Open
to all ages. Registration required. Songs, stories, and oh so much
fun! We ask that guardians please remain present with children age 9 & younger during
the event. All programs are subject to change or cancellations.
Open to adults and interested teens and children, ages 8 & older.
Registration required.
Do you love chess? Have you always wanted to learn?
Our chess club is for all ages and levels of experience. Feel free to bring your own chess board or use one of ours. Guardians must remain present. Face masks are optional, however, social distancing guidelines are still
in effect. All programs are subject to change or cancellation.
Open to all ages. Drop by the children's area to make your own Lego creations. This is a self-guided activity. Ask for Legos at the front desk. Please remember to clean them up when you're done! Guardians must remain with children aged 9 and under during the event.
Open to all ages. Registration required
If you have any interest in playing chess, this club is for you! Members will not only be able to interact with one another through learning the game, but will be able to coach each other into becoming better chess players. We will be playing chess and holding club tournaments. The chess club's goal is to foster scholars' intellectual growth while having fun.
Open to children and teens,10 and older. Stop by with your friends for a fun afternoon of board games and puzzles. All programs are subject to change or cancellations.
Author: Marwood, Alex, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F MARWOOD
Format: Books
Summary: Desperately searching for her seventeen-year-old daughter Gemma, Robin is led to La Kastellana, a place of sun-drenched glamor and obscene wealth, where someone is waiting for the right moment to expose the dark truth of what really happens on the island of lost girls.
Author: Erebia, Federico, author. Kwon, Julie, illustrator.
Published: 2023
Call Number: Y EREBIA
Format: Books
Summary: Growing up in 1970s Ohio, Mexican American brothers Pedro and Daniel, who are not like other boys, manage an abusive home life, school, coming out, first loves, first jobs, and the AIDS epidemic, leaning on each other always and forever. "Pedro and Daniel are Mexican American brothers growing up in 1970s Ohio. Their mother resents that Pedro is a spitting image of their darker-skinned father, that Daniel likes dolls, that neither boy plays sports. Life at home is rough, but the boys have an unbreakable bond that will last their entire lives." --Amazon.com
Author: Patterson, Richard North, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F PATTERSO
Format: Books
Summary: "In a propulsive narrative that culminates in a nationally televised murder case, Trial explores America's most incendiary flashpoints of race. A Black eighteen-year-old voting rights worker, Malcolm Hill, is stopped by a white sheriff's deputy on a dark country road in rural Georgia. His single mother, Allie, America's leading voting rights advocate, restlessly awaits his return before police inform her that Malcolm has been arrested for murder. In Washington D.C., the rising, young, white congressman Chase Brevard of Massachusetts is watching the morning news with his girlfriend, only to find his life transformed in a single moment by the appearance of Malcolm's photograph. Suddenly all three are enveloped in a media firestorm that threatens their lives--especially Malcolm's." --Amazon.com
Author: Patterson, Scott, 1969- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 338.542
Format: Books
Summary: "There's no doubt that our world has gotten more extreme. Pandemics, climate change, superpower rivalries, cyberattacks, political radicalization--virtually, everywhere we look there is mayhem bearing down on us, putting trillions of assets at risk. And at least two factions have formed around how to respond. In Chaos Kings, Scott Patterson depicts how one faction, led by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of The Black Swan, believes humans can never see the big disaster coming. In their view, extreme events--so-called Black Swans--while inevitable, will always catch us by surprise..."--Amazon.
