Friday, December 5, 2014

December 2014

December's book is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen
Loewen got the idea for the book after reviewing about a dozen American history textbooks and finding glaring omissions and even blatant lies about our history.


Check out this video with the author:



Join us for our discussion on Monday December 22nd at 6:30 p.m. in the First Amendment Room, Eldridge library.  Books available now!

Monday, October 20, 2014

November 2014

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell is our November selection for the Scott County Reads book discussion.  This quirky thriller was a bestseller for debut author Bazell in 2009. 

 Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he'd prefer to keep hidden. Whether it's a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he's the last person you want to see in your hospital room.

Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown's new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might-just might-be the same person ...

Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours-and somehow beat the reaper. 


November discussion will be on Monday the 24th at 6:30 p.m.  Books will be available for pick up in Eldridge in late October.  

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

October 2014

The October selection is Playing with the Enemy by Gary W. Moore.  It's a true story about Gary's father, Gene.  Gary was unaware of his father's talent in baseball until just before his death.  After extensive research, he found his father's story to be compelling enough to write this book. From the author's website...

Headed for baseball stardom with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Gene’s destiny was interrupted by Pearl Harbor. After playing ball for the Navy in the Azores and North Africa, Gene and his team were sent to the States for a special—and top secret—mission: guarding German sailors captured from U-505. Unable to field a team, Gene convinced his commander to allow him to teach the enemy how to play baseball while he and his teammates waited for the war to end so they could be called up into the Major Leagues. But Gene’s future changed irrevocably in Louisiana. His life . . . and maybe our national pastime . . . was forever altered.

The October discussion will take place at the Eldridge branch library on the 27th at 6:30 p.m.  Books are available now for pick up in Eldridge. 


Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Sept 2014

Our September fiction selection is Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.  Here's the book summary:


Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse...
As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both.

Discussion will take place on Monday September 22nd at 6:30 p.m. at the Eldridge branch library.  

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

July 2014


Our July pick is Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.  This historical novel follows the life of Clara Driscoll, an artist who worked for the Tiffany Glass company in 1893.  At the time, she was not given credit for much of her work and struggled personally with relationships, knowing that Mr. Tiffany did not employ married women.  This novel is an interesting look at life during that time, the struggles for women, and differences in class. 


Book discussion will take place on Monday, July 21st at 6:30 p.m. in the First Amendment Room in Eldridge.  Books are available now. 

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

March 2014

Our March Discussion will take place on week late, on March 31st at 6:30 p.m.


Our selection for this month is Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin.  Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin’s spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend. Her name is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, but to the world she’ll always be known simply as “Alice,” the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a wonderland of Mad Hatters, Queens of Hearts, and Cheshire Cats. Now, nearing her eighty-first birthday, she looks back on a life of intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. First as a young woman, then as a wife, mother, and widow, she’ll experience adventures the likes of which not even her fictional counterpart could have imagined. Yet from glittering balls and royal romances to a world plunged into war, she’ll always be the same determined, undaunted Alice who, at ten years old, urged a shy, stuttering Oxford professor to write down one of his fanciful stories, thus changing her life forever.

Books are available now at the Eldridge Branch Library.  Discussion will take place in Eldridge in the First Amendment Room.  Newcomers are welcome.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

January 2014



To kick off the new year, we have chosen to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

The book follows 16 yr old Jacob as he explores his grandfather's past and the mysterious photographs from a children's home that was destroyed in World War II.  He journeys to a small island off the coast of Wales and begins to uncover haunting secrets.

Discussion will be on January 27th at 6:30 p.m. at the Eldridge branch library.  Books are available now.