Let's Talk About Texts - Lincoln in the Bardo
Thursday January 31 at 7:00pm   Sign-up Required   - Click Here to Register Online!  
Outside the Library
Join us at The Free House Pub (1902 Parmenter St, Middleton) to discuss George Saunders' award-winning novel, "Lincoln in the Bardo." All adults are welcome! A limited number of copies are available for checkout at the library's reference desk. Registration for this event is appreciated. February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul. Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end? (Amazon.com)

Day with Dad Free Event at KEVA Sports Center
Saturday April 20 at 1:00pm     
Day with Dad at KEVA Sports Center Saturday, April 20, 1-4pm Visit the Middleton Public Library at this family event at KEVA Sports Center located at 8312 Forsythia Street in Middleton (www.kevasports.com). Dad can't make it? Come anyway! Everyone is welcome! Free admission! Activities include a variety of sports, inflatables, DJ and music, library craft area, plus much much more! At this event, KEVA is also collecting non-perishable food items to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin and gently used books to donate for Reach-a-Child. Please consider bringing something to add to the collection! There will also be great books to borrow at the library's table so don’t forget to bring your library card! Plenty of FREE parking available!