Don’t miss the Friends of the Library’s Annual Halloween Sale on Saturday, October 8th from 8 a.m. to Noon in the Library meeting room. The Friends will have a large variety of Halloween costumes and seasonal decor available. If you have costumes and decor you’ve outgrown, the Friends accept donations all year long. Support the Friends of the Library and find something for the spooky season.
We want to hear from YOU! Solon Public Library is in the process of creating our next 3 — 5 year strategic plan. We are hosting Community Focus Groups on two upcoming Sundays: October 9th and November 13th from 2:00 — 4:00 p.m. We also invite you to complete a library survey online or in-person (link available on our website, solon.lib.ia.us). Your feedback and input will help us respond to community needs and shape our library’s future.
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 Board of Trustees, 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.
Library Access
Regular Library hours are Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please note the following special hours and closures in October:
Thursday, October 13th, the Library will be closed, no early-out programs.
Friday, October 28th, the Library will be closed.
Monday, October 31st, the Library will close at 4 p.m. for the holiday.
Library Events
We’ve had a blast teaming up with Solon Recreation for Family Fun Night this summer! We decided the fun doesn’t have to end, so mark your calendars for Family Fun Night on the second Saturday of the month (all year long). On October 8th we’ll start the fun with gym games at Solon Community Center at 6 p.m., then head to the auditorium for The Addams Family 2 at 7 p.m.
It’s the Great Pumpkin Decorating Contest, Solon friends! Pick out the perfect pumpkin and get it all dressed up! Get creative, use paint, glue, or other materials, just don’t carve your pumpkin. Categories include Littles, Kids, Teens, Adults, and Families. Judges will rank based on creativity, use of materials, originality, and title. Pick up an entry sheet for the full details of this contest. Pumpkins must be turned in by Wednesday, October 26th to be entered in the contest.
Fall Baby Time continues Mondays at 10:30 a.m. through October 24th. Spend time with your little one building pre-reading skills while making new parent and caregiver friends at our fall session of Baby Time! We’ll share nursery rhymes, sing songs, read books, and enjoy free play with age-appropriate toys.
Cook up something new to enjoy with the Cookbook Club! This month we’re eating from Midwest Made: Big, Bold Baking from the Heartland by Shauna Sever. This cookbook features pastries, pies, cakes, and savories galore! Try a dish, bring it to share, and chat with other foodies on Saturday, October 15th at 11 a.m.
Save the date for Virtual Trivia Night on October 20th at 7 p.m. Gather your team (no limit on team size) or play as an individual to test your knowledge! The joy of a virtual trivia night is the ability to gather friends and family from across the country. This general knowledge trivia consists of four rounds, so get ready & enjoy the friendly competition!
Teens in 6th-12th grades we challenge you! Join the fun of the 2022 Teen Reading Challenge in three easy steps. Read a book, fill out the Google form, and claim a prize! Each participant is entered to win an Amazon Fire Tablet for each form completed. Pick up a bookmark to keep track and complete the challenge by the end of the year.
What’s New?
A few new books hitting the fiction shelves this month will appeal to many readers, and many more are on the shelves!
The Enigma Affair by Charlie Lovett. When small-town librarian Patton Harcourt comes under fire one morning while making profiteroles, she has no choice but to trust the mysterious assassin, Nemo, who shows up in her kitchen. Fleeing a pair of German thugs, the two form an unlikely alliance as they try to decipher a seventy-five-year-old message encoded by Nazis on an Enigma machine. Traveling to Bletchley Park in England, they enlist the aid of Patton’s old flame, Ruthie Drinkwater, an expert on Enigma. The trio soon finds themselves on the run, pursued by both the police and Ingrid Weiss, a white supremacist trying to unlock the secret of Heinrich Himmler’s research into alchemy. If Patton, Nemo, and their cohorts can survive a host of dangers — from trained killers to explosions to imprisonment — they might be able to prevent Weiss from acquiring untold wealth to promote her racist agenda.
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson. 1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
The Winners by Frederik Backman (Book 3 in the Beartown trilogy). Over the course of two weeks, everything in Beartown will change. Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a life far from the forest town, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a new sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake. Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The destruction caused by a ferocious late-summer storm reignites the old rivalry between Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, a rivalry which has always been fought through their ice hockey teams.