Thursday Night Book Discussion
Join us on the fourth Thursday of the month at 6:00 PM for Thursday Night Book Discussion. Enjoy our light refreshments as you listen to a book review.
January 22 – Roger Lyons discussing When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World by Jordan Thomas
February 26 – Jonah Rice discussing The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization by Peter Coleman
March 26 – Terah Stearns and Valerie Faulkner-Beal discussing The Rose Among Thorns by Stearns & Faulkner-Beal
April 23 – Jason West discussing Thrawn Ascendancy Book 1: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn
May 28 – Stacy Emery discussing biblical fiction including: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
June 25 – Kaitlyn Hanks discussing Young Adult books
July 23 – Lindsey Atkins – TBD
August 27 – LaDonna Whitlock discussing West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
September 24 – Emily Bergman discussing A Velocity of Being by Maria Popova
October 22 – Arla Murphy – TBD
Cloud Library
The 3M Cloud Library app is available for Harrisburg District Library patrons to download e-books and e-audiobooks for free! All you need is your Harrisburg District Library card number and 4-digit PIN. The app is available for free download to iOS and Android devices. The Cloud Library has fiction and non-fiction for kids, teens, and adults.
https://www.yourcloudlibrary.com/
*Choose Illinois Heartland Library System when prompted to “Find Your Local Library.”
Hoopla
The Hoopla app is available for Harrisburg District Library patrons to download e-books, e-audiobooks, movies, TV shows, and music for free! All you need is your Harrisburg District Library card number and 4-digit PIN. The app is available for free download to iOS and Android devices. There are items available for all ages, with no wait times. Download the item immediately for easy access or stream online.
*Sign up with an email and password, choose your library, accept the terms and conditions, then enter your library card number and 4 digit PIN
Goodreads
Keep track of the books you’ve read and the books you want to read! See what your friends are reading and be a part of the world’s largest community of readers!
Fantastic Fiction
A great website where you can search for your favorite authors and easily see all of the books they have written. Plus, find all of your favorite series in order! https://www.fantasticfiction.com/
Explore More Illinois
“Explore More Illinois” is a free service offered to Harrisburg Public Library District cardholders to access discount offers from museums, cultural centers, and other attractions. Click on the following link “Explore More Illinois” to log in- choose our library and enter your library card number and PIN. Choose the attraction and date of your planned visit and submit your request. You will receive an email confirmation with details specific to the attraction. Current offers include Buy One, Get One Free admission from the Discovery Center in Rockford; $2.00 off regular adult admission from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield; Buy One, Get One Free admission to Edwards Place in Springfield; 25% off your gift store purchase at Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum in Oak Park; and more! Partnerships with other attractions are pending so check back periodically.
Emily’s Pick of the Month
What You Wish For by Katherine Center
Available to order through interlibrary loan or as an audiobook on the Cloud Library and Hoopla apps.
Samantha Casey is a joyful school librarian on Galveston Island. When the beloved principal dies, he is replaced by Duncan Carpenter, Sam’s old crush who has returned as a strict, rule-obsessed, and traumatized authoritarian. As the school community spirals into chaos, Sam and Duncan must find their way to who they really are, what it means to be brave, and how to take a chance on love.
Sherry’s Pick of the Month
From Cradle to Grave: Journey of the Louisana Orphan Train Riders
Available at our library in print. (362.73 FRO)
What do three nuns, two mayors, a Baptist preacher, and the founder of a car dealership all have in common? They all rode an orphan train from New York City to Louisiana as small children! This is a collection of true life stories shared by those who knew them well. Read and find out how their lives turned out.
Evan’s Pick of the Month
The Dead Don’t Dance by Charles Martin
Available to order through interlibrary loan and as both an eBook and audiobook on the Hoopla app.
In a sleepy rural town in South Carolina, Dylan and Maggie Styles are a young couple in love, preparing eagerly for the birth of their first son. But when Maggie slips into a coma, Dylan slips into what can only be described as a walking coma, holding vigil at his beloved wife’s bedside. Through friends and grace-filled moments of insight, Dylan slowly begins to heal, but it will take a second tragedy—and an anxious period of wrestling with God—to truly awaken him from his stupor and open him up to a new life.
Kaitlyn’s Pick of the Month
His & Hers by Alice Feeney
Available at our library in print (FEE) and as an audiobook on the Hoopla and Cloud Library apps.
When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.
Hadleigh’s Pick of the Month
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Available as an ebook and audiobook on the Cloud Library app and an audiobook on the Hoopla app.
Kiela, a quiet librarian, flees a revolution in the capital with her sentient spider plant, Caz and stolen spellbooks. She hides in her childhood island home, where she secretly opens a forbidden spellshop to help the struggling locals, finding community, romance, and purpose.
Ray’s Pick of the Month
Coyote Hills by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman
Available at our library in print (NEW KEL #6) and as an audiobook on the Cloud Library app.
Clay Edison is happy working low-stakes embezzlement cases—that is, until PI Regina Klein calls him with a mystery only he can solve. The son of a wealthy couple has washed up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay with a head injury and drugs in his system—and as Clay digs deeper, he uncovers a horrifying tangle of betrayal and lies.
Jacque’s Pick of the Month
Heaven’s Prisoners by James Lee Burke
Available to order through interlibrary loan or as an audiobook on the Hoopla app.
Vietnam vet Dave Robicheaux has turned in his detective’s badge and has left New Orleans for the tranquil beauty of Louisiana’s bayous. But a plane crash on the Gulf brings a young girl into his life—and with her comes a netherworld of murder, deception, and homegrown crime. In a backwater world where a swagger and a gun go further than the law, Robicheaux and those he loves are caught on a tide of violence far bigger than them all…