The Best Romance Books to Read in 2023
Looking for an escapist love story? Our columnist is tracking the year’s sexiest, most swoon-worthy reads.
Journaling, Appetites and a Movie Star’s Private Life
An editor recommends old and new books.
Asked to Delete References to Racism From Her Book, an Author Refused
The case, involving Scholastic, led to an outcry among authors and became an example of how the culture wars behind a surge in book banning in schools has reached publishers.
6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Books
Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles.
6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Books
Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles.
6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Novels
Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles.
6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Novels
Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles.
Chess Club
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.
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.
Springtime Storytime
Open to ages 3 1/2-5, siblings welcome. Registration required, space limited. Stop in for a few quick stories, songs, an easy craft, plus a treat. We ask that guardians please remain present with children during the event. Face masks are optional, however, social distancing guidelines are still in effect. All programs are subject to change or cancellation. Please inform staff of any food allergies.
Saturday Movie Matinee
Open to ages 4 and older. Registration required. Stop by the library to enjoy a family-friendly, Saturday afternoon movie. Call library for titles. Face masks are optional, however, social distancing guidelines are still in effect. We ask that guardians please remain present with children age 9 and under during the event. All programs are subject to change or cancellation.
Saturday Movie Time
Open to all. Registration required. Come in from the cold and enjoy an afternoon movie with us. Stop by or call for the movie title of the week. Food and drink are not permitted. Children aged 9 and under must be accompanied by a guardian. All programs are subject to change or cancellation. Face masks are optional, but social distancing is still in effect.
It's lonely at the centre of the Earth : an auto-bio-graphic-novel
Author: Thorogood, Zoe, author, artist. Thorogood, Zoe, artist.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B GN THOROGOO
Format: Books
Summary: Cartoonist Zoe Thorogood records 6 months of her own life as it falls apart in a desperate attempt to put it back together again in the only way she knows how. It's lonely at the centre of the Earth is an intimate and metanarrative look into the life of a selfish artist who must create for her own survival.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B GN THOROGOO
Format: Books
Summary: Cartoonist Zoe Thorogood records 6 months of her own life as it falls apart in a desperate attempt to put it back together again in the only way she knows how. It's lonely at the centre of the Earth is an intimate and metanarrative look into the life of a selfish artist who must create for her own survival.
OMFG, bees! : bees are so amazing and you're about to find out why
Author: Kracht, Matt, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 599.799
Format: Books
Summary: "Are you ready for the ultimate bee book? With lighthearted watercolor and ink drawings, humorous quips, lists, and musings, OMFG, BEES! will show you just how important these esteemed bee-list celebrities really are. (Hint: We can't live without them.)"-- Delving into various bee topics, from distinguishing between bees and not bees (very crucial), to exploring the absolute wonder that is bee behavior (they do a coded dance directing their bee friends to food, for crying out loud!), to divulging the mind-blowing bee-magic behind honey making (within some extremely intricate and precisely constructed hexagonal honeycomb, no big deal), and more, Kracht's ode to bees paints a charming and enthusiastic picture of our favorite pollinators. Bee-autiful full-color illustrations fill these pages that playfully and earnestly examine different kinds of bees, from the honeybee to the teddy bear bee, providing unbelievably cool facts about bees and reasons why they deserve a lot more credit as well as our appreciation and advocacy. Because omfg, BEES!!
Published: 2023
Call Number: 599.799
Format: Books
Summary: "Are you ready for the ultimate bee book? With lighthearted watercolor and ink drawings, humorous quips, lists, and musings, OMFG, BEES! will show you just how important these esteemed bee-list celebrities really are. (Hint: We can't live without them.)"-- Delving into various bee topics, from distinguishing between bees and not bees (very crucial), to exploring the absolute wonder that is bee behavior (they do a coded dance directing their bee friends to food, for crying out loud!), to divulging the mind-blowing bee-magic behind honey making (within some extremely intricate and precisely constructed hexagonal honeycomb, no big deal), and more, Kracht's ode to bees paints a charming and enthusiastic picture of our favorite pollinators. Bee-autiful full-color illustrations fill these pages that playfully and earnestly examine different kinds of bees, from the honeybee to the teddy bear bee, providing unbelievably cool facts about bees and reasons why they deserve a lot more credit as well as our appreciation and advocacy. Because omfg, BEES!!
