“Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.” These are the first lines of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, one of the best books I’ve read this year. The marshes and swamps of coastal North Carolina are the beating heart…
What better way to spend a chilly, blustery day than with a good read (and maybe a warm drink)? Andrea stops by to share five titles that she recommends for this fall. Titles mentioned: Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg November Road by Lou Berney (read Jo’s review here) Washington Black by…
Lou Berney’s new novel, November Road, is going to be one of my favorite books of 2018. The Oklahoma native weaves a spine-tingling story set in the weeks after the John F. Kennedy assassination that is both thriller and love story. His two main characters, Frank and Charlotte, are wonderfully complex, likeable and courageous. Both…
Tell me if you’ve been here before. You pull out your phone with every intention to just check an email, send a quick text, or find out what that notification was, only to find yourself 20 minutes later scrolling through your Instagram feed until it says you’re all caught up. Or maybe you’ve even caught…
Erica’s Pick of the Week is the big spy novel of the season…or is it?
On the first Thursday night of October our intrepid group of genealogy networkers met again in the meeting room of Cook Park Library to share ideas and have some fun. We looked through a few databases on TryIt! Illinois, and we attempted to decipher a mystery photo. Then we shared some stories. A challenge had…
Our genealogists always look forward to fall, and not just because October is Family History Month. No, October and November are all about “Try-It! Illinois,” an opportunity to try out all kinds of databases that our library doesn’t subscribe to. Thanks to the Illinois State Library, you temporarily have free access to hundreds of subscription…
Mr. & Mrs. American Pie is “riotously funny with a surprising amount of heart” according to Erica who interviews McDaniel about her debut novel already in the works to be adapted for television. Their conversation touches on a wide variety of topics including 80’s beauty pageants, the challenges and tricks to writing good child characters, and…
“Greenstone was full of people who could make you sad just by strolling into view.” Virgil Wander, Leif Enger’s eponymous new novel, is set in the hard-luck town of Greenstone, Minnesota along the stormy northern shores of Lake Superior. Although the town and its people have seen better days, together they muddle through by supporting…
“They meant well, all of them. How could she explain that this city was a graveyard? That they were walking every day through streets where there had been a holocaust, a mass murder of neglect and antipathy, that when they stepped through a pocket of cold air, didn’t they understand it was a ghost, it…
