Virtual Program: Libby: Ask Me Anything

Maybe you’re finding yourself with more free time now that all of your social events and outings have been canceled. Maybe you just need a break from it all. Either way now might be a great time to pick up a good book, and we still have you covered with our digital collection on Libby.
If you’re new to Libby, need a refresher, or have a specific question, join us on Friday afternoons at 3 PM for virtual learning sessions.  Registration is required.
A Zoom link will be emailed to registrants 2 hours before the program starts.  Make sure to check the email address you registered with to receive the link.  You do not need a Zoom account to attend the virtual program.

 

Virtual Program

No holds eAudiobooks – ready for download!

We have a collection of no holds audiobooks ready for easy download to your device. To help you choose, here are three you may like.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante – download here

Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times bestselling “enduring masterpiece” (The Atlantic) about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples.

Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship.

This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – download here

One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman – download here

Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by Nazi racism, who managed to save over three hundred people. Yet their story has fallen between the seams of history.

Drawing on Antonina’s diary and other historical sources, bestselling naturalist Diane Ackerman vividly re-creates Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” responsible for her own family, the zoo animals, and their “guests”: resistance activists and refugee Jews, many of whom Jan had smuggled from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Jan led a cell of saboteurs, and the Zabinski’s young son risked his life carrying food to the guests, while also tending to an eccentric array of creatures in the house (pigs, hare, muskrat, foxes, and more). With hidden people having animal names, and pet animals having human names, it’s a small wonder the zoo’s code name became “The House under a Crazy Star.” Yet there is more to this story than a colorful cast. With her exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Ackerman explores the role of nature in both kindness and savagery, and she unravels the fascinating and disturbing obsession at the core of Nazism: both a worship of nature and its violation, as humans sought to control the genome of the entire planet.

Want something different? Visit our full collection of No Holds Audiobooks here. And for more information, see our post on Simultaneous Use eAudiobooks here.

When is your favorite time to listen to an audiobook?
Leave a comment – we’d love to hear from you!

Earth Day is coming up – see what we have for you at our online library!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Earth Day is coming up on Wednesday, April 22. Here are some ways you can observe the day and learn more about our planet. We have books and resources available now to download, read or discover!

These books about the earth are currently available on OverDrive.

50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth by John Javna and Sophie Javna – eBook

The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac – eBook

Invisible Nature by Kenneth Worthy – eBook

Ready, Set, Green by Graham Hill and Meaghan O’Neill – eBook

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells eBook and eAudiobook

You Can Save the Earth by Andrew Flach – eBook

On Flipster – sign in with your library card here to read National Geographic and Eco Parent magazines.

Our GreenFILE (POWER Library) database offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records. Sign in with your library card here.

Be sure to visit us again at Stay Connected with Chescolibraries for new virtual programs at our libraries, book suggestions, ideas and important community information.

Spanish eBooks and eAudiobooks!

Did you know that we have Spanish eBooks and eAudiobooks?  We have a whole bunch for a wide variety of ages and interests!  There are a lot of titles for kids and teens to choose from as well.  If you want to see only our Spanish titles when you browse or search in the Libby app, then follow these steps:

  1. Tap Preferences at the top of the library’s home screen or any list.
  2. Change the “Language” filter to Spanish.
  3. Tap Apply Preferences.

Libby Spanish

At-Home Yoga

Feeling stressed out? Stuck in a rut? Looking for ways to keep active and get your body moving in the comfort of your home? With a range of videos from guided meditations to advanced yoga sequences, Yoga with Adriene offers something for everyone, regardless of their level of experience! Now is a great time to begin your yoga practice or strengthen the foundation you may have already developed with Adriene’s easy-to-follow video collection. Make time for yourself to practice mindfulness, mental balance, and to get in touch with your body.   Check one of these recommended videos to get connected with your mind and body:

Yoga for Change and Drain

Meditation for Anxiety

Yoga for Beginners

Sunrise Yoga

Yoga for Transitions

Gentle, Relaxing, Cozy Flow

Meditation for Mental Balance and Grounding

Yoga for Seniors

Yoga for Nurses

Yoga for Manual Labor

Yoga for Loneliness

Yoga for Bedtime

Yoga for Stress Relief

Also Yoga eBooks on OverDrive.

National Orchid Day – celebrate with these newspaper articles, magazines and eBooks!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Today is National Orchid Day. In celebration of the day, take a look at these articles and eBooks about orchids, available now in the New York Times and on Flipster & OverDrive.

Sign in to Flipster here to read these magazine articles about orchids:

Organic Gardener – April 2020: “From Donkeys to Flying Ducks” by Helen McKerral – exploring the world of native orchids and how to grow them. There are many articles and references to orchids in back issues of Organic Gardener too. Use Flipster’s Search bar on the upper right of your screen.