Author: Bailey, Tessa, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F BAILEY
Format: Books
Summary: To access her trust fund, Natalie Vos must get married, and with no prospects, proposes to a man she wants to kill and kiss in equal measure, failing vineyard owner August Cates, but their sham wedding turns into something more due to their unfortunate, unbearable, undeniable attraction. "After losing her job and her fiancé in one fell swoop, Natalie Vos returned home to lick her wounds. A few months later, she's sufficiently drowned her sorrows in cabernet and she's ready to get back on her feet. She just needs her trust fund to finance her new business venture. Unfortunately, the terms require she marry before she can have the money. And well, dumped, remember? But Natalie is desperate enough to propose to a man who makes her want to kill him--and kiss him, in equal measure." --Amazon.com
Author: Mahfouz, Sola, 1996- author. Kapoor, Malaina, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B MAHFOUZ
Format: Books
Summary: "A searing, deeply personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life. Sola Mahfouz was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1996. That same year, the Taliban took over her country for the first time. They banned television and photographs, presided over brutal public executions, and turned the clock backwards on women's rights, practically imprisoning women within their own homes and forcing them to wear cruel, tent-like burqas. At age eleven, Sola was forced to stop attending school after a group of men threatened to throw acid in her face if she continued. After that she was confined to her home, required to cook and clean and prepare for an arranged marriage. She saw the outside world only a handful of times each year. As time passed, Sola began to understand that she was condemned to the same existence as millions of women in Afghanistan. Her future was empty. The rest of her life would be controlled entirely by men, fathers and husbands and sons who would never allow her to study, to earn money, or even to dream. Driven by this devastating realization, Sola began a years-long fight to change the trajectory of her life. She decided that education would be her way out. At age sixteen, without even a basic ability to add or subtract, she began secretly to teach herself math and English. She progressed rapidly, and within just two years she was already studying topics such as philosophy and physics. Faced with obstacles at every turn, Sola still managed to sneak into Pakistan to take the SAT. In 2016, she escaped to the United States, where she is now a quantum computing researcher at Tufts University. An engrossing, dramatic memoir, co-written with young Indian American human rights activist Malaina Kapoor, Defiant Dreams is the story of one girl, but it's also the untold story of a generation of women brimming with potential and longing for freedom"--
Author: Rubio, Marco, 1971- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 330.973
Format: Books
Summary: "A book by Marco Rubio about what America needs to change in order to have a prosperous future"-- Thirty years of telling Americans they don't need families, communities, or a shared history is destroying what made our country the envy of the world. While many Americans have worried about China, open borders, opioids, failing communities, and families in crisis, our elites have told us that's all fine because it's not only inevitable; it's for the best. Every part of our nation is now in decline, and it's all connected. In Decades of Decadence, Marco Rubio exposes the elites' attacks on the four key elements of American strength: good local jobs, stable families, geographical communities, and a sovereign nation that serves as a beacon of freedom and prosperity. These have been eroded not only by globalization, but by the lies we tell ourselves, including, "Anyone who loves each other is a family," "Real community can be found on the internet," and "We're all citizens of the world." It's not too late to reject these errors. America remains a powerful and wealthy nation, built on timeless truths ingrained in the very creation of mankind. But we cannot afford another misguided and decadent decade. In this book, Rubio shows how we can avoid another dark age and restore America's place as the global ideal of harmony, opportunity, and democracy.
Author: Shalvis, Jill, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F SHALVIS
Format: Books
Summary: "When Harper Shaw's life falls apart, she knows it's time for a change. She removes everything that doesn't spark joy--from her soul-sucking job to eating kale to making lists--and sets off for the last place she was happy, Lake Tahoe (who wouldn't feel good there, right?) to fulfill her dream of opening her own bakery. With her Sugar Pine Bakery in between a tavern, owned by sexy, grumpy Bodie Campbell, and a bookstore, run by her new BFF, she feels a peace she's never experienced since...well, forever.. Then she meets Ivy, a teenage runaway, who barrels into her heart. She sees a lot of herself in Ivy and takes her under her wing, but the teenager has secrets..." --Amazon.com
Author: Heard, Wendy, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: Y HEARD
Format: Books
Summary: While investigating an infamous Hollywood murder mystery for their final YouTube episode, four teenagers visit the scene of the crime, but one does not come out alive, leaving the others to solve crimes old and new--or die trying. No one at Hollywood High knows who's behind We'll Never Tell--a viral YouTube channel where the anonymous creators trespass behind the scenes of LA's most intriguing locales. The team includes Casey, quiet researcher and trivia champ; Jacob, voice narrator and video editor, who is secretly dating Eddie, aspiring filmmaker; and Zoe, coder and breaking-and-entering extraordinaire. Now senior year is winding down, and with their lives heading in different directions, the YouTubers vow to go out with a bang. Their last episode will be filmed at the infamous Valentini "murder house," which has been left abandoned, bloodstained, and untouched since a shocking murder/suicide in 1972. When the teens break in, they capture epic footage. But someone trips an alarm, and it's a mad dash to get out before the police arrive--at which point they realize only three of them escaped instead of four. Jacob is still inside, slain and bleeding out. Is his attack connected to the historic murder, or is one of their crew responsible? A week of suspicions and cover-ups unfolds as Casey and her remaining friends try to stay alive long enough to solve murder mysteries past and present. If they do, their friendship may not survive. If they don't, the house will claim more victims.
