MOLINE, Ill. — With fall right around the corner, it's the perfect time to grab your library card and curl up with a new book!
Every other Wednesday, on our 4 p.m. show, The Current, we bring you a book-club-style segment called "Current Reads." We chat with libraries all over our viewing area to hear what people are reading in their community. For this edition, we're bringing things home, to the Moline Public Library.
Librarian Rebecca Bacon joined us on The Current to discuss the three books readers in Moline can't put down right now:
- "Hour of the Witch: A Novel" by Chris Bohjalian has been described as historical fiction at its best. The story follows a young Puritan woman, Mary Deerfield, in Boston, in 1662. When her cruel, powerful husband drives a three-tined fork into the back of her hand in a drunken rage, she decides divorcing him is the only way to save her life. But soon, neighbors start noticing "signs" that make them believe Mary deserves the gallows. It's a twisting novel of historical suspense that tells the terrifying tale of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.
- "Mother May I: A Novel" by Joshilyn Jackson is a domestic suspense novel in which a mother has to decide how far she's willing to go to protect her child and the life she knows and loves. Our main character is Bree Cabbat, who grew up poor in rural Georgia but eventually married into wealth, power and connections. That is until she sees an old woman dressed in all black peering into her bedroom window. The woman suddenly disappears, before reappearing in the parking lot of her daughter's school. Then, Bree's infant son vanishes from his car seat, with a note warning her if she wants her baby back, she must not call the police. To get her son back, Bree must complete one small, seemingly harmless task. But her actions come with a devastating price.
- "Family Family: A Novel" by Laurie Frankel follows India Allwood, who grew up wanting to be an actor. Eventually, she stars in a new movie about adoption. India, who's an adoptive mom in real life, wants everyone to know there's more to that story than just pain and regret. To do this, she tells a journalist her new movie is bad. Following the ensuing media storm and protestors on both sides of the story, India turns to her family for help. But things get messy because India's not just an adoptive mother. This is a story all about families, and no matter how they're formed, the truth is: it's complicated.
This October, you can join the Moline Library for "An Evening with Shelby Van Pelt."
Van Pelt is the author of the acclaimed, best-selling book, "Remarkably Bright Creatures." This novel explores friendship, reckoning and hope as it follows a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.
The public will get a chance to meet Van Pelt at Moline High School's Bartlett Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. Van Pelt will be available to discuss her novel and her writing inspiration, answer questions and sign books. While the event is free, registration is encouraged. You can do so here.
Tune into The Current from 4 to 5 p.m. on weekdays to catch live interviews impacting you, your family and your hometown as well as all of the biggest headlines of the day.