The #BigLibraryRead with Overdrive and Libby!

Check out November’s Big Library Read! This virtual book club run by Overdrive allows thousands of library patrons like you to check out the same e-book at the same time without any holds or wait lists!

This November, join thousands of other Overdrive and Libby users as we read Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards together! This wild, heart-pounding thriller is sure to keep those (virtual) pages turning. So, cozy up with a new book as the weather gets colder and get reading! Use the hashtag #BigLibraryRead on social media for a chance to win Libby swag, a tablet, and signed books by the author!

If you are new to Overdrive or Libby and would like assistance in setting up your account, please contact the Aurora or Dillsboro Public Libraries or speak to a librarian. We’re here to help!

Hoosier Book Challenge on Beanstack!

 

Join us for our Hoosier Reading Challenge on Beanstack! Now through December 31st, every time you read or listen to a book by an Indiana author you can track it on the Beanstack app to earn chances to win our prize giveaway! There will be four challenges: ages 0-7, ages 8-13, ages 14-18, and ages 19+. There will be one winner per age group.

How to Sign Up

Account Set-Up Instructions

If you already have a Beanstack account from Summer Reading, skip to the Tracking and Challenge Instructions.

1. Download the Beanstack Tracker app from your app store or visit eapld.beanstack.org.

2. If using a desktop computer, skip to step 6, otherwise tap Let’s Go!

3. Choose the School, Library, or Bookstore option

4. Tap on Find a Site

5. Search for Aurora Public Library. Make sure to select the one in Indiana!

6. Click Sign Up and follow the prompts to create your account and add readers.

* You may add more than one reader to the same account. For example, one account may include a parent and two children, two parents and one child, two adults with no children, etc.

*Parents who do not wish to participate in the challenges should register themselves as Nonreaders and add their children as Readers. This will allow the parent to track their children’s reading, but will not give them the option to track their own.

Tracking and Challenge Instructions

1. Once you are registered, the correct challenge will automatically populate based on the participant’s age. Click or tap on the challenge to join it. Once you join a challenge, you will see all the badges as well as instructions on how to earn them. There are two types of badges.

        a. Logging Badges: These are earned by logging your reading. To log, tap on the + Button and select Reading. Choose the correct Reader or multiple Readers if everyone read together. You can search by the book title, scan the ISBN, or enter the information manually.

        b. Challenge Badges: These two badges are earned at the beginning and end of the challenge. You will automatically earn the first badge when you join the challenge and the second one when you earn all the logging badges.

2. Every time you earn a badge, you will automatically be entered into the prize drawing. The Beanstack app will randomly choose a winner from the entries accumulated over the course of the challenge.

*If you have multiple Readers on the account you can switch between Readers by tapping on the circle in the top right-hand corner.

Please see a staff member if you have any questions or need assistance with the app.

Adult Recommendations

       

Find more adult recommendations here.

Teen Recommendations

      

Find more teen recommendations here.

Juvenile Recommendations

       

Find more juvenile recommendations here.

Children’s Recommendations

            

Find more children’s recommendations here.

 

5 Things You *Probably* Didn’t Know About Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel is an American writer, best known for her romance novels. She is the best selling author alive and the fourth best selling fiction author of all time. She has sold over 650 million copies of her books.

1. She writes other genres besides romance novels.

Though Steel is best known for the over 150 novels she’s written, she does write other things as well. She has published 18 children’s books, including Pretty Minnie in Hollywood and Pretty Minnie in Paris, both about her chihuahua Minnie. Steel has also written four nonfiction works including His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina about her son who committed suicide, and a book of poetry titled Love.

2. She’s been awarded France’s highest honor.

In 2014 Steel was decorated as a Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of the Legion d’Honneur in Paris. The ordered was founded in 1802 by Napoleon and members are added in recognition of service to France or work that is deemed to uphold its ideals. In 2002, she had already been decorated as an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, France’s top cultural honor.

3. She speaks four languages.

Steel grew up in both France and the US; she went to high school mainly in France, and attended American colleges. Because of this, she is fluent in both French and English. Before her writing took off, she taught French and worked as a translator. On top of English and French, she also speaks Spanish and Italian.

4. She was married five times.

Steel married French-American banker Claude-Eric Lazard in 1965 when she was only 18. They were married for nine years before divorcing in 1974. She married her second husband, Danny Zugelder, in 1975. They divorced in 1978. Steel married her third husband, William George Toth, the day after her divorce from Zugelder was finalized. They divorced in 1981. She married for the fourth time in 1981, to John Traina. They were together for 17 years before divorcing in 1998. Later in the year she married her fifth husband Thomas James Perkins. They divorced in 2002. She says of marriage: “I’m a great believer in making marriage work if you undertake the commitment, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.”

5. She has nine children. 

Steel had her first daughter, Beatrix with Lazard in 1966. She had her first son, Nick with Toth in 1978; however he was adopted by Traina. Steel and Traina had six children together: Samantha, Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara. Traina also had two children from a previous marriage that Steel helped raise: Todd and Trevor.