Horticulture – May 2020: Visit the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden and the Orchid Conservatory and use the Search bar to visit articles about orchids in back issues.

New York Times – April 18, 2019: “Orchids Bloom in Thousands of Forms. But Why?” by C. Claiborne Ray

To read this article and today’s New York Times, visit our Databases here. Choose New York Times and select Remote Access. Enter your library card number and PIN to create a free account. Type “orchids” in the Search bar on the upper left of your screen.

Maybe you’d like to read a book about orchids. These eBooks are currently available on OverDrive for download to your device.

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an e.ndangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him.

Wild Orchids by Karen Robards

A blistering romantic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pursuit. Far from her sensible life as an English teacher in Kansas, Lora looks forward to a relaxing vacation in Cancun. But fate thwarts her careful plans when a darkly handsome American named Max jumps into her car with a loaded gun.

And on the web, visit the official NationalOrchidDay.com site.

We offer a great variety of magazines, newspapers, eBooks and eAudiobooks, available for easy access with your library card. Read magazines on Flipster, access the Philadephia Inquirer and the New York Times through our Databases and download eBooks and eAudiobooks on OverDrive.

Librarian Likes – hand-picked by our staff

Our staff likes reading as much as you do and we want to share our favorites with you. Our Librarian Likes collection on OverDrive is made up of books liked by Chester County Library and Henrietta Hankin Branch employees. The collection automatically sorts to show titles that are available now first.

These three titles are highlighted in Librarian Likes and are currently available for digital check-out in both eBook and eAudiobook formats. You’re only a few clicks away from your next download!

The Lost Man
by Jane Harper

Two brothers meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead, in this stunning new standalone novel from NEW YORK TIMES bestseller Jane Harper. A powerful and brutal story of suspense set against a formidable landscape, The Lost Man confirms Jane Harper, author of The Dry and Force of Nature, is one of the best new voices in writing today.

Available now in eBook and eAudiobook formats.
eBook: https://chester.overdrive.com/media/4187772?cid=79748
eAudiobook: https://chester.overdrive.com/media/3980800?cid=79748

 

The Summer Before the War
by Helen Simonson

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A novel to cure your Downton Abbey withdrawal . . . a delightful story about nontraditional romantic relationships, class snobbery and the everybody-knows-everybody complications of living in a small community.”—The Washington Post

The bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set.

Available now in eBook and eAudiobook formats.
eBook: https://chester.overdrive.com/media/2381601?cid=79748
eAudiobook: https://chester.overdrive.com/media/2249012?cid=79748

 

The Swans of Fifth Avenue
by Melanie Benjamin

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Aviator’s Wife returns with a triumphant new novel about New York’s “Swans” of the 1950s—and the scandalous, headline-making, and enthralling friendship between literary legend Truman Capote and peerless socialite Babe Paley.

Available now in eBook and eAudiobook formats.
eBook: https://chester.overdrive.com/media/2306879?cid=79748
eAudiobook: https://chester.overdrive.com/media/2201620?cid=79748

Be sure to check our Librarian Likes collection regularly for other recommeded titles.

What are some of your favorite reads and listens?

Your online book world – reviews, talk and recommendations

One of the best things about reading books is hearing what others are saying and learning about new books on the horizon.

To get started, you can access a wealth of information on our website  https://chescolibraries.org/books-movies-music and online with your library card. Take a look:

  • Library Reads – a monthly list highlighting library staff picks from across the country
  • Novelist Plus – recommended reads in fiction and nonfiction
  • NextReads – Sign up to receive free monthly or bimonthly NextReads emails loaded with great book suggestions.
  • Staff Picks – book recommendations by our library staff

For reviews in the The New York Times sign in here with your library card to access a wealth of book-related sections:

  • Best Sellers
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Review Podcasts
  • By the Book – Writers on literature and the literary life
  • Children’s Books
  • Crime – Roundups of crime novels by Marilyn Stasio in The New York Times Book Review
  • Globetrotting – Sneak preview of books coming out in 2020 from around the world
  • Now Read This – A book club from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times

Read book reviews on The Philadelphia Inquirer online or access the daily Philadelphia Inquirer here.

And on Flipster – access The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books

For more ideas and to reserve your next read, hop over to our digital collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks here.

Happy reading everyone!

 

Harry Potter at Home!

Enjoy Harry Potter At Home! The eBook and eAudiobook of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is available without holds through our OverDrive collection for the month of April.

It is also available in other languages without holds!  It is available in Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Danish, Italian, Finnish, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Chinese, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian,  and Turkish.

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