Celebrate Your Freadom

Banned Books Week October 1-7

Happy Banned Books Week from your favorite community library!

This Banned Books Week, we are celebrating the Freadom to Read, granted by the United States Constitution and the laws guaranteeing your right to read. Check out our displays at the Aurora and Dillsboro Public Libraries and check out some of the most challenged and banned books of the past year in honor of your FREADOM!

Check out the full list of the American Library Association’s Top 13 Most Challenged Books on 2022 below and read more about your favorite banned book!

1. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

Gender Queer Cover

2. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

All Boys Aren't Blue

3. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye Cover

4. Flamer by Mike Curato

Flamer Cover

5. (tie) Looking For Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska Cover

5. (tie) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Cover

7. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

Lawn Boy Cover

8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Cover

9. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

Out of Darkness Cover

10. (tie) A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury Cover

10. (tie) Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Crank Cover

10. (tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Cover

10. (tie) This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

This Book is Gay Cover

 

Dillsboro in Bloom

Ahhhhh… smell that? Flowers are blooming and spring is fully in swing! That means the town of Dillsboro is in bloom and we are joining in the celebration at the library.

Come see us in our tent at the festival on Saturday, May 13th from 9 am to 2 pm! We will have fun plant crafts for the kids and plenty of free goodies for you and your family and friends!

Check out these books about flowers from our catalog to get in the swing of spring!

    

 

10 Poems That ROCKED the World!

Join Ron Nicholson, leader of our Between the Lines Book Club, as he shares 10 poems that permanently altered not only literary history but the world itself.

This program is part of a regional tour honoring National Poetry Month: April. Ron is thrilled to share his favorite famous poems with you as you venture into the world of creative writing.

This program will be held at the Aurora Public Library on April 11th at 6 pm. We hope to see you there, maybe with a pen and a pad of paper. You never know when inspiration may strike!

The Book Sale is BACK!

Our book sale is back! The sale will be downstairs at our Dillsboro branch. It is going to be $1 a bag. Teachers will get the first selection at what we have on September 8th – 10th. It will be open to the rest of the public September 12th – September 24th.

Fresh Finds with Jessica: June

Check out our YouTube channel every last Friday of the month for Fresh Finds! Join Jessica on June 25th as she discusses 5 of APLD’s newest books! Subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss any of our videos! Subscribe here.

Check out the five books below! Click on a cover to place a hold or learn more!

            

Fresh Finds with Jessica: May

Check out our YouTube channel every last Friday of the month for Fresh Finds! Join Jessica on May 28th as she discusses 5 of APLD’s newest books! Subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss any of our videos! Subscribe here.

Check out the five books below! Click on a cover to place a hold or learn more!

            

Rainy Day Reads

April showers brought the May flowers, but it’s been pretty rainy still. With the weather as fickle as it’s been, I don’t want to leave my driveway. With OverDrive, it’s possible to lounge around my house all day without ever running out of things to read, watch, or listen to.

Here are some just-added items from the Indiana Digital Download Center:

Compulsion by Martina Boone

The Dysasters by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Captive Heart by Glynnis Campbell

Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly

Boy Erased by Garrard Conley

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Come Find Me by Megan Miranda

A Sucky Love Story by Brittani Louise Taylor

The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson

Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan

The Silent Invader by Thomas Wood

Place these upcoming releases on hold to read in your blanket fort!

Dead Man’s Mistress by David Housewright

Two Weeks by Karen Kingsbury

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Murder in the City of Liberty by Rachel McMillan

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes

Tightrope by Amanda Quick

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Neon Prey by John Sandford

Emily Eternal by M.G. Wheaton

So many books, so little time! Do you have a go-to rainy day read? My favorite might have to be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë if only for the opening paragraphs:

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.

I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.”

Happy Reading!

The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Netflix series “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”, released on New Year’s Day, has sparked a revitalization of the “KonMari” method of decluttering. The method is outlined in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo published in 2014. We have a copy at the Aurora Public Library and on the Digital Download Center. There is also an audiobook, illustrated edition, and a manga about the method on the Digital Download Center.

