year Extravaganza!’.  I want to do something fun each month to celebrate the year.  

Ashley with her parents at Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle overlooking downtown.

In February I am actually going to Seattle for five days.  The big reason for this is I was born up in Tacoma (just south of Seattle at the Air Force base there) and thought it would be a great way to celebrate.  I will be there on my actual 40th birthday!  On a side note, the Seahawks are playing well and may make it to the Super Bowl which is also that weekend and would be fun to experience the game with other 12s. Go Hawks!

In May my parents and I may go see Styx at the Park City Arena.  Then my hope for the fall is to take a trip to Wisconsin and try to go to a Green Bay Packers football game at Lambeau Field with my dad.  Go Pack Go!

The other months are currently open for ideas.  I hope to make this year one to remember!”

Now it’s your turn. Let us know what are some of your hopes and goals for the new year, and we can’t wait to be a part of it!

What’s Ashley Reading?: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

First line: On Sunday, 15 July 1860, Detective-Inspector Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard paid two shillings for a hansom cab to take him from Millbank, just west of Westminster, to Paddington station, the London terminus of the Great Western Railway.

Summary: It was in June of 1860 that the body of a small boy, Saville Kent, was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy (outhouse). He had his throat cut and dumped in the hole sometime during the night. The crime shocked the local community but it became national news upon the arrival of Detective Jonathan Whicher.

Detectives were a new invention and only a few existed in England. Upon his arrival at the Kent home, he began to suspect that someone inside the house was the perpetrator. Nevertheless, without clear evidence or a confession he was unable to prove anything. With the crime unsolved, he returned to London with his reputation in tatters. It was years later before justice was finally served and his theories proved correct.

My Thoughts: Last year I read Summerscale’s newest true crime book, The Peepshow, and found her work very intriguing. She goes to great lengths to research the people, the period and the workings of the criminal justice system.

Again, in this one she does the same. She lays out the events of the night in question, gives us information about the family and servants and explains how murders were investigate and solved in Victorian England. The most interesting part to me was the family dynamic. From the outset, you can tell that there is some strife going on in the household and it has made for a toxic environment. I think from early on you know who the killer is but with the lack of evidence and new art of detecting it is hard for Whicher to prove.

It is hard to imagine a world without a police force patrolling and investigating crimes but before 1829, there was no organized police to handle crime. So even by 1860 everything was still rather new. Quite a bit of the middle is spent on how the job of a detective was new and making its way into popular fiction as well. Summerscale gives examples of some of the first fictional detectives from books by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. While this is true crime, it also seems to be a history of detecting too.

This was a fascinating look into the world of a Victorian middle class family. By the end, we learn the fate of each of the main players in the story. I enjoyed this for the true crime but also the social history it presents.

FYI: Murder of a child.

What’s Ashley Reading?: A Year in Review

This was a busy year for reading! I completed 112 books in 2025 but there were a few standouts that I would highly recommend. Below are my top 10 books I read in 2025!

  1. Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian
  2. The Love Haters by Katherine Center
  3. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
  4. First-Time Caller by B. K. Borison
  5. Finders Keepers by Sarah Adler
  6. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
  7. Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer
  8. Boudicca’s Daughter by Elodie Harper
  9. The Undertaking of Hart & Mercy by Megan Bannen
  10. Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber

And I know that next year will have some great books for my TBR list. Here are the ones I am most looking forward too!

  1. Sparking Fire Out of Fate by Brigid Kemmerer (1/27/2026)
  2. And Now, Back To You by B. K. Borison (2/24/2026)
  3. Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line by Elle Cosimano (3/10/2026)
  4. Everyone In This Bank Is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson (3/17/2026)
  5. Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict (3/24/2026)
  6. The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer (4/21/2026)
  7. The Shippers by Katherine Center (5/19/2026)
  8. Wild Goose Chase by Sarah Adler (7/7/2026)
  9. The Unknown by Riley Sager (8/4/2026)
  10. Grim Tidings by B. K. Borison (9/1/2026)

What were your favorite reads of 2025? And what are you looking forward to the most in 2026? Leave us a comment!