You’ve seen enough “Best Of” lists for 2018 by now, so the Randall Oaks staff thought we’d just share some of our favorites, whether they're critically lauded or not. Here’s a sampling of books and movies that came out last year that we enjoyed for various reasons- they made us think, they made us cry, they were just plain fun, etc.

Sam B.

Books:

Calypso by David Sedaris-  I don’t think it’s possible for Sedaris to write a book that doesn’t have me laughing out loud (which is why I can't read him in public anymore), though this one is heavier than a lot of his previous work.

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt-  Beautiful, scary, and relevant. Greenblatt once again brings Shakespeare’s work to life for our world today, proving that not much really changes from century to century. 

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones-  Unfortunately, the events of this novel felt all too real. Switching between multiple first person narrators and an epistolary format, the reader gets multiple sides of one tragic event and the consequences it reaps. 

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White-  An interesting re-telling of the Frankenstein tale (in honor of the 200 year anniversary of the original publication) narrated by Victor’s childhood companion/fiancé/eventual wife Elizabeth.

Movies: 

The Escape-  A very slow-paced film in which not a lot happens, this definitely isn’t for everyone. But I loved the non-judgmental portrayal of a woman’s struggles of the type that are usually shied away from in our culture.

BlacKkKlansman-  Alternatively funny and miserable, the end is particularly powerful.

The Favourite-  As a lover of British history, it was nice to see Queen Anne finally get some love. 

Mandy-  Nic Cage in a chainsaw duel. Enough said. 

Keri

Books: 

Laid-Back Camp by Afro-  A slice-of-life manga about five girls who really enjoy winter camping. That's it. It's amazing.

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix-  The former guitarist of a heavy metal band finds out that the price of fame is really high.

The Second Life of Ava Rivers by Faith Gardner- Vera's twin sister Ava disappeared twelve years ago on Halloween night. Now, when Vera is 18 and ready to start her life over somewhere new - ready to become someone other than the sister of the missing girl - a woman who claims to be Ava appears.   

Movies: 

A Simple Favor

A Star is Born

A Quiet Place

Crazy Rich Asians

A Simple Favor was bonkers. Also shout out to Henry Golding for being in two of my favorite movies this year.

Shannon

Books: 

Girl, Wash Your Face: stop believing the lies about who you are so you can become who you were meant to be by Rachel Hollis  

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James 

Girl, Wash Your Face... wasn't actually a favorite, but one of the only couple released last year that I read. I read it mostly to see why it was so popular but I didn't see the appeal. 

Samantha Q.

Books: 

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: a sortabiography by Eric Idle

A Star is Born: Judy Garland and the film that got away by Lorna Luft

In Pieces by Sally Field 

My Girls: a lifetime with Carrie and Debbie by Todd Fisher

Movies: 

Bohemian Rhapsody

Incredibles 2

Andrea

Books:

Citizen Illegal by Jose Olivarez-  This is a collection of poems that looked into the life of being a first generation Mexican American. I felt that it spoke to many aspects of my own life and Jose is a very good acquaintance of mine.  

Ghosts in the Schoolyard: racism and school closings on Chicago’s South Side by Eve Ewing-  I'm studying to one day be an high school English teacher so I try to read up on a lot of educational topics. This book blew my mind about schools on Chicago's Southside. Definitely a good read! 

On My Way to Liberation by H. Melt-  This is a collection of poems that depict life as a trans non binary person navigating Chicago. H. Melt is honest and very vocal about issues regarding trans identity and I feel like this is a very important read. 

If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar-  I love reading about people who are different than me. The only Muslim representation I was given was reading the Kite Runner so it was nice to see another interpretation of what life as a Muslim is like. Fati is one of my favorite people and this book is so well written.   

This was a superaltive year for music, particularly by female artists such as Janelle Monae, Kacey Musgraves and Cardi B, who made many music critics' top of albums of the year lists.  While my list is still mostly female-centric (well done, ladies!), I tend towards the indie and depressive in taste.  Below are my five favorite albums of the year, definitely worth checking out whether you share my lugubriousness or not:

Robyn- Honey

Yay! Swedish pop star Robyn is back from an eight year-hiatus with an album about loss, grief and recovery that somehow manages to be both life affirming and danceable.

