All locations are closed on the Fourth of July. The Main Library now has Internet access and is fully operational.
January 11, 2011
David McCullough, a two-time Pulitzer winning author of historical subjects, is coming out with a work about American artists and intellectuals in Paris in May. “The Greater Journey” is his first full-length work since “1776.” Shira S. Ben Franklin in Paris
January 11, 2011
The Lake Villa Public Library is hosting an event featuring Ellie Carlson, an expert on historical clothing, who will discuss women’s underwear. The event, titled “Unmentionables: The Rise and Fall of Ladies Underwear,” was originally restricted to women attendees due to the somewhat sensitive nature of the topic. But that made some male patrons very unhappy, […]
January 10, 2011
A Maecenas for the Internet Age The Wall Street Journal celebrates the legacy of the late Denis Dutton, a writer, philosopher, and the creator of the popular website Arts & Letters Daily. Offering readers fresh daily links to the very best writing on books and culture, Dutton built ALD as an “elite meritocracy” that gave equal […]
January 7, 2011
In recognition of the new year and the steady march of time, our first Book Trailer of the Week for 2011 is this intriguing clip for Pulitzer Prize-winner Jonathan Weiner’s Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality. A 2010 NY Times Notable Book, this rollicking scientific adventure traces the history of longevity research while […]
January 6, 2011
I like to think of my life as B.K. (Before Kobo), and A.K. (After Kobo). B.K. I was a healthy, happy woman who didn’t mind waiting for a popular book. Now, A.K., I am shelling out the big bucks for Hunger Games, Freedom, and other best sellers. Since I bought a Kobo last August, the only […]
January 6, 2011
The new year is nearly one week old, and by now you’re likely galloping along on a valiant quest to keep your 2011 resolutions. You’ve laced up your new running shoes to conquer that marathon, sprung for Rosetta Stone to finally master French, and even started smelling flowers while taking Bobby McFerrin’s advice. Yet what of this year’s vow […]
January 6, 2011
A while ago I had recommended Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, his last book, which was written in 1962. (He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature that year and died in 1968.) Now the claim is being made that, whether it is a favorite of generations or not, much of the book was not actually […]
January 5, 2011
It appears that Mark Twain needs to be cleaned up. Enough schools have banned the classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from their reading lists that two scholars are collaborating on an edited version that eliminates racial slurs, replacing them with less offensive terms. Listen to the story from Wednesday’s edition of NPR’s All Things Considered. Read the NPR News Blog and yesterday’s […]
January 4, 2011
For the real geeks out there, please feel free to read this whole article on new trends in consumer gadgets and computer devices. Companies are also releasing short videos hinting at their new products which may be unveiled at the convention this week. Motorola‘s was cute- a short, tongue-in-cheek history of the tablet. (There are […]
December 30, 2010
Our final Book Trailer of the Week for 2010 is this chilling award winner for Norwegian author Jo Nesbo’s haunting mystery The Snowman. Billed as the perfect crime fiction fix for Stieg Larsson fans, The Snowman is the fifth heartstopping read in a bestselling series favorably compared to Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books. So check it out, or […]
