GPL Blog

by Eileen Castro

NEA Big Read 2022

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

This April, the Galesburg Public Library will host its 14th National Endowment for the Arts Big Read.

The Big Read annually provides support to selected libraries and nonprofits around the country to host community-wide reading programs, each designed around a single NEA Big Read title. Organizations apply for funding through a grants program managed by Arts Midwest, and can receive a grant which ranges between $5,000 and $20,000. This year, the Galesburg Public Library was 1 of 61 organizations to be awarded a grant. Every year, the Galesburg Public Library gives out free copies of the Big Read title, as well as free copies of the teen and children’s tie-in titles, and hosts book discussions, cultural and musical events, and craft programs, all designed around the themes in the Big Read title…

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Staff Picks — Eileen

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

Happy 2022! Looking for a good book to kick off your new year? Check out one of these recent favorites of Eileen, Reference Librarian and Grant Coordinator here at the library. If you like literary fiction with a hint of fantasy and history, you’ll find something to love on this list. Happy reading!

THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES by Alix E. Harrow
The Once and Future Witches follows the lives of three sisters trying to make their way in 1890’s New England, using witchcraft and sisterhood to further the cause of suffrage. Brought back together under mysterious circumstances after years of not speaking, the three sisters must come together to forge a better…

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Book Review | Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.

According to the description, Anxious People is about a would-be bank robber and eight anxious strangers. That is true, but as Backman says throughout the book, it’s also a story about a hostage situation, a bridge, human connection, mental health, idiots, and so much more. If, like me, you’re a fan of almost-too-cheesy ensemble cast movies like Love Actually, where everyone is somehow connected and gets a happy, neatly tied up ending, this book…

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Staff Picks — July 2021: Eileen

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

Curious what the staff of GPL likes to read? Every month we’ll share five titles we’ve read recently. All titles are available for checkout at the library — give us a call or visit the catalog to put one on hold!

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of…

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Book Review | In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Published on by admingale

From the publisher: Where do you see yourself in five years? Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers. But when she awakens, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight—but it is one hour she cannot shake. In Five Years is an unforgettable love story, but it is not the one you’re expecting.

In Five Years is a beautiful story of love and friendship. Main character Dannie is incredibly Type A and has her perfect life all mapped out. On the same day she nails a job interview for a prestigious NYC law firm, she gets engaged to her boyfriend David, and everything…

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