View All News

  • Join the library in the Fourth of July Parade

    Share your community spirit and step out with the library at the Arlington Heights Fourth of July Parade, Friday, July 4, at 10 a.m. Walk alongside the library’s bookmobile and help hand out giveaways to thousands of spectators along the way. This community event is open to all ages, but you must be able to walk the entire 1.5-mile parade route. Families with strollers and scooters are also welcome to join. Participants will receive a special library-themed T-shirt to wear on the day of the parade. Space is limited, so sign up early. Arlington Heights cardholders only. Participants under the

    Read More

  • Visit the library in the community this summer

    Enjoy the many community events in Arlington Heights and make the most of your summer! Mark your calendars and join the Arlington Heights Memorial Library around town at these upcoming events.

    Visit the Bookmobile in the Community   

    May 10: Swing into Spring: North School Park
    May 26: Memorial Day Parade: Downtown Arlington Heights
    Saturdays, May 17 and 31: Farmer's Markets: N. Vail Commuter Lot

    For a list of regular bookmobile stops, visit ahml.info/bookmobile.
     

    Library Pop-ups at the Farmers Market

    The library also hosts special pop-up events at the Farmers Market on select Saturdays from 9-11 a.m. including:

    May 10: National Speech-Language-Hearing Month 

    Read More

  • Volunteer celebration honors ‘45 years of magic’

    The library recently hosted its annual Volunteer Recognition Celebration, honoring more than 500 dedicated individuals who contributed 24,527 hours of service in the past year —supporting programs, mentoring customers, delivering materials and more.  
     

    Held on Wednesday, April 23 at the Rolling Green Country Club, this year's celebration embraced the theme “45 Years of Magic,” a tribute to the transformative impact volunteers have made at the library over nearly five decades. 
     

    “Like a master illusionist, the preparations of our behind-the-scenes volunteers are unseen by many, but the results — the results are undeniable,” Volunteer Coordinator Jennifer Begich said

    Read More

 
 

