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Upcoming Programs
Masterpiece Storytime
All ages are welcome to this cozy, classic storytime. Snuggle up as we read aloud picture book masterpieces.
June books: Wiggle, Freight Train, Mother Bruce
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
This program is designed for children and accompanying parent or caregiver. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program. Drop offs will not be permitted.
Storytime in the Park
Kids and their caregivers are invited to join us each week for an outdoor storytime at Drake Park (6750 Drake Ave, Lincolnwood, IL 60712). In the case of bad weather, storytime will take place at the library.
Create Your Own Chainmail Bracelet (C)
Learn the timeless art of connecting metal rings to craft a stylish and intricate chainmail bracelet. No experience needed—just bring your creativity! Presented in partnership with the Evanston Art Center.
Disclaimer(s)
Adult Resident Cardholder Priority
Due to limited capacity, adult Lincolnwood Resident cardholders get priority registration. All other registrations will be waitlisted. If spots are available, waitlisted patrons will get automatically added to the registration list.
Checkmates! Chess Club
Develop your chess game with experienced instructor Chris Christmas. All skill levels are welcome!
Grades K-5.
Disclaimer(s)
Safe Child Policy
Caregivers for children age 7 or below must remain in the library building for the duration of the program. Caregivers must join children at the conclusion of the program.
Friday Family Fun
Just us for a fun, creative activity for young children and their caregivers. Activities include art, movement, STEM, and stories. (Younger children are welcome, but activities are aimed at ages 2-5 years).
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
This program is designed for children and accompanying parent or caregiver. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program. Drop offs will not be permitted.
iPhone & iPad Club (R)
Bring your iPhone and iPad to meet fellow Apple users and learn to do more with your device.
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Pan Y Dulce
Bryan Ford, the acclaimed author of New World Sourdough and judge on Netflix's Blue Ribbon Baking Championship, is changing how the world bakes with recipes that are "full of deep expertise" yet "unusually warm [and] friendly" (New York Times). In Pan y Dulce he helps home bakers embrace the extraordinary world of Latin American baking and break free of Eurocentric approaches to the craft.
Ford delivers practical know-how alongside the history and culture behind each of 150 "mouthwatering" recipes (Pati Jinich, author of Treasures of the Mexican Table). This is an essential book for home bakers looking to expand their understanding of the craft--while tasting the best of México, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. -
Graphic Design For Dummies
The complete, full-color graphic design guide for beginners
The field of graphic design is constantly evolving, with new design tools, methods, technology, and modes of expression being introduced all the time. Graphic Design For Dummies will teach you how to get started, introducing you to basic design principles as well as the latest best practices, software, and trends. You'll learn how to successfully plan and execute compelling design projects, even if you're not a trained designer. This fun and friendly book will empower you with the information you need to create design solutions. You'll also have the opportunity to test your skills with a series of interactive design activities, starting with step-by-step guidance and slowly building up your skills until you're ready to fly solo. Unleash your inner graphic designer with this Dummies guide.
Graphic Design For Dummies is a practical and user-friendly resource for those looking to create better design solutions quickly.
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Making Pottery Without a Kiln
You don't need a kiln and an expensive at-home pottery rig to start crafting amazing pots and jars! In Making Pottery Without a Kiln: Happy Little Projects to Make for Your Home , author Daniela Schmidt-Kohl will teach you how. You'll discover a start-to-finish approach for beautifully creative pottery, beginning with harvesting your own clay and finishing with floral reliefs. Start fashioning decorative touches and you'll feel like you've been happily pottering for decades! Making Pottery Without a Kiln is great for beginners who want to learn, as well as advanced potters who want to get back to their roots. You'll find ideas for simple key racks and bowls, for example. Or level up with autumnal motifs and Christmas pendants! Invite people to join you with simple projects like little lucky charms or liven up your home with boho-chic wall mandalas. If you love working with your hands, there's something for you inside Making Pottery Without a Kiln. And you may just find out why forming something with your own hands is a "happiness maker," creating great vibes that last just as long as your new creations.
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Ends of the Earth
Renowned scientist Neil Shubin has made extraordinary discoveries by leading scientific expeditions to the sweeping ice landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic. He’s survived polar storms, traveled in temperatures that can freeze flesh in seconds, and worked hundreds of miles from the nearest humans, all to deepen our understanding of our world.
