Library Card Sign-Up Month: Fine Free + Fare Free!
Fondulac District Library is excited to partner with Greater Peoria Mass Transit District/CityLink, Peoria Public Library, Pekin Public Library, and Peoria Heights Public Library to celebrate National Library Card Sign-Up Month and our two year anniversary of going Fine Free! September 1-30, show your library card from FDL, Peoria Public Library, Pekin Public Library, or Peoria Heights Public Library to ride CityLink’s fixed bus routes for FREE! Services like public transportation and fine-free access to media, technology, resources, and educational programming are essential to connecting and sustaining vibrant communities. This partnership aims to encourage more people to sign up for a library card, visit their local libraries, and ride CityLink when possible!
Beyond our community, Library Card Sign-Up Month is celebrated in September by the American Library Association and libraries nationwide to remind everyone that a library card is the first step towards academic achievement and lifelong learning. So this September, sign up for a new FDL card, renew your expired card, or replace your lost card to be entered into a prize drawing for an Amazon HD 8 tablet! Already have an FDL card in good standing? Use it to check out materials from FDL in September, and you could win an Amazon HD 8 tablet, too! Encourage your friends and neighbors to get their library cards, and discover all of the great resources and programs available at FDL!
For more information about how to sign up for your library card, visit fondulaclibrary.org/library-cards/. To learn about FDL’s fine free policies, visit fondulaclibrary.org/fine-free-faq/. Check out ridecitylink.org to find CityLink’s routes and schedules, or see below for routes directly to the libraries.
Peoria Public Libraries
- Main: #10 Forrest Hill, #11 Western, #12 Heights, #14 Wisconsin
- Lincoln: #15 Lincoln
- McClure: #10 Forrest Hill
- Lakeview: #1 University
- North: #1 University
Fondulac District Library
Peoria Heights Public Library
Pekin Public Library
#FDL: Popular Audiobooks Available on Hoopla
These are some of the most popular audiobooks available on Hoopla. Use your Fondulac District Library card to check one out now!
FDL Reads: By Any Other Name
By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate
Reviewed by: Dawn Dickey
Genre: Romance
Suggested Age: Adults
What is the book about?: Editorial assistant Lanie Bloom’s world changes when she is promoted to be the youngest editor ever at Peony Press. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, but the job is hers only “provisionally.” Retaining her new job depends on getting Peony’s megastar romance writer, Noa Callaway, to deliver Noa’s latest manuscript, which is already four months late. And Noa, it seems, has writer’s block. As for her personal life, Lanie is juggling a long-distance relationship with her fiancé, Ryan, an up-and-coming politician who meets every criteria on Lanie’s 99-point list of qualities for the perfect husband.
My Review: I loved this book! It’s sad at times but funny at other times. The characters are relatable: Lanie, for example, struggles to balance her satisfying work life with the demands of her long-distance romance with Ryan. The characters are also people that you would like to have as friends; you understand their faults and but love them despite their failings. The creative plot has some interesting twists and poses questions about well-known authors and privacy. This is a tale that you will want to read all in one weekend! I hope you will check it out soon!
Three Words That Describe This Book: funny, romantic, warm-hearted
Give This a Try if You Like… Feel-good romances like People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry or Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: Mary Jane
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
Reviewer: Deb Alig, Circulation Assistant
Genre: Fiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What is this book about? The year is 1975 and fourteen year old Mary Jane lives in a conservative home in an exclusive neighborhood of Baltimore. Her mother Betsy is a stereotypical Stepford wife who teaches Mary Jane how to cook and keep house and how to behave like a proper young lady. Gerald, her racist and anti-Semitic father, is a lawyer who believes in hard work, family, and patriotism. When Mrs. Cone, the wife of a local doctor, asks Mary Jane to be a nanny for her five year old daughter, Izzy, her parents agree as they feel it is a respectable summer job for their daughter. Or is it? The Cone’s lifestyle is nothing like Mary Jane’s. Their home is cluttered with books, clothes, and toys that are strewn all over the place. Bonnie Cone does not cook for her family. They mostly eat take out. And she doesn’t wash or dress Izzy or put her to bed. Mary Jane is naturally shocked by the lack of structure so she decides to help the Cone family get organized. She bathes and dresses Izzy, prepares breakfast and supper for the family, and helps straighten up whenever she can. But caring for the Cone family soon becomes even more challenging when a drug addicted rock star named Jimmy and his movie star wife named Sheba move into the house so that Dr. Cone can help Jimmy get sober. Jimmy and Sheba are entertaining and affectionate characters, but they are also dysfunctional. Jimmy is addicted to heroin and Sheba is addicted to fame. Though Mary Jane has never met people like them, she soon becomes attached. They literally introduce her to sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, and by the end of the summer, she questions the sheltered and elitist way in which she is being raised.
