You’ve never seen a show like this before – guaranteed. Kids will laugh, gasp and cheer at Laura’s unique high-energy show! As seen on America’s Got Talent, Laura opens the show inside her human-sized hamster ball and keeps it all rolling with amazing stunts performed with juggling, hula hoops, and more!
This show is meant for all-ages. Adult required to attend with younger children.
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
Movie: All My Puny Sorrows
Release Date: May 3
What the book is about: You won’t forget Elf and Yoli, two smart and loving sisters. Elfrieda, a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, happily married: she wants to die. Yolandi, divorced, broke, sleeping with the wrong men as she tries to find true love: she desperately wants to keep her older sister alive. Yoli is a beguiling mess, wickedly funny even as she stumbles through life struggling to keep her teenage kids and mother happy, her exes from hating her, her sister from killing herself and her own heart from breaking. But Elf’s latest suicide attempt is a shock: she is three weeks away from the opening of her highly anticipated international tour. Her long-time agent has been calling and neither Yoli nor Elf’s loving husband knows what to tell him. Can she be nursed back to “health” in time? Does it matter? As the situation becomes ever more complicated, Yoli faces the most terrifying decision of her life.
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Movie: Around the World in 80 Days
Release Date: May 6
What the book is about: One night in the reform club, Phileas Fogg bets his companions that he can travel across the globe in just eighty days. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, he immediately sets off for Dover with his astonished valet Passepartout. Passing through exotic lands and dangerous locations, they seize whatever transportation is at hand—whether train or elephant—overcoming set-backs and always racing against the clock.
The Ravine by Robert Pascuzzi
Movie: The Ravine
Release Date: May 6
What the book is about: On a typical weekday morning in a peaceful suburb of Akron, Ohio, the town awakens to discover that Rachel Turner and her son, Evan have been brutally murdered during the night. A short while later, Danny Turner is found in his car at the bottom of a ravine, after having taken his own life. Any explanation as to why a loving father and husband would suddenly commit a series of such heinous crimes has gone to the grave with the accused. The mystery only deepens as the details of the murders emerge, and evidence of premeditation as well as Danny’s hidden past are revealed. Subsequently, Rachel’s closest friend, Carolyn Bianci, sinks into a deep depression, while her husband, Mitch, copes with his despair by attempting to uncover the facts of the crime. Eventually they encounter Joanna Larson, a fascinating woman who possesses extraordinary spiritual gifts.
Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre
Movie: Operation Mincemeat
Release Date: May 11
What the book is about: In 1943, from a windowless London basement office, two intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple & complicated—Operation Mincemeat. Purpose? To deceive the Nazis into thinking the Allies were planning to attack Europe by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as the Nazis had assumed & the Allies ultimately chose. Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 & the British naval intelligence officer Ewen Montagu were very different. Cholmondeley was a dreamer seeking adventure. Montagu was an aristocratic, detail-oriented barrister. A perfect team, they created an ingenious plan: equip a corpse with secret (but false) papers concerning the invasion, then drop it off the coast of Spain where German spies would hopefully take the bait. The idea was approved by British intelligence officials, who hoped it might ring true to the Axis & help bring victory.
Firestarter by Stephen King
Movie: Firestarter
Release Date: May 13
What the book is about: The Department of Scientific Intelligence (aka “The Shop”) never anticipated that two participants in their research program would marry and have a child. Charlie McGee inherited pyrokinetic powers from her parents, who had been given a low-grade hallucinogen called “Lot Six” while at college. Now the government is trying to capture young Charlie and harness her powerful firestarting skills as a weapon.
Join us for an evening with actor, humorist, and woodworker Nick Offerman. Best known for his breakout role as Ron Swanson in the acclaimed series Parks and Recreation, Nick will be discuss his newest book, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside. His hiking buddy, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, will join him in conversation.
This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering high-quality events.
You won’t want to miss what is sure to be a fun evening. Register for the event here.
Last Looks by Howard Michael Gould
Movie: Last Looks
Release Date: February 4
What the book is about: Waldo, a onetime LAPD superstar, now lives in solitude deep in the woods, pathologically committed to owning no more than one hundred possessions. He has left behind his career and his girlfriend, Lorena, to pay self-imposed penance for an awful misstep on an old murder case. But the old ghosts are about to come roaring back.
Through My Window by Ariana Godoy
Movie: Through My Window
Release Date: February 4
What the book is about: Raquel Álvarez is hardworking and serious about her future. She’s only got one goal—to become a psychologist. Well, that and to get Ares Hildago to notice her. For as long as Raquel can remember, she has been obsessed with Ares. Even though he lives next door, Raquel has never spoken to him. Yet, she can’t help thinking there’s more to him than his rich, hot playboy image. . . and she can’t help imagining what it’d feel like to kiss him.