NEW TO THE LIBRARY

Enigma
RuNyx (Novelist),
"Salem Salazar is a Mortimer University legacy and the black sheep of her scandal-ridden, wealthy family. Obsessed with death, she arrives at Mortimer on the hunt for answers about what happened to her perfect, missing older sister. There, she discovers that her sister is far from the only girl to have gone missing at Mortimer. Salem will do anything to discover what dark forces are killing Mortimer's students... even if it means using herself as bait. And Cazimir van der Waal has caught her scent. He has a dark past, a hidden agenda,and a ravenous appetite for a beautiful, golden-eyed girl who seems determined to risk her life. But he is far from the most dangerous thing at Mortimer."--Provided by publisher
Bad nature
Courage, Ariel,
"Armed with a terminal diagnosis, a grudge, and a rental car, forty-year-old Hester sets out to fulfill her lifelong dream of killing her father in this brilliantly subversive and bleakly funny novel It's Hester's fortieth birthday when she's diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father. With no friends or family tying her to the life she's built in New York City, she quits her wildly lucrative job in corporate law and sets off. She hasn't made it far when she runs into John, an environmental activist in need of a ride to different superfund sites across the United States. From five-star Midwestern hotels to cultish Southwestern compounds, the two slowly make their way across the country. But will the revelations they make along the way dissuade Hester from her final goal? Ragingly singular and surprisingly moving, Bad Nature is a story of stunning detours and twists until its final destination. Part road trip novel, part revenge tale, part a lament of our ongoing ecological crisis, it's ultimately a deft examination of the indulgence of holding grudges, moral ambivalence, and the eternal possibility of redemption"--
Let me be the one
Foster, Lori, 1958-
"She's more than the girl next door. She's the one who got away. When Callie McCallahan left Hoker, Kentucky, she thought it was for good. Her parents moved the family away to pursue financial success. Since then, she's had some bumps in the road, most recently the humiliation of a failed engagement. When she inherits her uncle's farm in her old neighborhood, it's the perfect do-over. With her social media skills, she'll attract a whole new following and restart her career. The only thing is...she knows nothing about farming. For Tanner Patrick, Callie was the one who got away. He crushed on her in high school, but she barely knew he existed. Ten years later, she's back--and now she lives next door. Tanner keeps his head down and focuses on his family's tree farm. But when he sees that Callie is in way over her head and looking pretty down-to-earth and happy--Tanner finds her impossible to ignore. When Callie stumbles through the woods and encounters her sexy chain-saw-wielding neighbor, Callie definitely notices Tanner. Could this be the do-over each of them didn't know they needed?" --
The midwife of Auschwitz
Stuart, Anna,
Ana Kaminski is pushed through the iron gates of Auschwitz beside her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak. As they reach the front of the line, Ana steps forward and quietly declares herself a midwife--and Ester her assistant. Their arms are tattooed and they're ordered to the maternity hut. Holding an innocent new-born baby, Ana knows the fate of so many are in her hands, and vows to do everything she can to save them. When two guards in their chilling SS uniforms march in and snatch a blond-haired baby from its mother it's almost too much for Ana to bear. Consoling the distraught woman, Ana realises amidst the terrible heartache there is a glimmer of hope. The guards are taking the healthiest babies and placing them with German families, so they will survive. And there are whispers the war is nearly over... Ana and Ester begin to secretly tattoo little ones with their mother's numbers, praying one day they might be reunited. Then, early one morning, Ana notices the small bump under Ester's thin striped clothing, making their dangerous mission more imperative than ever
The family recipe
Huynh, Carolyn,
"From the author of the "sharp, smart, and gloriously extra" (Nancy Jooyoun Kim, New York Times bestselling author) Good Morning America Book Club Pick The Fortunes of Jaded Women, a stunning family dramedy about estranged siblings competing to inherit their father's Vietnamese sandwich franchise and unravel family mysteries. Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc's Sandwiches, has decided to retire. No one has heard from his wife, Evelyn, in two decades. She abandoned the family without a trace, and clearly doesn't want anything to do with Duc, the business, or their kids. But the money has to go to someone. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations across America: Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphia-within a year. But if the first-born (and only) son, Jude, gets married first, everything will go to him. Each daughter is stuck in a new city, battling gentrification, declining ethnic enclaves, and messy love lives, while struggling to modernize their father's American dream. Jude wonders if he wants to marry for love or for money-or neither. As Duc's children scramble to win their inheritance, they begin to learn the real intention behind the inheritance scheme-and the secret their mother kept tucked away in the fireplace, all along. The Family Recipe is about rediscovering one's roots, different types of fatherly love, legacy, and finding a place in a divided country where the only commonality among your neighbors is the universal love of sandwiches"--
Six days in Bombay
Joshi, Alka,
"When renowned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and Sona is excited to spend time with the worldly woman who shares her half-Indian identity, even if that's where their similarities end. Sona is enraptured by Mira's stories of her travels and shocked by accounts of the many lovers she's left scattered through Europe. Over the course of a week, Mira befriends Sona, seeing in her something bigger than the small life she's living with her mother. Mira is released from the hospital just in time to attend a lavish engagement party with all of Bombay society and invites Sona along. But the next day, Mira is readmitted to the hospital in worse condition than before, and when she dies under mysterious circumstances, Sona immediately falls under suspicion. Before leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with her four favorite paintings. But how could she have known to leave a note if she didn't know she was going to die? The note sends Sona on a mission to deliver three of the paintings--the first to Petra, Mira's childhood friend and first love in Prague; the second to her art dealer Josephine in Paris; the third to her first painting tutor, Paolo, with whom both Mira and her mother had affairs. As Sona uncovers Mira's history, she learns that the charming facade she'd come to know was only one part of a complicated and sometimes cruel woman. But can she discover what really happened to Mira and exonerate herself? Along the way, Sona also comes to terms with her own complex history and the English father who deserted her and her mother in India so many years ago." --