Written with infectious enthusiasm and irresistible curiosity, Ends of the Earth blends travel writing, science, and history in a book brimming with surprising and wonderful discoveries. Shubin retraces his steps on a “dinosaur dance floor,” showing us where these beasts had populated the once tropical lands at the poles. He takes readers meteor hunting, as meteorites preserved in the ice can be older than our planet and can tell us about our galaxy’s formation. Readers also encounter insects and fish that develop their own anti-freeze, and aquatic life in ancient lakes hidden miles under the ice that haven’t seen the surface in centuries. It turns out that explorers and scientists have found these extreme environments as prime ground for making scientific breakthroughs across a vast range of knowledge.
Shubin shares unforgettable moments from centuries of expeditions to reveal just how far scientists will go to understand polar regions. In the end, what happens at the poles does not stay in the poles—the ends of the earth offer profound stories that will forever change our view of life and the entire planet. -
Pillars of Creation
Pillars of Creation tells the story of one of the greatest scientific achievements in the history of civilization, a $10 billion instrument with a staggeringly ambitious goal: unlocking the secrets of the cosmos. Award-winning science writer Richard Panek stands us shoulder to shoulder with senior scientists as they conceive the mission, meet decades-long challenges to bring it to fruition, and, now, use its unprecedented technology to yield new discoveries about the origins of our solar system, to search for life on planets around other suns, and to trace the growth of hundreds of billions of galaxies all the way back to the birth of the first stars. The Webb telescope has captured the world's imagination, and Pillars of Creation shows how and why--including through sixteen pages of awe-inspiring, full-color photos.
At once a testament to human ingenuity and a celebration of mankind's biggest leap yet into the cosmos, Panek's eye-opening book reveals our universe as we've never seen it before--through the lens of the James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel that is itself a pillar of creation. -
The Woman Who Knew Everyone
Perle Mesta was a force to be reckoned with. In her heyday - the 1940's, 50's and 60's - this extremely wealthy globe-trotting Washington widow was one of the most famous women in America, garnering as much media attention as Eleanor Roosevelt. Renowned for her world-class parties featuring politicians and celebrities, she was very close to three presidents - Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. After Truman named her as the first female envoy to Luxembourg, Irving Berlin wrote an entire hit musical based on Perle's life - "Call Me Madam" - which starred Ethel Merman, ran on Broadway for two years and later became a movie.
Dubbed by Berlin as the "hostess with the mostess'," Perle inherited serious money (Texas oil) and married even more money (a Pittsburgh steel magnate). She had a rollicking life outside of Washington, befriending such Broadway legends as Merman, Angela Lansbury and Pearl Bailey. She also had a serious side. A pioneering supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment dating to the 1930's and influential champion for working women, she was a prodigious Democratic fundraiser and rescued Harry Truman's financially flailing 1948 campaign.
In this intensely researched biography, author Meryl Gordon chronicles Perle's lavish life and society adventures in Newport, Manhattan and Washington while highlighting her important, but nearly forgotten contribution to American politics and the feminist movement. -
Give Her Credit
In the 1970s, a new wave of feminism was sweeping America. But in the boys' club of banking and finance, women were still infantilized--no credit without a male cosigner, and their income was dismissed as unreliable. If bankers weren't going to accommodate women, then women had to take control of their own futures. In 1978 in Denver, Colorado, the opening of the Women's Bank changed everything.
It was helmed by bank officer B. LaRae Orullian and the brainchild of whip-smart entrepreneur Carol Green, who forged a groundbreaking path with their headstrong colleagues, among them: Judi Foster, investment research whiz; Edna Mosley, unyielding civil rights advocate with the NAACP; Mary Roebling, renowned financial executive; Betty Freedman, a socialite and fundraiser; and Gail Schoettler, a formidable Denver mover and shaker for social justice. Coming together and facing their own unique road to revolution, they built the most successful female-run bank in the nation. It wasn't easy.
Give Her Credit follows the challenges, uphill battles, and achievements of some of the enterprising women of Denver who broke boundaries, inspired millions, and afforded opportunities for every marginalized citizen in the country. It's about time their untold story was told.
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Life's Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom
Chef and TV legend Dame Prue Leith brings us the cookbook you’ve always wanted – 80 delicious recipes, with accompanying kitchen shortcuts and hacks, for a lifetime of easy cooking.
Every recipe in this book comes with a handy tip, plus you’ll find over 25 videos accessed by a QR code to help you learn a skill or get ahead.
Coined by Shirley Conran in her ’70s bestseller Superwoman, ‘Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom’ is a phrase that every time-poor cook can relate to. In this clever cookbook, you’ll find really good recipes without the fuss: recipes where a neat trick can save you time, recipes where the cheat versions taste just as good as the home-made, and recipes to help you avoid waste and save you money. How do you cook the perfect steak? What’s the best way to dice an avocado? And what about when it just all goes terribly wrong?