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Movie: Death on the Nile
Release Date: February 11
What the book is about: The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…
Marry Me by Bobby Crosby
Movie: Marry Me
Release Date: February 11
What the book is about: Marry Me is a romantic comedy graphic novel about a pop star that has reached the limit of her frustration with her love life. In a moment of inspired insanity, she locks eyes with a total stranger in the crowd carrying a sign reading “Marry Me” and marries him on the spot. As forces conspire to separate the unlikely newlyweds, they must soon decide if two people from such different worlds can find true love together.
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Movie: The Sky Is Everywhere
Release Date: February 11
What the book is about: Adrift after her sister Bailey’s sudden death, Lennie finds herself torn between quiet, seductive Toby—Bailey’s boyfriend who shares her grief—and Joe, the new boy in town who bursts with life and musical genius. Each offers Lennie something she desperately needs… though she knows if the two of them collide her whole world will explode.
Cinderella by Charles Perrault
Movie: Sneakerella
Release Date: February 18
What the book is about: At the end of an enchanted evening a glass slipper is lost, but true love is found. Young and beautiful, Cinderella is forced to work as a servant, and as the day for the royal ball approaches, she fears that she will not be allowed to attend. But with the help of a fairy, a single magical night brings her to the attention of a prince and changes her life forever.
Butter by Erin Jade Lange
Movie: Butter
Release Date: February 25
What the book is about: A lonely obese boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make history. He is going to eat himself to death-live on the Internet-and everyone is invited to watch. When he first makes the announcement online to his classmates, Butter expects pity, insults, and possibly sheer indifference. What he gets are morbid cheerleaders rallying around his deadly plan. Yet as their dark encouragement grows, it begins to feel a lot like popularity. And that feels good. But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide deadline? Can he live with the fallout if he doesn’t go through with his plans?
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
Movie: Mothering Sunday
Release Date: February 25
What the book is about: Twenty-two-year-old Jane Fairchild has worked as a maid at an English country house since she was sixteen. For almost all of those years she has been the clandestine lover to Paul Sheringham, young heir of a neighboring house. The two now meet on an unseasonably warm March day—Mothering Sunday—a day that will change Jane’s life forever.
The Moline Public Library will be closed Friday, December 31 and Saturday, January 1 for the New Year holiday. I know, that’s a bummer, but there are things to look forward to after the New Year.
The Library will be open again soon – and starting January 9 we will back to full hours, with the Library open until 8pm Monday through Thursday! Plus Sundays! We will be open from 1pm to 4pm on Sundays.
While we are on the subject of things to look forward to, here is a quick list of book adaptations hitting the big screen this January.
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Movie: The Tragedy of Macbeth
Release Date: January 14
What the book is about: One night on the heath, the brave and respected general Macbeth encounters three witches who foretell that he will become king of Scotland. At first sceptical, he’s urged on by the ruthless, single-minded ambitions of Lady Macbeth, who suffers none of her husband’s doubt. But seeing the prophecy through to the bloody end leads them both spiralling into paranoia, tyranny, madness, and murder. This shocking tragedy – a violent caution to those seeking power for its own sake – is, to this day, one of Shakespeare’s most popular and influential masterpieces.
The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer
Movie: The Tender Bar
Release Date: January 17
What the book is about: J.R. Moehringer grew up captivated by a voice. It was the voice of his father, a New York City disc jockey who vanished before J.R. spoke his first word. Sitting on the stoop, pressing an ear to the radio, J.R. would strain to hear in that plummy baritone the secrets of masculinity and identity. Though J.R.’s mother was his world, his rock, he craved something more, something faintly and hauntingly audible only in The Voice.
The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
Movie: The King’s Daughter
Release Date: January 21
What the book is about: In seventeenth-century France, Louis XIV rules with flamboyant ambition. In his domain, wealth and beauty take all; frivolity begets cruelty; science and alchemy collide. From the Hall of Mirrors to the vermin-infested attics of the Chateau at Versailles, courtiers compete to please the king, sacrificing fortune, principles, and even the sacred bond between brother and sister. By the fiftieth year of his reign, Louis XIV has made France the most powerful state in the western world. Yet the Sun King’s appetite for glory knows no bounds. In a bold stroke, he sends his natural philosopher on an expedition to seek the source of immortality — the rare, perhaps mythical, sea monsters. For the glory, of his God, his country, and his king, Father Yves de la Croix returns with his treasures: one heavy shroud packed in ice…and a covered basin that imprisons a shrieking creature.