But have you read the book? : 52 literary gems that inspired our favorite films
Author: Lopez, Kristen, author. Patra, Jyotirmayee illustrator. Turner Classic Movies (Firm)
Published: 2023
Call Number: 791.436
Format: Books
Summary: "For film buffs and literature lovers alike, this is an essential guide to 52 great reads, and the cinema classics they inspired"-- You loved the movie-- but have you read the book? Lopez looks at beloved screen adaptations, and the great reads that inspired them. Some diverge wildly from the original source materials, while others shift the point of view to create an entirely different experience within the same story. In exploring what makes these works classics of both the page and screen, Lopez shows why each made for an exceptional adaptation. --adapted from back cover.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 791.436
Format: Books
Summary: "For film buffs and literature lovers alike, this is an essential guide to 52 great reads, and the cinema classics they inspired"-- You loved the movie-- but have you read the book? Lopez looks at beloved screen adaptations, and the great reads that inspired them. Some diverge wildly from the original source materials, while others shift the point of view to create an entirely different experience within the same story. In exploring what makes these works classics of both the page and screen, Lopez shows why each made for an exceptional adaptation. --adapted from back cover.
Study break : 11 college tales from orientation to graduation
Author: Avachat, Aashna, editor. author. Arlow, Jake Maia, author. Carmen, Boon, author. Devarajan, Ananya, author. Garrett, Camryn, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F STUDY
Format: Books
Summary: "This collection of interconnected contemporary YA short stories, written by Gen Z authors, explores different parts of "the college experience," from questioning your major to questioning your identity"-- "College . . . The best time, the worst time, and something in between... Told over the course of one academic year, these contemporary short stories set on the same fictional campus features first years to fourth years across different cultures, genders, and interests learning more about who they are and who they want to be. From new careers to communities to (almost) missed connections--and more--these interconnected tales explore the ways university life can be stressful and confusing and exciting and fulfilling!" --Front jacket flap
Published: 2023
Call Number: F STUDY
Format: Books
Summary: "This collection of interconnected contemporary YA short stories, written by Gen Z authors, explores different parts of "the college experience," from questioning your major to questioning your identity"-- "College . . . The best time, the worst time, and something in between... Told over the course of one academic year, these contemporary short stories set on the same fictional campus features first years to fourth years across different cultures, genders, and interests learning more about who they are and who they want to be. From new careers to communities to (almost) missed connections--and more--these interconnected tales explore the ways university life can be stressful and confusing and exciting and fulfilling!" --Front jacket flap
The East Indian : a novel
Author: Charry, Brinda, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F CHARRY
Format: Books
Summary: "Meet Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company's outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants--boys like himself, men from Africa, a mad woman from London--must work the tobacco plantations. Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. Set during the early days of English colonization in Jamestown, before servitude calcified into racialized slavery, The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historic figure and brings the world he would have encountered to vivid life"--
Published: 2023
Call Number: F CHARRY
Format: Books
Summary: "Meet Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company's outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants--boys like himself, men from Africa, a mad woman from London--must work the tobacco plantations. Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. Set during the early days of English colonization in Jamestown, before servitude calcified into racialized slavery, The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historic figure and brings the world he would have encountered to vivid life"--
Feed them silence
Author: Mandelo, Lee, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F MANDELO
Format: Books
Summary: "Lee Mandelo dives into the minds of wolves in Feed Them Silence, a novella of the near future. What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon's case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject's perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack. Sean's tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she's invading"--
Published: 2023
Call Number: F MANDELO
Format: Books
Summary: "Lee Mandelo dives into the minds of wolves in Feed Them Silence, a novella of the near future. What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon's case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject's perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack. Sean's tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she's invading"--
Food stars : 15 women stirring up the food industry
Author: Mahoney, Ellen Voelckers, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 641.3
Format: Books
Summary: "[Profiles] fifteen ... women have made great strides in the field of food, whether it's coming up with meals for astronauts to eat in space, operating a 20-acre farm, hosting a food podcast, or fighting for food rights" --Provided by publisher. "Not only do humans need food to survive, it also gives structure to our days, offers dining and recreational opportunities, provides employment, and speaks to important societal issues such as food security, hunger, and nutrition. Women and food make a dynamic duo. These 15 hardworking, innovative, and accomplished women have made great strides in the field of food, whether it's coming up with meals for astronauts to eat in space, operating a 20-acre farm, hosting a food podcast, or fighting for food rights. Women have always been instrumental in providing nourishment for their families and communities, and they are often at the forefront of this ever-changing global industry"--
Published: 2023
Call Number: 641.3
Format: Books
