LIBRARIES TRANSFORM BOOK PICK

The Libraries Transform Book Pick is a new digital reading program that connects readers nationwide by offering free access to the same ebook through public libraries.

At the same time, it gives public libraries and the professionals working there opportunities to engage with readers about the ebook, as well as showcase digital collections and other library resources and programs.

Participating is easy! Do you have a public library card? Great! (And if you don’t, visit your library to get one.) Does your public library use Overdrive to serve your community’s ebook needs? (Most do, but if you aren’t sure, check back during October 7-21 to find a library.) All public libraries in the U.S. currently participating in OverDrive will be ready to lend unlimited copies of the ebook to borrowers during the reading period October 7-21, 2019, which makes it a great pick for your book club. Not a member of a book club? Discuss After the Flood with us on social media using the hashtag #LTBookPick.

Cool! But what are we reading?

The Book Pick: After the Flood by Kassandra Montag

Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Available for download October 7-21

Photo: © Nancy Kohler

Synopsis

An inventive and riveting epic saga, After the Flood signals the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.

A little more than a century from now, our world has been utterly transformed. After years of slowly overtaking the continent, rising floodwaters have obliterated America’s great coastal cities and then its heartland, leaving nothing but an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water.

Stubbornly independent Myra and her precocious seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, fish from their small boat, the Bird, visiting dry land only to trade for supplies and information in the few remaining outposts of civilization. For seven years, Myra has grieved the loss of her oldest daughter, Row, who was stolen by her father after a monstrous deluge overtook their home in Nebraska. Then, in a violent confrontation with a stranger, Myra suddenly discovers that Row was last seen in a far-off encampment near the Arctic Circle. Throwing aside her usual caution, Myra and Pearl embark on a perilous voyage into the icy northern seas, hoping against hope that Row will still be there.

A note from Donna Seaman, the Booklist editor who helped select this title: “As we pondered the criteria for the Libraries Transform Book Pick,” Booklist’s Adult Books Editor Donna Seaman observed, “we found ourselves––and by ‘we’ I’m referring to myself, Senior Editor Susan Maguire and Associate Editor Annie Bostrom––galvanized by how the overarching theme of transformation is manifest in such totality and so very dramatically in Kassandra Montag’s After the Flood, a speculative epic set in a world ravaged by climate change. We also felt that the strong women protagonists in this tale of a mother’s quest for a lost daughter made for exciting reading, as does Montag’s skill in provoking us to think about timely issues as she holds us rapt with the timeless thrills of heroism, adventure, and suspense. After the Flood is an ideal catalyst for lively and probing book-club discussions.”

For more info go to ilovelibraries.org.

Do you know about the “Great Book Scare”?

When the Public Feared That Library Books Could Spread Deadly Diseases

“The great book scare” created a panic that you could catch an infection just by lending from the library

At the height of the book scare, news outlets reported that dust from library books could spread infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox and scarlet fever. (kevron2001 / iStock)

On September 12, 1895, a Nebraskan named Jessie Allan died of tuberculosis. Such deaths were a common occurrence at the turn of the 20th century, but Allan’s case of “consumption” reportedly came from an unusual source. She was a librarian at the Omaha Public Library, and thanks to a common fear of the time, people worried that Allan’s terminal illness may have come from a book.

Read more at Smithsonian.com…

5 READ-ALIKES FOR THE GOLDFINCH

Photo: Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort in The Goldfinch (Warner Bros.). 

If you’ve been asleep for the past few months, which I completely understand, you may have missed that the Donna Tartt Cinematic Universe is kicking off with The Goldfinch.  The film opened September 13 in the U.S. If you’re not busy rereading the Dickensian modern masterpiece, check out these other books like The Goldfinch.

Click to see the list on Book Riot. 

TIPS FOR GETTING THE BEST BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS FROM YOUR LIBRARIAN

“You’re a librarian? You must love to read!”

“You’re a librarian? You must know a lot about books!”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard declarations like these when people find out I’m a public librarian…

With this widespread librarians-love-to-read assumption, I was surprised by how few library patrons asked me or my co-workers for recommendations when I first started working in a public library. Upon reflection, however, I realize that asking a librarian for a book recommendation might be uncomfortable or intimidating. I’m a stranger, I’m behind a big imposing desk…why would anyone want to talk to me about what they should read next?

If you’re going to take the plunge and ask a librarian for title suggestions, click here for some tips to get the best out of the interaction from Book Riot.

 

Or you could try out Moline Public Library’s very own personalized book recommendation service, Library Concierge!  

 

Sign up for online courses with your library card!

Need to brush up on your MS Office skills? Practicing your creative writing skills? Learning graphic design? Looking for an introductory course on alternative medicine? 

If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, we can help. If you answered ‘Yes’ to none of these questions, we still might be able to help. If you answered ‘Yes’ to all of these questions… we can still help, but you might want to narrow your focus just a bit.

Welcome to Gale Courses!

Gale Courses offers easy access to lifelong learning opportunities including professional development, technology, and personal enrichment courses by providing more than 365, six-week long online programs taught by college instructors who are experts in their field. The courses cover a wide variety of topics, arranged into twelve categories ranging from Accounting to Personal Development to Technology. All you need to sign up for any of the courses is your Moline Public Library Card number and the desire to learn and grow as a person. Or just a library card number. But it will work better with both.

You can find the link to Gale Courses on our website on our list of Online Resources. If you have any questions feel free to stop by the second floor Information Desk at the library and ask.

2019 Booker Prize Shortlist Announced!

The 2019 Booker Prize Shortlist has been announced! This year’s shortlist includes six novels that span the globe, with the notable return of two previous winners of the award—Salman Rushdie, who won in 1981 with Midnight’s Children, and Margaret Atwood, whose The Blind Assassin won in 2000. First awarded in 1969, the Booker Prize is open to writers of any nationality writing in English and published in the UK or Ireland. This year’s shortlist was selected from 151 submitted books. The winner will be announced October 14.

Click here to see the rest of the article and the whole list at Book Riot.

Best Sellers List Update for National Read a Book Day!

September 6 is National Read a Book Day!

Guess how you can best celebrate the day? Here is what many other people will (apparently) be reading in case you need ideas.

NYT Best Sellers: Combined Print & E-Book Fiction

1. A BETTER MAN by Louise Penny (NEW)

It’s Gamache’s first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter. As the rivers rise and crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos.

2. WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens
3. THE GIRL WHO LIVED TWICE by David Lagercrantz (NEW)
4. THE DARK SIDE by Danielle Steel (NEW)
5. SAPPHIRE FLAMES by Ilona Andrews (NEW)
6. THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt
7. THE INN by James Patterson and Candice Fox
8. ONE GOOD DEED by David Baldacci
9. HOT SHOT by Fern Michaels (NEW)
10. THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein
11. THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris
12. BEFORE WE WERE YOURS by Lisa Wingate
13. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng
14. THE RECKONING by John Grisham
15. OLD BONES by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child