Simply put, the technique challenges you to pull everything out into the open, divide it into categories, and then decide if it “sparks joy” or not. Everything that does not, you thank for the time you had with it and methodically discard it.

Happy tidying!

Baking with APLD

Listen, now is not the time to go on a diet. The holidays are staring us right in the face and the cold weather is making us layer up, so the time is right to experiment with all kinds of baking. The Aurora Public Library District can help! Instead of going out and buying tons of cookbooks you’ll only flip through once, check out up to ten cookbooks at a time for two weeks (+ two renewals on top of that = a potential month and a half of borrowing a book).

(Since I let you in on that little secret, you now have to bring me a sample of whatever it is you bake.)

The cookbooks begin on the nonfiction shelves with the call numbers 641. If you’re anything like me, you’ll easily get lost in the cookbooks, so it might be more fun for you to browse in person rather than going through our online catalog. But you can certainly do both! Personally, I can’t wait to check out American Cookie by Anne Byrn.

Maybe you’re looking to experiment with baking bread. We have all sorts of books with recipes for bakers of all levels.

 

Or maybe you want to start making more pies, tarts, or brownies. These might be some of the most underrated items of all the baked goods, in my opinion.

 

What about cakes? We have tons of titles on baking and decorating cakes to help you hone your skills. There are tons of new flavors to try too, instead of just plain white or chocolate cake. You can experiment with fillings and various flavor combinations to your heart’s content.

 

And we can’t forget about cookies! There plenty of titles for you to check out about all kinds of cookies, too, whether you’re looking for cake mix cookies, no-bake cookies, Christmas cookies, and more.

 

If you have little ones, we also have lots of books for baking and cooking with children. You’ll love spending time with children, making memories, and helping them learn new skills. Plus, with kids, anything goes, so that means you get to lick the batter, too! (I would have done that normally, but this isn’t about me.)

Maybe you’d rather browse online for recipes. Sign on to one of our public computers with your library card to scour the Internet to your heart’s content. If you need to print a recipe off, it’s only $.10 per black and white page or $1.00 per color page. You can also make copies directly from the books with our public copy machines.

It’s getting colder and the weather might start to get a little dicey, so you might not want to make the trip to the Library. We understand, and you’re in luck because you can also download baking titles digitally straight to your device from the Indiana Digital Download Center with OverDrive. Flip through digital recipe books and screenshot the images so you can have the recipes forever.

I want to help you hibernate this winter surrounded by baked goods and comfort food. So, Happy Reading! (And Eating!)

Oversized Nonfiction

At the Aurora branch, there is a special section upstairs for various oversized nonfiction books that many might have overlooked. These books have to be shelved separately from books over similar topics because they don’t fit on our regular shelves, so you’ll find a wide variety of topics included in this small section that encompass the nonfiction library as a whole. These books are so large that you’ll feel like a miniature person holding a giant-sized book from some kind of fairy tale!

The catch: you won’t be able to search the oversized nonfiction shelf from the catalog but instead will have to make an old-fashioned trip to the physical shelf to peruse.

But it’s so easy to lose yourself in the stack because these books are filled with large, glossy pages of photographs and information on all topics, ranging from animals and bugs to history and biographies. Something is bound to peak your interest!

Are you interested in panoramic views and photography? What about songbooks that are big enough that you won’t have to squint while you’re playing or singing? How about books on travel with full color-spreads that let you see every detail of the places you aspire to go? Do you like history and are interested in viewing photographs events like World War II and the September 11 terrorist attacks? What about ancient history? Do you like flipping through ancient timelines and seeing photographs of ancient relics? We have books over these subjects and more in the oversized nonfiction section!

Maybe you enjoy working with your hands and crafting? You’ll find titles about jewelry-making, art, sculpture, decor, style, design, paper-making, and how to make rugs and wall hangings. What about movies and movie trivia? Or sports like baseball, curling, the Olympics, and NASCAR? There’s bound to be something for you!

The next time you visit the Aurora branch, head on upstairs and make your way to the west wing, where we keep the magazines and community center. As you turn right when you come up the stairs, you’ll find the Oversized Nonfiction section to your right, right behind the last magazine shelves. Or just stop by the desk for directions!

Happy Reading!