In Emma Donoghue's latest work of genius, we meet Lib Wright, a proper young British nurse trained by Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, who has been hired to simply observe Anna O’Donnell, a sweet, young Irish girl who claims not to have eaten food nor consumed liquids for more than four months. Her family and…
Yesterday I looked back at our favorite fiction of 2016.Today I visit our favorite nonfiction. I broke the list down by Dewey Decimal categories, with links to the catalog and the names of the staffers who recommended them. We somehow covered all of the Dewey Decimal categories, although some areas clearly were favored more by…
Now that 2017 is almost here, it’s time to look back at our favorite books of 2016. We read a lot of great books this year, and shared our favorites in our annual fiction and nonfiction booklets, which you can get at the library. But for those of you who can’t make it in, I’ve…
A few years ago, I stopped making most New Year’s Resolutions since I really wasn’t good about keeping them and inevitably they morphed into just another source of guilt I carried around for the next 11.5 months. However, there is one exception which I do enjoy and I don't call it a resolution but a…
In our last Ansel B. Cook post, we learned about Ansel B. Cook's youth in Haddam, CT, his training as a stone mason, and the family's move to Illinois in 1846. In today's post, we'll look at Ansel's success in Chicago's business and political worlds. In 1853, Ansel and Willard Cook (Ansel's father) secured the…
The United States is a nation filled with people whose ancestors came from another country. My own father came to the United States from his home on the Danish island of Bornholm in the 1920s. He was only 16 at the time, and took a ship with his brother across the Atlantic to join his…
Yesterday I shared what novels were listed most on prominent lists of the best books of 2016 (you can find it here). Today I’m looking at the nonfiction books that were consistently named to help you find your next great read. I’ve compiled seven of what I think are among the best lists and found…
I love this time of year, with its festive music, colorful lights, AND for book geeks like me, all the best books lists. Every December I keep track of some of the more prominent book reviewers’ best books of the year to see what titles receive the most acclaim. I use a variety of…
Mark and Ayobami, aka Tripp Hazzard and IO (La Daemon) met up in Studio A at Cook Park over their winter break to put the finishing touches on tracks they'd been collaborating on remotely. Cook Library's Digital Studios can be a convenient meeting place for putting together those creative projects that started months ago and…
I LOVE Gilmore Girls. I was easily one of my top two favorite shows growing up (don’t make me choose between Boy Meets World and Gilmore Girls!). I’ve been counting down the days to the Netflix reboot for months. My sister and I have a planned re-watch session over Christmas (neither of us could wait…
