Library Events
Bring Those Bugs Inside (Your Hands) with the Iowa State University Insect Zoo. Get up close and personal with 100 species of our multi-legged friends, beetles, millipedes, walking sticks, roaches, scorpions, tarantulas and more. Learn all about why these animals are important for our environment with the help of our knowledgeable Insect Zoo staff. Ask questions about the animals on display and get a chance to touch millipedes, beetles, walking sticks and more. Bring in your photos of bugs to be identified or even the bug itself. Join us outside, on the library patio, Thursday, July 7 at 4 p.m. for this summer favorite.
Gather on the library porch with us for singing, rhymes, and parachute games at Songs on the Lawn. The whole family is welcome to join us Mondays at 10:30 a.m. through July 25. We’ll also have a special program Saturday, July 16 at 2:15 p.m. located at the Solon Beef Days Kids Corner.
On Monday, July 11th at 1:30 p.m., we’ll croak, buzz, chirp and sing. Nature has many sounds if you listen closely. Explore different ways animals communicate with each other. Transform into an animal chorus and meet live animals up close with the Mississippi River Museum.
Adults and Young Adults (16+) this month’s DIY Night is all about Bullet Journals. Join us to stitch up a journal and begin personalizing. A bullet journal is equal parts day planner, diary, and written meditation. W
ith sections to log your daily to-do’s, monthly calendar, notes, long-term wants and more, your bullet journal is customized to your life. Registration is required to allow for enough materials for each participant.
Register on our website or at the library and join us Tuesday, July 12 at 6:30 p.m.
When you’re ready to get out of the house (and heat) head to the library for coffee & conversations on Wednesday mornings at 9.
When you’re ready to stretch and strengthen your body, stay for Chair Yoga at 10 a.m. each Wednesday. It’s the perfect time to practice self-care.
Please note the library will have limited hours Friday, July 15 from 9- 2 p.m. and will be closed Saturday, July 16. We’ll see you around town at Solon Beef Days.
What’s new?
The new non-fiction shelves are bursting with fresh picks, browse today to find something that piques your interest.
A Life in Light by Mary Pipher. In her luminous new memoir in essays, Mary Pipher-as she did in her New York Times bestseller Women Rowing North-taps into a cultural moment, to offer wisdom, hope, and insight into loss and change. Drawing from her own experiences and expertise as a psychologist specializing in women, trauma, and the effect of our culture on our mental health, she looks inward in A Life in Light to what shaped her as a woman, one who has experienced darkness throughout her life but was always drawn to the light. Her plainspoken depictions of her hard childhood and life’s difficulties are dappled with moments of joy and revelation, tragedies and ordinary miseries, glimmers and shadow. As a child, she was separated from her parents for long periods. Those separations affected her deeply, but in A Life in Light she explores what she’s learned about how to balance despair with joy, utilizing and sharing with readers every coping skill she has honed during her lifetime to remind us that there is a silver thread of resilience that flows through all of life, and that despite our despair, the light will return. In this book, she points us toward that light.
PHIL: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar by Alan Shipnuck. Phil Mickelson is one of the most compelling figures in sports. For more than three decades he has been among the best golfers in the world, and his unmatched longevity was exemplified at the 2021 PGA Championship, when Mickelson, on the cusp of turning fifty-one, became the oldest player in history to win a major championship. In this raw, uncensored, and unauthorized biography, Alan Shipnuck captures a singular life defined by thrilling victories, crushing defeats, and countless controversies. Mickelson is a multifaceted character, and all his warring impulses are on display in these pages: he is a smart-ass who built an empire on being the consummate professional; a loving husband dogged by salacious rumors; a high-stakes gambler who knows the house always wins but can’t tear himself away.
An Extravagant Life by Stuart Woods. An autobiography by the New York Times #1 bestselling author of the Stone Barrington series. Over the last forty years, Stuart Woods has written more than ninety novels of suspense and intrigue, beginning with the award-winning Chiefs. Featuring iconic crime-fighting and jet-setting leads, the plots are masterfully conceived and wonderfully escapist. What many readers don’t know is that Woods’ very own life was filled with similar stories of adventure. Born in Georgia, Woods worked in advertising in New York, served in the US Air Force, and had a short stint as an advance man. At the age of 37, he found himself in a transatlantic sailing race, and pursued writing as a full-time career shortly thereafter. Along the way, Woods has lived all over the world, from New York to London, Santa Fe to Ireland. Incorporating his iconic sailing memoir Blue Water, Green Skipper, this is the story of a life well-lived, and a special inside look into the beloved author’s many exploits.