With recipes including Celeriac Rémoulade with Prosciutto, Rocket and Pine Nuts, Crispy Pork Belly, Buttermilk Chicken, Sushi for Scaredy-cats, Chocolate Almond Torte and Cherry Clafoutis, Prue’s handy hacks show you how a little bit of insight goes a long way.
Perfect for every home cook, the absolute beginner, or someone who has been doing it so long that cooking has somehow lost its attraction – Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom contains years of culinary know-how and inspirational meals, squashed into an accessible cookbook. -
I Will Do Better
The novelist Charles Bock was a reluctant parent, tagging along for the ride of fatherhood, obsessed primarily with his dream of a writing career.
But when his daughter Lily was six months old, his wife, Diana, was diagnosed with a complex form of leukemia. Two and half years later, when all treatments and therapies had been exhausted, Bock found himself a widower--devastated, drowning in medical bills, and saddled with a daunting responsibility. He had to nurture Lily, and, somehow, maybe even heal himself.
I Will Do Better is Charles's pull-no-punches account of what happened next. Playdates, music classes, temper tantrums, oh-so-cool babysitters, first days at school, family reunions, single-parent dating, and a citywide crippling natural disaster--were minefields especially treacherous for Charles and Lily because of their preexisting vulnerability: their grief.
Charles sought help from friends, family, and therapists, but this overgrown, middle-aged boy-man and his plucky child became, foremost, a duo--they found their way together.
This frank and tender memoir of parenting his infant daughter in the wake of of his wife's untimely death is "bracingly honest [and] tender," commented Publshers Weekly. "Single parents will find much to identify with in this warts-and-all account." -
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada--East, 2nd Edition
An entirely updated edition of the classic bestselling regional bird field guide from National Geographic, covering the U.S. and Canada east of the Rockies.
Provides ID information, data-driven maps, and annotated illustrations of more than 800 bird species.
Backyard beginners and dedicated life-listers alike will love the expanded new edition of this trusted guide to the birds of eastern United States and Canada. With new text, revised art, and data-derived range maps, this valuable resource complements the apps and online resources used by birders today.
All told, this second edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada-East (2nd edition) is a must-have guide for birders young and old, avid and beginner. -
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada--West, 2nd Edition
An entirely updated edition of the classic bestselling regional bird field guide from National Geographic, covering the western U.S. and Canada, including Hawaii.
Birdwatchers from the Rockies west will find nearly 1,000 species in this user-friendly guide, with all new text, updated art, and data-driven maps
Backyard beginners and dedicated life-listers alike will love the expanded new edition of this trusted guide to the birds of western United States and Canada, including Hawaii. With new text, revised art, and data-derived range maps, this valuable resource complements the apps and online resources used by birders today.
All told, this second edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada-West is a must-have guide for birders young and old, avid and beginner. -
Protecting Whitney
David Roberts was Whitney Houston's bodyguard, the real one.
Roberts was hired in 1988 for Houston's UK portion of the Moment of Truth world tour. Accustomed to working for diplomats and Fortune 500 clients, Roberts had reservations about working with a pop star. But Houston's heart of gold won him over from the moment they met at Heathrow airport.
There's a high bar for those who work in this business: you must be willing to die for your boss. Houston made that easy. Roberts got to travel the globe with one of the most fun-loving and generous souls he'd ever met. His memoir reveals heartwarming anecdotes of life with one of the world's most recognizable stars, including privately shared moments such as the birth of Bobbi Kristina.
But there are also shocking and heartbreaking revelations. Roberts was present for some of Houston's most challenging ordeals. And he was helpless as he watched those who claimed to love and support her look the other way because they saw her voice box as a cash machine.
His heart was ultimately shattered as he witnessed her succumb to the one threat he could not protect her from: herself. -
Private Revolutions
While serving as the deputy Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times, Chinese-British journalist Yuan Yang began to notice common threads in the lives of her Chinese peers—women born during China’s turn toward capitalism in the 1980s and 1990s, who, despite the country's enormous economic gains during their lifetimes, were coming up against deeply entrenched barriers as they sought to achieve financial stability.
