Some great ideas for your to-read pile not from 2024!

Travel into the Unknown this October and fall under the spell of a modern animated classic.

Here are some of the Adult Literacy Staff's favorite picks from the Fresh Reads collection to inspire reading in the New Year. These titles seek to test the limits of our world and existence. Fresh Reads is a stigma-free book collection explicitly designed for adults learning to read. These are great resources for native English-speaking adults who are developing basic literacy and adults learning English as a second language.  

Do you want to read an award-winning book for Summer Challenge? Start here!   

Have you ever wanted to read Dune but the sheer size of it makes you think otherwise? I was in that same boat and finally tackled the book. See how I, a librarian with a short attention span, made it through this Sci-Fi tome!

Bree Matthews thinks she's found the perfect escape from her parents and small town when she's accepted into UNC-Chapel Hills residential program for high school students. But then her mom dies, and her perfect escape becomes an escape from grief and guilt. Then, magic and mythical monsters turn to reality which puts everyone around her in peril. 

Celebrate the Creators Who Helped Change the Face of Pop Culture

Gunpla Building 101 is the Perfect Entry Into This Timeless Series

Kick Off Our Annual Celebration with a Look at an Inspirational Icon

Your perfect match is just a cheek swab away! Is it worth it?

Take in the season with a hot beverage and a couple of these cold weather movies and TV shows. 

5 holiday movies not really considered holiday movies.

Two surreal fantasy romance films now streaming on Hoopla. 

Bad movies, good books. Fantasy edition. 

3 "classic" genre movies that tackle social issues, currently streaming on Hoopla.

A mix of weird, fun, obscure, and just plain bad genre flicks for your next movie night.

Well known to fans of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, Neil Gaiman has also written many books for children, even preschoolers (really!). 

As schedules and lives only get busier, a quick dose of weird might be just what you need.

Happy New Year! Here are 5 YA books to look forward to in 2020.

Blockbuster titles by some of the stars of the children's writing world are coming out during this last quarter of 2019. Get out your library card and prepare to place holds!

Is your child obsessed with the creepy and macabre? Can they not get enough of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and plan on moving on to Stephen King? You’ll find that these books are terrifying while being a little more age appropriate.

If you’re of a certain age, you probably have some experience with mixtapes. Mixtapes are great, right?

In anticipation of Netflix’s upcoming The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, here are 7 movie and television prequels worth your time.

Experience the wonder and terror of off-world living with these vintage space sounds.

Science fiction writers of the past dreamed of futures, dark and bright, in which humans traveled to the stars, colonized other worlds, and encountered aliens both friendly and deadly. In all their imaginings, did they ever see their genre--ghettoized for so long as just that, genre fiction, said with a sneer--gaining prominence, even prevalence in the culture?

Science fiction teaches us not to bother. Don’t investigate that derelict spaceship. Don’t try to figure out what “soylent green” is, because figuring stuff out only causes trouble. Sure, there are wonderful discoveries to be made, but sometimes it’s important for buried secrets to remain hidden, deep in the ground.

On Tuesday, I posted "Summer Reading Is for Fun". Let's continue the fun today!

Summer is the perfect time for reading, right? It's also an absolutely critical time for your child's education. 

A mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror to accompany you on your Summer Challenge journey.

A planet covered in darkness and filled with monsters can be a serious impediment to true love.

A list of horror comics inspired by Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina adaptation.

“...that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay.”

An NPL curated Bitch Planet inspired playlist. 

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the film Avengers: Infinity War, because the internet is a cruel place.

Celebrate the combined superpowers of Fandom Fest and Women’s History Month with one of these women-created and led stories.

Lately I’ve been thinking about Superman. This is not all that unusual, as there are three different’ representations of the character sitting on my desk as I write this, but I’ve been thinking about what he means to the world.

There’s a scene in Karin Tidbeck’s Amatka where the main character, Vanja, goes into a locked archive in her office to file papers and surreptitiously search for secret details about her commune’s past. Outside, a stern secretary watches the clock to ensure Vanja doesn’t spend too much time alone with these secrets.

If today you were to spot a kid walking around and talking to themselves, you'd probably reasonably conclude that they were imaginative.

The end of Summer Challenge is bittersweet. It means school is starting up and the prizes have all been awarded. The good news is there’s a new Star Trek show premiering this fall, with a whole new cast and a whole new mission. Before the franchise begins this new chapter, let’s take another look at its past.

An NPL curated Star Trek inspired playlist with original art. 

From the beginning, Star Trek attempted to raise filmed science fiction above the level of more pulpy fare like Captain Video or Flash Gordon.

Star Trek comics have been around almost as long as the TV series.

Harlan Ellison is a writer whose personal infamy matches his professional fame. He’s won heaps of awards, written across all mediums and genres, and left behind a body of work whose size is equal to its influence.

Frank's sole purpose in life is to experience the pleasures of the world, without consequence. Frank's brother just wants to be good husband, and live a quiet domestic life. Frank's actions pull his family into a horrifying world full of horror.

Mkombozi was supposed to be Theia's savior, but destroyed it instead. Now, it has fallen to Eden to save Earth from the same fate that befell Theia, whether she likes it or not.

Two standout genre novels of the 30's finally get some overdue recognition.

Edie has lost everything dear to her since being dragged into the immortal game. Now, she is more determined than ever change the past to prevent the future that she has experienced.

Going to Dragon Con or Geek Media Expo? Let the Library help you with your cosplay! 

An unjustly forgotten mid-century satirist infused his tales with fantasy and irony.

Get swept away with Gertrude as she embarks on a trip to Fairyland. It's a magical place filled with angel dust, sparkles, and unending rage!

Armed with only his guitar and his wits, a wandering balladeer encounters wonder and terror in the wilds of Appalachia.

Short stories that were once thought lost have been found! These two shorts are great additions to any Octavia Bulter's fan's collection.

You might not expect a novel about killer plants to be thoroughly lacking in over-the-top corniness, but John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids handily pulls it off.

The worst thing about history is its lack of monsters. There’s Hitler, of course, the gold standard of historical bad guys, but when I say monsters I mean MONSTERS--mysterious, possibly hairy and/or scaly creatures of unknown origin, things you run from in the night and hope aren’t lurking under your bed. Unfortunately, monsters like Hitler are real and those other guys aren’t, but that leads us to the best thing about history: you don’t have to let facts get in the way of telling a good story.

Suppose you were stranded in the scattered, floating remains of a demolished space vessel. Barely surviving by sheer will, hoping for rescue and constantly disappointed, hovering close to death for no less than 170 days…would you begrudge a passing ship that took notice of you but continued on its way? And what would you do about it?