Nail Biters (03/17/2026): Symphony of Secrets

Symphony of Secrets (cover)

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb

Bern Hendricks has just received the call of a lifetime. As one of the world’s preeminent experts on the famed twentieth-century composer Frederick Delaney, Bern knows everything there is to know about the man behind the music. When Mallory Roberts, a board member of the distinguished Delaney Foundation and direct descendant of the man himself, asks for Bern’s help authenticating a newly discovered piece, which may be his famous lost opera, RED, he jumps at the chance. With the help of his tech-savvy acquaintance Eboni, Bern soon discovers that the truth is far more complicated than history would have them believe.

In 1920s Manhattan, Josephine Reed is living on the streets and frequenting jazz clubs when she meets the struggling musician Fred Delaney. But where young Delaney struggles, Josephine soars. She’s a natural prodigy who hears beautiful music in the sounds of the world around her. With Josephine as his silent partner, Delaney’s career takes off—but who is the real genius here?

In the present day, Bern and Eboni begin to uncover more clues that indicate Delaney may have had help in composing his most successful work. Armed with more questions than answers and caught in the crosshairs of a powerful organization who will stop at nothing to keep their secret hidden, Bern and Eboni will move heaven and earth in their dogged quest to right history’s wrongs.


Next Meeting:
March 17th @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Unicorns and Spaceships (03/10/2026): Annie Bot

Annie Bot (cover)

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the cute outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.

She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?


Next Meeting:
March 10th @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (07/01/2025): The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America (cover)

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan

On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men  —  college boys, day workers, immigrants from mining camps  —  to fight the fire. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them.

Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen. The robber barons fought Roosevelt and Pinchot’s rangers, but the Big Burn saved the forests even as it destroyed them: the heroism shown by the rangers turned public opinion permanently in their favor and became the creation myth that drove the Forest Service, with consequences still felt in the way our national lands are protected  —  or not —  today.


Next Meeting:
July 1st @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (11/01/2022): Yes Please

Yes Please (cover)

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central’s Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy’s one-liners?

If your answer to these questions is “Yes Please!” then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like “Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend,” “Plain Girl Versus the Demon” and “The Robots Will Kill Us All” Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.


Next Meeting:
November 1st @ 7:00 PM at Virtual

Register for online meeting here

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
AUDIOBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Enjoying the Classics (08/17/2022): The Virginian

The Virginian (cover)

The Virginian by Owen Wister

The novel that introduced the first great American hero: the cowboy

The Virginian cuts an impressive figure when the unnamed narrator of Owen Wister’s groundbreaking novel first encounters him in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Dark-haired and physically imposing, the charismatic Virginian quickly befriends the narrator, whom he nicknames “the tenderfoot,” and the two embark on a three-hundred-mile journey to the ranch where the Virginian works. Life on the frontier is unforgiving—filled with hardship and violence—and as they travel together, the tenderfoot recognizes all the ways in which the stoic and principled Virginian exemplifies the heroism and romance of life in the Wild West.

Published in 1902 and considered to be the first true Western, The Virginian broke the trail for every great poet of the frontier, from Zane Grey to Louis L’Amour to John Ford.


Next Meeting:
August 17th @ 7:00 PM at Virtual

Register for online meeting here

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK

Nite Readers (08/20/2020): Widows of Malabar Hill

Widows of Malabar Hill (cover)

Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

“Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father’s law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women’s legal rights. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen is going through the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. What will they live on if they forfeit what their husband left them? The Farid widows live in full purdah–in strict seclusion, never leaving the women’s quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts about the will were correct when tensions escalate to murder.”– Provided by publisher.


Next Meeting:
August 20th @ 7:00 PM at Virtual Library

Register for online meeting here

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK

Celebrate Free Comic Book Day and Star Wars with Your Library!!!

Sad news everyone.  The Library’s Geek Out event (May 2nd) has been canceled, Free Comic Book Day has been postponed, new comics aren’t being shipped.  And Star Wars day, May the 4th?  Well, I guess Star Wars day is OK, but you can’t celebrate it with everyone you’d probably like to.  Luckily, the Library’s got a way to get you through this.  We have lots of resources that allow you to celebrate the things you geek out about.  

Now is a great time to catch up on some comics and graphic novels you’ve been meaning to read and you can do that digitally through Hoopla on your computer or laptop, your tablet, or even your smartphone.  Hoopla has tons of graphic novels and comics from many different publishers including Marvel, DC, Image, Darkhorse, and Boom.  Follow the links below to check them out!

Hoopla comics

Did you know that Marvel made audiobook versions of graphic novels?  They are more like voice acted versions of the graphic novels with pretty awesome sound effects.  You can check those out here:

There are plenty of resources you can find through the Library to help you can celebrate Star Wars Day on Monday, May 4th.  Below is a list of Star Wars related material that you can find through our online library.

Hoopla

Overdrive / Libby

RBdigital Magazine

Kanopy

Did you know that several Star Wars languages were inspired from or just using different Earth languages?  Below are a couple of examples and how you could also learn those languages.  Maybe after learning a few languages you can create your own Star Wars universe language!!!

Mango Languages

  • Indonesian language inspired Kanjiklubber, a new language that appears in Star Wars, The Force Awakens
  • In The Phantom Menace’s pod-racing scene,  Anakin’s owner Watto and competitor Sebulba inexplicably speak back and forth in Finnish, saying “Kiitos!” (Thank you!) and “Ole hyvä!” (You’re welcome!)

Here is a short list of some websites that you can also use to celebrate Star Wars not only on May 4th, but throughout the year.

I hope this list gives you a way to celebrate comics and Star Wars this weekend and in the future. The Library is looking forward to celebrating these awesome days with you in the future, but for now, you can Geek Out on your own.

Keep on reading – and – May the Force Be With You

Kenny D.

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”3″ display=”basic_slideshow” arrows=”1″ transition_speed=”100″]