Get a library card and win a prize!*

*Maybe.

There is still half of September left! Giveaways and prize drawings for Library Card Sign-Up Month. Get a card, renew a card or even just check out a book and be entered into a weekly prize drawing.

We want to hear from you!

Moline Public Library Strategic Plan Focus Groups

Help shape the future of the Moline Public Library by joining us for one of four strategic planning focus groups. Sessions will last about one hour and those in attendance will be entered into a drawing for a Java Lab gift card. 

Click on one of the dates below to register or call 309-524-2443 to sign up for a session. 

Self-Care Saturday Zine

Monthly program series beginning Saturday, September 4.

Join us every month for our new adult program kit – Self-Care Saturday Zine!

Study, learn, practice, & create with Lora the Librarian. This month’s kit will be a zine style adult coloring book that will encourage you to sit, relax, and take a moment to practice a little self-care; comes complete with crayons and a recommended reading list.

Registrants can pick up September’s kit at the 2nd Floor Information Desk starting September 4th.

And be sure to look for our DIY Zen Garden next month! Participants will need to register for each month’s Self-Care Saturday kit separately.

Citizenship Classes at the Library

If you are thinking about taking the exam to become a U.S. citizen, or you know someone that is interested, the library can help.

8 Week Citizenship Test Prep Course beginning September 9, 2021. Classes will be on Thursdays at 10am.

This free 8 week course series meets every Thursday from 10 am until 11:30 am beginning September 9th until October 28th. This course is open to anyone wanting to prepare for the United States citizenship test.

You must have basic English language skills.

Registration is required, as space is limited. 

Masks are required for all indoor events, for individuals age 2 and up, regardless of vaccination status.  Need a mask?  Get one at any service desk. 

Please call our Information Desk at (309) 524-2470 with any questions or to register over the phone.

Books to Film – September 2021

Samurai Shiro by Danilo Beyruth
Movie: Yakuza Princess
Release Date: September 3
What the book is about: Set in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, Samurai Shirô is the story of bloody struggles for power, family honor and a violent encounter with the past, lived by modern-day samurai and the yakuza (the Japanese mafia). After a strange encounter with a man carrying a katana, Akemi suddenly finds herself on the run from the yakuza. She will need to face them, as well as her own past, to survive.

What Is Life Worth by Kenneth Feinberg
Movie: Worth
Release Date: September 3
What the book is about: Just days after September 11, 2001, Kenneth Feinberg was appointed to administer the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, a unique, unprecedented fund established by Congress to compensate families who lost a loved one on 9/11 and survivors who were physically injured in the attacks. Those who participated in the Fund were required to waive their right to sue the airlines involved in the attacks, as well as other potentially responsible entities. When the program was launched, many families criticized it as a brazen, tight-fisted attempt to protect the airlines from lawsuits. The Fund was also attacked as attempting to put insulting dollar values on the lives of lost loved ones. The families were in pain. And they were angry. Over the course of the next three years, Feinberg spent almost all of his time meeting with the families, convincing them of the generosity and compassion of the program, and calculating appropriate awards for each and every claim. The Fund proved to be a dramatic success with over 97% of eligible families participating. It also provided important lessons for Feinberg, who became the filter, the arbitrator, and the target of family suffering. Feinberg learned about the enduring power of family grief, love, fear, faith, frustration, and courage. Most importantly, he learned that no check, no matter how large, could make the families and victims of 9/11 whole again.

Cinderella by Charles Perrault
Movie: Cinderella
Release Date: September 3
What the book is about: Here are the original eight stories from the 1697 volume Contes de temps passé by the great Charles Perrault (1628–1703) in a translation that retains the charming and unsentimental simplicity that has won Perrault a permanent position in French literature. These were among the earliest versions of some of our most familiar fairy tales (“Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Tom Thumb”) and are still among the few classic re-tellings of these perennial stories.

Vintervinken by Mats Wahl
Movie: JJ+E
Release Date: September 8
What the book is about: After John, a black teen from a poor neighborhood of Alby, Sweden, rescues a young girl from an upper-class family during a boating accident he finds himself falling in love with her older sister Elisabeth. He loves Elisabeth, he hates his mother’s partner and longs for the African-American father he has never met. What is right? What is friendship? What is love? It’s about violence, sex, injustice and racism in a tough and challenging depiction of the brutal reality of metropolitan youth.

Nightbooks by J.A. White
Movie: Nightbooks
Release Date: September 15
What the book is about: A boy is imprisoned by a witch and must tell her a new scary story each night to stay alive. This thrilling contemporary fantasy from J. A. White, the acclaimed author of the Thickety series, brings to life the magic and craft of storytelling. Alex’s original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping the witch Natacha happy, but soon he’ll run out of pages to read from and be trapped forever. He’s loved scary stories his whole life, and he knows most don’t have a happily ever after. Now that Alex is trapped in a true terrifying tale, he’s desperate for a different ending—and a way out of this twisted place.

