Ebooks coming to your BlackBerry!

The library's ebook provider, Overdrive, has come out with a new application for reading ebooks on your BlackBerry smartphone! This free app will allow you to access all the books in the library's e-collection straight from your phone. The free eBook app from OverDrive can be installed on BlackBerry touch-screen devices running BlackBerry OS v4.7 (or newer) and non-touch-screen devices running BlackBerry OS v4.5 (or newer). The BlackBerry app joins the previously released OverDrive apps for iPhone®, iPad®, and Android™, which have been installed nearly one million times. The OverDrive app for BlackBerry is available from OverDrive’s website and the MobiHand Superstore. The app will also appear in BlackBerry App World™ in the coming weeks.

Once you have the app installed, just enter your Forest Park Public Library card information and you're all set to start the latest bestseller or old favorite.

Your Phone = Your Library Card

Your library card can be digitized on your iPhone or iPod touch, Android, Windows mobile, or BlackBerry using CardStar! CardStar is an app that allows you to consolidate your reward and club cards from grocery stores, video stores and the like onto your smartphone. It's entirely free and can be set up in minutes!

1. Install the CardStar app onto your smartphone as you would any other app.
2. Add a new card, choosing "Other" as the merchant.
3. Scan or enter your library card number. The default barcode settings should be OK.
4. You can now use your stored card whenever you come to the library!

Depending on your device, the exact steps to add a new card may differ. Check out these videos for help, or visit the CardStar website.

Chicagoland Author Appearances

In the coming weeks and months, there are many exciting author appearances and events in the Chicagoland area. Don't pass up the chance to rub elbows downtown with winner of the National Book Award, Joyce Carol Oates, or hear tantalizing true life stories about the Chicago mafia from Frank Calabrese Jr.!

Frank Calabrese Jr. discusses and signs his new book, Operation Family Secrets: How A Mobster’s Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago’s Murderous Crime Family

March 17^th at 7pm, FREE

500 N Dunton Ave

Arlington Heights, IL 60004

Quimby's Presents: Patton Oswalt discusses and signs his new book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland

March 18th at 3:30pm, FREE 

at Reckless Records

1532 N Milwaukee

Chicago, IL 60622

Greg Lindsay discusses his new book, Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next

March 23^rd at 7pm, FREE

4738 N. Lincoln Ave

Chicago, IL 60625

Joyce Carol Oates discusses and signs her recent memoir, A Widow’s Story

March 31^st at 6:30pm, FREE

Harold Washington Library Center
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State Street
60605

 

Sarah Vowell discusses her new book, Unfamiliar Fishes

April 6^th at 7pm, FREE

Unity Temple, Oak Park

875 Lake Street

Oak Park, IL  60301

Ted Dekker signs his new thriller, The Priest's Graveyard

Barbara's Bookstore at UIC, FREE

1218 S Halsted

Chicago, IL 60607

Plan a trip to meet one of your favorite authors today!

Happy President's Day!

In  case you missed it, today is President’s Day! We’re open here at the library, so why don’t you come by and check out some of these presidential-themed books on our shelves?  Works about Presidents aren’t just limited to biography—we have some great, unexpected non-fiction and really readable fiction, too!

Fiction about real Presidents:

Aspire to the Heavens, by Mary Higgins Clark

Two Crowns for America, by Katherine Kurtz

Sally Hemings, by Barbara Chase-Riboud

Iron Ties, by Ann Packer

Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold

New Deal for Death, by Elliott Roosevelt

American Rhapsody, by Joe Eszterhas

Fiction about fictional presidents:

The Next President, by Joseph Flynn

The President’s Daughter, by  Jack Higgins

The First Patient, by Michael Palmer

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

Put a Lid on It, by Donald Westlake

And of course, here’s a selection of excellent biographies and memoirs:

Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

John Adams, by David McCulloch

My Life, by Bill Clinton

My Father at 100, by Ron Reagan

American Caesars: The lives of the presidents from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to George W. Bush, by Nigel Hamilton

Stop by and pick up one of these great reads today!

