AAL Book Discussion: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
From: Adult Events
Wednesday, May 14, 7 pm, Main Library
The African American Literature Book Discussion Group will be discussing The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu.
Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing
soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off his parents' jewelry
to pay for passage to the United States. Now he finds himself running a grocery store in a poor
African-American neighborhood. Told in a haunting and powerful first-person narration that casts
the streets of Washington, D.C. and Addis Ababa through Sepha's eyes, The Beautiful Things
That Heaven Bears is a deeply affecting and unforgettable debut novel about what it means to
lose a family and a country—and what it takes to create a new home.
North Branch Book Discussion: When the Emperor Was Divine
From: North Branch Events
Thursday, May 29, 2008
7 pm, North Branch
When the Emperor Was
Divine by Julie Otsuka
Julie Otsuka’s commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination—both physical and emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view—the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity—she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
Call 847-866-0330 or visit the North Branch, 2026 Central Street, to register.
Chicago Housing Choice Voucher program
The Chicago Housing Choice Voucher Program, opens Thursday April 17 and ends Thursday May 15. Voucher applications will be distributed at all Chicago Public Library branches, Chicago Park District Field houses, and offices of the Chicago Department of Human Services, and the Illinois Department of Human Services. People will also be able to apply online at www.rentbetter.org , or download an application as of April 17th. APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE DISTRIBUTED AT EVANSTON LIBRARY, but the list of locations with registration forms is available at the EPL Circulation desk and Reference desk. Questions? Call the RentBetter hotline, courtesy of MK Communications, 312.786.3676