Cry Macho by N. Richard Nash
Movie: Cry Macho
Release Date: September 17
What the book is about: Mike’s best years are behind him. There was a time when he was the best rider in the circuit, but a divorce and years of hard living have worn his body down. After an accident, his career comes to an abrupt end, but his boss gives him one last job: he must cross the border into Mexico, kidnap his boss’s son, Rafo, from his boss’s ex-wife, to be used as leverage in their ongoing divorce. Mike arrives to find the boy has already run away, and his plan is immediately exposed to the local police. When he finds Rafo living on the streets of Mexico city, supporting himself though petty crime and winnings from the occasional cockfight, Mike convinces the boy to come back to Texas. Still running from the law, the two set out on a journey northward that forges an unlikely friendship and forces both to reckon with the choices they’ve made in pursuit of being “macho.”

The Mad Women’s Ball (Le bal des folles) by Victoria Mas
Movie: The Mad Women’s Ball
Release Date: September 17
What the book is about: The Salpetriere Asylum: Paris, 1885. Dr. Charcot holds all of Paris in thrall with his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast out from society. But the truth is much more complicated—these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives, those who have lost something precious, wayward daughters, or girls born from adulterous relationships. For Parisian society, the highlight of the year is the Lenten ball—the Madwomen’s Ball—when the great and good come to gawk at the patients of the Salpetriere dressed up in their finery for one night only. For the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small
Movie: Birds of Paradise
Release Date: September 24
What the book is about: Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure. But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.

Songs and Memories (Canciones y recuerdos) by Elisabet Benavent
Movie: Sounds Like Love (Fuimos Canciones)
Release Date: September 29
What the book is about: Macarena lives in Madrid and is an assistant to a fashion influencer. Macarena lives her life and tries to be happy. Macarena has two friends: Adriana and Jimena. Macarena keeps a secret that she secretly spells. That secret has three letters: L-E-O. Macarena does not know that Leo is in Madrid. Macarena fears, Macarena dreams, Macarena loves, Macarena flies … And in this game of destiny, try to accept that what we were cannot be what we will be … Or maybe sometimes what we were makes sense of what we really are.

After We Fell by Elisabet Benavent
Movie: After We Fell
Release Date: September 30
What the book is about: Just as Tessa makes the biggest decision of her life, everything changes. Revelations about first her family, and then Hardin’s, throw everything they knew before in doubt and makes their hard-won future together more difficult to claim. Tessa’s life begins to come unglued. Nothing is what she thought it was. Not her friends. Not her family. The one person she should be able to rely on, Hardin, is furious when he discovers the massive secret she’s been keeping. And rather than being understanding, he turns to sabotage. Tessa knows Hardin loves her and will do anything to protect her, but there’s a difference between loving someone and being able to have them in your life. This cycle of jealousy, unpredictable anger, and forgiveness is exhausting. She’s never felt so intensely for anyone, so exhilarated by someone’s kiss—but is the irrepressible heat between her and Hardin worth all the drama? Love used to be enough to hold them together. But if Tessa follows her heart now, will it be…the end?

The Great Moon Hoax

And the importance of fact checking.

Have you ever heard of the Great Moon Hoax? If not, don’t feel too bad, it happened 186 years ago.

That’s right. Sometime after most people stopped believing that the moon was made of cheese but long before other people started believing that the extremely well-documented and televised moon landing was staged, other people were being tricked into believing that the moon was home to unicorns and bat-people.

The residents of the moon socialize at a picturesque spot. Lithograph from The Sun

It all started with a story that ran on August 25, 1835 in New York’s The Sun (no relation to the modern publication of similar name). The six article run was reportedly taken from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The listed author was a Dr. Andrew Grant, who was a fictitious assistant to real-life, famous astronomer from the time, Sir John Herschel. In the articles Grant describes how Herschel had used a massive telescope, built with an advanced new design, to make some surprising discoveries about the moon. Aside from lush vegetation, huge trees, giant crystals and beautiful water ways he was also startled to observe bison, several cervids (deer, elk, moose, etc.), stork-like birds, goat-like unicorns, bipedal beavers without tails, and, most exciting of all, furry humanoids with bat wings. The article described it all in great detail. It sounded like a wonderland (as long as you didn’t have a bat phobia… or a bat-person phobia).

It was, of course, all lies.

The articles were actually written by Richard Adams Locke, a Sun reporter. According to The Sun, once they had publicly acknowledged that it was a hoax, said that the articles were meant to be satirical response to other, actually sincere, speculations about alien life (especially the speculations of Reverend Thomas Dick, a popular writer from the time who claimed that the moon was home to 4.2 billion inhabitants in a bestselling book). Sure, that was probably part of it. What about the part where sales of the paper shot up considerably starting the day of the first article though? It was sensational (word choice very much intended) stuff and the public couldn’t get enough.

