Archived Posts – Page 20 – Adult Services Dev Site

Cozy Corner (05/06/2020): Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder

April 30, 2020

Take one amateur sleuth. Mix in some eccentric Minnesota locals. Add a generous dollop of crackling suspense, and you’ve got the recipe for this delicious new mystery series featuring Hannah Swensen, the red-haired, cookie-baking heroine whose gingersnaps are almost as tart as her mouth and whose penchant for solving crime is definitely stirring things up. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Hannah already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother’s attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden’s most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah’s famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can’t get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer. But if she doesn’t watch her back, Hannah’s sweet life may get burned to a crisp. […]

Getting to Know Your Digital Library

April 29, 2020

When you walk into the Main Library on Harnish Drive, or the Eastgate Branch, it’s not hard to find your way around. Not only is there friendly staff available to help, you can see for yourself where things are located. Adult fiction is on the right. New releases are straight ahead, and video, audio book and music collections are toward […]

Music To My Ears

April 22, 2020

Social distancing means getting used to working from home. While I was a home based freelance writer for a long time, working from home while two other family members are working too, is a challenge. Music is my workday friend. Not only is listening fun and relaxing, there’s the added benefit of cutting down on distractions. There are lots of […]

Happy National Poetry Month!

April 17, 2020

National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, marking poetry’s important place in our lives. Now, as we face an unprecedented circumstance, National Poetry Month has taken on new meaning and importance. Poetry and inspiring language can help bring solace and […]

Catnip for News Junkies

April 15, 2020

Confession. I’m hooked on the news. These days, I suspect a lot of us are. It’s also more important than ever that we can trust our news sources. As someone who started college as a journalism major, and worked as a freelance reporter for a number of years, daily newspapers are my preferred medium. I like to read the news, […]

Congratulations and Thank you, Virginia!

April 8, 2020

Even though we’re shut down, everyone at AAPLD sends a big shout-out to Virginia Donohue, who retired from her position as Adult Programming and Community Outreach Librarian on April 1. Virginia joined the Algonquin Area Public Library District twenty three years ago, as the Young Adult Librarian. Previously, she had served as a trustee on the AAPLD Board, and also […]

Tackling the TBR (To Be Read) Pile

April 1, 2020

One of the more enjoyable decisions I’ve had to make during the shutdown is what to read next. Right before we closed, I brought home two novels for each member of my family. These, along with books we already had, ought to be enough to keep us well-read through the end of April. Since I read mostly at bedtime, finishing […]

Book Clubbers (08/01/2019): Still Life With Monkey

July 11, 2019

Duncan Wheeler is a successful architect who savors the quotidian pleasures in life until a car accident leaves him severely paralyzed and haunted by the death of his young assistant. Now, Duncan isn’t sure what there is left to live for, when every day has become “a broken series of unsuccessful gestures.”

Duncan and his wife, Laura, find themselves in conflict as Duncan’s will to live falters. Laura grows desperate to help him. An art conservator who has her own relationship to the repair of broken things, Laura brings home a highly trained helper monkey―a tufted capuchin named Ottoline―to assist Duncan with basic tasks. Duncan and Laura fall for this sweet, comical, Nutella-gobbling little creature, and Duncan’s life appears to become more tolerable, fuller, and funnier. Yet the question persists: Is it enough? […]

Nite Readers (07/18/2019): The Italian Party

June 20, 2019

A delicious and sharply funny page-turner about “innocent” Americans abroad in 1950s Siena, Italy. Newly married, Scottie and Michael are seduced by Tuscany’s famous beauty. But the secrets they are keeping from each other force them beneath the splendid surface to a more complex view of ltaly, America and each other.

When Scottie’s Italian teacher–a teenager with secrets of his own–disappears, her search for him leads her to discover other, darker truths about herself, her husband and her country. Michael’s dedication to saving the world from communism crumbles as he begins to see that he is a pawn in a much different game. Driven apart by lies, Michael and Scottie must find their way through a maze of history, memory, hate and love to a new kind of complicated truth. […]

Book Clubbers (07/11/2019): Dear Mrs. Bird

June 6, 2019

Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty are doing their bit for the war effort and trying to stay cheerful, despite the German planes making their nightly raids. Emmy dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent, and when she spots a job advertisement in the newspaper she seizes her chance; but after a rather unfortunate misunderstanding, she finds herself typing letters for the formidable Henrietta Bird, renowned advice columnist of Woman’s Friend magazine.

Mrs. Bird is very clear: letters containing any Unpleasantness must go straight into the bin. But as Emmy reads the desperate pleas from women who many have Gone Too Far with the wrong man, or can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she begins to secretly write back to the readers who have poured out their troubles. […]