Women's Equality Day commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. The titles in this list offer both historical and fictional treatment of the women's suffrage movement and the hard-won right to vote.
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“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” -Marjorie Blackman
“I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.” -Anne Tyler
Expand your understanding of the lives of others by reading these memoirs about gender identity.
More"We read to know we're not alone." William Nicholson, Shadowlands
MoreThe childrens' collection at Springfield-Greene County Library offers books about the Apollo 11 moon landing for kids from tots to teens. Spark your child's curiosity about astronomy and space travel with the following books.
MoreOnce the province of literary fiction (George Orwell's "1984") or science fiction (Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World"), dystopian literature has now entered the mainstream. Within the dystopian genre, several subgenres have emerged. Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," published in 1985, is considered the first feminist dystopian novel. It is set in a future society, a theocracy, where women have lost all civil rights, cannot own property, and are not even allowed to read. Due to a societal precipitous decline in fertility, women who are able to reproduce are enslaved and forced to bear children for the elite. In the decades since the publication of this landmark novel, more and more authors have considered the effects on women of drastic societal and political change.
MoreOngoing reasearch on dementia shows that mental stimulation--like challenging crosswords, math games, and logic puzzles--can help the brain stimulate connections between nerve cells and develop neural plasticity to defend against cell loss. The Library has many books of puzzles and games that can challenge your brain and have fun at the same time.
MoreOver the last twenty years, neuroscience has blossomed, thanks to breakthroughs in imaging and neurochemistry, and research has started to reveal answers to questions about how and why humans think the way we do. The following list of books is a sampling of the many titles available at the Library about understanding thinking and how the new knowledge might be used to explain human cognition and potentially transform human behaviors.
It is not uncommon for a character’s name to appear in the title of a book, but some literary characters are so iconic that their very name conjures up a mood, a setting, a plot line, or even an entire genre. Today we salute those memorable characters and their stories.
MoreSeptember inevitably brings thoughts and memories of school. Love or hate it, fall sends us back to the classroom. In honor of this yearly tradition, we've compiled a list of "campus" novels for your enjoyment.
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