Upcoming Events

This event is in the "Adult" group

Puzzle Swap

All Day 2/2–2/28
Adult
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Adult Services Department
Age Group: Adult
Program Type: Community Events
Event Details:

Tired of completing the same puzzle? Swap out your gently used puzzle for a new-to-you challenge at the Reference Desk!

This event is in the "Teen & Tween" group

Nintendo Switch: Family Feud

3:45pm–4:45pm
Teen & Tween
Registration Required
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Program Room
Age Group: Teen & Tween
Program Type: Hands On, Technology
Registration Required
Event Details:

Form a team and battle your friends in this classic trivia game show. Snacks will be provided.

This event is in the "Adult" group
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Adult Services Department
Age Group: Adult
Program Type: Arts & Crafts, Hands On
Event Details:

Interested in trying new recipes or experimenting with different spices? Stop by each month to pick up a Spice of the Month kit!

This event is in the "Adult" group
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Virtual Programming
Age Group: Adult
Program Type: Illinois Libraries Present, Presentations
Event Details:

Register for this virtual event: https://bit.ly/ILPStine

Note: The deadline to register is 5:00 p.m. on the day of the event to allow time to process and approve registrations.

This event is in the "Teen & Tween" group

Board Games & Pizza

5:00pm–6:00pm
Teen & Tween
Registration Required
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Program Room
Age Group: Teen & Tween
Program Type: Hands On
Registration Required
Event Details:

Join us for delicious pizza and a selection of board games and card games IRL! 

This event is in the "Adult" group
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Program Room
Age Group: Adult
Program Type: Book Discussion, Village Read
Event Details:

Free paperback copies of America is in the Heart will be available starting January 5th. While supplies last.

New & Noteworthy

Staff Picks

Cover with an illustration of a bird among berries and leaves

The Serviceberry

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice.

Image for "The Executioners Three"

The Executioners Three

An instant New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestseller!

From New York Times bestselling author Susan Dennard comes The Executioners Three, a mystery filled with rivalry, romance, best friends, and a gruesome curse that dates back centuries.

*This beautiful hardcover edition includes designed printed edges and special endpapers.*

Freddie Gellar didn't mean to get half the rival high school arrested. She’d simply heard shrieks coming from the woods, so she’d called the cops like any good human would do. How was she supposed to know it was just kids partying?

Except the next day, a body is found. And while the local sheriff might call it suicide, Freddie's instincts tell her otherwise. So, like the aspiring sleuth (and true X-Files aficionado) she is, Freddie sets out to prove there's a murderer at large.

But her investigation is quickly disrupted by the rivalry between her school and the school of the partying teens she got arrested. For over twenty years, the two student bodies have had an ongoing prank war, and Freddie's failed attempt at Good Samaritanism has upped the ante. Worse, the clever—and gorgeous—leader of the rival prank squad has set his sights on Freddie.

As more pranks unfurl, more bodies also start piling up in the forest. But it's the supernatural warning signs around town, each plucked straight from an old forgotten poem called "The Executioners Three," that worry Freddie the most. She knows the poem and its blood curse can’t be real, but she's quickly running out of time to prove it.

Because the murderer—or executioners?—knows she's onto them now, and their next target just might be Freddie.

"An irresistible blend of small-town murder mystery and spine-tingling supernatural elements."—Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying


Also by Susan Dennard

The Luminaries trilogy
The Luminaries
The Hunting Moon
The Whispering Night

The Witchlands series
Truthwitch
Windwitch
Sightwitch (novella)
Bloodwitch
Witchshadow
Witchlight

Image for "The Devil's Kitchen"

The Devil's Kitchen

A murder in Yellowstone reveals a historical conspiracy, drawing a park ranger into the heart of a centuries-old mystery.

"...a masterful blend of historical intrigue and contemporary mystery." --Gary McAvoy, bestselling author of The Magdalene Deception

When a history professor is fatally shot at the base of Yellowstone Canyon, seasonal park ranger and former homicide detective Clarence Johnson finds himself roped into the murder investigation. Alongside Special Agent Alison Nance, he quickly realizes they are uncovering more than just a killer.

As Johnson and Nance hunt for the killer, clues gleaned from the professor's research hint at a historic conspiracy involving an ancient relic believed to have been secreted away by royalists during the French Revolution. Their hunt through the wilds of Yellowstone leads them to realize that the professor's death and the missing artifact are intricately connected.

But Johnson and Nance's suspects are disappearing at an alarming rate, pitting them in a race against time before those determined to do anything to protect the secrets of the past strike again.

From the secrets of antiquity to the rugged beauty of America's first national park, The Devil's Kitchen is a masterful blend of historical fiction and suspense that challenges the boundaries between past and present--revealing that the deadliest secrets are often hidden in plain sight.

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Praise for The Devil's Kitchen: A Murder in Yellowstone:

"Thielman's novel offers something for nearly every reader..."--Library Journal, Starred Review

"Beautifully written, slyly crafted." --Jane K. Cleland, Agatha Award winning author

"Part historical and part procedural with flawlessly executed parallel timelines to keep the readers turning pages. One fantastic read!" --Bruce Robert Coffin, international bestselling coauthor of The Turner and Mosley Files

"A revealing journey to the past and the present." --Historical Novel Society

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What readers are saying:

★★★★★ "...well-researched..."
★★★★★ "...fast-paced action..."
★★★★★ "...half historical half thriller..."
★★★★★ "...strong character development..."
★★★★★ "A masterful blending of the past and present..."