Upcoming Events
- June 10th @ 10am
Little Free Library Opening!
- June 12th @ 6:30pm
TEDtalk and Discussion
"Reinventing Yourself"
- June 21st @ 10am
United Way Day of Action Storytime and Crafts
- June 22nd @ 5:30pm
Eric Hemenway and Emily Proctor present: "A Blanket for All Seasons: The Iimportance of Quilting in Anishnaabek Communities"
- July 1st @ 10am
Library Book Sale Begins
Al Anon meets every Sunday at 6:30pm
Toddler storytime every Thursday at 10:30am
Open Mic night every 1st and 3rd Monday
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Hi ,
I don't know about you, but I felt a palpable relief with the appearance of the leaves in the trees this year. We're finally turning green! The Harbor Springs Farmers Market is in full swing once again and school is about to let out for the summer. I dare say we're heading toward sunnier climes!
You may have noticed the library's been under some construction during the past month- well, we're halfway there! At least, we're past the tented-plastic-everyone-crammed-in-the-librarian-desk-space part. Keep an eye out for our new window!
We're kicking off summer with a few events of note:
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 We're premiering our two new Little Free Libraries this Saturday, June 10th, at 10am. The "unveiling" will take place briefly at the Harbor Springs History Museum on Main Street, where we've placed a free take-a-book, leave-a-book stand as a gift to the community. The other Little Free Library will be placed at Zorn Park. A huge thank you to Vern Kors for building the beautiful libraries and also to John Cupps, Sr. of Cupps Masonry for building the amazing stands. Both men have very generously donated their time and materials and we are endlessly appreciative of their talents.
- Monday, June 12th, at 6:30pm we're hosting another TEDtalk screening followed by a discussion led by Cyndi Kramer. This month's topic is Reinventing Yourself.
- Our biannual Library Book Sale will begin on Saturday July 1st! We'll be open from 10am-3pm on that day, and the book tables will remain up for about a week afterward. Paperbacks will go for $1 and hardcovers for $2. Don't forget we also have Harbor Springs Library tote bags for sale for $10- they're a great way to transport the stacks of books you're going to buy!
Here are some of the newest books available at the Harbor Springs Library:
 All the People We Hate at the Wedding, by Grant Ginder
An extravagant wedding is threatened by equally lavish family tensions.
Paul is a cranky gay guy, and he has a lot to be cranky about, really. He has a job at a clinic where he helps people face their compulsions—for example, forcing a germophobic client who could have “been plucked from a year-old Talbots catalog” to stand in trash cans full of rotting food and maxipads. At home, his smug, controlling boyfriend wants to start inviting strangers into their bed for three-way sex. And his half sister, Eloise, who lives in England, has just sent out ridiculously expensive invitations to her wedding—she must have spent nearly five grand, as he and his other sister, Alice, determine in the phone conversation that opens the book. Paul initially refuses to attend the wedding for the same reasons he refuses to take his mother’s phone calls—he can’t stand Eloise, thinks their mom favors her, and has been alienated from the family since his father’s death. Meanwhile, Alice is not doing great either: living in LA, she dates a married man and relies on Klonopin to get her through the days, unable to recover from a miscarriage that happened years ago. Their mother, Donna, is not too broken up about the death of her second husband (Paul and Alice’s dad) and still half in love with her first (Eloise’s, who will be at the wedding). She is just hoping to smooth over all these problems and get her children together for the fabulous event. Ginder (Driver’s Education, 2013) has a gift for the gleefully outrageous, dishing up one over-the-top scene after another—a meltdown at the compulsion clinic, a drugged-up gay sex imbroglio, a room service debauch, an unexpected and quite unwelcome kayaking trip.
A daisy chain of debacles makes time spent with “people we hate” good fun. (Kirkus Reviews)
Testimony, by Scott Turow
An Illinois prosecutor seeks to learn who annihilated a group of refugee gypsies in Bosnia.
Mega-selling author Turow turns from familiar, fictional Kindle County (read, Chicago) to treacherous Bosnia for this latest, uneven thriller. Here, in 2004, about 20 armed men herded into a cave a group of 400 Roma, or gypsies. From atop an overhang to the cave’s entrance, the abductors set off explosives, causing landslides that buried the gypsies alive. Who were the perpetrators, and what were their motives? Were Serb paramilitaries behind it? Were jihadis defending Bosnian Muslims from the Serbs? Or did the American military carry out the massacre in an act more heinous than My Lai? Eleven years later, the International Criminal Court at the Hague, which tries mass atrocities, pursues the case. The ICC wants an American lawyer to prosecute, and Bill ten Boom seems the perfect choice. He has friends on “both sides of the aisle” in D.C. and a reputation that’s “bulletproof.” Alas, Bill, though worth millions, is going through a male midlife crisis, which leaves a too-familiar, not very fascinating character to carry the tale. It doesn’t help when Bill predictably becomes attracted to defense attorney Esma Czarni, an English barrister who is also a Roma. As they combust, Turow’s prose turns purple. An “earthquake of pleasure” turns the bed they share “into a delicious, soupy mess.” Just as clichéd is Turow’s sense of place. En route to the gypsy campsite, Bill sees “little whitewashed houses that could have been home to Hansel and Gretel.” Bill’s journey to find the culprits initially moves by fits and starts, frequently interrupted by subplots only tenuously connected to his quest. A tightly written action set piece at midpoint, in which Bill and an associate narrowly escape execution, snaps readers to attention, and Turow largely keeps them there as he moves on to a complicated, trenchant, and pertinent finish.
Worth staying the course. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, by Hanah Tinti
The daughter of a career criminal explores her family’s past along with the family business.
Loo, the hero of Tinti’s second novel (The Good Thief, 2008), has spent much of her childhood living out of a suitcase with her father, Samuel, who helps steal and fence jewelry and antiques. Her mom, Lily, died under vague circumstances shortly after Loo was born, but her presence has been constant: Dad places mementos of her every place they’ve lived. So when their travels bring them to the Massachusetts fishing town where Lily grew up, it’s time for a reckoning. Loo spends her adolescence there drawing from dad’s tough-guy playbook, breaking the finger of a boy who crosses her and learning how to shoot guns and hot-wire cars. Those present-day chapters are interwoven with scenes from Samuel’s criminal past—the “lives” of the title refer to the number of times he’s been shot, and Tinti wittily explores each bullet for alternately comic, tragic, and thriller-ish effects. We wear our emotional pains and struggles in our bodies, Tinti means to argue, and scene to scene the novel is graceful and observant. But a dozen bullet wounds also represents a lot of metaphorical heavy lifting in addition to the other overt symbols that lard the narrative (watches, gloves, disorienting carnival rides, a whale, etc.), and at times such detail overshadows Loo’s budding relationship and push and pull with Lily’s mother; a subplot involving a petition to stop overfishing gets short shrift. The novel is at its strongest when it focuses on Sam and Lily or Loo, whether they’re getting out of scrapes or plotting their next move. But for a story about a man who has to travel light, it carries plenty of baggage.
An accomplished if overstuffed merger of coming-of-age tale and literary thriller. (Kirkus Reviews)
As a reminder, Katie down at Between the Covers offers a generous 20% discount on books intended to be donated to the library. She has a list of books that we'd love to receive, and we're more than happy to inscribe a bookplate honoring you, your child, your grandchild, your dog, or your favorite teacher! You can also donate directly to the library or on our website via Paypal.
As an independently funded library that doesn't receive any tax dollars, we always appreciate your support.
We look forward to seeing your smiling face in the library soon!
Amélie Trufant Dawson
Library Director
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