Month: September 2024

AAPLD Welcomes “Eden Undone” Author

September 18, 2024 Library Programs

New York Times best-selling author Abbott Kahler, (formerly writing as Karen Abbott) is coming to the Luecht Auditorium at McHenry County College on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7:00 p.m. for a special presentation hosted by McHenry County Libraries – Let’s All Read Together Community Reading Program. Kahler will discuss her new book, Eden Undone, an incredible true story of murder, romance and a fateful search for utopia in the Galapagos Islands.

“At the height of the Great Depression, Los Angeles oil mogul George Allan Hancock and his crew of Smithsonian scientists came upon a gruesome scene: two bodies, mummified by the searing heat on the shore of a remote Galapagos island. Using never-before-published archives, Kahler weaves a chilling, stranger-than-fiction tale worthy of Agatha Christie. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the march to World War II, Eden Undone explores the universal desire to seek utopia– and lays bare the human fallibility that inevitably dooms the quest.”

In advance of the program, participating McHenry County libraries will hold discussions of Eden Undone.  Each library has copies of the book available to borrow. Algonquin’s discussion will be at Scorched Earth Brewing Company on Wed. November 6, at 7:00 p.m. Registration is required for both the book discussion and Kahler’s presentation, and both events are free. Copies of Eden Undone and some of Kahler’s previous books will be available for purchase and signing at the Nov. 14 event, courtesy of Read Between the Lynes bookstore in Woodstock.

Kahler is the author of six biographies and historical true-crime books including Sin in the Second City;  American Rose; Liar, Temptress Soldier, Spy; The Ghosts of Eden Park, and Where You End. She also hosts the podcast, Remus: The Mad Bootleg King, about legendary bootlegger, George Remus.

The McHenry County Libraries – Let’s All Read Program encourages residents to come together for a shared reading experience. Sponsoring libraries include Algonquin Area Public Library, Cary Area Public Library, Crystal Lake Public Library, Fox River Grove Memorial Library, Harvard-Diggins Library, Huntley Area Public Library, Johnsburg Library, Marengo-Union Library, McHenry Public Library, Nippersink Public Library, and Woodstock Public Library.

 

Discover September’s Library Reads

September 1, 2024 Library Reads, Reading Suggestions

To find a great read this September, start with Library Reads!  Fresh, new releases chosen by librarians across the country as their favorites, Library Reads offers something for everyone. Whether you're in the mood for a heartwarming tale of small towns and families, harrowing sci-fi or thrillers, thought-provoking literary fiction, or something that's all this and more, there's a Library Reads for that.  Browse the books here, or stop by the Main Library, and look for books with the Library Reads logo on the spine. Can't find what you're looking for? Ask an Adult Services staff member. We're happy to help.

Contemporary Fiction

Cover of The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna JohnstonThe Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston - For readers of Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a warm, life-affirming debut about a zany case of mistaken identity that allows a lonely old man one last chance to be part of a family.

‘Would you mind terribly, old boy, if I borrowed the rest of your life? I promise I’ll take excellent care of it.'

Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.

Denise Simms is stuck breathing the same disappointing air again and again. A middle-aged mom and caregiver at Bernard's facility, her crumbling marriage and daughter's health concerns are suffocating her joy for life. Wounded by her two-faced husband, she vows never to let a man deceive her again.

As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes, he leaves a trail of kindness behind him, fueling Denise's suspicions about his true identity. When unexpected truths are revealed, Fred and Denise rediscover their sense of purpose and learn how to return a broken life to mint condition.

Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is a hilarious, feel-good, clever novel about grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family.

Fantasy

Cover of A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft - A sharp-tongued folklorist must pair up with her academic rival to solve their mentor's murder in this lush and enthralling sapphic fantasy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic.

Lorelei Kaskel, a folklorist with a quick temper and an even quicker wit, is on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The magical spring promises untold power, which the king wants to harness to secure his reign of the embattled country of Brunnestaad. Lorelei is determined to use this opportunity to prove herself and make her wildest, most impossible dream come to become a naturalist, able to travel freely to lands she’s only ever read about.

The expedition gets off to a harrowing start when its leader—Lorelei’s beloved mentor—is murdered in her quarters aboard their ship. The suspects are her five remaining expedition mates, each with their own motive. The only person Lorelei knows must be innocent is her longtime academic rival, the insufferably gallant and maddeningly beautiful Sylvia von Wolff. Now in charge of the expedition, Lorelei must find the spring before the murderer strikes again—and a coup begins in earnest.

But there are other dangers lurking in the forests that rearrange themselves at night, rivers with slumbering dragons waiting beneath the water, and shapeshifting beasts out for blood.

As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.

Science Fiction

Playground by Richard Powers - A magisterial new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory and Bewilderment.

Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.