Patron Engagement
Here are some of our favorites by Asian American authors—from fun and fascinating mystery, sweet and fiery romance, action-filled and entrancing fantasy, all the way to bone-chilling horror.
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If only forced proximity would always lead to love! In these romantic novels, it does. Content ranges from chaste to steamy.
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A collection of books and films encapsulating the rich culture and history of the Pacific Islander experience.
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Library staff members joined Allyson and Becca to bring you what they have been reading, listening to, and enjoying recently.
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Stories with everything the title says, told through a queer lens.
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Becca and Allyson lead regular sessions during which staff learn about what everyone is reading or watching. Enjoy some of our latest recommendations.
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We love fiction because it holds a mirror to humanity, but each mirror reflects something different. The titles spotlighted here are as varied in what they reflect and how they do it as are the authors who wrote the books.
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Juneteenth, also known as Black Independence Day, Jubilee Day, or Emancipation Day for Black Americans, is a holiday that commemorates the day the last enslaved people were emancipated in the United States on June 19, 1865 with the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. This was two and a half years after slavery was abolished more broadly in the United States through the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and six months before the 13th Amendment in December 1865 made slavery unconstitutional. It is a day to celebrate freedom and also to remember the genocide of enslaved African Americans.
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Find your next summer read with these fiction titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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How people celebrate Pride is as varied as the experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals. These books share an array of perspectives, but are still only a small selection of the LGBTQIA+ experience.
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Too often, we hear about trans experiences rooted in trauma, shame, and fear. It's important that those stories exist, but we argue it's equally (if not more) important that trans stories rooted in joy also exist. Trans people, as well as people of other genders, need to see that the trans community is a beautiful community "that has resistance, liberation, joy and magic at its core" *(Cosmopolitan UK).*
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Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture even though one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. All of these books and films show what it is like to live with various disabilities.
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These fun "new classics" musicals are one sure way to get your toes tapping. Recommended by Cecilia Cygnar.
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Summer is a time to get outside and enjoy the warm weather. This means picnics, cookouts, camping, and hitting the beach. It's also a time to exercise that green thumb of yours. So get out into the garden and grow some stuff.
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Horror and comedy mix well in these cheeky horror films. You'll be laughing one minute and scared the next.
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Our expert staff take a look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff take a look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff take a look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff take a look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff take a look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff take a look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff take a look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Here are some of this year's Academy Award nominees that you can check out and watch at home.
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For Black History Month, we're highlighting staff-recommended books written by black authors or featuring black characters, for readers of all ages.
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For Black History Month, we're highlighting staff-recommended movies and television written, produced, or directed by black creators.
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For Black History Month, we're highlighting staff-recommended music created and performed by black musicians.
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Cyberpunk incorporates advanced technology in dystopian settings. Technology can work as ally or enemy, or sometimes both.
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Celebrate the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, histories, and life experiences of Native and Indigenous people in these adult fiction books.
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Allyson and Becca invited fellow Skokie Public Library staff members to share what they have been reading and enjoying recently. Now we're sharing them with you!
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Allyson and Becca, with many Skokie Public Library staff members, got together to bring you what they have been reading, listening to, and enjoying recently.
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Ly, Neil, Penny, and Perry recommend games--in this list, you'll find titles from a variety of genres, from puzzles to story-rich, character-driven games. If you are new to video games, here are some definitions of gaming terms used on this list: - Platformer: These games heavily feature platforms. To progress, players have to jump between them and avoid obstacles. Super Mario is a popular example of a platform-type game. - Rhythm: These games use music to enhance the game. Players have to time button presses to the beat of the music playing (sometimes to simulate playing musical instruments). Popular examples include Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. - Sandbox: This type of game lets players build their own world to interact with. A popular example is Minecraft.
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These books, each with 220 pages or fewer, are perfect for these strange times where our focus is so divided. Some classics, some contemporary, these novels might be low on pages but they are high on entertainment.
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Along with many Skokie Public Library staff members, Allyson and Becca bring you what they have been reading, listening to, and enjoying recently.