Of course they were, I am fascinated by the idea now and I definitely know better. It’s difficult to believe that the editors and writers of The Sun weren’t at least partially motivated by the prospect of increased sales. Whether they knew that people were going to mistake satire for a real report they probably weren’t all that worried about it one way or the other. And readers did take the story for fact. A group of Yale University scientists traveled to New York in search of the original Edinburgh Journal articles. The Edinburgh Journal of Science had ceased publication years before. The Sun gave them excuses and delayed until the scientists left, disappointed but apparently unaware that they had been tricked.

Perhaps people can be forgiven. Fact checking was a lot harder in 1835, or at least slower. Someone could have asked Herschel, who was in South Africa at the time, but that probably would have meant sending a message to England to either be forwarded on by someone that knew where he was in South Africa or to get a reply as to how to contact him directly. Either way, not a short undertaking, and the newspaper is right there on the table. Plus, many people probably wanted to believe it. How much cooler would the moon be with rivers and unicorns and bat-people?

Today it is much easier to get information. The problem is that sensationalism still gets attention and, by extension, dollars. Add to that the various agendas, ideologies and egos involved and an unprecedented access to instantaneous information and communication also means instantaneous access to disinformation, rumors and lies as well.

We most definitely didn’t invent fake news but we have nearly perfected it’s delivery system.

Information literacy, critical thinking and examining sources are more important skills than they have ever been before and we will all be better off and better able to navigate the world if we take the time to write Herschel, metaphorically speaking. Luckily, it shouldn’t take us as long today as it would have in 1835. Here is a place to start:

FactCheck.org – How to Spot Fake News

And here are some places to look into things you might be curious about:

• https://www.factcheck.org/
• https://www.politifact.com/
• https://www.poynter.org/media-news/fact-checking/
• https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/

Someday information literacy and fact checking will feel like second nature. And maybe we’ll find real unicorns and bat-people out there somewhere too. Fingers crossed.

Digital Magazines Available on OverDrive

Access 3400+ magazines using the Libby app our through the OverDrive website!

In addition to the ebooks, audiobooks, TV and movies that Moline Library patrons had access to through the Libby app and OMNI website, patrons will now be able to check out digital magazines as well! Choose from thousands of titles of domestic and foreign titles. All magazines are simultaneous use, so there are no holds or wait lists. If we have it you can check it out!

Rules of the Road Review for Seniors

Thursday, August 19th, 2021 at 1:30pm – 3:00pm

Nancy Johnson, associated with AARP and the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State will present a free, 90-minute Illinois Rules of the Road class for seniors.

Space is limited and registration is required.

Current CDC guidelines recommend that all vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals (age 2 and up) should wear a mask indoors in areas of substantial or high COVID-19 transmission. Need a mask?  Ask at any public service desk.

Haunted History?

The Darker Side of Davenport: Mayhem, Mysteries and Ghost Tales

Friday, August 13th, 2021 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This Friday the 13th, spend your noon hour listening to tales of Davenport’s Darker Side during this online program. 

German American Heritage Center Director, Kelly Lao will guide us as we explore the mayhem, the mystery and ghosts.

Registration is required.

Zoom program link will be sent to registrants prior to the program.

Books to Film – August 2021

Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava
Movie: Naked Singularity
When it comes out: August 6
What the book is about: Casi is a hotshot public defender working on the front line of America’s War on Drugs. So far he’s on the winning side. He’s never lost a case. But nothing lasts forever, and pride like his has a long way to fall.

One Last Time: The Kissing Booth 3 by Beth Reekles
Movie: The Kissing Booth 3: One Last Time
When it comes out: August 11
What the book is about: Meet Rochelle Evans: pretty, popular–and never been kissed. Meet Noah Flynn: badass, volatile–and a total player. And also Elle’s best friend’s older brother… When Elle decides to run a kissing booth for the school’s Spring Carnival, she locks lips with Noah and her life is turned upside down. Her head says to keep away, but her heart wants to draw closer–this romance seems far from fairy tale and headed for heartbreak. But will Elle get her happily ever after?

Flim-Flam by Jennifer Vogel
Movie: Flag Day
When it comes out: August 20
What the book is about: One frosty winter morning, Jennifer Vogel opened the newspaper and read that her father had gone on the run. John Vogel, fifty-two, had been arrested for single-handedly counterfeiting nearly $20 million in U.S. currency and then released pending trial. He had simply vanished. Though Jennifer hadn’t spoken to her father in more than four years, the police suspected he might turn up at her Minneapolis apartment. She examined the shadows outside her building, thought she spotted him at the grocery store and the bus stop. Framed around the six months her father eluded authorities, Jennifer’s memoir documents the police chase — stakeouts, lie detector tests, even a segment on Unsolved Mysteries — and vividly chronicles her tumultuous childhood while examining her father’s legacy.