Maintaining a solid grip on patrons at the Downtown Library, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave continues to be the top circulating adult fiction book for the sixth month in a row. Patrons at Ladd Library have renewed interest in the 2018 release Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and brought… View more
By Materials Librarian Kristine Olsen Frank Herbert’s Dune is one of the most seminal works of science fiction anyone can pick up. Full of unparalleled world building and character development, ecology, philosophy, and theology, it makes for a deeply compelling yet challenging read. I didn’t tackle this book and all its sequels until I was a twenty-something… View more
September 15 to October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. Started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson, it was later expanded to a full month under President Ronald Reagan in 1988. The period also coincides with independence anniversary celebrations in several Latin American countries. We wanted to take the opportunity to draw… View more
By Programming Librarian Meredith Crawford Don’t every let anyone tell you graphic novels don’t count as reading, or that they’re only for younger readers. Whether you’re a graphic novel enthusiast or newcomer to these illustrated stories, here are five great titles published in the last year. These recommendations are from a virtual program in our Read Woke series. Full… View more
Read the book before the film hits your screens! These children and young adult stories were recently acquired for film or television adaptation. Check them out before everyone else does and stay off the holds list. Written by Stephanie Perkins for a young adult, horror-loving audience, There’s Someone Inside Your House was purchased by Netflix… View more
The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture by Grace PerryPublished June 1, 2021. Social Science. A longtime contributor to The Onion and The Reductress, Perry turns her pen to the 2000s pop culture she grew up on. In a time when queer representation was largely missing from mainstream media, she recounts finding it… View more
The month of June is marked by the end of the school year for most students, the beginning of summer, and Pride Month. While often associated with a time for celebration, it is important to honor its history. The first Pride events were held in New York City in June 1970 on the one year… View more
Asian and Asian American authors and characters represent a wide variety of stories and cultures. Asia is, of course, an enormous continent home to a wide-ranging experiences and identities. It would be a mistake to look to Asian culture as a homogenous identity. Instead, we celebrate a variety of cultures and creators during Asian/Pacific Islander… View more
See what the Cedar Rapids Public Library staff was reading and watching in 2020.
Bree Matthews is a lot of things in this fantasy young adult work from Tracy Deonn. She’s Black. She’s young (and graduated early from high school to be accepted into an early college program at UNC-Chapel Hill). She’s grieving the recent death of her mother and the anger of a life unlived. But she is… View more