Mitski- Be the Cowboy

Exploring the darker, toxic side of love through a series of vignettes, this album has a dark edge that’s not softened by Mitski’s icy vocals.  But with fuzzy 90s shoegaze guitars, a black sense of humor, and a propulsive beat, there is a lot to enjoy!   

Lucy Dacus- Historian

This album is currently in heavy rotation at my house. Sound-wise, Dacus’s warm vocals, literary lyrics and bigger rock sound remind me of later albums by Sharon Van Etten.  Opening track “Night Shift” is one of the most perfectly rendered break-up songs ever.

Blood Orange- Negro Swan

Anxiety pulses through the tracks on this sublime R&B album, which explores feelings of being a marginalized person in today’s environment, including spoken word narration between songs by trans activist Janet Mock.   

Ariana Grande- Sweetener

Grande has had a tumultuous couple of years, including having a terrorist attack at one of her concerts and losing a former boyfriend to drug addiction.  However, Sweetener transcends the sorrow and is a joyful listening experience.  Grande’s vocals and rhythms do a good job of capturing the fun of early 90s R&B tracks, with a positive feminist message. 

Have you signed up for the inaugural Winter Reading Challenge yet? If it doesn't sound familiar, take a look at Elizabeth's blog here for more details. Registration opened up on Sunday, December 9,  and there are different challenges for youth, teens, and adults. A couple of the challenges on the adult list are to "check out a cookbook and try out a new recipe" and "read a winter themed book". If you're looking for inspiration in those categories, I've compiled some suggestions that fit the bill below. Since adults only have to complete 5 challenges, if you do one of each of these, you're almost halfway to claiming your prize! 

If you'd like more suggestions in these categories, or need help with any of the other challenges like downloading music or checking out ebooks, don't hesitate to ask staff in Adult and Teen Services at Dundee or at Randall Oaks for assistance.   

• Holiday Cookies: showstopping recipes to sweeten the season by Elisabet der Nederlanden 
• Debbie Macomber's Christmas Cookbook by Debbie Macomber 
• Fix It and Forget It Christmas Cookbook: 600 slow cooker holiday recipes  by Phyllis Pellman Good
• Home Made Winter by Yvette van Borden
• Good Housekeeping Christmas Cookies: 75 irresistible holiday treats by Good Housekeeping Institute 
  
• The Chew, a Year of Celebrations: festive and delicious recipes for every occasion ed. by Ashley Archer and Jessica Dorman Jones
• A Year of Pies: a seasonal tour of home baked pies by Ashley English
• Jerusalem: a cookbook by Yotom Ottolenghi and Sam Tamimi
• The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
• Cooking from Scratch: 120 recipes for colorful, seasonal food from PCC Community Markets by Jill Lightner

• Crimson Snow ed. by Martin Edwards
• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
• The Shining by Stephen King
• Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah 
  
• Winter Sisters by Robin Oliveira
• Hiddensee: a tale of the once and future nutcracker by Gregory Maguire
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
• By Winter's Light by Stephanie Laurens

Winter Reading Challenge

Winter brings ice, snow, freezing weather, and…the Winter Reading Challenge!

Fox River Valley Public Library District is excited to launch our first annual, all-ages Winter Reading Challenge! The program runs from Dec 9-February 16. 

How does it work?

It’s easy! Sign up at any of the service desks starting on December 9 to receive your log.  The log is a combination of reading challenges and wintery activities including attending different library events.  Each age group has a different set of challenges listed on the log and criteria for how to complete the program.  You can sign up any time between December 9 through February 16, but the last day to get your prize will be on February 23. 

Youth: Finish 15 out of the 20 activities listed on your card

Teen: Finish 10 out of the 20 activities listed on your card

Adult: Finish 5 out of the 20 activities listed on your card

Can I Sign Up Early?

We are excited about this program too and can’t wait to start it! However, you’ll have to wait until December 9 to sign up.  Don’t worry, though!  You’ve got 9 weeks to sign up and complete the program.

What do I get?