Munich by Robert Harris
Movie: Munich – The Edge of War
Release Date: January 21
What the book is about: Guy Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving in 10 Downing Street as a private secretary to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Rikard von Holz is on the staff of the German Foreign Office–and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. The two men were friends at Oxford in the 1920s, but have not been in contact since. Now, when Guy flies with Chamberlain from London to Munich, and Rikard travels on Hitler’s train overnight from Berlin, their paths are set on a disastrous collision course. And once again, Robert Harris gives us actual events of historical importance–here are Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier–at the heart of an electrifying, un-put-downable novel.
The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
Movie: The Tiger Rising
Release Date: January 21
What the book is about: Walking through the misty Florida woods one morning, twelve-year-old Rob Horton is stunned to encounter a tiger—a real-life, very large tiger—pacing back and forth in a cage. What’s more, on the same extraordinary day, he meets Sistine Bailey, a girl who shows her feelings as readily as Rob hides his. As they learn to trust each other, and ultimately, to be friends, Rob and Sistine prove that some things—like memories, and heartaches, and tigers—can’t be locked up forever.
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Movie: Redeeming Love
Release Date: January 22
What the book is about: California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep. Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside. Then she meets Michael Hosea. A man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything, Michael Hosea obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation until, despite her resistance her frozen heart begins to thaw.
Brazen Virtue by Nora Roberts
Movie: Brazen
Release Date: January 22
What the book is about: Grace McCabe was shocked to find her sister Kathleen living in a grungy D.C. suburb, supplementing her income as a phone sex operator after a bitter divorce. But with the company Fantasy, Inc. guaranteeing its employees complete anonymity, how dangerous could it really be? Grace was soon to learn the answer when she returned home one night to a horrifying scene that might have come from one of her own novels. Ignoring the warnings of cool-headed detective Ed Jackson, Grace sets her own daring trap to rouse a killer out of hiding. But what can protect her from a brilliant madman whose lust for murder stops at nothing…and no one?
The Conference of Birds by Attar of Nishapur
Movie: Birds Like Us
Release Date: January 25
What the book is about: Composed in the twelfth century in north-eastern Iran, Attar’s great mystical poem is among the most significant of all works of Persian literature. A marvellous, allegorical rendering of the Islamic doctrine of Sufism – an esoteric system concerned with the search for truth through God – it describes the consequences of the conference of the birds of the world when they meet to begin the search for their ideal king, the Simorgh bird. On hearing that to find him they must undertake an arduous journey, the birds soon express their reservations to their leader, the hoopoe. With eloquence and insight, however, the hoopoe calms their fears, using a series of riddling parables to provide guidance in the search for spiritual truth. By turns witty and profound, The Conference of the Birds transforms deep belief into magnificent poetry.
Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom
Movie: Compartment No. 6
Release Date: January 26
What the book is about: In the waning years of the Soviet Union, a sad young Finnish woman boards a train in Moscow. Bound for Mongolia, she’s trying to put as much space as possible between her and a broken relationship. Wanting to be alone, she chooses an empty compartment–No. 6.–but her solitude is soon shattered by the arrival of a fellow passenger: Vadim Nikolayevich Ivanov, a grizzled, opinionated, foul-mouthed former soldier. There is a hint of menace in the air, but initially the woman is not so much scared of or shocked by him as she is repulsed. But though Vadim may be crude, he isn’t cruel, and he shares with her the sausage and black bread and tea he’s brought for the journey, coaxing the girl out of her silent gloom. As their train cuts slowly across thousands of miles of a wintry Russia, a grudging kind of companionship grows between the two inhabitants of compartment No. 6. When they finally arrive in Ulan Bator, a series of starlit and sinister encounters bring Rosa Liksom’s incantatory Compartment No. 6 to its powerful conclusion.
The Great Chicago Fire started 150 years ago today!
The City of Chicago, plagued by hot, dry weather and largely built largely built of wood at the time, burned for two days. The fire reportedly started around 8:30pm on October 8. It may or may not have been started when a clumsy cow kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary’s barn. However it started it was a for sure a major catastrophe. Over three square miles of the city burned and approximately 300 people lost their lives, with 100,000 people losing their homes.
Thankfully, the city and people of Chicago proved themselves to be a resilient community and the city came back bigger and better than ever, complete with new zoning and building codes to help thwart any further efforts made by pyromaniacal livestock. Plus, thanks in large part to the efforts and generosity of Englishman A.H. Burgess, the city was able to build a world-class public library – the Chicago Public Library, in case that wasn’t clear – from the ashes! Previous to the fire private libraries (or no libraries at all) had been the norm.
