Quick Reads For Teens Who Don't Like To Read

Hate to read but have to because your mom, dad, or teachers tell you that you must? It's okay...you can admit it.  We won't judge.  In fact, we're here to make it easier on you because we can give a list of books that will entertain you, keep turning the pages, and best of all -- tell you a really good story.  So keep calm and read a QUICK READ book!

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman -- Imagine being unable to move any part of your body and not being able to communicate in any way because you have severe cerebral palsy.  Imagine that you are brilliant, but attend special education classes at school because no one knows how smart you are.  Your family is living their lives around you but all you can do is watch.  You laugh and cry with them, but they don't know that.  Then one day your dad starts apologizing for how miserable your life must be and how much he wants to put you out of your misery.  You want to tell him -- scream to him -- that you're perfectly happy and love your life, but he can't know.  Suddenly, he's coming at you....


Shattering Glass by Gail Giles -- When Simon Glass, a high school student who is bullied by the popular kids, is suddenly befriended by them, he begins a friendship journey that transforms him into the school Prince Charming.  Simon becomes the most popular guy in school, one with his own agenda and plans to get back at the "friends" who changed him.  This is a suspenseful and fast-paced book that will keep you hooked.


Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt -- As a teen who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father, and a loser older brother, Doug Swieteck has everything stacked against him.  That is,  until he meets Lil Spicer--a sassy and smart girl. Together, they find themselves at the local library intrigued with a local mystery and somehow involved in a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.


Twilight by Stephanie Meyer -- Sink your teeth into this vampire-loves-mortal-girl story.  Bella is new to her Forks, Washington high school, when she meets her lab partner, Edward.  He's a strange, dark, guy who appears to hate her but they are drawn to each other.  Edward wants to suck her blood, she just wants to kiss him.  Can these two survive their love for one another?  After you read this, you'll want to read the sequels: New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.  Like graphic novels?  We have Twilight in that version, too!

Turkey Crimes and Capers

This week take a break from the food prep and the shopping to read a Thanksgiving-themed mystery. It could be a good way to get you in the holiday spirit instead of a turkey-induced coma. Here is a short list in no particular order.  Enjoy!

Turkey Day Murder: A Lucy Stone Mystery by Leslie Meier
A Fatal Feast: A Novel by Jessica Fletcher
Dead Hot Shot: A Loon Lake Mystery by Victoria Houston
Bittersweet by Susan Wittig Albert
The Grave Soul by Ellen Hart
A Catered Thanksgiving by Isis CrawfordZero-Degree Murder by M. L. RowlandThankless In Death by J. D. Robb
Second-Hand Stiff by Sue Ann Jaffarian
Death Rides Again by Janice Hamrick
Skating Under the Wire by Joelle Charbonneau
Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis

National Book Awards Announced November 16, 2016

Colson Whitehead has won the National Book Award for fiction for his novel The Underground Railroad.  A New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club pick, the book chronicles the daring survival story of a young plantation slave in Georgia who makes a desperate bid for freedom as she races through the Underground Railroad with a relentless slave-catcher close behind.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibrim X. Kendi won the nonfiction award.  A comprehensive history of anti-black racism, this book focuses on the lives of five major players in American history, including Cotton Mather and Thomas Jefferson, and highlights the debates that took place between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists.

The award for poetry went to Daniel Borzutzky for The Performance of Becoming Human.

Borzutzky's work draws connections between the U.S. and Latin America, specifically touching upon issues relating to border and immigration policies, economic disparity, political violence, and the disturbing rhetoric of capitalism and bureaucracies.

The award for Young People’s Literature went to Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell for the graphic memoir March: Book Three.

March: Book Three is the final book in Lewis's graphic memoir trilogy. The trilogy gives a first-hand account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights. It begins with Lewis's life as a child in rural Alabama and continues to his involvement in the Freedom Vote and Mississippi Freedom Summer campaigns, and the Selma to Montgomery march. While March: Book Three won the Award for Young People's Literature, the whole trilogy will be of interest to a broad audience, including adults.

The National Book Awards, which were established in 1950 and are presented by annually by the National Book Foundation. This year’s awards were open to American authors who published books between Dec. 1, 2015, and Nov. 30, 2016. 

