Blog

The holiday season brings with it family gatherings, delicious food, and gifts, but it’s also filled with big movie releases.  Both Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day are big days for the box office, and the movie studios make sure there are lots of great new movies out there to draw us in!

As a book lover, when a movie is based on a book, I prefer to read the book before seeing the movie; movies almost always have to drop (sometimes crucial, in my opinion) elements of a story in order to fit it into 2-3 hours, and I prefer to experience the full story first.  I also prefer to have my own “picture” of characters in my head first; in the past when I’ve seen the movie then read the book, I inevitably have the actors from the movie in my head when I later read the story, and my imagination feels left out of the process.  

Continue Reading "Books on the Big Screen" →

'Tis the season and all that.  Some of us love it and are natural  holiday merrymakers. Some of us just kind of, well you know.... hate it.  For you bah-humbuggers the holidays can be hard, but DPPL can help. Here are four ways to put a little more 'happy' in your holiday.

Continue Reading "Holidays are hard.  DPPL’s got 4 ways to make them easier" →

"It's __________.," your doctor said definitively. "I have what?" you respond. Anyone who has just been diagnosed with a medical condition or disease knows only too well the shock and dismay that inevitably tend to accompany such news.

"What do I do now?" you ask yourself, loved ones and friends. "Where do I go from here?"

Don't hesitate to ask your physican where to find credible medical information about your condition, in print and/or online. It's important to educate yourself.

The Des Plaines Public Library can help, too. Let us serve as a guide.

Continue Reading "Newly diagnosed? Don’t despair" →

In 1914, a terrible war was being waged in Europe. The millions of soldiers who fought knew the conflict as the Great War. Today we call it the First World War. Soldiers dug trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire. The area that separated the trenches was called No Man’s Land.

 
On Christmas Eve of 1914, soldiers from the British army could hear the German soldiers singing "Stille Nacht" across No Man’s Land. They recognized the tune as the Christmas carol, "Silent Night". That was the start of the Christmas Truce.

"Stille Nacht" was written on December 24, 1818 in Austria. This lullaby-like German carol became known around the world. The song we know as "Silent Night" was translated to English in 1863. You can find hundreds of different recordings of Silent Night or Stille Nacht on our Freegal site. Des Plaines cardholders can choose five songs each week to download for free. 

You can learn more about the Christmas Truce and the song that started it in these books.

Continue Reading "Silent Night During the Great War" →

Talking about books and movies is, of course, our specialty here at the library. We even have a whole section of books especially intended for book clubs!

One trend that we love in the talking-about-pop-culture world is that of people taking their book clubs from their living rooms, and out into the community. More and more folks are holding book club meetups in coffeeshops, restaurants, and a personal favorite of many I know, bars.

Continue Reading "Pint & Click: White Elephant Book Swap at the Tap House Grill" →