The product of seven years of intimate, in-depth reporting, this transporting and indelible book traces the journey of four such women as they try to make better lives for themselves and their families in the new Chinese economy. June and Siyue are among the few in their villages to graduate high school. Each makes her way to Beijing, June as a young professional and Siyue an entrepreneur. Like Siyue, Leiya lives with her grandparents in their village while her parents send money home; yearning for a different life than those of the women she sees around her, Leiya soon joins her parents in Shenzhen as an underage factory worker. Born to an urban middle-class family, Sam is outraged when her eyes are opened the poor treatment of workers, and becomes a labor activist, increasingly under threat by the authorities.
As the women grapple with government policies that threaten their businesses, their children's access to education, their choice of where to make a home, and, in Sam’s case, their lives, a vivid, damning, and urgent picture emerges of the previously unseen human cost of China’s rising economic tide—and the courage and perseverance of those caught in the swell. -
The Good Mother Myth
When Nancy Reddy had her first child, she found herself suddenly confronted with the ideal of a perfect mother—a woman who was constantly available, endlessly patient, and immediately invested in her child to the exclusion of all else. Reddy had been raised by a single working mother, considered herself a feminist, and was well on her way to a PhD. Why did doing motherhood "right" feel so wrong?
For answers, Reddy turned to the mid-20th century social scientists and psychologists whose work still forms the basis of so much of what we believe about parenting. It seems ludicrous to imagine modern moms taking advice from midcentury researchers. Yet, their bad ideas about so-called “good” motherhood have seeped so pervasively into our cultural norms. In The Good Mother Myth, Reddy debunks the flawed lab studies, sloppy research, and straightforward misogyny of researchers from Harry Harlow, who claimed to have discovered love by observing monkeys in his lab, to the famous Dr. Spock, whose bestselling parenting guide included just one illustration of a father interacting with his child.
This timely and thought-provoking book will make you laugh, cry, and want to scream (sometimes all at once). Blending history of science, cultural criticism, and memoir, The Good Mother Myth pulls back the curtain on the flawed social science behind our contemporary understanding of what makes a good mom. -
Save Our Souls
From the bestselling author of The Taking of Jemima Boone, the unbelievable true story of a real-life Swiss Family Robinson (and their dog) who faced sharks, shipwreck, and betrayal.
On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were the Walkers--the ship's captain Frederick, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons, and their dog--along with the ship's crew. The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting their vessel in two and leaving those onboard adrift on the perilous sea.
When the castaways awoke the next morning, they discovered they had been washed ashore--on an island inhabited by a large but ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. Hans appeared to have been there for a while and could quickly educate the Walkers and their crew on the island's resources. But Hans had a secret . . . and as the Walker family gradually came to learn more, what seemed like a stroke of luck to have the mysterious man's assistance became something ominous, something darker.
Like David Grann and Stacy Schiff, Matthew Pearl unveils one of the most incredible yet little-known historical true stories, and the only known instance in history of an actual family of castaways. Save Our Souls asks us to consider who we might become if we found ourselves trapped on a deserted island.
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Learning to Play Again
Relationships form the fundamental pillars of our emotional life. Yet, as US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has declared, we are facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation that is harming human health and well-being. In our divided society, fraught with high rates of anxiety, the stressors of over-busy personal and work responsibilities, the isolating effects of technology, and more people are struggling to connect. Kindness and empathy are in short supply, and relationships face unprecedented challenges. Yet happy and healthy relationships are more necessary now than ever to help people have a sense of belonging and to live healthy, happy, and fulfilling lives.
Drawing on her decades of work as a family therapist and early childhood education specialist, Dr. Kathryn Smerling's Learning to Play Again offers a blueprint for establishing meaningful connection first at home with loved ones, and then with extended family, friends, and colleagues.
From reminding ourselves about the value of "Please" and "Thank you" to learning the joy of parallel play, to building a support system through kindness and empathic communication skills, Dr. Smerling's new book invites readers to focus on personal attunement and how things like individual self-esteem can lead to greater resilience and success in relationships.
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A History of Dinosaurs in 50 Fossils
Dinosaurs have captivated the world since Megalosaurus was the first one named in 1824, and A History of Dinosaurs in 50 Fossils features fifty of the most momentous dinosaur findings from the fossil record. From rare fossil embryos that provide a glimpse into the early stage of dinosaur growth and development, to the claw of a Deinonychus, the dinosaur that served as a template for Jurassic Park’s terrorizing raptors, the book illustrates the enthralling evolutionary history of animals that ruled the Earth for more than 150 million years with 75 full-color illustrations. Each stunning fossil photograph, magnified for optimal detail, includes an entry explaining the importance of the discovery and the fossil’s significance in the larger evolutionary timeline. Themed chapters build off each other to depict a full and incredible story.
