Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

In 1967, Elaine Lobl Konigsburg published her classic children’s book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and introduced readers to Claudia and Jamie Kinkaid, siblings who decide to run away from home, travel to New York City, and take refuge in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book is famously said to have been inspired by a piece of popcorn Ms. Konigsburg…

  In the past month, Sunday has become my favorite day of the week, simply for the fact that when 9:00 PM rolls around, I get to check in with my favorite small town weirdos in Twin Peaks, Washington. The new season of the cult classic television program (aptly titled Twin Peaks: The Return) started airing back in May, and creators David Lynch and Mark…

June 6th, 1998 was like any other Saturday at the end of the millennium. Bill Clinton was president, people were jamming out to Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy is Mine,” and no one would stop talking about that Kate and Leo scene in Titanic. But things were about to change that evening, thanks to a little HBO show called “Sex and the City.” The show…

Now that the weather is changing and it’s pleasant to be out of doors again, I’m beginning to re-remember what a lovely part of the country we call home! Up until four years ago, I had only ever lived in one of those temperate, wet cities. You know, the ones with no seasons that are adamant about the fact that they DO have seasons (they…

It feels like it may never be warm again. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m doomed to shivering, sniffling, bundling up, waiting out the awful, bitter torture that is winter in Pennsylvania. Although I am 100% ready for spring, I will admit that the camaraderie of discontent (ugh, this weather!) and the pervasive gloominess of a snowy March make for perfect Margaret Atwood…

The other week, my coworker let me in on a little secret: her go-to lunch spot is a diner down the street from the library. I was dumbfounded. I’ve worked here for almost two years and have been to literally every other restaurant within a 10 block radius, but this particular establishment had never even registered as an option. After joining her for a quick…

I’ve been head over heels in love with musicals from a  young age, an obsession which has only intensified over the years. I love the bright colors. I love the choreographed dance numbers. I love the way that everything seems to sound better when expressed in song. To this day, one of my most magical memories is experiencing Cats on Broadway (because, let’s be real,…

New Year’s Eve is fast approaching and soon it will be time to celebrate that one night a year when even the most introverted among us are forced to leave the house and mingle with other like-minded individuals. If the thought of being social for even the standard three minutes of customary small talk time is enough to send you into paroxysms of anxiety, you’ve come…

Zadie Smith is everything. I’m not exaggerating. She. Is. Everything. An exquisite writer, a brilliant essayist, a gifted public speaker...the list goes on. Born in 1975 in London to a Jamaican mother and an English father, Smith started writing in college at Cambridge and was approached by a literary agent after some of her pieces were published in an anthology of student work.  Smith wrote…