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Members of our staff join Allyson and Becca to share what they have been reading, listening to, and enjoying recently.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Some of the books, films, and TV series you and your neighbors have enjoyed this year.
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We love these and think you will find something here to love, as well!
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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If you aren't sure how you feel about poetry, novels in verse are a great place to start. The poems come together to tell one overarching story. They are generally short enough to read quickly, and every word and pause is carefully chosen to make the greatest impact.
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Many people still think of manga as a Japanese graphic novel when talking about graphic novels with Asian protagonists. Here we have curated several graphic novels written or illustrated by Asian American creators.
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To commemorate this summer's Brood X Cicada invasion, we've put together a list of our favorite media featuring big bugs.
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Where are the dragons? Our list of suggested books and movies has something for dragon enthusiasts (or dragonologists) of all ages.
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Whether the author uses a pan-ethnic term such as Latino or Hispanic to describe their identity, or by their family's Hispanic origin group, the rich history of literary tradition (often, but not always, with hints of the fantastic) shines brightly in all of these stories.
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Want some help with your next meal? Looking to learn more about food from around the world? Our staff share some of their favorite cookbooks from our awesome collection.
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In a *Vogue* article stressing the importance of Black joy, Chante Joseph says, "Where society has told Black people to 'be quiet' or that we’re 'too loud,' reveling in joy is an act of resistance. As our feeds become even more inundated with images of trauma, joy can help us heal, too." Here are some of our favorite depictions of Black joy on screen.
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We are excited to share with you a sample of our favorite literary recipes for mystery, love, and life.
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Pour yourself a cup and get cozy with these coffee-inspired reads.
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Women's History Month honors the achievements and contributions of women in history.
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American funerary practices are big business that have little to do with the naturalness of death. Author and non-profit undertaker Caitlin Doughty wrote, “Due to the corporatization and commercialization of deathcare, we have fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to proximity, intimacy, and ritual around death.” But that is changing—with the green burial movement, in particular. These books and movies explore alternatives to current mainstream funerary and deathcare practices.
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Devour some delicious movies about food, cooking, chefs, and restaurants.
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The feminist movement has been around for many decades and has had strong voices in each generation. These books focus on the issues that have gained momentum in recent years, with an emphasis on including the perspectives of all people.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles. New to romance? Read our [Beginner's Guide](https://skokielibrary.info/blog/217/beginners-guide-to-romance-books/).
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Want to make some handmade gifts this holiday season? Try one of these great crafting books.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our library staff make their swooning and romantic Valentine's Day reading picks.
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These books and films celebrate women who've made an indelible mark on the world, even if the history books previously failed to name them.
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Although it is impossible to fully encompass the breadth of women's experience, these are some of our recent favorites.
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From K-pop to rock to country to soca music, this is a fun list about boy bands, girl groups, and pursuing your dreams while falling in love.
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Enjoy these romance titles that are full of charm and intimacy, without graphic details.
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Enjoy these selections of adult and teen fiction and graphic novels by local authors or that take place in the Chicago area.
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That noise you hear in the middle of the night--is it the house settling? Or is it something more sinister? In these books, it is the later and the house is haunted. Our staff chose favorite stories about things that go bump in the night.
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Library staff share their favorite horror titles.
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In collaboration with the Douglas Center and MCC, here are titles to help start the conversation on and provide an introduction to mental health.
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LitLounge is the North Shore’s social book discussion group, brought to you in partnership with Morton Grove Public Library. We get together the second Wednesday of every month (please see the library calendar for registration information). Here are the books we discussed in 2022.
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From movies to TV series, we've got something to cast the right viewing spell.
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Great movies you can stream using Kanopy. Watch and enjoy.
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Here is a diverse list of titles to provide an introduction to depression, produced in collaboration with the Douglas Center and MCC.
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If you tried and could not get into the classics you were assigned to read in school, try these modern adaptations, inspirations, reimaginings, and retellings that address problematic aspects and rework the original stories to put marginal groups in the spotlight, all while staying faithful to the classic's themes.
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Our staff suggests books and films written by Filipino authors or featuring Filipino characters.
