The Hits Just Keep on Coming

How do you figure out what book to read next? I think a fair amount of us rely on a combination of serendipity while browsing and other people’s recommendations. There are a lot of areas in the library where you can get the best of both of those worlds. 

Courtesy of zen

Take for instance the somewhat hidden and mysterious Mullenbach Collection. Often shrouded in secrecy in the Rotary Heritage Room, all the books available in this collection are classics or contemporary favorites of literary quality. A few new titles are added each year so along with perennial picks such as The Catcher in the Rye you can find fresh copies of instant classics such as The Help. The first section of books across the Rotary Heritage Room is the Book Group Collection. This area features copies of past book club reads and is a great place to look if you are stumped on what to read next. Or if you never got around to reading “that book everyone keeps talking about” such as The Hunger Games.  

Another place to look for recommendations is the Positively Ellinwood Street blog display located on the third floor. We feature suggestions from our blog posts there, along with bookmarks and flyers on different topics such as popular teen books or books to read while you wait for your Fifty Shades of Grey hold to come in. 

Of course we are always available at the Readers Services desk if you are not sure where to look for your next great read. Beyond our powerful minds we can provide lists of similar authors to your favorite writer or similar materials to a book you just read and loved. One of my new favorite quotes about reading comes from Diane Duane’s So You Want to Be a Wizard: “Reading one book is like eating one potato chip”. If you feel the same way about reading, Des Plaines Public Library can easily be all that and a bag of chips for your reading tastes.  

How did you stumble across the last great book you read? And how will you find your next read? 

Making a Difference, OR, Before The Help Was The Long Walk Home

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, struck a chord with readers that continues to sound. Still on bestseller lists months after publication, The Help is the story of two African-American maids and a wealthy young white woman who bring change to Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, undertaking a risky project to illuminate the experiences of the community's African-American maids and the indignities of segregation.

An uplifting novel about "ordinary" people who make a difference in their community, The Help is similar in spirit and subject matter to the movie The Long Walk Home. Like The Help, The Long Walk Home features an African-American maid and a white woman working together to bring change to the segregated South. Set in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, during Dr. King's Montgomery bus boycotts, The Long Walk Home's heroine is Odessa, played by Whoopi Goldberg, a maid, wife and mother who walks miles to work rather than break the bus boycott. She inspires not only her family, but the movie's secondary heroine, Odessa's employer Norma, played by Sissy Spacek, who ultimately defies her racist husband, providing rides to the bus boycotters. In the words of the narrator, Norma's daughter, now an adult reflecting on Odessa's influence: "There's always something extraordinary about someone who changes and then changes those around her."

An inspiring film with a strong, understated performance by Whoopi Goldberg, The Long Walk Home garnered little attention when it was released in 1990. But we're reviving it as a Suburban Mosaic program, and you can attend a screening and discussion of The Long Walk Home here at the library on Sunday, January 16th at 1:30 p.m. Founded in 2004, the Suburban Mosaic organization fosters cultural understanding through literature and other programming in suburban Cook and Lake counties. Its 2010-2011 Book of the Year for adults is The Help, which the Tuesday morning book group discussed in September.

You can register for the film and discussion at the 1st floor information desk or online.

And if you have a child between preschool and 2nd grade, you can bring your little one to our Drop-in Family Storytime on Monday, February 7th from 7 to 7:30 p.m. (No registration required.) This storytime, on the subject of caring, will include the Suburban Mosaic title for preschoolers through kindergarteners, How to Heal a Broken Wing. This picture book about a boy who cares for an injured bird with his mother and then frees it exemplifies the Mosaic's 2010-2011 theme, Making a Difference.

You're never too young (or old) to make a difference. Click here for more information about the Suburban Mosaic including the 2010-2011 titles.

The Help: The Suburban Mosaic Book of the Year

One of the most popular books at our library and libraries and bookstores across the country is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Set in 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, The Help is the story of two African-American maids and a wealthy young white woman who bring change to their community, undertaking a risky project to illuminate the experiences of Jackson's African-American maids and the indignities of segregation.

The Tuesday morning book group will discuss The Help on September 7th at 10 a.m. If you'd like to attend, we still have two copies of The Help available for book discussion attendees, and you can register for the discussion and pick up the book at the 3rd floor Readers' Services desk. (If you would like to read The Help but not attend the discussion, you can place a copy on hold here.)

The Help is also the 2010-2011 Suburban Mosaic Book of the Year selection for adults.

What is the Suburban Mosaic Book of the Year program? Founded in 2004, the Suburban Mosaic seeks to foster cultural understanding through literature, book discussions, and other programming in suburban Cook and Lake counties. Participating organizations include libraries, schools and other organizations. If you want to participate, you can attend one of the Mosaic book discussions, plan a book discussion of your own, or simply read the books independently.

This year's theme is Making a Difference, and in addition to The Help, which is the adult selection, there are titles for pre-schoolers through high-schoolers. They are:

The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd (high school title)

Back Home by Chicago Tribune book columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Keller (middle school title)

Notes from the Dog by Gary Paulsen (4th-5th grade title)

Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (K-3rd grade title)

How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham (Preschool-K title)

Feel free to check out any of these books for yourself or a young person in your life.

For more information about the Suburban Mosaic organization, including information about the books and discussion questions, click here.