Fiction - Worth a Checkout
Lost Roses
by Martha Hall Kelly

The million-copy bestseller,  Lilac Girls, introduced the real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. Lost Roses , set a generation earlier, also inspired by true events, features Caroline’s mother, Eliza, following three equally indomitable women under the shadow of World War I. From the turbulent streets of St. Petersburg and aristocratic countryside estates to the avenues of Paris where a society of fallen Russian émigrés live to the mansions of Long Island, the lives of Eliza, Sofya, and Varinka will intersect in profound ways. A powerful tale, celebrating the unbreakable bonds of women’s friendship, especially during the darkest days of history.
The Book of Dreams
by Nina George

George’s enthralling novel (after The Little Paris Bookshop ) centers on magical bonds between coma patients and their loved ones. Rendered comatose after an act of heroism, a man revisits memories of his British youth, while his ex forges an unexpected, profound friendship with the teenage son he has never known. This exploration of unfinished relationships has a haunting, evocative quality, and is a perfect, conversation-starting selection for book groups.
The Editor
by Steven Rowley

Struggling young writer James Smale suddenly lucks out when Editor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis buys his novel. However, he has drawn heavily on his own dysfunctional family and cannot face finishing the manuscript. Mrs. Onassis sends him home to address his conflicted relationship with his mother. The results is a funny, engaging, thought provoking novel, likely to please those who enjoyed Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Crazy Rich Asians and novels by Maria Semple.
The Peacock Emporium
by Jojo Moyes

In the sixties, Athene was the true “it” girl. She was spoiled, out of control beauty. Within two years of marrying a handsome young heir, rumor began to circulate of her affair with a young salesman. Flash forward 35 years, her daughter, Suzanna, still struggles with her mother’s notorious legacy. She finds solace in a lovely little coffee bar she opens which quickly enchants an entire town. It is there that she develops her first true friendships and discovers the key to her history and her happiness. In Moyes’ signature style, this is a story about generations of mothers and daughters navigating grief and the satisfaction of self-discovery.
The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted
by Robert Hillman

Tom Hope’s wife, Trudy, has disappeared, returning later, pregnant with another man’s child. Tom grows to love the boy, but then Trudy abandons both when the child is almost three, returning two years later to take her son and divorce Tom. Enter Hannah—an Auschwitz survivor who lost her husband and son to the concentration camps. She hires Tom to fix up the bookstore she is set on running. The two of them quickly fall in love and marry. Peter returns when he is eight, forcing Tom and Hannah to question the risks they will take in learning how to love all over again. Gorgeous, redemptive, a masterpiece.
Machines Like Me
by Ian McEwan

Machines Like Me  occurs in an alternative 1980's London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong, and clever. A love triangle soon forms. The novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.
I Know Who You Are
by Alice Feeney

When Aimee comes home and discovers her husband is missing, she doesn’t seem to know what to do or how to act. The police think she’s hiding something and they’re right, she is―but perhaps not what they thought. Aimee has a secret she’s never shared, and yet, she suspects that someone knows. As she struggles to keep her career and sanity intact, her past comes back to haunt her in ways more dangerous than she could have ever imagined.  With brilliantly complicated plots and killer twists this one will keep the reader guessing to the final page.
Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard

In this sparking tale of strategy and desire, the author masterfully reimagines the early adulthood of a future 16th President, as told from the alternating views of the two people who knew and loved him best – spirited debutante Mary Todd and Lincoln's intimate confidante, Joshua Speed. Written with exquisite detail, the novel serves as a secret door into Lincoln’s life, pushed open, welcoming the reader to enter. We predict this novel to be BIG!

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
by C.A. Fletcher

When a beloved family dog is stolen, her owner sets out on a life-changing journey through the ruins of our world to bring her back in this fiercely compelling tale of survival, courage, and hope. Kirkus Reviews states, "This un-put-down-able story has everything--a well-imagined post-apocalyptic world, great characters, incredible suspense, and, of course, the fierce love of some very good dogs." On par with Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars and Emily St. John Mandell’s Station Eleven.