Summary: "[Profiles] fifteen ... women have made great strides in the field of food, whether it's coming up with meals for astronauts to eat in space, operating a 20-acre farm, hosting a food podcast, or fighting for food rights" --Provided by publisher. "Not only do humans need food to survive, it also gives structure to our days, offers dining and recreational opportunities, provides employment, and speaks to important societal issues such as food security, hunger, and nutrition. Women and food make a dynamic duo. These 15 hardworking, innovative, and accomplished women have made great strides in the field of food, whether it's coming up with meals for astronauts to eat in space, operating a 20-acre farm, hosting a food podcast, or fighting for food rights. Women have always been instrumental in providing nourishment for their families and communities, and they are often at the forefront of this ever-changing global industry"--
Choosing family : a memoir of queer motherhood and Black resistance
Author: Royster, Francesca T., author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B ROYSTER
Format: Books
Summary: A professor of English literature presents a memoir of family, identity, and acceptance that examines the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a black, queer, and feminist perspective. A brilliant literary memoir of chosen family and chosen heritage, told against the backdrop of Chicago's North and South Sides. --Amazon. As a multiracial household in Chicago's North Side community of Rogers Park, race is at the core of Francesca T. Royster and her family's world, influencing everyday acts of parenting and the conception of what family truly means. Like Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, this lyrical and affecting memoir focuses on a unit of three: the author; her wife Annie, who's white; and Cecilia, the Black daughter they adopt as a couple in their forties and fifties. Choosing Family chronicles this journey to motherhood while examining the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a Black, queer, and feminist perspective. Royster also explores her memories of the matriarchs of her childhood and the homes these women created in Chicago's South Side--itself a dynamic character in the memoir--where "family" was fluid, inclusive, and not necessarily defined by marriage or other socially recognized contracts. Calling upon the work of some of her favorite queer thinkers, including Jose Esteban Munoz and Audre Lorde, Royster interweaves her experiences and memories with queer and gender theory to argue that many Black families, certainly her own, have historically had a "queer" attitude toward family: configurations that sit outside the white normative experience and are the richer for their flexibility and generosity of spirit. A powerful, genre-bending memoir of family, identity, and acceptance, Choosing Family, ultimately, is about joy--about claiming the joy that society did not intend to assign to you, or to those like you.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B ROYSTER
Format: Books
Summary: A professor of English literature presents a memoir of family, identity, and acceptance that examines the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a black, queer, and feminist perspective. A brilliant literary memoir of chosen family and chosen heritage, told against the backdrop of Chicago's North and South Sides. --Amazon. As a multiracial household in Chicago's North Side community of Rogers Park, race is at the core of Francesca T. Royster and her family's world, influencing everyday acts of parenting and the conception of what family truly means. Like Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, this lyrical and affecting memoir focuses on a unit of three: the author; her wife Annie, who's white; and Cecilia, the Black daughter they adopt as a couple in their forties and fifties. Choosing Family chronicles this journey to motherhood while examining the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a Black, queer, and feminist perspective. Royster also explores her memories of the matriarchs of her childhood and the homes these women created in Chicago's South Side--itself a dynamic character in the memoir--where "family" was fluid, inclusive, and not necessarily defined by marriage or other socially recognized contracts. Calling upon the work of some of her favorite queer thinkers, including Jose Esteban Munoz and Audre Lorde, Royster interweaves her experiences and memories with queer and gender theory to argue that many Black families, certainly her own, have historically had a "queer" attitude toward family: configurations that sit outside the white normative experience and are the richer for their flexibility and generosity of spirit. A powerful, genre-bending memoir of family, identity, and acceptance, Choosing Family, ultimately, is about joy--about claiming the joy that society did not intend to assign to you, or to those like you.
All he has left
Author: Zunker, Chad, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F ZUNKER
Format: Books
Summary: "After Jake Slater's wife dies in a tragic hit-and-run, all he has left is his daughter, Piper--nearly lost, too, in a brutal custody battle with his wealthy in-laws. A year later, Jake reluctantly agrees to a reunion with the estranged family for Piper's thirteenth birthday. Then a single gunshot rings out, and a new nightmare begins. Piper is kidnapped, and her cousin Caitlin is murdered. Caitlin's cryptic dying words: Piper knows the truth. Jake is the only witness to the murder--and the only suspect. For an innocent man trapped in a world conspiring to crush him, the only way to clear his name and find Piper is to do it on the run. Crucified by the media, pursued by the FBI, and hunted by an assassin, Jake can feel his desperation escalating with every tick of the clock. The closer he gets to the truth, the more he risks uncovering family betrayals so sinister they're worth killing for." --Back cover.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F ZUNKER
Format: Books
Summary: "After Jake Slater's wife dies in a tragic hit-and-run, all he has left is his daughter, Piper--nearly lost, too, in a brutal custody battle with his wealthy in-laws. A year later, Jake reluctantly agrees to a reunion with the estranged family for Piper's thirteenth birthday. Then a single gunshot rings out, and a new nightmare begins. Piper is kidnapped, and her cousin Caitlin is murdered. Caitlin's cryptic dying words: Piper knows the truth. Jake is the only witness to the murder--and the only suspect. For an innocent man trapped in a world conspiring to crush him, the only way to clear his name and find Piper is to do it on the run. Crucified by the media, pursued by the FBI, and hunted by an assassin, Jake can feel his desperation escalating with every tick of the clock. The closer he gets to the truth, the more he risks uncovering family betrayals so sinister they're worth killing for." --Back cover.
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