Author: Grant, Will, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 917.804
Format: Books
Summary: Inspired by the likes of Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, and Horace Greeley, a cowboy and journalist takes an epic and authentic horseback journey across the American West as he rides the Pony Express trail from Missouri to California. "The Pony Express was a fast-horse frontier mail service that spanned the American West-- the high, dry, and undeniably lonesome part of North America. While in operation during the 1860s, it carried letter mail on a blistering ten-day schedule between Missouri and San Francisco, running through a vast and mostly uninhabited wilderness. It covered a massive distance--akin to running horses between Madrid and Moscow-- and to this day, the Pony Express is irrefutably the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book." --Amazon.com
Author: Hughes, Frieda, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B HUGHES
Format: Books
Summary: The daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath recalls how she moved to the countryside to start a new life, but instead found herself rescuing a baby magpie and embarking on an unlikely journey toward joy and connection. "When Frieda Hughes moved to the depths of the Welsh countryside, she was expecting to take on a few projects: planting a garden, painting, writing her poetry column for The Times (London), and possibly even breathing new life into her ailing marriage. But instead, she found herself rescuing a baby magpie, the sole survivor of a nest destroyed in a storm--and embarking on an obsession that would change the course of her life." --Amazon.com
Author: Brady, Fern, 1986- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B BRADY
Format: Books
Summary: Diagnosed with autism at the age of thirty-four, one of the UK's hottest comedy stars reflects on the ways her undiagnosed autism influenced her youth, from the tree that functioned as her childhood best friend to the psychiatric facility where she ended up when no one knew what to do with her. "After reading about autism in her teens, Fern Brady knew instinctively that she had it--autism explained her sensory issues, her meltdowns, her inability to pick up on social cues--and she told her doctor as much. But it took until she was thirty-four for her to get diagnosed. Strong Female Character is about the years in between, and the unique combination of sexism and ableism that so often prevents autistic women from getting diagnosed until adulthood. Coming from a working-class Scottish Catholic family, Fern wasn't exactly poised to receive an open-minded acceptance of her neurodivergence. With the piercing clarity and wit that has put her at the top of the British comedy scene, she now reflects on the ways her undiagnosed autism influenced her youth, from the tree that functioned as her childhood best friend to the psychiatric facility where she ended up when neither her parents nor school knew what to do with her." --Amazon.com
Author: Glass, Charles, 1951- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 616.8521
Format: Books
Summary: "A brilliant and poignant history of the friendship between two great war poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, alongside a narrative investigation of the origins of PTSD and the literary response to World War I...Second Lieutenant Wilfred Owen was twenty-four years old when he was admitted to the newly established Craiglockhart War Hospital for treatment of shell shock. A bourgeoning poet, trying to make sense of the terror he had witnessed, he read a collection of poems from a fellow officer, Siegfried Sassoon, and was impressed by his portrayal of the soldier's plight. One month later, Sassoon himself arrived at Craiglockhart, having refused to return to the front after being wounded during battle. Though Owen and Sassoon differed in age, class, education, and interests, both were outsiders--as soldiers unfit to fight, as gay men in a homophobic country, and as Britons unwilling to support a war likely to wipe out an entire generation of young men. But more than anything else, they shared a love of the English language, and its highest expression of poetry... As he investigates the roots of what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder, Glass brings historical bearing to how we must consider war's ravaging effects on mental health, and the ways in which creative work helps us come to terms with even the darkest of times"--
Author: Ford, Richard, 1944- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F FORD
Format: Books
Summary: "From Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford: the final novel in the world of Frank Bascombe, one of the most indelible characters in American literature. Over the course of four celebrated works of fiction and almost forty years, Richard Ford has crafted an ambitious, incisive, and singular view of American life as lived. Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is once more our guide to the great American midway. Now in the twilight of life, a man who has occupied many colorful lives--sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, friend, real estate agent--Bascombe finds himself in the most sorrowing role of all: caregiver to his son, Paul, diagnosed with ALS. On a shared winter odyssey to Mount Rushmore, Frank, in typical Bascombe fashion, faces down the mortality that is assured each of us, and in doing so confronts what happiness might signify at the end of days. In this memorable novel, Richard Ford puts on displays the prose, wit, and intelligence that make him one of our most acclaimed living writers. Be Mine is a profound, funny, poignant love letter to our beleaguered world"--
Author: Bjørgaas, Hanna, author. Bagguley, Matt, 1971- translator.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 577.56
Format: Books
Summary: "Discover who's living in your own backyard. More than half of all humans now live in cities, with a mixture of plants, animals, and fungi that have never been together before. Yet not only do few of us see and appreciate these creatures, we often try to eradicate them. What if understanding urban species could help preserve our connection to nature? Secret Life of the City introduces us to corvids, songbirds, ants, pigeons, bats, sparrows, lichens, and linden trees--and the experts who study their surprising abilities to survive, and thrive, in urban spaces. Blending science and story, this fascinating book invites us to pay attention to the sights, sounds, and smells all around us"--
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