If you are a true library champion and complete your activity card, the following prizes will be available to you:

          Adults: Ice scraper, Lip Balm, and Hot Chocolate

          Teens: Mug & Hot Chocolate

          Youth: Snowman soup and Melting Snowman Slime

It’s cold and busy during the winter months.  We get it!  We hope to offer everyone in our library district a chance to shake off the cold, cozy up at the library, and have a fun experience with each other and us here at FRVPLD!

Do you absolutely love to read books? Are you always looking to talk to people about what you read? If you said yes to either of those questions, then you should consider joining or even starting your own book club! A book club is a group of people that meet regularly to discuss books they have all read. Generally book clubs meet monthly, and each month a new title is selected. Then everyone reads the same title and gets together to discuss it. Book clubs are great because you get to meet all kinds of fun, interesting people and you get to read a wide variety of books. Often times you end up reading titles that you otherwise never would have chosen to read yourself. It’s a great way to try new genres and expand your reading tastes.

Joining a Book Club

If you think you would be interested in joining a book club, we have a couple of different ones here at the Dundee Library!

First, led by yours truly, the Dundee Library Book Club meets on the last Wednesday of each month. There are 2 different sessions, 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm, and both sessions read the same title each month so you just have to pick which time works best for you. We meet upstairs on the main level in Corner 68, the classroom by the public computer area, and light refreshments are served. Copies of each month’s book are available at the information desk, in large print and in regular print. We don’t focus on any one genre; we read all different kinds of books. We always welcome new people and there is no need to register, just drop on by to either session! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at 224-699-5837 or splagge@frvpld.info.

Next, we will be starting a new book club at the Adult Activities Center at the Dundee Township Park District’s Rakow Center building (665 Barrington Avenue in Carpentersville). The Adult Activities Center Book Club will meet the first Wednesday of each month from 10:00-11:30am at the Adult Activities Center. The first meeting will be on January 2, 2019 and we will be reading The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Cari at 224-699-9204 or cpoweziak@frvpld.info.

We also have a Spanish book club, Grupo de Lectores del Valle de Fox, that meets on the last Thursday of each month from 7:00-8:30pm here at the Dundee Library. They also meet in Corner 68 on the main level. Registration is not required; you can just drop in any time. If you have any questions about Grupo, feel free to contact Jasmin at 224-699-5836 or jmunoz@frvpld.info.

Starting a Book Club

Some people start their own book club, and that’s fantastic! Anyone can start their own book club if they really wanted to. Below are some tips and tricks for starting a book club, as well as information about how the library can help you too!

• Make a plan:

This helps keeps yourself organized and creates a structure for your book club. Making a plan includes deciding:

• When: how often do you want to meet, what time of day, how many sessions, and what length of time will your session(s) be
• Where: do you want to meet at a set location (if yes, then what location) or rotate and have people take turns hosting
• Structure: are you going to always lead or have people take turns leading, does the leader pick the book or does the group decide together, are you going to focus on a specific genre or have it more open and do a variety of genres, are you going to serve refreshments or not, and are you going to provide all of the copies of the books or is each member responsible for getting their own copy

• Get the word out:

Once you have your plan, start telling people. See what kind of interest you get to start seeing how big your group could be, and make adjustments to your plan if needed. Start off by telling your friends and family, if you want them to participate. Post on your local community’s Facebook page or go to places in your community that have bulletin boards for posting flyers (like the library!). If you’re going to post flyers on bulletin boards, please make sure you get permission first! Talk to staff at your local library because the library will probably help you out in more ways than just putting your flyer up. They can help promote your book club through word of mouth and can make recommendations for titles and help you get multiple copies of the books you choose.

•  Picking books:

Speaking of book recommendations and getting copies of books, let’s talk about how you can pick which books you want to discuss. Getting recommendations from the librarians at your library is always an option, as mentioned previously. Book reviews are very helpful as well, whether they’re from newspapers (i.e. New York Times) or websites (i.e. Goodreads). Some of the professional journals librarians use for book reviews have some reviews freely available on their websites as well (i.e. Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly). See what libraries are doing for their book clubs, whether it’s your local library or looking at other libraries’ websites. Listen to radio shows that do book reviews (i.e. NPR) or podcasts about books (i.e. World Book Club, Literary Disco, So Many Damn Books, and Fully Booked). Book publishers will sometimes have information and book recommendations as well (i.e. Penguin Random House).