Little Darlings
by Melanie Golding

“Mother knows best” takes on sinister new meaning in this unsettling thriller. Discounted by everyone when after the traumatizing birth of her twins she is threatened by a mysterious being, an exhausted mother risks the unthinkable when she becomes convinced that her infants have been replaced by changelings. Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some our darkest fairy tales,  Little Darlings  will have you checking ― and rechecking ― your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.
Non-Fiction - Worth a Checkout
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
by Lori Gottlieb

The national advice columnist presents a behind-the-scenes tour of a therapist's world from the perspective of both a patient and a psychotherapist who found answers in her client's journeys. As the author explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives, she realizes that the questions they struggle with are the very same she finds herself bringing to her own therapist; about desire and need, guilt and redemption, meaning and morality, loneliness and love. Gottlieb pulls back the curtain on the therapeutic process, offering the rarest of gifts: an entertaining, illuminating, and quite possibly life-changing account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir
by Ruth Reichl

In this endearing memoir, Reichl chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and her work with legendary fellow epicureans to transform how America thinks about food.  Recipes included mark turning points in her story, like the Jeweled Chocolate Cake that won her credibility in the test kitchen; the Thanksgiving Turkey Chili that she and her staff delivered to firefighters in the aftermath of 9/11; and Spicy Chinese Noodles—the midnight dish she often prepared for her son. A deeply personal look at a food world on the brink of change.

American Moonshot:
John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race
by Douglas Brinkley

As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, Brinkley offers a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon. An ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn, and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history; an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
by Melinda Gates

A personal statement of passionate conviction, this book tells of Gates’ journey from a partner working behind the scenes to one of the world’s foremost advocates for women, driven by the belief that no one should be excluded, all lives have equal value, and gender equity is the lever that lifts everything. Expect this timely call to action to make a quick rise on the bestseller charts. Important reading for all.

Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting
by Anna Quindlen

Before mommy blogs were even invented, Anna Quindlen became our go-to writer on the joys and challenges of motherhood in her nationally syndicated column. Now she's taking the next step and going full Nana in the pages of this lively and moving book about her grandchildren, her children, and her new and remarkable role. The book is filled with Quindlen’s playful sense of humor (if her baby daughter had wanted to sleep upside down “like a bat,” she would have let her), along with thoughtful reflections on how parenting and grandparenting have changed (for instance, fathers are more involved, there’s a lot more baby gear to buy, and more people are living long enough to become grandparents). This heartfelt and delightful work will especially appeal to readers already living within their own versions of “Nanaville.” 
An Artist's Answer to the Question of Color: Library Art Pop Up/Color In
Saturday, April 13 at 2 p.m.

Lowell Thompson, a Chicago artist and writer, thinks the answer to racism is simple: teach people their colors.  "As an artist I see that the human race can't be described as either "black" or "white". We are actually a darker or lighter shade of the same basic hue. It ranges from a pinkish light beige to a deep, dark umber. I'm not an anthropologist but as I understand it, almost all our surface differences in skin color and hair texture come from how close our ancient ancestors lived to the equator - the sun." 
 
Based on this principle, Thompson created his  Some of My Best Friends Are Colored  multi-cultural art project, which explores "the whole, unlimited human spectrum,” incorporating art, music and community.  In 2017, he did his first Pop-Up Color-In event in Uptown, Chicago. People of different ethnic, racial, ages and genders came from all over the city and colored his portraits to music.
 
We are happy to welcome Lowell and offer this same experience for all – families, seniors, everyone that makes up our library community.  In the spirit of the National Library Week theme, Libraries=Strong Communities, come celebrate with us!

Library Book Chat
Wednesday, April 24 at 7 p.m.

Come share what you’ve been reading lately and hear about what others are reading as well. Library staff will be on hand to share recent favorite reads and discuss what’s hot this month in books, trends, and new releases.