We know this winter is shaping up to be...weird. But there's SNOW better time to be a part of Cook Memorial Public Library District! From apps and ebooks to virtual programs and workshops, we're here to help you make the best of this most unexpected season. Follow us on social media to see all the…
Was there ever a year more suited to cozying up with some holiday reads? Everyone is ready for some hygge, for some jolabokaflod, for a toasty beverage, a soft blanket, and a happy ending or twelve. To that end, here are a few books to help get you in the mood for winter, no matter…
WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Alyssa Cole is one of the big, buzzy books of this fall, with good reason. While psychological thrillers are not my usual reading fare (because I am a scaredy cat), I adore Cole’s romances and the setting of this book — a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood, from the point of…
When Tillie Pembroke’s sister is murdered and tabloid reports suggest the culprit is a supernatural serial killer, Tillie sets out to discover the truth, despite the misgivings of her friends and family -- and her increasing reliance on narcotics to manage a recent injury. It’s a story that could be set anywhere in America right…
I did not go looking for Fallen Mountains. Several months ago, I needed a Hoopla title for my mystery book club and wanted something different than the lighter fare we’d been reading lately — all good books, certainly, but variety is the spice of a reading life, and I was determined to find something new.…
Author Photo: ©Kristee Mays Photography Why haven’t more people heard of Nancy Wake? An upper-class expat who smuggled documents and people out of WWII Paris, armed the French Resistance, and killed a Nazi commander bare-handed, this war heroine should be a household name -- but she isn't. Author Ariel Lawhon sets out to rectify the…
I often talk about literary catnip — those elements of a story’s plot, premise, or setting that I just can’t resist, like Sherlock Holmes retellings, librarian protagonists, or quirky cafes. Another favorite: Chicago private detectives. Give me a gritty, down-on-their-luck, good-hearted detective who works in the city I love, and I am SOLD. That being…
Casey Peabody did not expect adulthood to be like this: she did not expect to be drowning in student debt or waiting tables at a pretentious Boston-area restaurant at the age of thirty-one. She did not expect to be living in a moldering garden shed -- and paying rent for the privilege. She did not…
The number of "must read" lists is mind-boggling, isn't it? It feels like every month -- if not every week -- there's a new roundup of titles no self-respecting reader would even consider missing. But reading them all would be nearly impossible, even in a pandemic, unless you cease eating, human interaction, and basic personal…
Let me be clear: Zofia Turbotynska, the amateur sleuth at the center of the new novel, Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing, is not going to win the award for Most Likeable Lady Detective In A Golden Age Style Detective Novel any time soon. She really, really isn't. But she should definitely win Most Fun. Zofia Turbotynska…