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Whether you have read all of Colleen Hoover's books or have one on hold, here are some related books you might also enjoy.
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These books introduce the topic of domestic violence, produced in collaboration with the Douglas Center and MCC.
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Each month we screen a movie and then talk about it. These are 2022 films.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share favorite albums.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share some favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share some of their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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In collaboration with the Douglas Center and MCC, here are some titles that can help provide perspective and solidarity in times of need.
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If you can't stand conversation hearts because you prefer your hearts black and cold, this is the list for you. This is love gone bad. Romance gone wrong. And the perfect antidote to those with hearts in their eyes.
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Romance might not be everybody's cup of tea, and that's okay. Here are some titles that feature romance in a nontraditional, yet entertaining way.
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Grief at losing a loved one is an emotion that we all experience at some point or another. Grief is never easy and can be overwhelming. Here are some books that explore how people have navigated death, as well as titles to help people find their own path and make sense of the extreme emotions that accompany loss.
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So many classics portray a world where marginalized people either don’t exist or lead awful lives, but these modern adaptations, inspirations, reimaginings, or retellings have reworked the originals to put these groups in the spotlight, all while staying faithful to the classic's themes.
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Some of the best fiction by Black authors published in 2020 and early 2021.
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This list of music and nonfiction books for Black History Month 2022 likely features one or more ways to feed your soul.
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This list is inspired by Kleaver Cruz's The Black Joy Project, "a digital and real-world effort to center Black joy." Cruz says, "When we acknowledge that we exist in an anti-Black world that is set up to ensure we do not live, to choose life and to choose to enjoy aspects of that life is a radical act. Centering on Black joy [doesn't] ignore the realities of our collective pain; rather, it is about holding the pain and injustices we experience as Black folks around the world in tension with the joy we experience in the pain’s midst. Black joy is healing, resistance, and regeneration."
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In a Tor.com article entitled "The Role Publishing Plays in the Commodification of Black Pain," L.L. McKinney writes, "We know that for every 'issue' book, we need at least five more where we can go on adventures, fall in love, solve mysteries, be heroes, do everyday things like everyone else. Black readers need to see themselves in narratives outside of racism, slavery, Jim Crow, police brutality. As do non-Black readers.” From cozy mysteries to thrillers, science fiction to fantasy, and romance to horror, here we celebrate some of our favorites.
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Get inspired to get involved in resistance movements and take political action like the teens in these fiction titles.
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Give your eyeballs a treat with these ground-breaking, fascinating, and gorgeous films.
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Islam is the second-largest world religion. It is also the most misunderstood. These books provide a window for those who would like to learn more about the religion, its influence on culture, and the tireless work of Muslims who stand up against Islamophobia.
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From fantasy to literary fiction to romance, explore a wide range of stories of the Muslim experience in adult fiction.
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Our staff share books that see the world of teens through the eyes of Muslim authors.
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USC researchers published a study titled "Missing and Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies" (https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-muslim-rep-global-film-2021-06-09.pdf) that found a severe lack of Muslim representation in film. These films feature Muslim stories that move beyond stereotypes and show the complexity and diversity of the Muslim community.
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From picture books to chapter books and nonfiction, these books offer varied insights into Muslim life, especially in childood.
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Here are some Academy Award nominees you can check out and watch at home.
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Explore and get inspired by Jewish biographies, culinary traditions, and memoirs.
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From feature films to documentaries, explore a wide range of stories of the Jewish experience. There is something for everyone to watch and enjoy.
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Celebrate Pride Month with these binge-worthy shows.
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In recent years, the entertainment industry seems to be moving a bit forward in a positive direction when it comes to Asian and Asian American films. In 2020, *Parasite,* a Korean movie, even made it to the Oscars and won Best Picture. We’ve gathered a few of our favorite movies and TV shows produced, directed, or written by Asian and Asian American creators. Turn on your screen, sit back, and enjoy!
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To honor Asian and Asian American heritage, we've put together a list of nonfiction books that explore Asian culture and Asian American experiences throughout history.
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Here are some of our staff's favorite fiction titles written by Asian American authors. These books will make you laugh, cry, and captivate you until the end.