The book provides insight on what fossils tell us about dinosaur relationships, movement, diet, skin, teeth, and frills, and so much more. A History of Dinosaurs in 50 Fossils compiles centuries’ of the most exciting fossil findings that helped earn dinosaurs an enduring place in the public imagination. This authoritative and visually beautiful book will delight and inspire readers young and old, and help them understand the rise and fall of some of the most amazing creatures to roam Earth. -
Good Nature
We all take for granted the idea that being in nature makes us feel better. But if you were a skeptical scientist—or indeed any kind of skeptic—who wanted hard scientific evidence for this idea, where would you look? And how would that evidence be gathered?
It wasn’t until Dr. Kathy Willis was asked to contribute to an international project looking for the societal benefits we gain from plants that she stumbled across a study that radically changed the way she saw the natural world. In the study there was clear proof that patients recovering from gall bladder operations recovered more quickly if they were looking at trees.
In fact, in the last decade there has been an explosion of “proof" that incredible things happen to our bodies and our minds when our senses interact with the natural world. In Good Nature, Kathy Willis takes the reader on a journey with her to dig out all the experiments around the world that are looking for this evidence—experiments made easier by the new kinds of data being collected from satellites and big-data biobanks. Having a vase of roses on your desk or a green wall in your office makes a measurable difference to your well-being; certain scents in room diffusers genuinely can boost your immune system; and, in a chapter that Kathy calls "Hidden Sense," we learn that touching organic soil has a significant effect on the healthiness of your microbiome.
What is remarkable about this book is how its revelations should be commonsense—schools should let children play in nature to improve their health and concentration; urban streets should have trees—and yet it reveals just how difficult it is to prove this to businesses and governments. As Kathy Willis says in her narrative, "We now know enough to self-prescribe in our homes, offices or working spaces, gardens, and when out walking. However small these individual actions might be, overall they have the potential to provide a large number of health benefits. And we need to be encouraging others to do the same. Nature is far more than just something that is useful for our health. It is not a dispensable commodity. It is an inherent part of us." -
Entertaining by Design
From interior designer and style maven Lorna Gross, Entertaining by Design is a collection of accessible gatherings, organized by season, from a small dinner to post-Christmas breakfast celebration. Each gathering is designed to be instructional, inspirational, and doable for anyone by using tableware and decorations you may already have along with carefully chosen decorative items like place cards or serving platters that can cost as little or as much as your budget allows.
Each gathering includes suggestions for the best way to invite your guests—sometimes, that’s just a well-thought-out email—types of tableware, music suggestions to set the mood, and a color scheme to tie everything together. Lorna has shared a few of her favorite recipes that are satisfying, delicious, and certain to get the party started.
In a world where we’re constantly busy, it’s easy to think there is no time to plan a party, but Lorna proves that with her simple instructions, streamlined tips, and a little planning, any of these gatherings can be accomplished. Whether you believe you don’t know how to create a gathering or you just think you don't have the time, gorgeous photos throughout the book encourage readers by showing how easy it can all be. -
Well Plated Every Day
Erin Clarke’s hugely popular food blog and her bestselling debut cookbook have brought her easy, flavor-packed, “just happens to be healthy” approach to cooking to the masses. Now Erin offers a collection of recipes that can be on regular rotation and excite us every day. Dependable, but also special, the recipes in this save-you-every-time cookbook showcase Erin’s mastery of dishes that are just a little lighter but pack the same punch, flavor combos that will surprise and delight family and friends, and cooking techniques that save steps and effort. Well Plated Every Day will inspire you to cook, because they are the recipes that you and your family will want to eat. Every day.
Most of the recipes in this essential cookbook are all-in-one, ready-in-less-than-an-hour main dishes. Need a fast, quick meal everyone will love? Sheet Pan Honey Orange Pistachio Salmon is the answer. Making crispy Chicken Schnitzel? Erin will help you roast cabbage right along with it so you can check off those veggies. Love pasta? Try the Creamy Harvest Chicken Pasta, which sneaks in butternut squash and whole grains. Who can say no to dessert? With simple, throw-them-in-the-oven treats like Blueberry Cornmeal Crisp and Pumpkin Gingerbread Squares, satisfying your sweet tooth is a snap. When you have a little more time, no one will know that your Cheater’s Cassoulet took a fraction of the time.
Complete with tips for healthy swaps and “next level” flavor boosts that make each dish even more delicious and company-worthy, Well Plated Every Day is your roadmap to great food on the daily.