The cat who saved the library
Natsukawa, Sōsuke, 1978-
"A chronic asthma condition prevents thirteen-year-old Nanami from playing sports or spending time with her friends after school. But nothing can stop her from one of her favorite activities. Nanami loves to read and happily spends much of her free time in the library, cocooned among the stacks. Then one day, Nanami notices that, despite the library being as deserted as ever, some of her favorite books...are disappearing from the shelves. When she alerts the library staff, they dismiss her concerns...That's when Tiger, the talking tabby cat who saves books, comes to the rescue. Are Nanami and Tiger prepared to face the dangerous challenges that lie ahead? Why are faceless gray soldiers burning books in a stone castle?"--
Atavists : stories
Millet, Lydia, 1968-
A collection of stories that follows a bewildered bartender, a grieving beautician, a jilted urban planner and others as their lives unravel in unexpected ways, revealing primal urges and raw emotions against the backdrop of a fractured, overwhelmed America
Strike and burn
Hutton, Taylor,
"Honor Stone is all alone in this world. No family, no money, no future. So when she locks eyes with Strike Madden- in the morgue of all places- she's not in the mood to be seduced. Sure, he's drop-dead gorgeous, and the sizzle of attraction between them is undeniable, but she's reeling from her identical twin sister's murder. It's the wrong time, wrong place, wrong everything. Still, the enigmatic billionaire hires Honor as an artist to spearhead his carefully curated erotic animation studio - a job they soon find to be a dangerous mix of business and pleasure. But when her twin's obsessive killer targets Honor, the painful secrets of Honor's traumatic past will finally be exposed with devastating consequences. Strike will stop at nothing to protect her, uncovering his own bone-chilling demons- a beautifully broken, dark side that doesn't scare Honor... It consumes her."--
The float test
Strong, Lynn Steger, 1983-
"The Kenner siblings are at odds. Jenn is a harried mom struggling under the weight of family obligations. Fred is a novelist who can't write, maybe because she's lost faith in storytelling itself. Jude is a recovering corporate lawyer with her own story to tell, and a grudge against her former favorite sister, Fred. George, the baby, is estranged from his wife and harboring both a secret about his former employer and an ill-advised crush on one of his sisters' friends. Gathered after a major loss, each sibling needs the others more than ever-if only they could trust each other. A family story is, of course, only as honest as the person telling it. This family story in particular is fraught with secrets about kids and sex and jobs and why the Kenner matriarch had a gun in her underwear drawer. The biggest secret of all though is the secret of what happened between Jude and Fred to create such a rift between the two once-close middle sisters. Over the course of a sweltering Florida summer, the Kenner siblings will revisit what it means to be a family and, if they are smart and kind and lucky, come out on the other side better for having each other. A rich exploration of family, ambition, secrets, and love, The Float Test is an elegant and gripping testament to the power that family has to both nurture and destroy us from a critically acclaimed writer working at the top of her craft"--
To light the way forward
Naigle, Nancy,
"Feeling adrift after the loss of her husband, Rosemary sets out to visit an old friend on Whelk's Island, undeterred by the threat of a hurricane. Before the storm hits, she finds herself at Tug's Diner where she quickly connects with the owner. But the storm destroys the diner, compounding Tug's grief from losing his love the previous year. The longer Rosemary stays, the more she sees Tug's deep sadness and resolves to help him. Together with Tug and friends Amanda and Paul, they all pitch in to aid the close-knit community in its recovery. As Amanda and Paul reconnect after losing touch during the storm, their plans to take things slow seem increasingly impractical. While Rosemary and Tug help the young couple navigate their relationship and support Whelk's Island as it rebuilds, they also find themselves building a friendship that begins to restore them both. But can that friendship convince them that love is possible for anyone who's willing to take a risk - even those who never hoped to find it again?"--
Freakslaw
Flett, Jane,
"It's the summer of '97 and the Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change. Enter the Freakslaw - a travelling funfair populated by deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem. It doesn't take long for the Freakslaw folk to infiltrate Pitlaw's grey world, where the town's teenagers - none more so than Ruth and Derek - are seduced by neon charms and the possibility of escape. But beneath it all, these newcomers are harbouring a darker desire: revenge. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that's been simmering for centuries is about to be unleashed..."--publisher
Elegy, southwest
Watts, Madeleine,
"A timely and urgent novel following a young married couple on a road trip through the American southwest as they grapple with the breakdown of their relationship in the shadow of environmental collapse, for fans of Rachel Cusk and Sigrid Nunez"--
Gulliver's travels
Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745,
A classic satirical travel memoir exploring remarkable lands and societies in a witty, gripping commentary on political corruption
The daughter of Rome
Hunt, Angela Elwell, 1957-
"In Nero's Rome, a catastrophic fire leaves Calandra reliant on a group of Christians. She grapples with her mistrust but finds herself indebted to those who helped rebuild her shattered world. When Nero blames the tragedy on the Jewish Messiah's followers, Calandra is forced to choose between right and wrong, friends and family, love and death"--

Items Coming Soon

  DVDs  

   Blu-rays  

    Books    

 

 
 

Upcoming Programs

View full calendar ›

18
May

Finals Study Lounge
- /The Hub

18
May

Chess Club
- /Lindsey Room

18
May

MVP & TAB Collab: Teen Volunteering
- /Cardinal Room

18
May

Sunday Musicale: Jonas Friddle
- /Full Hendrickson Room

19
May

Culture & Conversation (level: intermediate)
- /Cardinal Room

19
May

Finals Study Lounge
- /The Hub
View full calendar ›