Let me start off by saying that I love horror novels. If you’re like me, then you’ll know the scarier, the better. There’s nothing like getting deep inside a story and then hearing the faintest of sounds in an empty house that gets your nerves working and your brain twirling with thoughts of anything that…
Native American Activism, Past and Present
The Standing Rock protests over the Dakota Access pipeline last year brought Native American activism into sharp focus. But the Native American community has fought for civil rights for decades. CPL kicks off Native American Heritage Month with Native Americans Speak Out!: The Return of Navajo Boy Film Screening on November 4 at Lozano Branch…
Not-So-Happy Family Titles for Teens
The holidays can be a rough time of the year. Movies, television shows, even commercials are all focused on the idea of quality time with family. Except, what if seeing your family...isn't great? What if your family is the source of stress, not the break from it? If so, you're not alone. But as a wise…
Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Books for Kids
Bright orange cempasúchil (marigolds), yummy pan de muerto (bread of the dead) and sugar skulls sit on a beautifully decorated altar to welcome loved ones back to the land of the living for Día de los Muertos. Families visit the cemetery to clean, decorate and place their relatives' favorite food on their gravestones. Marigolds are placed…
Unhinged Minds: New Teen Titles
Two notable teen novels I've read this fall related to becoming "unhinged." Along those lines, I've always loved spirals, but now imagine them as tightening, dizzying and paralyzing in their vast depth, thanks to John Green's latest novel, Turtles All the Way Down. Green's book explores mental health issues and reminds us of the fragile depths…
Top Picks: Celebrating Kurt Vonnegut
The protagonist in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions says, "As I approached my 50th birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen." One can only imagine what type of novel Vonnegut would write about today's polarized United States. Celebrate the famed Midwesterner as we approach his 95th birth anniversary on November 11 with these top picks, including…
Stranger Reads: Graphic Novels for Fans of Stranger Things
What happened to Barb? Is Eleven safe? How will I pass the time after I watch all of Stranger Things season two this weekend? We Stranger Things fans are as plagued by these questions as Will Byers is haunted by memories of The Upside Down. (OK, not quite, but it feels like it.) While only the…
#TBT: Dizzy Gillespie’s 100th Birthday
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was born a century ago on October 21 in Cheraw, S.C. Let's celebrate the life and music of this talented jazz trumpeter and composer this Throwback Thursday. Dizzy Gillespie, known for his "swollen" trumpeter cheeks, got his start in the mid-1930s by working in prominent swing bands, including those of Benny…
Caught Reading: CPL Book Club Edition
When I started working at West Belmont Branch on Chicago's Northwest side a year ago, I was pleased to find a well-established book club full of passionate readers. The West Belmont book club members gather to catch up and, of course, drink coffee and eat delicious carbs of the cake or cookie variety. But our…
The Price of Pain: The Opioid Addiction Crisis
When Prince died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016, the world was shocked. But long before his untimely death, opioid overdoses had been taking a toll in America's heartland and in places never thought to be associated with a drug epidemic. Those things only happened in cities like New York and L.A., not Portsmouth, Ohio, or McKeesport, Pa…
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