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The ICPL Friends Foundation celebrates the library's Bright Future on April 11. Enjoy one of these hopeful novels this month!

Share the love of poetry with your littles.

Love thy mother

More featured collections

ICPL Recommends

Dream state : a novel book cover
Dream state : a novel book cover

Dream state : a novel

Eric Puchner

FICTION Puchner Eric
Fiction, Literary Fiction

"PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, Pushcart Prize winner, and Best American Stories contributor, Eric Puchner returns with an ambitious and deeply moving novel set against the backdrop of the American West that follows three lifelong friends and the betrayal at the center of their entwined fates....

I’ve been a little stuck on “Dream State” since I’ve finished it. I have a range of feelings and lots of unanswered questions—about the book, the characters, the sequence of events, and about myself. It is one of those books that makes you self-examine your past and think more about the future. What is in our control and what is out of it? What do our relationships mean to us and what do we mean to others? “Dream State” is a heavy-lift of a novel, but if you want a book to stay with you, this one sure will for me. -Anne M

The body alone : a lyrical articulation of chronic pain book cover
The body alone : a lyrical articulation of chronic pain book cover

The body alone : a lyrical articulation of chronic pain

Nina Lohman

616.0472 /Lohman
Nonfiction, Health, Memoir

"The Body Alone is a lyrical nonfiction inquiry into the experience, meaning, and articulation of pain. It is a hybrid account incorporating research, scholarship, and memoir to examine pain through the lenses of medicine, theology, and philosophy. Broken bodies tell broken stories. This is...

Poetic, cutting, and accurate. This book is part memoir, part poetry, and part explanatory nonfiction. Lohman details the ways that chronic pain derailed her life and reshaped her identity. If you have chronic pain, this could be a very therapeutic read. I was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and I appreciated untangling the snarled threads of pain alongside the author as she explored different techniques for thinking about and living with her pain. If you don't have chronic pain, this book is an excellent window into the experience of people that do. It especially elucidates the difference between acute and chronic pain, and asks the question: How much pain can you handle? -Chelsea

Why fish don't exist : a story of loss, love, and the hidden order of life book cover
Why fish don't exist : a story of loss, love, and the hidden order of life book cover

Why fish don't exist : a story of loss, love, and the hidden order of life

Lulu Miller

590.92 /Miller
Biographies, History, Memoir, Philosophy, Science

Nineteenth-century scientist David Starr Jordan built one of the most important fish specimen collections ever seen, until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake shattered his life's work.

One of those books that fundamentally changed how I view the world. Highly relevant today with a liberating perspective on binary thinking and the human tendency to categorize and control chaos. -Annie

The mortal and immortal life of the girl from Milan book cover
The mortal and immortal life of the girl from Milan book cover

The mortal and immortal life of the girl from Milan

Domenico Starnone

FICTION Starnone Domenico
Fiction, Literary Fiction

Imagine a child, a daydreamer, one of those boys who is always gazing out windows. His adoring grandmother, busy in the kitchen, keeps an eye on him. The child stares at the building opposite, watching a black-haired girl as she dances recklessly on her balcony. He is in love. And a love like this...

This is a book about death and coming to terms with it. How does one wrestle with loss as a child? What type of scars do they leave when we are older? How long do you carry loss with you? These are questions Starnone wrestles with in "The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan." Mimi's experiences and feelings strike true. -Anne M

The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness book cover
The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness book cover

The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness

Jonathan Haidt

305.23 /Haidt
Nonfiction, Health, Science

"From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health--and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood. After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in...

This book was illuminating to say the least. As someone who is just beginning my journey into parenthood, as well as someone who part of the generation who had a mostly low-tech childhood, this book was an interesting and alarming deep dive into the the long-term effects of a "phone-based childhood." I work with children every day, and I easily see the differences as the years go by and we rely more and more on social connections and experiences via online versus in person, and the way it affects children is astounding. I think all parents should consider the concerns and calls to action suggested in this book, and rethink how they want to help frame the childhoods their children experience. I particularly hope that even as we lean more and more heavily on smart phones as a society, that we don't totally lose the emphasis on a play-based childhood to support healthy child development. Obviously I use my phone and connect online all day, but I really want to be conscious of the factors that come into play when parenting a child. -Mari

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow : a novel book cover
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow : a novel book cover

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow : a novel

Gabrielle Zevin

FICTION Zevin, Gabrielle
Diverse Characters, Fiction

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary...

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is my favorite book of the year, and possibly one of my favorite reads to date! If you're like me and are a gamer, you'll want to read this beautiful story about the platonic love between two lifelong friends as they collaborate on designing video games. This is a story about love, platonic love, disability, and growth -- one that will be on my mind for a long time. -Violette

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Preschool Stories & More: Preucil's Music Together Storytime. Thursday, April 24. 10:30 to 11 a.m. Storytime Room. Iowa City Public Library.
UI Youth Ballet Ensemble Spring Concert Showcase. Saturday, April 19. 2:30 p.m. Meeting Room A. Iowa City Public Library. Iowa Department of dance. Youth Ballet and Community Dance School.
Fiber Arts Hangout. Last Thursday of the month. 6 to 8 p.m. Digital Media Lab. Iowa City Public Library.
Book to Art Club: Sonya's Chickens. Tuesday, April 22, 4 to 5 p.m. Storytime Room. Iowa City Public Library.
Weekly Storytime. Chinese Bilingual Storytime, Mondays, 10:30 a.m. Spanish Bilingual Storytime, Tuesdays, 10:30 a.m. StoryJAM, Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. Stories & More, Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. Book Babies, Fridays, 10:30 a.m. Family Storytime, Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. Iowa City Public Library.
Iowa City Public Library. English Conversation Group. Every Friday, January 10 to May 30. 10 a.m. to noon. Meeting Room E.
Get Making with Creativebug. Iowa City Public Library.
Staff Picks Just for you - get recommendations on what to read next. Iowa City Public Library.
Bookmobile schedule

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