
As a staff dedicated to fostering the pure enjoyment of reading and the pursuit of knowledge, we’re eager to help you find exactly what you’re looking for at the library. From personalized book lists and programs designed to connect readers with their favorite authors, to providing a wide array of online resources designed to assist in exploring the book world at large, the library is here to get you connected.
The library offers help with discovering new titles by your favorite authors as well as exploring new titles to enjoy. We can also assist with placing holds on items and navigating our digital collections ready for check out via OverDrive/Libby and Hoopla.
Library Staff Picks
Looking for what to read next? Check out this list of what library staff are reading, watching and listening to, and enjoying. We love to share!
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What Happens After Midnight
From the bestselling author of The Summer of Broken Rules comes a new coming-of-age romance about senior year, first love, and finding yourself.
Lily Hopper has two more weeks until she's officially finished with boarding school. With graduation quickly approaching Lily is worried that she's somehow missed out on the fun of being in high school. So, when she receives a mysterious note inviting her to join the anonymous senior class Jester in executing the end-of-year prank, Lily sees her chance to put her goody-two-shoes reputation behind her.
When Lily realizes the Jester is none other than Taggart Swell, her ex- boyfriend, she's already in too deep to back out. Lily might've dumped Tag, but she still has major feelings. Plus, his brilliant plan to steal the school's yearbooks, targets none other than Lily's prom date: the Senior Class President, Daniel.
As the group of pranksters hide cryptic clues across campus for Daniel to find, Lily and Tag find themselves in close quarters. As the exes dodge Campus Safety guards, night owl teachers, a troop of freshmen, and even Daniel himself, new sparks fly. But old hurts and painful secrets refuse to be ignored. And with graduation on the horizon, Lily can only hope that breaking the rules will help mend her heart.
Perfect for fans of:
- Taylor Swift
- The Summer I Turned Pretty
- Sarah Dessen
- BookTok Favorites
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A Very Typical Family
"Atmospheric and uplifting...for fans of Marian Keyes and Emily Giffin." --Booklist, STARRED review
A heartfelt, hilarious beach read about learning to love (and forgive) your family...even when they accidentally put you behind bars.
All families are messy. Some are disasters.
Natalie Walker is the reason her older brother and sister went to prison over 15 years ago. She fled California shortly after that fateful night and hasn't spoken to anyone in her family since. Now, on the same day her boyfriend steals her dream job out from under her, Natalie receives a letter from a lawyer saying her estranged mother has died and left the family's historic Santa Cruz house to her. Sort of. The only way for Natalie and her siblings to inherit is for all three adult children to come back and claim it--together.
Natalie drives cross-country to Santa Cruz with her willful cat in tow expecting to sign some papers, see siblings Lynn and Jake briefly, and get back to sorting out her life in Boston. But Jake, now an award-winning ornithologist, is missing. And Lynn, working as an undertaker in New York City, shows up with a teenage son. While Natalie and her nephew look for Jake--meeting a very handsome marine biologist who immediately captures her heart--she unpacks the guilt she has held onto for so many years, wondering how (or if) she can salvage a relationship with her siblings after all this time.
Written with delightfully dark humor and characters you can't help but cheer for, A Very Typical Family is an uplifting family drama that will have you reveling in the power of second chances.
"I couldn't put it down. Engrossing, satisfying. The minute I turned the last page I messaged three friends to tell them they had to grab it." --KJ Dell'Antonia, New York Times bestselling author of Reese's Book Club pick The Chicken Sisters
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The Naturals
Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #1 bestselling author of The Inheritance Games, delivers an exhilarating mystery--perfect for fans of Criminal Minds and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they've begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.
What Cassie doesn't realize is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved homicides--especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Naturals is a gripping novel with killer appeal and a to-die-for romance. Don't miss the other books in the Naturals series: Killer Instinct, All In, and Bad Blood.
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Renegades
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more than 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material.
Renegades: Born in the USA is a candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself. It includes:
• Original introductions by President Obama and Bruce Springsteen
• Exclusive new material from the Renegades podcast recording sessions
• Obama’s never-before-seen annotated speeches, including his “Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches”
• Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics for songs spanning his 50-year-long career
• Rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal archives
• Historical photographs and documents that provide rich visual context for their conversation
In a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars, and on at least one Corvette ride, Obama and Springsteen discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home. They also compare notes on their favorite protest songs, the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and more. Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers, and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity and global leadership. -
Cassandra In Reverse
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
"A Time-Twisting Delight" --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club June '23 Pick)
If you had the power to change the past...where would you start?
Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order...until now.
- She's just been dumped.
- She's just been fired.
- Her local café has run out of banana muffins.
Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.
"A great read-alike for The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, and The Boys by Katie Hafner." --Booklist (STARRED) -
The Middle Kingdoms
