Friday, June 28, 2024

New Releases - July Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

FICTION

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali.  Best seller Kamali (The Stationery Shop) offers a story of friendship and redemption set against three decades in Tehran, beginning in the 1950s when seven-year-old Ellie meets Homa. The girls bond over their shared interests and their desire to grow up to be "lion women." Class and opportunity divide them, but fate brings them together repeatedly, testing and forging—and breaking—bonds. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.






Sweetmint is invisible, just like 40 percent of the population. They are oppressed by the Dominant Population at every turn. When her brother is falsely accused of murder to cover up a political assassination, Sweetmint is forced to run for her life, sending her straight into the arms of a revolution that may, or may not, be capable of dismantling all of the levers of power that have been engineered to keep her people down. . . Sweetmint's quest for justice is juxtaposed with the real assassin's revenge motives even as the villainous plots of those in power are set against the rhetoric of the revolutionary underground.—Marlene Harris Copyright 2024 LJExpress.


The Same Bright Stars:  A Novel by Ethan Joella.  The colorful latest from Joella (A Quiet Life) finds 52-year-old Jack Schmidt at a crossroads in his diligent management of his family’s restaurant in Rehobeth Beach, Del., which he took over from his father decades earlier. When corporate bully DelDine, which has been scooping up dining establishments up and down the Delaware coast, approaches Jack with a lucrative offer, he’s tempted to take it. . . Meanwhile, he rekindles his romance with former fiancĂ© Kitty, and the narrative flashes back to the 1980s, when the pair fell in love as teens. Eventually, Jack enters into negotiations with DelDine, but revelations about the developer’s true intentions complicate matters. . . Joella adds in meaty themes of gentrification, corporate greed, and the burdens and privileges of family tradition. Those in search of a feel-good summer tale will find what they’re looking for. Agent: Madeleine Milburn. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

NONFICTION

The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Math's Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell.  Leading historian of mathematics Kitagawa and science journalist Revell move from the great female mathematician Hypatia to Arabic and Indian mathematicians to numerous Black mathematicians who challenged data-based methods of racial discrimination during the civil rights era to offer a new history of mathematics emphasizing marginalized voices. Copyright 2023 Library Journal
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox.  Journalist Fox (The Confidence Men) pieces together a captivating biography of Fredericka Mandelbaum (1825–1894), who oversaw one of America’s first large-scale criminal enterprises. Fox’s detailed descriptions of intricate heists make for a transfixing tale. Readers will be swept up. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.






A Hunger to Kill by Kim Mager with Lisa Pulitzer.
Ohio police detective Mager’s chilling true crime debut recounts her 2016 interrogation of serial killer Shawn Grate. Arrested after a woman escaped from his home in Ashland, Ohio, Grate was initially booked for rape and kidnapping. But as the hours ticked by and Mager began to question Grate, she realized she might have stumbled on the most consequential case of her career… Drawing on her interviews with Grate, his escaped victim, and his half-sister, Mager delivers an unflinching study of a killer. This hums with the intensity of a real-life Silence of the Lambs. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.


Monday, June 24, 2024

Connect to online resources from the catalog

Connect to your favorite online resource directly from the library catalog! The new Aspen Discovery layer on our catalog allows us to highlight databases using placards. For example, if you type “product reviews” into the catalog, the below Consumer Reports placard will pop up along with books related to the keyword.

While this feature allows us to highlight specific resources, it enables you to locate them easily and also find related resources. Check the placards below for some keywords you can use to pull these up in the catalog.

Consumer Reports, Product Reviews and Product Comparison.

Craft, Hobby, Hobbies, Crafts, Tutorials, Exercise, Fitness, Crochet, Knitting, Sewing, Cake Decorating, Woodworking, Photography, painting, Drawing, Classes, Needlecraft, Handicraft, Quilting and Wildlife Photography.


Business, Products, Manufacturing and Consumer Data.


Teen, Tween, YA, Young Adult, Fiction, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Common Core, AP Classes, AP English, Classics, Middle School, Enhanced Book and Audio Enhanced Book.


At this time, resources owned by WPL are the ones with placards in the catalog and require a Worcester Public Library card for remote access. Check our databases page for a complete list of online resources available through the Worcester Public Library, Massachusetts Library System and C/WMars. 

Thursday, June 6, 2024

Commemorate Juneteenth

Learn about Juneteenth with the Worcester Public Library! Juneteenth, a federal holiday, is a portmanteau of June nineteenth, and commemorates the emancipation of African Americans after the Civil War. Below are a variety of resources and events to help us learn about this important day.

WPL JUNETEENTH RESOURCES

Reads for Juneteenth - Titles to help everyone learn about the significance of Juneteenth and the Black American experience.

Kanopy Watch List - Kanopy, streaming service that is free to use with your WPL card, has assembled a collection of films to honor Juneteenth.  If you do not have a Kanopy account, create one here

Visit our display on the 1st floor of the Main Library to check out books and other resources related to this important holiday.

LOCAL EVENTS:  

Worcester City Hall: 2024 Juneteenth Flag Raising Ceremony, Friday, June 14, 5:00 PM

Institute Park: Annual Black Heritage Juneteenth Festival, Saturday, June 15, 12 - 8 PM

Fitchburg Abolitionist Park: Juneteenth Celebration, Wednesday, June 19, 11:00AM - 1:00PM

Discover Central Mass

Boston Events

OTHER RESOURCES:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Library of Congress

Monday, June 3, 2024

Events Calendar and Study Room Bookings

We’re excited to share we’ve switched to a new system for our events calendar and study room bookings.

Attend – Events calendar

Key Features:

Listing page 

The main listing page provides you with the option to search by keyword, or filter by branch, age, and event type. Use an easy calendar picker, with day, week, and month views. Events are color coded by age group for ease.

Library card
You have the option to sign up for an event using your library card. If you choose to do so, the system will auto populate the name, email and phone number fields from the information on your library record. If you do not know your card number, you can fill out these fields manually.

Custom events brochure

Interested in specific events only? Need a print out of everything happening at your favorite branch during a specific month ? You can now generate a personalized, printable pdf version of events to download or to your email. Find your favorite events and register at your convenience.


To get to events, go to mywpl.org -- Classes & Events -- Online Calendar.

Key Features:

Library Card
Just like with events, you can reserve a study room using your library card number or choose to sign up manually by filling out all fields.

Multiple bookings 
The shopping cart feature allows you to make multiple bookings at once. While the new layout looks different, all policies remain the same. Study rooms can be booked up to a week in advance with a limit of one reservation per day.

Notifications 
You will receive an email notification after making a booking. You can now view the status of your booking at any time or cancel your reservation online using either your library card number or reference number.

To go to study room bookings, go to mywpl.org -- About -- Meeting & Study Rooms