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John of John
by Douglas Stuart
Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry back home to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides to find that little has changed except for him. He returns to the windswept croft and the two pillars of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, tweed weaver, and lay preacher in the local Presbyterian church, and his maternal grandmother Ella, a profanity-loving Glaswegian whose steady warmth helped Cal weather the sudden departure of his mother. Cal privately wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, while John is dismayed by his son's long hair, strange clothes, and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. But Cal isn't the only one in the croft house who is keeping secrets.
Scheduled release date: May 5, 2026 - place holds on physical copy or Libby now.
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The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
by Anna Johnston
Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he'd return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there's nobody left in Fred's life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he's desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. Fred's luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has a roof over his head, three meals a day, and, most importantly, the chance to be part of a family again. All he has to do is hope that his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby and Hoopla.
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Definitely Thriving
by Kerry Clare
The heartening and hilarious story of a woman who doesn't have it all figured out just yet. After accidentally-on-purpose exploding her listless marriage by being discovered in bed with the next-door neighbors, Clemence Lathbury returns to her hometown resolved to build a life for herself that is good and substantial, to become the kind of sensible woman who won't be distracted by frippery and romance. It's supposed to be Eat, Pray, Love, without the love part. But no woman is an island, and soon Clemence finds herself embroiled in neighborhood drama; beginning a crusade at the local bookshop; becoming adopted by a well-groomed, one-eyed cat; and being forced to admit her attraction to two very different men--each a romantic lead in his own right.
Available on Hoopla.
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Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love
by Marianne Cronin
Eddie Winston, a 90-year-old charity shop volunteer in Birmingham, England, unexpectedly becomes friends with Bella, a pink-haired young woman mourning her boyfriend. When Bella realizes that Eddie has never been kissed, she sweetly sets out to help him find love.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby and Hoopla.
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Where the Wildflowers Grow (Standard Edition)
by Terah Shelton Harris
While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn't expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm's owner, who sees through Leigh's defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, and encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby and Hoopla.
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Reports of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
by James Goodhand
A lifetime ago, Ray Spike Thorns was a well-regarded caretaker on a boarding school's grounds. These days, he lives the life of a recluse in a house rammed with hoarded junk, alone and disconnected from family or anyone he might have at one time considered a friend. When his next-door neighbor drops dead on Spike's doorstep, a case of mistaken identity ensues: according to the police, the hospital, the doctors--everyone--Spike is dead. Spike wants to correct the mistake, really he does, but when confronted with those who knew him best, he hesitates, forced to face whatever impression he's left on the world.
Available on Hoopla.
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All the Lonely People
by Mike Gayle
After lying about his perfect retirement life to his daughter in Australia, a Jamaican immigrant scrambles to make his actual life resemble the one he claimed to have when his daughter announces her intent to visit.
Physical copy available only.
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Blue Graffiti
by Calahan Skogman
A painter and construction worker who never left the fields of Johnson, Wisconsin, finds love, purpose and a chance to rebuild his life after meeting a mysterious, green-eyed stranger named Rose at his favorite local bar.
Available on Hoopla.
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The Freedom Artist
by Ben Okri
In a world uncomfortably like our own, a young woman called Amalantis is arrested for asking a question. When Amalantis disappears, her lover Karnak goes looking for her. He searches desperately at first, then with a growing realization that to find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question. Karnak's search leads him into a terrifying world of deception, oppression, and fear at the heart of which lies the prison. Then Karnak discovers that he is not the only one looking for the truth.
Available on Libby and Hoopla.
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How to Age Disgracefully
by Clare Pooley
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens' Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she'll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards. The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign--but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide. When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door--as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog--to save the building.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby.
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The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
by Robert Dugoni
Born with ocular albinism, small-town eye doctor Sam Hill, who was called “Devil Boy” in his youth, must finally face a past tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown and the life he’d always known--a journey that makes him realize what truly matters.
Physical copy available only.
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The Lost Ticket
by Freya Sampson
Arriving in London, brokenhearted Libby Nichols meets elderly Frank who has been riding the bus for 60 years, hoping to find a girl he met in 1962, and decides to help him search, finding her tightly controlled world expanding as she opens her heart to new friendships and romance.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby.
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A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman
A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby.
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Delirious
by Damien Wilkins
It's time. Mary, an ex cop, and her husband, retired librarian Pete, have decided to move into a retirement village. They aren't falling apart, but they're watching each other - Pete with his tachcychardia and bad hip, Mary with her ankle and knee. Selling their beloved house should be a clean break, but it's as if the people they have lost keep returning to ask new things of them. A local detective calls with new information about the case of their son, Will, who was killed in an accident forty years before. Mary finds herself drawn to consider her older sister's shortened life. Pete is increasingly haunted by memories of his late mother, who developed delirium and never recovered.
Available on Hoopla.
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The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
A fable about undauntingly following one's dreams, listening to one's heart, and reading life's omens features dialogue between a boy and an unnamed being.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby and Hoopla.
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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
Jolted out of emotional numbness by a letter from an old friend who wants to say goodbye before she dies, Harold Fry embarks on a 600-mile hiking journey to his friend's side without supplies, an endeavor that stirs up memories of his unhappy marital and parenting experiences.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby.
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The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
by Mitch Albom
Sent to America at age nine with nothing but an old guitar, Frankie Presto achieves success on the mid-twentieth-century music scene before becoming overburdened by his ability to affect people's futures through his music.
Physical copy available. Also available on Libby and Hoopla.
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The Correspondent
by Virginia Evans
Sybil is seventy-three years old, in the winter of her life. Sybil has always made sense of the world through writing letters and through this epistolary novel we see how she comes to terms with her past and present and learns forgiveness.
Waitlist - place holds on physical copy or on Libby now.
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This Book Made Me Think of You
by Libby Page
Tilly Nightingale is stunned to learn her late husband left her a birthday gift: twelve books, one for each month, to help her through her first year without him. With help from Alfie, the kind bookshop owner, Tilly begins a reading-inspired journey of healing. As she vlogs her adventures and connects with others, her story becomes bigger than she imagined. Can a year of books help her turn the page and learn to love again?
Waitlist - place holds on physical copy or on Libby now.
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Buckeye
by Patrick Ryan
In the jubilant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, shares a single, life-altering moment with Margaret Salt, a woman determined to outrun her past. Cal is married to Becky, whose spiritual gifts help the living speak to the dead, while Margaret's husband, Felix, is serving at sea, believed to be safe--until a telegram suggests otherwise. What begins as a fleeting transgression becomes a complex secret that irrevocably binds all four of them in unexpected ways. As their small Ohio town remakes itself in the postwar boom, the Salt and Jenkins families remain in each other's orbit, and the consequences of choices made long ago begin to emerge, reshaping their lives in ways that will forever impact the next generation.
Waitlist - place holds on physical copy or on Libby now.
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Prospect Heights Public Library District
12 N. Elm St., Prospect Heights, Illinois 60070
847-259-3500https://www.phpl.info |
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