According to legend, the mythical island of Avalon is where the sword Excalibur was forged and where King Arthur was taken after his final battle. It’s a place synonymous with magic, healing, and grandeur. The Avallon Hotel, a luxury resort in West Virginia and the setting of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners, has a similar (albeit…
Who was once an IT professional but became a professional genealogist? Who is a very popular genealogy speaker and got his start at Cook Memorial Public Library District? Who writes about AI as well as copyright and has quite a few NEW books in our collection? Any guesses? THOMAS MACENTEE, that's who! As of right…
“Everything Burns.” Keith Carruthers Hold on to your hats. This one is a wild ride. In S.A. Cosby’s newest, The King of Ashes, we meet Roman Carruthers, a successful wealth management professional. One evening he receives a call from his sister, Neveah, telling Roman to come home. Their father, Keith, has been in a terrible…
For many of us, letter writing has been replaced by emailing and texting. But not for the protagonist in Virginia Evans’ new epistolary novel (a book written through letters), The Correspondent. Sybil Van Antwerp, a mother and grandmother, a friend and reader of books, retired from a distinguished career in law, communicates with people from…
Have you ever had difficulty finding a record again? Perhaps you printed off or recorded information, but forgot to write down where you found it? This can be particularly challenging as you research online and move from website to website. As the title of this post suggests, it is important to cite the site right! Thankfully,…
'"No," the king says, dashing her hopes. "None at all. They claim it cannot be done. That matter cannot be transformed, that something cannot be brought forth from nothing." Phosyne chews her chapped lip to keep herself from arguing. Or, worse yet, agreeing.' Caitlin Starling, The Starving Saints, pg. 5 The Starving Saints begins with…
Milwaukee Avenue is the main drag through Libertyville and the center of Illinois' newest National Register Historic District. From Native American trail to a cruising strip between McDonald's on the north and the Dog 'n Suds on the south, Libertyville life has centered around this street. But there are a couple of specific historical events…
Ask any prospective parent: names are a big deal. Sure, a rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but if Rose has to go through middle school? You’d best choose carefully. So the premise of Florence Knapp’s novel The Names is instantly, instinctively intriguing. In 1987, Cora Atkins takes her newborn son to…
Did you know that you can access additional records on FamilySearch at the library? That’s right! The library offers enhanced access to online FamilySearch records which are “otherwise accessible only through a FamilySearch center.” Of course, we have a lot of other awesome online and print resources for genealogists that you will want to explore,…
If you lost a loved one and found yourself unable to manage your profound sadness and sense of loss, would you choose to sleep it away? Could you sleep your grief away? Nikki Erlick poses these are the questions in her newest, speculative work, The Poppy Fields. Our tale begins in the Kansas City airport.…
