It’s time to get your Solon Area Garage Sale registered with the Friends of the Library. The annual sale is hosted by the Friends on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1. You can find the registration details and form on our website, www.solon.lib.ia.us, and click on the “Solon Area Garage Sale” button.
Library Events
Celebrate the force within you during May the Fourth at the Library. Dress up as your favorite Star Wars character or enjoy the day as you! Enjoy Star Wars crafts, activities, and snacks. Join us Saturday, May 4 at 10:30 a.m. for Star Wars Day!
We’re Talking Tea with Judith Leavitt Saturday, May 4 at 1:00 p.m. Judith Leavitt formed Talking Tea LLC, a tea education company, to share her passion for tea and the tea lifestyle. She received a copyright on her Periodic Table of Talking Tea, and in 2020, she published her books Talking Tea: Casual Tea Drinker to Tea Connoisseur and Talking Tea Journal: Tea Lovers Tasting Notes. Judith will share a presentation about the origin of tea, types of tea, and how to properly prepare a good cup of tea. Join us to taste three or four teas and enjoy some delicious tea treats.
Storytime, Intergenerational Storytime, & Saturday Storytime: There’s a story time that is right for you! Each week we enjoy Storytime Tuesday mornings at 10:30. We also love sharing Intergenerational Storytime quarterly at the Solon Retirement Village, join us at the village Thursday, May 9 at 10:30 a.m. for this great experience! Our monthly Saturday Storytime is Saturday, May 11 at 10:30 a.m. and perfect for busy families. We love to see you and enjoy books, songs, and games together at Storytime.
Join us for a Super Smash Bros Tournament Saturday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m. in collaboration with the High School Video Games Club! We will have two games going at once with separate brackets for advanced and beginner players. Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Popcorn and drinks will be provided! This program is for Teens in 6th-12th grades. Registration is appreciated but not required.
Tech Talk is all about Google Photos Thursday, May 16. Join us at 9:30 a.m. to learn the ins & outs of using Google Photos, a photo sharing and storage service developed by Google. Bring your device or use one of our Chromebooks for hands on help as we navigate changing technology each month at Tech Talk.
Please remember the week of May 12th is the last week of after school programs at the Library for the school year.
Library Access
Regular Library hours are Monday-Thursday 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. and Friday-Saturday 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed Sundays.
The Library will be closed Monday, May 27 in observance of Memorial Day.
The Library will be open 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Thursday, May 30 to prepare for our Summer Reading Kick Off party.
Don’t forget, the digital library is always available! Find an eBook, eAudiobook, magazines and more with Bridges, or with the Libby app on your favorite smart device. You can even stream classic films, discover new favorites, and more with Kanopy on your favorite smart device.
Everyone is welcome at the Library and our programs. Please contact us with access needs.
What’s New?
These are a few of the latest new titles to hit the non-fiction section at the Library. What will you learn?
A Chance to Harmonize by Sheryl Kaskowitz. In 1934, the Great Depression had destroyed the US economy, leaving residents poverty-stricken. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged President Roosevelt to take radical action to help those hit hardest—Appalachian miners and mill workers stranded after factories closed, city dwellers with no hope of getting work, farmers whose land had failed. They set up government homesteads in rural areas across the country, an experiment in cooperative living where people could start over. To boost morale and encourage the homesteaders to find community in their own traditions, the administration brought in artists to lead group activities—including folk music. As part of a music unit led by Charles Seeger (father of Pete), staffer Sidney Robertson traveled the country to record hundreds of folk songs. Music leaders, most notably Margaret Valiant, were sent to homesteads to use the collected songs to foster community and cooperation. Working almost entirely (and purposely) under the radar, the music unit would collect more than 800 songs and operate for nearly two years, until they were shut down under fire from a conservative coalition in Congress that deemed the entire homestead enterprise dangerously “socialistic.”
The Unclaimed by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans. For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters’ fields—a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid. Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies. Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year. Who are they? Why are they being forgotten? And what is the meaning of life if your death doesn’t matter to others? In this extraordinary work of narrative nonfiction, eight years in the making, sociologists Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans uncover a hidden social world. They follow four individuals in Los Angeles, tracing the twisting, poignant paths that put each at risk of going unclaimed, and introducing us to the scene investigators, notification officers, and crematorium workers who care for them when no one else will.
The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides. On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?