Ramen is a bit of an obsession in my family, so much so that if a wish-granting food fairy could magically whisk us off to any restaurant in the U.S. of our choosing, chef David Chang’s Momofuku Noodle Bar might just top the list. In his recently-published memoir, Eat a Peach, David Chang reveals the…
Erica’s Pick of the Week is a creepy cinematic thriller grounded in real life.
It’s the time of year that all Illinois genealogists look forward to: TryIt! Illinois time. Thanks to the Illinois State Library, we have free access for two months to hundreds of subscription databases above and beyond the ones available to Cook Memorial card holders. The initiative called TryIt! Illinois extends only until the the end…
What if it turned out that the people who are supposed to be superheroes are doing more harm than good? And what if villains aren’t entirely evil? These are the questions posed in Hench, the fabulous new book from Natalie Zina Walschots, a Canadian poet and journalist. The main character, Anna, is a temp worker…
Amanda and Clay have rented a luxury home via Airbnb in a remote spot on Long Island for a week of rest and escape for themselves and for their two teenage kids. After a day of lounging poolside and enjoying the comforts of their rental home, the doorbell rings in the middle of the night.…
I’ve never read a novel quite like 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. Elif Shafak is a master storyteller. The novel opens on the moments after the death of Tequila Leila, a sex worker in Istanbul. She’s just been murdered, and her body has been tossed in the trash. The moments – and…
Yippee! We will be able to continue accessing Ancestry Library Edition (ALE), our premier genealogy database, from home through December 31, 2020. ProQuest, the company that provides ALE to Cook Library, has graciously extended home access to Cook card holders through the end of the year. In the past, ALE was only available at the…
As long-suffering Game of Thrones readers know, sometimes the wait is excruciating for the next book in a series. I saw a recent post from GOT author George R.R. Martin that he was holed up in his isolated mountain cabin writing the sixth book, The Winds of Winter. Martin, 71, also plans to write a…
Erica’s pick of the week is a atmospheric and layered historical mystery.
At the Coopers Chase Luxury Retirement Village, four intrepid retirees have formed the Thursday Murder Club – each week they gather to discuss and solve local cold cases. But trouble is brewing in their bucolic countryside village, and soon the pensioners have not one but two current murders to solve when the owner of the…