• Discussion Questions

Once you’ve picked a book, you’ll need to put together some discussion questions about that book. I recommend having at least 10 discussion questions. You don’t necessarily have to use all (or even any) of those questions, but it helps to provide some talking points for the participants to think about as they’re reading the book. You can create your own discussion questions, or you can find questions online by looking at authors’ websites and publishers’ websites. There are also two websites made for book lovers and book clubs that have discussion questions, recommendations, and more that I recommend: ReadingGroupGuides and LitLovers. Also, if the discussion starts to get a little off topic, you can ask one of the discussion questions to reel everyone back in and get things back on track. Once your book club starts to meet regularly you’ll get a feel for the group and how to effectively lead the group.

• Leading the discussion:

Leading the book discussion can be tough, but as I said once you start meeting regularly you’ll get a feel of how the group is and how to lead them effectively. If the discussion starts to get off topic, reel everyone in quickly before the conversation strays too far away from the book. Ask one of the discussion questions or mention a specific part of the book or a quote from the book that you really liked. Don’t be afraid to speak up and talk over everyone to get things back on track. If someone is doing all of the talking and “hogging” the time, don’t be afraid to cut them off to try and give other people a chance to talk. Say something like “Those are some really good points and I appreciate your enthusiasm, I’d like to hear other people’s perspectives too” to be forward but polite. Speaking to that person one-on-one after the discussion is another option as well. Sometimes you will have people who don’t speak much, if at all. Personally, I’m not a fan of straight up asking that person what they thought about the book because I don’t want them to feel like I’m calling them out. I usually will say something like “We’ve heard some great points and perspectives, does anybody else have anything they would like to add? We love hearing everyone’s thoughts and perspectives.” This way I am encouraging everyone to share with the group without making any one person feel like I’m calling them out. If someone starts to steer the conversation to something sensitive or inappropriate and people are getting uncomfortable, don’t be afraid to tell them “I’m sorry but this is not something we’re going to discuss here” or “let’s not get in to this particular topic, let’s get back to the book please.”

Book clubs are a lot of fun and are great way to meet new people and read all different kinds of books. Whether you are interested in joining one of our book clubs or starting your own, we are always happy to have you here and help you out. If you have any questions about book clubs or even if you’re looking for ideas for books to read, feel free to call us at 847-428-3661, stop by the Information Desk, or email us at libraryhelp@frvpld.info.

   October is not only the month associated with the decay of leaves, glowing pumpkins, and piercing cold air; it is the interval where macabre enthusiasts flourish.

   Children and adults dress up in their scariest attire while attending seasonal activities such as haunted houses, corn mazes, ghostly hayrides and zombie walks. Screenings of classic horror films such as The Exorcists, Poltergeist, The Silence of the Lambs and Beetlejuice are repeatedly played throughout city parks and libraries. We all love Halloween, but few are informed on its historical origins.

  Samhain, pronounced (sow-in) meaning “summer’s end”, originated in ancient Europe as it was one of the four major Celtic festivals that were held from October 31st through November 1st.  Samhain is the summer’s end festival and the Celtic New Year. The Celts linked human death with arrival of cold weather, and the induction of winter.

  On their “new year’s eve”, Celts believed that the boundary between the dead and the living allowed spirits to cross different realms. Celts believed that the boundary between the dead and living were diminished. Families openly welcomed ancestors but warded off evil spirits. These malevolent spirits were the reason that people disguised themselves in costumes; to avoid torment. Celtic priests built enormous bonfires and practiced divination rituals to block the evil entities. As this went on, food was prepared for the living and the deceased, and people held communal fires as a part of the celebration.

  By the 7th Century, West European countries were converted to Christianity. Pope Gregory IV assigned November 1st as a day to honor and respect all saints. All Saints Day adopted and included some practices of Samhain. What used to be known as All Hallows Eve, was renamed to Halloween.

   Regardless of how you decide to spend your Halloween night, remember that you are celebrating a holiday that has a genealogical line of more than 6,000 years.

   The library has participated in Halloween with the following programs: sugar skulls, Halloween Parades, Halloween Slime and even zombie dolls!