Obviously, it would be better if disasters and hard times would just pass on by, but it is nice to know that these things pass and life carries on. And sometimes you might get an opportunity to add or improve something along the way.
In memory of the fire and all those that fought it and rebuilt after it (as well as a nod to all those that carry on today fighting fires – real and figurative) here is a quick list of (at least vaguely) fire related books that you might enjoy.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
Movie: There’s Someone Inside Your House
Release Date: October 6
What the book is about: Makani Young thought she’d left her dark past behind her in Hawaii, settling in with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska. She’s found new friends and has even started to fall for mysterious outsider Ollie Larsson. But her past isn’t far behind. Then, one by one, the students of Osborne Hugh begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasingly grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and her feelings for Ollie intensify, Makani is forced to confront her own dark secrets.
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Movie: Fever Dream
Release Date: October 13
What the book is about: A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He’s not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family. Fever Dream is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale. One of the freshest new voices to come out of the Spanish language and translated into English for the first time, Samanta Schweblin creates an aura of strange psychological menace and otherworldly reality in this absorbing, unsettling, taut novel.
The Last Duel by Eric Jager
Movie: The Last Duel
Release Date: October 15
What the book is about: The gripping true story of the “duel to end all duels” in medieval France as a resolute knight defends his wife’s honor against the squire she accuses of a heinous crime. In the midst of the devastating Hundred Years’ War between France and England, Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight fresh from combat in Scotland, returns home to yet another deadly threat. His wife, Marguerite, has accused squire Jacques Le Gris of rape. A deadlocked court decrees a “trial by combat” between the two men that also leaves Marguerite’s fate in the balance. For if her husband loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser. While enemy troops pillage the land, and rebellion and plague threaten the lives of all, Carrouges and Le Gris meet in full armor on a walled field in Paris. What follows is a fierce duel, the final one sanctioned by governing powers, before a massive crowd that includes the teenage King Charles VI, during which both combatants are wounded—but only one fatally.
I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan
Movie: I Know What You Did Last Summer
Release Date: October 15
What the book is about: Last summer, four terrified friends made a desperate pact to conceal a shocking secret. But now, someone has learned the truth and is determined to get even. The horror is starting again. There is an unknown avenger out there who is stalking them in a deadly game. Will he stop at terror-or is he out for revenge?
Dune by Frank Herbert
Movie: Dune
Release Date: October 22
What the book is about: Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for… When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.
Passing by Nella Larsen
Movie: Passing
Release Date: October 27
What the book is about: Irene Redfield, the novel’s protagonist, is a woman with an enviable life. She and her husband, Brian, a prominent physician, share a comfortable Harlem town house with their sons. Her work arranging charity balls that gather Harlem’s elite creates a sense of purpose and respectability for Irene. But her hold on this world begins to slip the day she encounters Clare Kendry, a childhood friend with whom she had lost touch. Clare—light-skinned, beautiful, and charming—tells Irene how, after her father’s death, she left behind the black neighborhood of her adolescence and began passing for white, hiding her true identity from everyone, including her racist husband. As Clare begins inserting herself into Irene’s life, Irene is thrown into a panic, terrified of the consequences of Clare’s dangerous behavior. And when Clare witnesses the vibrancy and energy of the community she left behind, her burning desire to come back threatens to shatter her careful deception.
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: A Novel by [N. Richard Nash]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ouQs7t6PS.jpg)
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?
Black-eyed Children by David Weatherly
Movie: Let Us In
When it comes out: July 2
What the book is about: Diabolical threat or urban legend?
Strange children are appearing around the world. Attired in old fashioned clothing, their skin is pale and their mannerisms awkward. Their most startling trait however, is their solid black eyes. They are knocking on doors and rapping on windows. Their voices are monotone and demanding and they have one simple request: They want to come in.
Comment je suis devenu super héros (How I Became a Super Hero) by Gérald Bronner
Movie: How I Became a Super Hero
When it comes out: July 9
What the book is about: Titan, a superhero, has been down in the dumps since he got dumped by Alicia. To make matters worse, he just slipped down a rung in the Top 30 Pantheon, the TV show that ranks America’s favorite superheroes. Even though his pals from the Lexington Avenue police station are still rooting for him, Titan has lost his zest for life. Is he going to be able to overcome one of the worst enemies of his career in those conditions? Journalists have already nicknamed the serial killer who takes on supermen the “New York Vampire.” Titan’s s old colleague Monte Carlo, a former superhero who had to step down after taking so many hits that he developed Parkinson’s – is giving him a hand with the investigation, which forces him to stir up the troubled waters of the myth of superheroes. But the question that soon looms largest in Titan’s mind is this: is he next on the New York Vampire’s list?
