Chapter Chat Reads The Hiddenseek

Chat Reads the Hiddenseek in October

Chapter Chat is back with a little twist.

Children can pick up this month’s book with interactive elements that go along with the story. As you read, there are items in the bag that have page numbers on them. When you reach that page then you will open that item and use it along with the story!

October’s book is the Hiddenseek by Nate Cernosek.The Hiddenseek by Nate Cernosek

A brother and sister are transported to a cursed world based on the game hide-and-seek, where they are pursued by a shape-shifting witch, the game never ends, and the only way to get home is to win.

Bags can be picked up at Aurora at the lower level desk and a Dillsboro. Meeting times are as follows:

October 25th @ APL – 4:30 pm

October 17th @ DPL – 3:30 (part of the afterschool program)

Snacks and Drinks will be provided.  Ages 7 to 12 only.

We can’t wait to see you there!

BTL Reads This Is How It Always Is

BTL Reads This is How It Always Is

If you like to read a variety of books, and if you like to discuss the books you read, you should join one of the Aurora Public Library District’s book groups. There will be afternoon groups that meet at the Aurora Public Library on September 28 @ 1:00 pm and the Dillsboro Public Library on September 29 @ 10:00 am. There will also be an evening meeting at the Local History Library on October 3 @ 6:30 pm. We will be discussing This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.
When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.
This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.

Pick up a book today to join our club and get reading!

Chapter Chat Reads Yusuf Azeem is NOT a Hero

Chapter Chat meets in September

Chapter Chat is back… with a little twist!

Children can pick up each month’s book with interactive elements in a bag that go along with the story. As you read, there are items in that bag that have page numbers on them. When you reach that page, you will have a fun, interactive element paired with the story to play with!

September’s book is “Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero” by Saadia Faruqi.Yusuf Azeem is not a hero

Yusuf Azeem is thrilled to attend middle school, but he is upset to see a letter that reads, “You suck.” He is passionate about robots and hopes to compete in the Texas Robots Competition and make the middle school robotics team. However, as the 20th anniversary of September 11th approaches, life for Muslim families and their friends in this small Southern town is becoming increasingly stressful.

Bags can be picked up at Aurora at the lower level desk and a Dillsboro. Meeting times are as follows:

Aurora: September 20th @ 4:30 pm

Dillsboro: September 19th – After School Hours (3:30 pm)

Snacks and Drinks will be provided.  Ages 7 to 12 only. Please register in advance by picking up a book today!

NYM Book Club Reads “Silent Patient”

Not Your Mother's Book Club Meets August 31st at HankeringWant some excitement in your book club? Check out “Not Your Mother’s Book Club” from the Aurora Public Library District, where you’ll get to read today’s hottest books from Booktok and beyond and discuss them with readers just like you! Olivia, our resident “edgy” book lover, will be there to lead the discussion and take recommendations from attendees. Remember, this is your book club, and your reading opinions matter!

This month, we will be reading “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides.The Silent Patient Book Cover

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening, her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word. Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations: a search for the truth that threatens to consume him…

We will be meeting at Hankering Southern Kitchen at 6 pm on August 31st. You can pick up your book TODAY at the Aurora Public Library. We’ll see you there!

Teen Book Club Reads Everything, Everything

Teen book club reads everything everything and meets on August twenty second.

Meet up with book lovers just like you for a discussion of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon on Tuesday, August 22nd @ 4 pm. Free snacks and drinks will be provided. Stop by the Aurora or Dillsboro Library to pick up your copy today!

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house and have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives. New next-door neighbors. I look out the window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean, and wearing all black—black t-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I want to learn everything about him, and I do. I learn that he is funny and fierce. I learn that his eyes are Atlantic Ocean-blue and that his vice is stealing silverware. I learn that when I talk to him, my whole world opens up, and I feel myself starting to change—starting to want things. To want out of my bubble. To want everything, everything the world has to offer.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Everyone ages 13-19 is welcome to attend! We can’t wait to see you there!

BTL Reads Dava Shastri’s Last Day

BTL reads Dava Shsatri's Last Day in August.

