Adult Services Newsletter
Vol. 22 4/1/2024
Racing to the Library
The Adult Services-Indiana Room Staff are excited for the fabulous month of May and all the special events it brings to Indiana. We will be cheering on our graduates, favorite race car drivers and the return of the farmer's market to the town square.
We are also pleased to introduce you to another new staff member-Jonathan Avitua.Originally from Texas, Jon received his B.A and M.A in English from Tarleton State University. He has been working as an educator for the last decade, however he has recently made the transition to archival work. He believes that we are all responsible for preserving our history and is excited to work in the Indiana Room helping everyone to do just that.
Kay, Beth, Melody, Jonathon, and Olivia
Adult Services & Indiana Room Staff
Titanic Survivors' Book Club by Timothy Schaffert
Goodreads rating: 3.48
A remarkable tale about the life-changing power of books, following the Titanic librarian whose survival upends the course of his life.
For weeks after the sinking of the Titanic, Yorick spots his own name among the list of those lost at sea. As an apprentice librarian for the White Star Line, his job was to curate the ship’s second-class library. But just as he was about to board to tend to his library throughout the passage, a superior takes his place, leaving Yorick stranded at the dock.
The Titanic was not Yorick’s first brush with death, but as with every near-miss he manages to escape into the world of books. After he learns of the ship’s sinking, he takes this twist of fate as a sign to follow his lifelong dream of owning a bookshop in Paris. It’s at his shop that he receives an invitation to a secret society of survivors where he encounters other ticket-holders who didn’t board the ship. Haunted by their good fortune, they decide to transform their group into a book society, where they can grapple with their own anxieties through the guise of discussing contentious works such as The Awakening or The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Of the ragtag group of survivors, Yorick finds himself particularly drawn to the wealthy candy heiress Zinnia and the mysterious and alluring Haze. Yorick feels like an outsider looking in, falling hopelessly for Haze as Haze courts Zinnia; a tangled triangle of love and friendship forms between them. Yet with the Great War looming, their close-knit group is shattered, only brought back together once the death of a fellow book club member leaves them wondering what fate has in store for each of them.
Pinquickle's Folly by R.A. Salvatore
Goodreads rating: 4.00
In Pinquickle’s Folly , New York Times bestselling author R. A. Salvatore returns to his signature world of Corona, introducing a dynamic new part of the southern coast never written of before as a great starting place for readers in the DemonWars The Buccaneers.
The first adventure in the Buccaneers trilogy begins in the free sea outside of the control of the usurping Xoconai empire, where the dwarven powrie pirates and merchants sail. But the golden-skinned Xoconai have begun to encroach upon these waters behind the rapacious attacks of the frigate Crocodile , helmed by Captain Aketz. But when forced to submit, these sailors choose to live, free to do as they please, without some fool or another pretending to hold power over them.
Fantasy master R. A. Salvatore brings together a misfit band of Xoconai, powerie, and human sailors—once enemies, now fierce friends with a common enemy, and the spark of rebellion in this action-packed piratical adventure.
What Have We Here by Billy Dee Williams
Goodreads rating: 4.07
A film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades—a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, from Brian’s Song to Lando in the Star Wars universe—unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all-white industry in which he triumphed.
Billy Dee Williams was born in Harlem in 1937 and grew up in a household of love and sophistication. As a young boy, he made his stage debut working with Lotte Lenya in an Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill production where Williams ended up feeding Lenya her lines. He studied painting, first at the High School of Music and Art, with fellow student Diahann Carroll, and then at the National Academy of Fine Art, before setting out to pursue acting with Herbert Berghoff, Stella Adler, and Sidney Poitier.
His first film role was in The Last Angry Man , the great Paul Muni’s final film. It was Muni who gave Billy the advice that sent him soaring as an actor, “You can play any character you want to play no matter who you are, no matter the way you look or the color of your skin.” And Williams writes, “I wanted to be anyone I wanted to be.”
He writes of landing the role of a co-starring alongside James Caan in Brian’s Song , the made-for-television movie that was watched by an audience of more than fifty million people. Williams says it was “the kind of interracial love story America needed.”
And when, as the first Black character in the Star Wars universe, he became a true pop culture icon, playing Lando Calrissian in George Lucas’s The Empire Strikes Back (“What I presented on the screen people didn’t expect to see”). It was a role he reprised in the final film of the original trilogy, The Return of the Jedi, and in the recent sequel The Rise of Skywalker.
Checkered Flag Racing Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the vanilla cupcakes
- 1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (200 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar (198 grams)
- 1/2 cup unsalted Challenge butter, melted
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup yogurt (57 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup unsalted Challenge butter, room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar (454 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons heavy cream, divided
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (42 grams)
For the vanilla cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl and set aside.
- Mix sugar and melted butter in large bowl. Whisk in milk, yogurt, and vanilla extract making sure the butter is not to hot beforehand otherwise the dairy will curdle.
- Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix just until no lumps remain.
- Beat egg whites using whisk or mixer until frothy (about 1 minute of fast whisking by hand or 30 seconds with mixer).
- Add egg whites to mixture and slowly mix in.
- Divide batter amongst 12 cupcake liners and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool.
- In large bowl, beat butter at medium speed until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and 2 Tablespoons of heavy cream. Beat at low speed until combined, and then beat at high speed for an additional minute.
- Scrape away half of vanilla frosting and set aside.
- Add remaining 2 Tablespoons heavy cream and cocoa powder to bowl and beat until combined.
- Lay sheet of plastic wrap about a foot long onto work surface.
- Use spatula to spread chocolate frosting into 3-inch strip in center of plastic wrap. Spread vanilla frosting in 3-inch strip alongside chocolate frosting being careful not to mix the two.
- Fold chocolate frosting over vanilla frosting and place into piping bag fitted with 1M swirl piping tip.
- Pipe onto cupcakes and serve.
Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction and Delish
Friends of the Library
All of our events are made possible through the generosity of the Friends of the Library. The Friends of the Library was founded to support the Danville Public Library in various ways. They sponsor all library programs as well as help buy the supplies/equipment needed for programs through membership dues and fundraising activities. We are always looking for more members! If you are interested in becoming a member of the Friends of the Library, please visit our website here for more information. You may also click here to download a printable brochure and membership form.