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Movie: Die in a Gunfight
When it comes out: July 16
What the book is about: She is only fourteen, he is only a few years older. Their families are bitter enemies, sworn to hatred. Yet Romeo and Juliet meet and fall passionately in love. Defying their parents’ wishes, they are secretly married, but their brief happiness is shattered by fate. This famous pair of star-crossed lovers lives forever in Shakespeare’s haunting play.
Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters
Movie: Old
When it comes out: July 23
What the book is about: It’s a perfect beach day, or so thought the family, young couple, a few tourists, and a refugee who all end up in the same secluded, idyllic cove filled with rock pools and sandy shore, encircled by green, densely vegetated cliffs. But this utopia hides a dark secret. First there is the dead body of a woman found floating in the crystal-clear water. Then there is the odd fact that all the children are aging rapidly. Soon everybody is growing older—every half hour—and there doesn’t seem to be any way out of the cove.
The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
Movie: The Last Letter from Your Lover
When it comes out: July 23
What the book is about: It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply “B”, asking her to leave her husband. forgotten file in her newspaper’s archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie’s search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous
Movie: The Green Knight
When it comes out: July 30
What the book is about: Preserved on a single surviving manuscript during from around 1400 composed by an anonymous master, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was rediscovered only two hundred years ago and published for the first time in 1839. One of the earliest great stories of English literature after Beowulf, the poem narrates the strange tale of a green knight on a green horse, who rudely interrupts the Round Table festivities one Yuletide, casting a pall of unease over the company and challenging one of their number to a wager. The virtuous Gawain accepts and decapitates the intruder with his own axe. Gushing blood, the knight reclaims his head, orders Gawain to seek him out a year hence, and departs. Next Yuletide Gawain dutifully sets forth. His quest for the Green Knight involves a winter journey, a seduction scene in a dreamlike castle, a dire challenge answered – and a drama of enigmatic reward disguised as psychic undoing.
Grace and Grit by Ken Wilber
Movie: Grace and Grit
When it comes out: June 4
What the book is about: Here is a deeply moving account of a couple’s struggle with cancer and their journey to spiritual healing. Grace and Grit is the compelling story of the five-year journey of Ken Wilber and his wife Treya Killam Wilber through Treya’s illness, treatment, and, finally, death.
Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent
Movie: 12 Mighty Orphans
When it comes out: June 11
What the book is about: More than a century ago, a school was constructed in Fort Worth, Texas, for the purpose of housing and educating the orphans of Texas Freemasons. It was a humble project that for years existed quietly on a hillside east of town. Life at the Masonic Home was about to change, though, with the arrival of a lean, bespectacled coach by the name of Rusty Russell. Here was a man who could bring rain in the midst of a drought. Here was a man who, in virtually no time at all, brought the orphans’ story into the homes of millions of Americans. In the 1930s and 1940s, there was nothing bigger in Texas high school football than the Masonic Home Mighty Mites–a group of orphans bound together by hardship and death. These youngsters, in spite of being outweighed by at least thirty pounds per man, were the toughest football team around.
Two Kisses for Maddy by Matthew Logelin
Movie: Fatherhood
When it comes out: June 18
What the book is about:
Matt and Liz Logelin were high school sweethearts. After years of long-distance dating, the pair finally settled together in Los Angeles, and they had it all: a perfect marriage, a gorgeous new home, and a baby girl on the way. Liz’s pregnancy was rocky, but they welcomed Madeline, beautiful and healthy, into the world. Just twenty-seven hours later, Liz suffered a pulmonary embolism and died instantly, without ever holding the daughter whose arrival she had so eagerly awaited. Though confronted with devastating grief and the responsibilities of a new and single father, Matt did not surrender to devastation; he chose to keep moving forward-to make a life for Maddy.
“Zola Tells All”, Rolling Stone by David Kushner
Movie: Zola
When it comes out: June 30
What the book is about: The Twitter saga got hashtagged #TheStory and trended worldwide. Missy Elliot, Keke Palmer, Solange Knowles joined the legions obsessing online. “Drama, humor, action, suspense, character development,” Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma, tweeted. “There’s so much untapped talent in the hood.” (“I’m not from the hood tho Ava,” Zola replied. “Ima suburban bitch. Still love you tho”). There were Zola Halloween costumes, Zola feminist think pieces, Zola comics, and parody movie trailers for a rumored Hollywood project: In a world where stripper fingers turn to Twitter fingers… One of her 108,000 followers anointed her the “Queen of hoeism.” To which, Zola replied: “Title of my autobiography.” But what really happened that weekend?
Moline Library Adult Services 