April                                  2026
SHELF HELP: Click to see our monthly guide
Coming in May!
Henderson Hospitality Summit
May 13th, 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Preston Arts Center
 
Rooted in the spirit of Unreasonable Hospitality, the Henderson Hospitality Movement unites the people who make our town thrive. Business owners, civic leaders, and neighbors share one goal: to make Henderson, Kentucky, the most hospitable town in America. We believe true hospitality is not a gesture but a mindset that turns ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences through care, creativity, and kindness. 
 
Will Guidara is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality. He is the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which, under his leadership, was named the Best Restaurant in the World. He is the host of The Welcome Conference, a co-producer on the Emmy Award-winning series The Bear, and is a recipient of the Wall Street Journal Innovator Award.
 
 
Don't wait, get your tickets now!
 
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Featured Events
Easy Does It: Chair Yoga
Wednesdays at 11:00 AM
 
Chair Yoga for Adults is a gentle, low-impact class designed to improve flexibility, mobility, balance, and relaxation using a chair for support. Suitable for all fitness levels, this class includes seated movements, breath work, and light stretching to help reduce stress and support overall well-being.
 
No prior yoga experience is needed—
just come ready to move comfortably at your own pace.
 
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Veterans Resource Fair
April 13th, 1:00 - 5:00 PM
 
HCPL's Veteran Resource Fair offers valuable resources and information to active-duty military troops, veterans, and their families Kentucky Department of Veteran Affairs Field Representatives will be on hand to answer questions about benefits and claims. 
 
Two dozen agencies that provide support services specifically designed to meet the needs of veterans and their loved ones will be showcased.
 
The Veteran Resource Fair is a free event and no registration is required! Enter the library from the Water Street parking lot.
 
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StoryWalk Ribbon Cutting
April 16th, 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Atkinson Park
 
We are thrilled to introduce Henderson’s very first official StoryWalk®, a joyful blend of literacy, movement, and time outdoors! This interactive experience begins at Atkinson Park and continues along the path toward the Riverwalk, inviting families to read a children’s story one page at a time as they walk together.
 
StoryWalks® began in Vermont in 2007 as a creative way to promote early literacy, physical activity, and family engagement. Since then, they’ve popped up in communities across the country, often in parks, trails, and downtown spaces, bringing books out of buildings and into the fresh air where stories can be experienced together.
 
We are beyond excited (and honestly, a little giddy!) to finally bring this beloved concept to the Henderson community. Join us for a ribbon-cutting celebration to reveal the first official story and invite the community to slow down, connect, explore our beautiful outdoor spaces, and fall in love with reading in a whole new way. 
 
Meet us there and come take the walk with us!
 
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Check out our Makerspace
Do you Love Knitting?
Sit & Stitch
April 14th, 5:00 - 6:30 PM
 
Are you looking for a community of fiber artists? Would you like to learn the basics of knitting? Look no further! Form community and work on your latest project at HCPL! All types of fiber artists are welcome. Hannah will be available to teach the basics of knitting. Tweens and teens are welcome, but tweens must be accompanied by an adult. 
 
 
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Hot New Books for April
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer
The Book Witch
by Meg Shaffer

She can hop into any novel, but she just can't stay there. Come along with the Book Witch in this magical and inspiring love letter to reading from the USA Today bestselling author of The Wishing Game. This hardcover edition includes gorgeously designed endpapers Meg Shaffer continues to surprise and delight me with each book she writes.--Laurie Gilmore, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Pumpkin Spice Caf Rainy March is a proud, third-generation Book Witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps in and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes like a modern-day magical Nancy Drew. Book Witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real world; fictional characters belong in works of fiction. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don't even think about it. Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she's ever caught with him again, she'll be expelled from her book coven--and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name. But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there's only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
The Ending Writes Itself
by Evelyn Clarke

A PROPULSIVE DEBUT MYSTERY FROM EVELYN CLARKE, THE BRILLIANT AND DIABOLICAL CREATION OF CAT CLARKE AND V.E. SCHWABSix authors.One private island.Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.Smart, original and completely addictive...The Ending Writes Itself is both a great locked-room thriller and a brilliant satire on the publishing industry. An absolute must-read.--Karin SlaughterArthur Fletch, one of the world's bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead ... and his last book is unfinished.Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch's agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter--for a mind-boggling sum--they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch's magnum opus.It's the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.
Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell
Cherry Baby
by Rainbow Rowell

#1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell returns with a breathtakingly honest novel about a woman who lost everything -- and isn't sure she wants it back.Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie . . .Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home.Tom is the creator of Thursday--a semi-autobiographical webcomic that's become an international phenomenon.Semi-autobiographical. That means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry . . . Baby.Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby.Cherry never wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page--let alone on the big screen. But there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store.While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in . . . and wondering who she's supposed to be without him.Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin.She'd meant it.One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems, including Tom's overgrown puppy, at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album . . . and someone recognizes her from across the room.Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom.Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry.And best of all . . . he's never heard of Thursday.Tender, funny, and utterly human, Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell's richest, most surprising--sexiest--novel yet.
American Fantasy by Emma Straub
American Fantasy
by Emma Straub

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, PEOPLE, AND TIME, HARPER'S BAZAAR AND OPRAH DAILY I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy.-- Ann Patchett American Fantasy is such a fun, delicious, big-hearted book. -Taylor Jenkins Reid You will feel so understood by this novel. -Rainbow Rowell From New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, an irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you're already an adult. When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them since childhood. Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, newly divorced, turning fifty with an empty nest, and here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come up and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening. Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members--not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend--she has accessed a new sense of possibility. In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, marriage, and middle age, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story that shows us real passion is never truly lost, that what we love makes us who we are, and that deep meaning can sometimes be found in a sea of screaming fans.
The Mountains We Call Home: The Book Woman's Legacy by Kim Michele Richardson
The Mountains We Call Home: The Book Woman's Legacy
by Kim Michele Richardson

In this standalone and companion novel to the The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series, our heroine for the ages, legendary book woman, Cussy Lovett, returns home. A powerful testament of strength, survival, and the magic of the printed word, The Mountains We Call Home is wrapped into a vivid portrait of Kentucky life: examining incarceration and criminalization, exploring the effects on the poor and powerless, and tracing the societal consequences of fractured family bonds, along with nostalgic glimpses of a bustling, multifaceted Louisville, and heartwarming portraits of reading efforts in every facet of life. Meticulously researched and richly detailed with a new cast of absorbing and complex characters, this beautifully rendered, authentic Kentucky tale is gritty and heartbreaking and infused with hope, spirit, and courage known only to those with no way out-- Provided by publisher.
Coming in May

Henderson County Public Library
101 S Main St., Henderson, Kentucky 42420
270-826-3712

https://www.hcpl.org/