Last chance to register your Solon Area Garage Sale with the Friends of the Library – deadline to register is Monday, May 20. The annual sale is hosted by the Friends 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.
As we close out the after-school programs for the year we’ve been reflecting on all the fun adventures we’ve had! We’ve enjoyed classroom visits to the Library, special Storytimes with preschool friends, Library card sign-ups, and early-out Thursdays. We’ve had fun playing games, making crafts, watching movies, and visiting with friends. Please remember that Thursday, May 16 is the final after school program of the year at the Library. Thank you for joining us all school year!
Library Events
Cookbook Club is a great opportunity to diversify your menus, shake things up with meal plans, and share great food with friends! This month we’re trying food from around the world Saturday, May 18 at 11:00 a.m. Check out a cookbook for inspiration, try something new, bring it to share, and enjoy!
We’re partnering with United Action for Youth (UAY) to present a program to teens and adults on Understanding Teen Homelessness Thursday, May 23 at 5:30 p.m. UAY’s Street Outreach Program (SOP) provides homelessness intervention services to young people from ages 12 to 21. The goal of the SOP is to connect Street Outreach Advocates with youth at risk of, or currently experiencing, homelessness in its service area. SOP Advocates host drop in sites and meet with individuals to help connect them with resources to overcome their current housing crisis. Join us for this informative program and light refreshments.
Whether you enjoy a classic game of cards or want to try a new board game, Game Night is for you! We have regular groups who enjoy playing Cribbage and Scrabble, and we always love the opportunity to play new games. Bring a friend (or two!) and enjoy a night of friendly competition at the Library! This month Game Night is Thursday, May 23 at 6:30 p.m. with adults and young adults (16+) welcome.
Be an informed citizen! The Solon Economist and Solon Public Library are hosting a Candidate Meet and Greet Tuesday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m. Come meet the candidates running for office ahead of the June 4 election. Candidates who plan to attend are Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel, Johnson County Supervisors Royceann Porter and Rod Sullivan, and Senate District 46 Candidate Ed Chabal. Each candidate will have five minutes to introduce themselves, then the time will be opened up for questions from the audience. Bring your questions and concerns and hear answers directly from candidates to help you make an informed decision when voting on June 4.
We’re deep into summer reading preparations and so excited to read, renew, repeat! Summer Reading takes place June 1 through July 31. Brochures and reading logs will be available at the Library at our Summer Reading Kick-Off party Thursday, May 30 at 5:30 p.m. You can get an early look at the details for summer on our website, solon.lib.ia.us, under the Services menu, click on Summer Reading.
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 from 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?
New releases in adult fiction we’re excited to share!
Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung. Daughters are the Ang family’s curse. In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to give birth to a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed. Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family’s crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson. It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas. Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
Long Island by Colm Tóibín. Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades. One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office doing her accounting, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting.
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