Glenview Public Library - Opera Lectures (Winter)

Our winter opera lectures are again being given by the Opera Lovers Lecture Corps.  All our lectures are held on Thursdays in the Multipurpose Room from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

December 1 - The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflote) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Figaro, the count’s valet, and Susanna, the countess’ maid, are desperate to marry – but the count has designs on Susanna himself.

January 12 - Norma by Vincenzo Bellini

This tale involves a Druid priestess and the leader of the Roman invasion of ancient Gaul.  Their forbidden love and illegitimate children, plus his affair with a younger priestess, create all kinds of complications.

February 2 - Carmen by Georges Bizet

A hapless corporal, Don Jose gives up everything – fiancée, regiment, and honor – to be with Carmen, but his passion turns deadly when she jilts him for a glamorous toreador, Escamillo.  In the end, Carmen is killed by Don Jose

February 16 - Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchikovsky

Meet Eugene Onegin – a self-indulgent St. Petersburg playboy.  He tarries with the sweet country girl Tatyana, then rebuffs her when she pours out her passion; he looks for sport with the fiancée of his best friend, and then kills him in a duel.  Years pass. Onegin meets Tatyana again, but she reject him.  Onegin is left alone.

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Historical Fiction- World War 11 Japanese-American Incarceration Camps

Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War 11. Their crime? Being of Japanese heritage. Even though there wasn't any actual evidence, Japanese-Americans were suspected of remaining loyal to their ancestral land. On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed an executive order ordering the relocation of all Americans of Japanese heritage to concentration camps. While the American concentration camps never reached the levels of Nazi death camps as far as atrocities are concerned, they remain a dark mark on the nation's record of respecting civil liberties and cultural differences. Check out one of these historical fiction novels based on a little talked about historical fact.

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
A story told from five different points of view, accounts the experiences of Japanese-Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War 11 internment camps. (2002)

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
Irina is a young Moldavian immigrant with a troubled past. She works at an assisted living home where she meets, Alma, a Holocaust survivor. Alma falls in love Ichi, a young Japanese gardener, who survived Topaz, the Japanese internment camp.  Despite man's cruelty to one another, art, beauty and love prevail.  (2015)

Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield
After bombs stream down on Pearl Harbor, 14-year old Lucy Takeda and her mother, Miyako, are rounded up--along with thousands of other innocent Japanese-Americans and taken to the Manzanar prison camp where they endure abuse and harsh living conditions until Miyako makes the ultimate sacrifice. (2013)

Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
Violinist Maddie elopes with Lane Moritomo, the motivated son of Japanese immigrants, but after Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese, Lane is seen as the enemy and Maddie must sacrifice her Julliard ambitions when he is interned at a war relocation camp. (2012)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
When relics from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War 11 are uncovered during restorations at a Seattle hotel, Henry Lee embarks on a mission that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment. (2009)

Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
Her life turned upside-down when a Japanese internment camp is opened in their small Colorado town, Rennie witnesses the way her community places doubt on the newcomers when a young girl is murdered. (2007)

Color of the Sea by John Hamamura
Separated from his Japanese-American family and girlfriend by the internment practices of World War 11, martial arts master Sam Hamada is conscripted by the U.S. Army for a secret mission in Japan, where he finds himself torn between cultures. (2006)

Silent Honor by Danielle Steel
A Japanese girl living with her uncle in California to attend college, Hiroko becomes caught up in the horrors of World War 11 after the bombing of Pearl harbor when she and her uncle's family are forced into an internment camp with other Japanese-Americans. (1996)

The Man Booker Prize 2016 - And the Winner Is -

The Man Booker Prize is a highly coveted award which annually honors the author of an English language novel published in the United Kingdom in the current year by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. It was established in 1968. US authors became eligible in 2014 when the Booker Prize expanded to include submission of any novel that is written in English from anywhere in the world. It promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year. The prize is the world's most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortune of the author as well as the publisher.

