SCPL news & updates
May 2023
Upcoming Events
See what's happening this month.

Click on the Events Calendar to see a detailed listing of programs and events happening at SCPL.
Summer Programming
SCPL will be offering a variety of programming this summer. This year's theme is "All Together Now." The program begins May 22nd. To register for the Summer Reading Program please visit any SCPL location and complete a registration form. Visit us online or stop by any SCPL location if you have any questions or to learn more about this exciting summer program.
1000 Books Before Kindergarten
Do you have a baby, toddler or preschooler? If so, join SCPL's 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program to help your child be ready for kindergarten. This program promotes reading to newborns, infants, and toddlers and encourages parent and child bonding through reading. The goal of the program is to establish strong early literacy skills that will allow children to gain the confidence to become strong readers. Contact our Children's Department or Click here for more information.
Enter to Win!
Each month SCPL will feature a new puzzle challenge. For this month's challenge, download or pick up a May sheet at any branch. Return your sheet by email or drop it off at any SCPL location. Each person who solves the puzzle correctly will be entered into a drawing for a $10 local gift card.
Memorial and Honor Donations
Looking For Your Next Read?
Discover this month's most exciting new books in the current issue of BookPage, provided courtesy of Spencer County Public Library.
Selections From the New Shelf
New Digital Titles
Patron Favorites
SCPL Book Clubs
Rockport Book Club
May 4th at 1:00 PM at Rockport in the Small Meeting Room

Discussing Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline

Allie Garvey is heading home to the funeral of a childhood friend. Allie is not only grief-stricken, she's full of dread. Because going home means seeing the other two people with whom she shares an unbearable secret.

Twenty years earlier, a horrific incident shattered the lives of five teenagers, including Allie. Drinking and partying in the woods, they played a dangerous prank that went tragically wrong, turning deadly. The teenagers kept what happened a secret, believing that getting caught would be the worst thing that could happen. But time has taught Allie otherwise. Not getting caught was far worse.

Allie has been haunted for two decades by what she and the others did, and by the fact that she never told a soul. The dark secret has eaten away at her, distancing her from everyone she loves, including her husband. Because she wasn't punished by the law, Allie has punished herself, and it's a life sentence.

Now, Allie stands on the precipice of losing everything. She's ready for a reckoning, determined to learn how the prank went so horribly wrong. She digs to unearth the truth, but reaches a shocking conclusion that she never saw coming--and neither will the reader.

-Excerpt from Amazon.
June 2nd at 1:00 PM at Rockport in the Small Meeting Room

Discussing Today We Go Home by Kelli Estes

Seattle, Washington: Larkin Bennett has always known her place, whether it's surrounded by her loving family in the lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest or conducting a dusty patrol in Afghanistan. But all of that changed the day tragedy struck her unit and took away everything she held dear.

Soon after the disaster, Larkin discovers an unexpected treasure―the diary of Emily Wilson, a young woman who disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union in the Civil War. As Larkin struggles to heal, she finds herself drawn deeply into Emily's life and the secrets she kept.

Indiana, 1861: The only thing more dangerous to Emily Wilson than a rebel soldier is the risk of her own comrades in the Union Army discovering her secret. But, as the war marches on and takes its terrible toll, Emily begins to question everything she thought she was willing to risk her life for.


Hatfield Book Club
May 10th at 3:30 PM at Hatfield Branch

Discussing Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of 13 beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she's assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three “nudges” to change the outcome of events on earth, and with her daughter, Willa, on her third miscarriage, Carson partying until all hours, and Leo currently “off again” with his high-maintenance girlfriend, she’ll have to think carefully where to use them.

From the Beyond, Vivi watches “The Chief” Ed Kapenash investigate her death, but her greatest worry is her final book, which contains a secret from her own youth that could be disastrous for her reputation. But when hidden truths come to light, Vivi’s family will have to sort out their past and present mistakes - with or without a nudge of help from above - while Vivi finally lets them grow without her.


-Excerpt from Amazon
June 14th at 3:30 PM at Hatfield Branch

Discussing Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.  

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. 

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . . 

The only way to survive is to open your heart.  

-Excerpt from Amazon
Richland Book Club
May 15th at 1:30 PM at Richland

Discussing The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations―a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

-Excerpt from Amazon.
June 12th at 1:30 PM at Richland

Discussing The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as White—her complexion is dark because she is African American.


-Excerpt from Amazon.
Fun For the Whole Family
SCPL Virtual Recipe Swap
Spring has sprung! Join SCPL's Virtual Recipe Swap page on Facebook to share fresh and tasty recipes. Click here to request to join. This group allows members to share tips, tricks, and recipes with each other. Join today!