If you like to read a variety of books, and if you like to discuss the books you read, you should join one of the Aurora Public Library District’s book groups. There will be afternoon groups that meet at the Aurora Public Library on August 24 @ 1:00 pm and the Dillsboro Public Library on August 25 @ 1:00 pm. There will also be an evening meeting at the Local History Library on August 29 @ 6:30 pm. We will be discussing Dava Shastri’s Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti.

Dava Shastri's Last Day Book Cover

Dava Shastri, one of the world’s wealthiest women, has always lived with her sterling reputation in mind. A brain cancer diagnosis at the age of seventy, however, changes everything, and Dava decides to take her death–like all matters of her life–into her own hands.

Summoning her four adult children to her private island, she discloses shocking news: in addition to having a terminal illness, she has arranged for the news of her death to break early, so she can read her obituaries.

As someone who dedicated her life to the arts and the empowerment of women, Dava expects to read articles lauding her philanthropic work. Instead, her “death” reveals two devastating secrets, truths she thought she had buried forever.

And now the whole world knows, including her children.

In the time she has left, Dava must come to terms with the decisions that have led to this moment–and make peace with those closest to her before it’s too late.

Pick up a book today to join our club and get reading!

Teen Book Club Reads Dumplin’

Meet up with book lovers just like you for a discussion of Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy on Tuesday, July 25th @ 4 pm. Free snacks and drinks will be provided. Stop by the Aurora or Dillsboro Library to pick up your copy today!

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

Everyone ages 13-19 is welcome to attend! We can’t wait to see you there!

Between the Lines Reads Booth

Do you LOVE to read? Do you love trying new books and discussing them with friends? Pick up your book for the next Between the Lines Book Club today!

This June, BTL is reading Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, a family drama that focuses on an unlikely subject: the family of President Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, hide, and bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

We have added a new meeting to our schedule to better suit your life! In addition to our regular daytime meetings, we will also be meeting on June 27th at 6:30 pm at the newly renovated Local History Library @ The Depot! As always, we will be meeting at the Aurora Public Library on June 22nd at 1 pm and at the Dillsboro Public Library on June 23rd at 1 pm. Please feel welcome to attend any meeting that you wish, and keep an eye out for some delicious themed treats coming to your meetings this year!

We cannot wait to see you there! You can check out a BTL book at the Aurora or Dillsboro Public Libraries with a library card today to sign up.

Between the Lines Reads The Imperfects

If you like to read a variety of books, and if you like to discuss the books you read, you should join the Between the Lines Book Club, led by Ron Nicholson! There will be afternoon groups that meet at the Aurora Public Library on July 27 @ 1:00 pm, Dillsboro Public Library on July 28 @ 1:00 pm, and an evening group at the Local History Library on August 1 @ 6:30 pm.  This month’s title is The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson.

The Millers are far from perfect. Estranged siblings Beck, Ashley, and Jake find themselves under one roof for the first time in years, forced to confront old resentments and betrayals, when their mysterious, eccentric matriarch, Helen, passes away. But their lives are about to change when they find a secret inheritance hidden among her possessions—the Florentine Diamond, a 137-carat yellow gemstone that went missing from the Austrian Empire a century ago.

Desperate to learn how one of the world’s most elusive diamonds ended up in Helen’s bedroom, they begin investigating her past only to realize how little they know about their brave, resilient grandmother. As the Millers race to determine whether they are the rightful heirs to the diamond and the fortune it promises, they uncover a past more tragic and powerful than they ever could have imagined, forever changing their connection to their heritage and each other.

Pick up a book today at the Aurora or Dillsboro Public Library to join our club and get reading!

Teen Book Club Reads The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Meet up with book lovers just like you at the Aurora Public Library for a discussion of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky on Tuesday, June 27th @ 4 pm. Free snacks and drinks will be provided. Stop by the Aurora or Dillsboro Library to pick up your copy today!

This is the story of what it’s like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie’s letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas, and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Everyone ages 13-19 is welcome to attend! We can’t wait to see you there!