My Review: Mary Jane is a fun, coming of age novel that transports the reader back to 1975 when young people lived for sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. Even the photographic cover of the novel cleverly depicts the absurdly nostalgic story that waits inside. I think that just about anyone who grew up in the 1970’s would enjoy reading this book as much as I did.
Rating: 5/5
Three Words that Describe this Book: nostalgic, far out, coming of age
Give This A Try If You Like: The Trouble with Lexie by, Jessica Anya Blau, The Wonder Bread Summer by, Jessica Anya Blau, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by, Jessica Anya Blau
FDL Reads: Choose Me
Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver
Reviewed by: Becky Houghton, Reference Assistant
Genre: Mystery; Thriller
What is this book about? Taryn Moore, a young, beautiful and brilliant college student appears to have committed suicide in a plunge from her fifth-floor apartment. Detectives Frankie Loomis and “Mac” MacClellan uncover evidence that may indicate that it was in fact a homicide. As they revisit the circumstances of Taryn’s life and death the details lead to a surprising discovery. Is it the reason for her suicide or a motive for a homicide?
My review: I enjoyed this book very much. Not only are Gerritsen and Braver excellent storytellers, but the use of comparison of Taryn Moore’s life with the subject matter of her literature seminar on star-crossed lovers from Greek mythology (Queen Dido/Aeneas, Heloise/Abelard, Medea/Jason) and Shakespearian literature (Romeo and Juliet) was entertaining and fascinating to me. (Ok, disclaimer, I was an English major myself!) All the evidence seems to point the detectives to a simple conclusion, Taryn committed suicide after a failed romance with a fellow student, but detective Frankie Loomis is certain that the absence of a cell phone in Taryn’s apartment or on her body indicates that there is more involved here. As Frankie and her partner Mac search deeper into her life, Taryn’s personality is revealed to be rather over-reactive and obsessive and her love life a bit more complex. This was definitely not a formula mystery story and the ending was a surprise.
Three words that describe this book: Complex, Fast-Paced, Absorbing
Give this a try if you liked: mysteries by Karin Slaughter, David Baldacci or Lisa Unger
Rating: 5/5
Family Fun for August
With summer winding down and kids gearing up return to school, families might be looking for some quiet fun. What’s better than a night in with board games or card games? Besides being a fun way to bring your family to the table, playing games together helps children develop important skills like problem solving, communication, and socialization. The library has board games for all ages to check out and play at home. You can check out two games per library card, and each game has a loan period of one week. 
FDL has lots of board games for children, including classics like Candyland, Trouble, Checkers, Chutes and Ladders, and Battleship. We also have a variety of family-favorite card games, including Uno, Skip-Bo Junior, Monopoly Deal, Old Maid, and Memory. We have lots of new games, too, with new titles added regularly. Try a few out and let us know which ones are your family favorites!
Some of our most popular games include:
Ticket to Ride: First Journey
Players collect cards of various types of train cars and use them to lay claim to railway routes throughout North America. The first person to claim 6 routes is the winner.
Catan Junior
Thos game takes place on a ring of tropical isles, including the mysterious Spooky Island, home of the Ghost Captain. Each island generates a specific resource: wood, goats, molasses, gold or cutlasses. Players use resources to build and expand their network of pirate lairs. The first player to control seven pirate lairs wins the game.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game!
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game helps preschoolers master matching skills, develop fine motor skills including pre-handwriting skills, social skills like taking turns, and strategic thinking skills.
Munchkin Treasure Hunt
Explore the dungeon! Roll the die, move, fight the monster, get the most gold, and win!
Professor Noggin’s Extraordinary Women Card Game
Professor Noggin’s series of educational games encourages kids to learn interesting facts about their favorite subjects. Each of the thirty game cards combines trivia, true or false, and multiple-choice questions. A special three numbered die is included which creates interaction and promotes communication between players. Easy and hard levels keep kids interested and challenged – while of course having fun!
Monopoly Deal
The purpose is to assemble property sets, charge rent, swap cards, demand birthday money, and debt collection by drawing cards from the deal pile. Action cards are played into the center only on players’ turns; payment demands can be paid from other players’ banks, their properties, or cancelled by a “just say no card.” The first player to collect three complete card sets of different colors wins the game.
Annotations from the FDL Library Catalog
– Kris, Youth Services Specialist