The 2016 Short List of Finalists:

This year's finalists included:
His Bloody Project - a historical thriller by the Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet;
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by the Canadian author Madeleine Thien, which explores the legacy of China's Cultural Revolution;
All That Man Is -  a collection of linked short stories about nine men in different phases of life by Canadian-British author David Szalay;
Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh, which centers on a self-loathing young woman who works in a juvenile prison in New England; and
Hot Milk - a coming of age story by Deborah Levy

And the 2016 Man Booker Prize Winner is -
The Sellout by Paul Beatty. It is published by small independent publisher Oneworld, who had their first win in 2015 with Marion James' A Brief History of Seven Killings. The author is a 54-year-old New York resident born in Los Angeles. He is the first American author to win the prize.The 2016 shortlist included two British, two US, one Canadian and one British-Canadian writer. Paul Beatty is the author of three novels - Slumberland, Tuff and the White Boy Shuffle, about a black surfer in Los Angeles in 1996 - and two books of poetry: Big Bank Take Little Bank and Joker, Joker Deuce. He is also the editor of Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor. Much of his writing explores recurring themes: human psychology, racial identity and our inability to escape the lingering effects of history.

The narrator of The Sellout is an African-American urban farmer and pot smoker who lives in a small town on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Brought up by a single father, a sociologist, the narrator grew up taking part in psychological studies about race. After his father is killed by the police during a traffic stop, the protagonist embarks on a controversial social experiment of his own, and ends up before the Supreme Court. He becomes a slave owner to a willing volunteer, an elderly man named Hominy Jenkins who once played understudy to Buckwheat on "The Little Rascals," and seeks to reinstate segregation in a local school.

The five Booker judges, who were unanimous in their decision, cited the novel's inventive comic approach to the thorny issues of racial identity and injustice. Check it out and see if you agree.

Horror Graphic Novels

As we creep past Halloween and prepare for the coming darkness of winter, curl up with one of these graphic novels and settle in for a bit of a scare.

Locke & Key by Joe Hill

The story of the Keyhouse, a New England mansion, with doors that transform all who walk through them...and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it opens the most terrible door of all.

American Vampire by Scott Snyder

A new vampire for a new century. Cunning, ruthless, and rattlesnake mean, Skinner Sweet has a reputation for cussedness as long as he is ornery. As the first vampire conceived on American soil, however, he's not your usual creature of the night. Stronger, fiercer and powered by the sun, Sweet is the first of a new breed of bloodsucker: the American Vampire. Forty-five years after rising from his grave, Sweet finds himself in 1920s Los Angeles, where the young and beautiful are drawn like moths to the burning lights of Hollywood. Something beyond simple human greed is at work here, however, as struggling young actress Pearl Jones is about to discover. When her movie-star dreams are transformed into a bloody nightmare, Sweet provides her only chance for survival as well as the power to take revenge.

From Hell by Alan Moore

From Hell is the story of Jack the Ripper, perhaps the most infamous man in the annals of murder. Detailing the events leading up to the Whitechapel killings and the cover-up that followed, From Hell is a meditation on the mind of a madman whose savagery and violence gave birth to the 20th century. The serialized story, presented in its entirety in this volume, has garnered widespread attention from critics and scholars. Often regarded as one of the most significant graphic novels ever published, From Hell combines meticulous research with educated speculation, resulting in a masterpiece of historical fiction both compelling and terrifying. This new edition, which has been completely re-mastered, is certainly the finest edition of the book produced to date.

Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth

It is the House on Haunted Hill. It is the Last House on the Left. It is the place that Batman's most dangerous and psychotic villains call 'home,' and you are cordially invited to spend 24 hours within its walls. It takes a special type of person to end up here, no matter what side of the law you're on, or what your job is. For when the midnight hour approaches, all hope is abandoned and inmates and workers alike will wish for the daylight-- and for their sanity. Pray you get out before the darkness comes. Pray you get out before your shift is over. Pray that you do not go mad

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the young sorceress Sabrina Spellman finds herself at a crossroads, having to choose between an unearthly destiny and her mortal boyfriend, Harvey. But a foe from her family's past has arrived in Greendale, Madame Satan, and she has her own deadly agenda.

The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman

An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled--no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living

Toyko Ghoul by Sui Ishida

Ghouls live among us, the same as normal people in every way, except their craving for human flesh. Ken Kaneki is an ordinary college student until a violent encounter turns him into the first half-human half-ghoul hybrid. Trapped between two worlds, he must survive ghoul turf wars, learn more about ghoul society, and master his new powers.

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery by Miles Hyman

In a graphic-novel adaptation of the classic spine-tingler, the grandson of the story's original author depicts the eerie town and their shocking ritual in detailed four-color panels that breathe new life into the iconic tale.

Want to read some comics but don't want to leave the house? Did you know Hoopla offers comics? All you need is an internet connection and your library card. Check out their selection of horror comics now!