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From fantasy to literary fiction to romance, explore a wide range of the Jewish experience in fiction for adults and teens. There is something for everyone.
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Find your next summer read with these nonfiction titles.
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Whether you are in the mood for pure escapism or want to do some armchair traveling, we suggest choosing from this wide selection of films and TV.
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We love these fiction titles that are perfect for summer.
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Celebrate Pride Month with these illuminating and informative documentaries.
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Here are some mystery and true crime suggestions.
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Library staff share their favorite audiobook titles.
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Romance provides readers with entertainment, sexual empowerment, emotional fulfillment, lots of fun, and an emotionally satisfying happily ever after (or at least a happily for now). And in this day and age, who doesn't want that?
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We love film from around the world! Here's a collection of some our staff favorites.
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Our staff members enjoy these young adult titles.
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Young adult (YA) literature, broadly defined as books intended for those ages 12 to 18, wasn’t officially recognized as a category until the 1960s. Even though these books are based on the lives of teens, readers of all ages enjoy them. Here are some of the most influential YA titles throughout the years.
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Solving mysteries (and committing crimes) is not just for the young. These senior sleuths (and crooks) use the wisdom of their years to crack cases and take down bad guys (or to be the bad guy).
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Here at Skokie Public Library, we are committed to [intellectual freedom](https://skokielibrary.info/blog/402/our-values-intellectual-freedom). More information about Banned Books Week and the titles on this list can be found on the [American Library Association's website](https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10/archive).
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Broaden your knowledge about the various tribes and the unique challenges Native and Indigenous communities face.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share some favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share some favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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I’m an Illinois Master Gardener and simply cannot rest on my laurels (pun intended). I’m never satisfied with how my garden looks and while there may be newer books out there, I keep referring to these tried and true sources over and over again. At the risk of offending your sense of humor (again), check 'em out!
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Celebrate Pride Month with these critically acclaimed and award-winning feature films from around the world.
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Each month we screen a movie and then talk about it. These are the films we discussed in 2023.
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There's a lot of information out there on artificial intelligence (AI). Here are some resources to help you wrap your mind around this complicated topic.
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Space is a dangerous place, made all the more dangerous by fellow humans. Read and watch these murder and detective stories that show that murder is not limited to planet earth.
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Celebrate Pride Month with a great book!
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Broaden your knowledge about various tribes and the unique challenges Native and Indigenous communities face with these nonfiction titles.
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Enjoy this selection of movies and TV series.
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Whether the nature you know is outside your back door or in a remote wilderness destination, there is endless beauty and wonder to be celebrated in the natural world. Skokie library staff share some favorite books about nature and the benefits of getting outdoors.
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We could all use a little hope to counter climate change anxiety. These books describe the efforts, inventions, and policy changes aimed at saving the planet, and suggest what you, too, can do.
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In 2013, the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a globally peer reviewed report that concluded, "climate change is real and human activities, largely the release of polluting gases from burning fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas), is the main cause." Here are some books to help make sense of the impact of climate change.
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You may like these books and movies that are similar to the hit Netflix series.
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This list represents only a small selection of the vast diversity of themes, perspective, and genres of Latine filmmaking and television. It's a great place to get you started.
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Some fiction, some nonfiction, all great books for those who love the outdoors.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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The state of Illinois has designated April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month to recognize the many ways Sikh Americans have influenced American history, achievement, culture, and innovation.
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We've got you covered with these titles for an awesome stay-at-home movie night.
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For those long summer nights, check out these ideas for watching.
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Whether you are diving into a fiction book featuring time traveling, magic, and distant places, or traveling vicariously through nonfiction, we have selected a variety of titles to satisfy your wanderlust this summer and beyond.
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Enjoy this variety of suspense and thriller novels during the summer and beyond.
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We've selected a variety of mysteries to enjoy during the summer and beyond.
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Enjoy one or more of these romance novels this summer and beyond.
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In the mood for horror and spooky stories? Enjoy these books this summer and beyond.
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Staff recommend their favorite classic horror novels.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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Our expert staff members look back at the year and share their favorite titles.
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