"Central Europe has long been infamous as a region beset by war, a place where, historically, empires clashed and sieges from the east toppled kingdoms and enslaved peoples. Many view the region-comprising present-day Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, and Romania, among other countries-as united only by the shared experience of invasions launched by foreign powers, from the Huns of the fourth century, to the Swedes of the seventeenth, to the Russians of the twentieth and twenty-first. Sandwiched between hostile neighbors, Central Europeans have indeed contended with conquest for centuries. But the full story of region encompasses far more than its battles. In The Middle Kingdoms, Martin Rady offers the definitive history of Central Europe, highlighting how the region's preoccupation with invasion has led not only violent conflicts but also tremendous accomplishments in politics, society, and culture. In the Middle Ages, Central Europe was distinguished by its assemblies of noblemen, self-governing cities, and strong village communities. The region's peoples viewed their land as the home of knightly chivalry and great Gothic cities, vigilantly protecting Europe from alien incursion. In the early modern period, dynasties of ambitious rulers such as the Austrian Habsburgs crushed these communities in their quest to assemble sprawling empires. Eager to conquer external foes, they turned duchies, lordships, and kingdoms into family possessions, and for much of the modern era Central Europe served as the seat of European empire. Fierce rivalries over land and power made the region's experience of nation-building intense and often violent, from the devastation of the Napoleonic Wars to the atrocities of the Third Reich. But even as Central Europe engaged in hostilities with its neighbors, it reshaped trends from surrounding nations and exported its own. Central Europeans launched the Reformation, developed the philosophy of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, originated the Romantic movement, and advanced some of the twentieth century's most important trends in art and cinema, from Expressionism to absurdist drama. More than simply the faultline between Western and Eastern Europe, the region has long possessed a cohesive identity of its own, even as its nations have remained diverse and enduringly distinct from each other. Sweeping in scope, The Middle Kingdoms draws on a lifetime of research and scholarship to tell as never before the panoramic and captivating story of Central Europe's rich, complex past and its enduring influence on world affairs"--
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How Can I Help You
From the author of Looker comes this “compulsive and unforgettable novel” (Mona Awad) of razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined.
No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.
That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron’s death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper—even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming.
Taut and compelling, How Can I Help You explores the dark side of human nature and the dangerous pull of artistic obsession as these “transfixing dual female narrators” (Kimberly McCreight) hurtle toward a stunning climax. -
Year on Fire
New York Times bestselling author Julie Buxbaum explores the blinding power of lies, the tight grip of family secrets, and the magic of first love in this poignant novel about a trio of friends and the allure of romantic feelings that fractures their bond as they struggle to remain true to themselves while building back the grounding friendship on which they once relied.
It was a year on fire. They fell in love. Someone was bound to get burned.
The Spark: Just days before the start of junior year, a spontaneous kiss and then a lie shake the very foundation of the friendship between best friends Immie and Paige. Immie’s twin brother, Arch, knows something, only he’s not talking. Some loyalties run too deep to be broken by accidental betrayal.
The Fuel: Enter Rohan, new to Wood Valley High by way of London, who walks into school on the first day completely overwhelmed by his sudden move halfway around the world. When Paige calls dibs on him—he’s too cute to ignore—Immie is in no position to argue, certainly not after taking the fall for the disloyal kiss. Too bad for Immie that Ro feels like the best kind of familiar.
The Kindling: Former lab partners Arch and Jackson, Paige’s ex-boyfriend, have never considered themselves more than friends. But sometimes feelings can grow like flames fanned by the wind.
The Flames: When the girls’ bathroom at Wood Valley is set ablaze, no one doubts it’s arson. But in this bastion of privilege, who’d be angry enough to want to burn down the school? Answer: pretty much everyone. -
Yours Truly
A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match from "a true talent" (Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
Dr. Briana Ortiz's life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother's running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that's probably going to the new man-doctor who's already registering eighty-friggin'-seven on Briana's "pain in my ass" scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.
And it's a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn't actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who's terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her "sob closet," and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable--a kidney for her brother--she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she can't refuse.
"Abby Jimenez's words...sprinkle humor and warmth all over my life." -Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis
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So Cold the River
Now a major motion picture: So Cold the River is a chilling, supernatural tale "guaranteed to put the cold finger down your spine" (Michael Connelly).
It started with a beautiful woman and a challenge. As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man's past -- just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he's kept his entire life.
In Bradford's hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history -- a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and hot springs whose miraculous mineral water cured everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur just in time for Eric's stay.
Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the town's dark history. He discovers that something besides the hotel has been restored -- a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.
Book & Author Programs
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Read Online
Digital Library of Illinois (Libby)

Powered by Libby (formerly known as Overdrive), we have combined our exclusive e-content titles with other libraries to provide a much larger selection of materials to choose from, while still maintaining first dibs on titles we will continue to add regularly.
Freegal Music

The Freegal® Music service allows patrons to access a collection spanning over 15 million songs, music videos and audiobooks from more than 40,000 music labels worldwide including Sony Music, Epic, RCA, and Columbia. Freegal® Music also offers a completely rebuilt mobile app and website which utilizes modern application practices to ensure an easy-to-use and enjoyable experience.
Hoopla

Stream & download movies, music, audiobooks, ebooks, comics and TV shows to enjoy on most any device.
Kanopy

Stream full-length independent, foreign, classic & documentary films for free, brought to you by your public library. Over 30,000 films are offered.
KanopyKids

Browse educational and engaging videos for children of all ages that promote positive social and emotional development and inspire creativity in young minds.
NoveList Plus K-8

Great for kids, parents and teachers! Browse recommended reads by age, get book discussion guides as well search titles, authors, plot summaries, and series. Includes lexile scoring for both fiction and non-fiction titles.