Library events
Please take note the Library will close early at 4 p.m., Friday, March 25, for staff in-service.
All of our March Mammal Madness participants can keep an eye on our social media for round two winners and see how your bracket is shaping up. Winners will continue to be announced on social media and on our brackets in the Library, through the championship on April 6. Which mammal will win it all?
Join us in welcoming Jake Schaeckenbach to the Library team. Jake is our newest Teen Services Librarian. Initially a reluctant reader, he’s now a bookworm. When not reading, he’s writing or playing sports or board games. Having grown up loving his library’s reading programs, especially those from his teenage years, he hopes to bring that same fun to the Teen program at Solon. His goal is to make the library a place teens want to be by sharing his love of books and having awesome activity days and programs.
We know you’ll be jumping for joy with the latest news about Storytime. Beginning April 5, you can join us in the Library meeting room for 10:30 a.m. Storytime, each Tuesday. We’ll have limited capacity, on a first come-first served basis; masks are encouraged for adults to protect unvaccinated children. Following Storytime, take a Grab & Go activity for more fun at home.
You can also continue to enjoy our entire Digital Storytime catalog anytime. Visit our website (solon.lib.ia.us) and click on the “Storytime” button.
Are you interested in advocating for the Library? The Solon Public Library Board of Trustees has an open seat for a male City of Solon resident. Trustees advocate for the Library in the community in many ways, like increasing funding, ensuring the Library is meeting the needs of the community and planning for the future. To learn more about the role of the Library and find the application, visit our website (solon.lib.ia.us), then under the “About” menu, click “Library Board.” Applications should be returned to Solon City Hall.
Come play a game. Adult Game Night is back Thursday, March 31, at 7 p.m. Gather with friends new and old to play your favorites like Scrabble and Cribbage, or learn a new table-top game. Face masks are required.
What’s new?
Stop in to browse through the new DVDs, fiction, non-fiction, puzzles, romance, cake pans, westerns, sci-fi, fantasy and audiobooks. We’re always adding the highly anticipated blockbusters and best sellers, so don’t be afraid to recommend titles you’ve enjoyed or request titles you’re looking for. We love to hear from you.
New arrivals in non-fiction to help us understand the history of Ukraine and what’s going on today.
The Border: A Journey Around Russia by Erika Fatland. This is a journey along the seemingly endless Russian border – from North Korea in the Far East through Russia’s bordering states in Asia and the Caucasus, crossing the Caspian Ocean and the Black Sea along the way.
Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine by Anna Reid. Borderland tells the story of Ukraine. A thousand years ago, it was the center of the first great Slav civilization, Kievan Rus. In 1240, the Mongols invaded from the east, and for the next seven centuries, Ukraine was split between warring neighbors: Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Austrians and Tatars. Again and again, borderland turned into battlefield: during the Cossack risings of the seventeenth century, Russia’s wars with Sweden in the eighteenth, the Civil War of 1918–1920, and under Nazi occupation. Ukraine finally won independence in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know by Serhy Yekelchyk. When guns began firing again in Europe, why was it Ukraine that became the battlefield? Conventional wisdom dictates that Ukraine’s current crisis can be traced to the linguistic differences and divided political loyalties that have long fractured the country. However this theory only obscures
the true significance of Ukraine’s recent civic revolution and the conflict’s crucial international dimension. The 2013-14 Ukrainian revolution presented authoritarian powers in Russia with both a democratic and a geopolitical challenge. President Vladimir Putin reacted aggressively by annexing the Crimea and sponsoring the war in eastern Ukraine; and Russia’s actions subsequently prompted Western sanctions and growing international tensions reminiscent of the Cold War. Though the media portrays the situation as an ethnic conflict, an internal Ukrainian affair, it is in reality reflective of a global discord, stemming from differing views on state power, civil society and democracy.
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy. Ukraine is currently embroiled in a tense fight with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence. But today’s conflict is only the latest in a long history of battles over Ukraine’s territory and its existence as a sovereign nation. As the award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues in The Gates of Europe, we must examine Ukraine’s past to understand its present and future.
Solon Public Library
March 24, 2022