A Cure for the Coldest Days

As I'm sure everyone has noticed, it's gotten REALLY COLD the past week or so-- and there's no sign that it's going to let up anytime soon. When the temps get down in the teens like this, all I want to do is pack a suitcase and head someplace tropical.  Of course, that's not always possible, especially when there are library programs to be planned and reference questions to be answered!  So instead, I love to spend my winters reading travel memoirs.  The very best travel memoirs tell stories of foreign lands that are so vivid, funny and astonishing that you feel like you're right alongside the writer, making every new discovery with them. That's why I love reading travel memoirs in the winter-- it's as close to a vacation I can get, plus I get to stay cozy with my hot chocolate and warm blankets!

I've always loved Bill Bryson's writing for his ability to make me feel like I'm wherever he is (and stay tuned for a write up of my latest Bryson pick!), but here at the library we have a whole slew of great travel reads that you can pick up.

Here's a sampling:
Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff, by Rosemary Mahon
Riding with Strangers, by Elijah Wald
First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria, by Eve Brown-Waite
Lost on Planet China, by J. Maarten Troost
Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico, by Hugh Thomson
Everything is Going to be Great, by Rachel Shukert
A Year in the World, by Frances Mayes

Come stop by and pick one up!

Forest Park Top Reads of 2010

As the year wraps up, top 10 lists seem to be at every turn.  Here at the library, we came up with a couple of our own—the most popular books of 2010! 

First, our nonfiction top borrows:

1.    The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook: Great Tasting Recipes that Keep You Lean!, by Tosca Reno  

2.    Eat This, Not That! 2010: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution, by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding

3.    Taste of Home Dinner on a Dime: 403 Budget-Friendly Family Recipes,  edited by Janet Briggs

4.    Your Inner Skinny: Four Steps to Thin Forever, by Joy Bauer with Carol Svec

5.    The Total Money Makeover: A Prove Plan for Financial Fitness, by Dave Ramsey

6.    The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook, 2001-2010, by the editors at America's Test Kitchen

7.    The Doctors Book of Home Remedies: Quick Fixes, Clever Techniques, and Uncommon Cures to Get You Feeling Better Fast, by the editors of Prevention

8.    Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy and Commitment, by Steve Harvey

9.    Behind the Bell: Behind the Scenes of Saved by the Bell With the Guy Who Was There for Everything, by Dustin Diamond.

10.  The Italian Slow Cooker, by Michele  Scicolone

Who would have thought that Screech’s memoir would be so popular??!

And now, our readers’ favorites from the fiction section:

1.    The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

2.    The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson

3.    House Rules, by Jodi Picoult

4.    Innocent, by Scott Turow

5.    The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

6.    The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson

7.    I, Alex Cross, by James Patterson

8.    9^th Judgment, by James Patterson

9.    U if for Underwater, by Sue Grafton

10.  Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver

Clearly, everyone has been enamored by the Stieg Larsson’s Swedish crime thrillers!

Have you read these favorites from our patrons?  Anything you think should make the list that’s not on there?

Meet your Librarian!

Hello, everyone! I’m Sarah Beth Warshauer, the new public relations and programming librarian here at Forest Park.  That means you’ll see me answering questions and checking out laptops at the reference desk, but also that I’m the one who you’ll be chatting with on Facebook, Twitter, and this blog.   

I just got my MLIS from Dominican University in River Forest, and before that, I worked in development and marketing for the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, IL. Though I grew up in Atlanta -- you'll hear me say y'all quite a lot! -- I went to Northwestern and love the Big Ten and Chicago. 

There’s nothing I love more than a good read, and some of my favorites are Lonesome Dove, Personal History, The Spellman Files series, and anything by Michael Chabon or Jennifer Weiner. When I’m not at the library or holed up with a book, you can find going for a run, baking cookies or crocheting cozy blankets. 

Feel free to let me know what you’d like to see around these parts—I love to hear what you think about a new program or a great book you just read!

Keep an eye out as we introduce a few more of our librarians in the coming weeks, and talk to you soon!