Freegal Favorites

With the library closed and many of us self-isolating, I hope library patrons are taking advantage of the library’s digital offerings as much as I am. I’m a music fanatic, so use Freegal pretty regularly. I like to collect music, both physical and digital, and have a large amount of music stored on my computer. For those new to Freegal, it’s a service available to City of Dubuque Library card holders, where you can download 5 free songs a week and keep them. My family and I often browse what’s available and download songs on each of our cards weekly.

Freegal has a wide variety to choose from with a collection of over 3 millions songs. There are a lot of newer material as well as obscure releases. I download both. Here are some of my recent favorite albums I've collected.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple

This is the new album from Fiona Apple. Apple came to the public eye in the mid 90s with the release of her first album, Tidal, and has continued to release strong albums that blend pop, jazz, and other forms with smart, personal, and often biting lyrics. This new album is getting a ton of positive reviews. It’s no wonder why – so far, after just a couple listens it's blown me away. It's very demanding of my attention. The arrangements are interesting, with Apple's voice and the piano often at the center with jazzy, and often understated, percussion and other effects—dogs barking, and lots of vocal overdubs. If that seems like an odd combo, it all blends together perfectly. I’m excited to continue to listen to this album.

The New Abnormal by the Strokes

This is the ambitious new album from the New York band, the Strokes. I was a big fan of this band when they came out in the early 00s. This album follows the trend in popular music of incorporating all things 80s. There’s a lot of synthesizers and electronic effects on the vocals. I’m liking it a lot so far. At times  it's similar to Daft Punk and other times it channels the rock side of the 80s, like Billy Idol. They are self-aware of their influences and embracing them unashamedly. Even with the apparent influences the album still sounds fresh while retaining that classic Strokes sound. Just take a look at one of their new music videos with animation sure to attract the children of the 80s. 


Someday My Prince Will Come by Miles Davis


This is an early 60s release from Miles. This might be one of his classic albums to fans, but it was new to me. The songs are very relaxed, romantic, and perfect to wind down to. The titular piece is an excellent instrumental rendition of the 1937 song from the Disney movie Snow White. The way that melody comes through on the trumpet gives me chills.






The Unexplained by Ataraxia

Ataraxia is the name of a project from musician/composer Mort Garson. Apparently Mr. Garson was a big producer of easy listening albums in the 50s and 60s. He was also a pioneer of the Moog synthesizer and did some incredible compositions of a wide variety including occult themed ones like this, a series of albums for each sign of the zodiac, a satire of the Wizard of Oz (The Wozard of Iz), and an album to play to your plants (Mother Earth's Plantasia—I know it sounds goofy, but this album is a lot of fun. I recommend checking it out!).

The Unexplained is a series of songs centered around different meditations (song titles include "Tarot," "I Ching," "Seance," "Cabala"...). This album came out in 1975 and sounds like the soundtrack to a horror or epic fantasy movie from the 70s or 80s. It's fun music to work to, or perhaps to accompany a board game with friends (or perhaps D&D?).


Halloween III: Season of the Witch Soundtrack by John Carpenter & Alan Howarth

I was on a kick of early electronic music for awhile. Here's another on the spooky side. I love John Carpenter movies and one of the main reasons is the music he (and frequent collaborator Alan Howarth) compose for them. They set a very distinctive mood and are very much of their time—but also stand outside of time in an odd way. I somehow never watched Carpenter's Halloween movies all the way through until I recently checked them out at the suggestion of a friend. This movie has nothing to do with Michael Myers. It ended up sticking with me though, and I would say it's my favorite of the three (I prefer science fiction horror over slasher films). Whether you've seen the movie or not, the soundtrack is great! I've noticed that Freegal has a lot of music soundtracks for both recent popular movies as well as older ones.

Old No. 1 and Texas Cookin' by Guy Clark

I love Guy Clark and these are two of his most popular albums. He’s an influential folk/country musician who helped to define the Americana style. These albums are his first two from the 70s, but he made albums up until his death in 2016. His lyrics are poignant and witty. Lyric-wise I can only think to compare him to Townes Van Zandt and John Prine. I play these albums a lot. They’re perfect for a lazy Sunday Morning.






There's such a wide variety on Freegal, enough to satisfy any taste. What gems have you downloaded?

~Ben, Adult Services

C-SPL Online Book Club Reads The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

The C-SPL Online Book Club will start discussing The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie on Monday, May 18, 2020. You can use your Facebook account to join the C-SPL Online Book Club found on Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Facebook page.

Until then, here are some spoiler-free background notes about the book and author from www.agathachristie.com and various Wikipedia articles:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by British mystery writer Agatha Christie. Christie (1890-1976) is thought to be the best selling fiction writer of all time. Her 66 mystery novels and 14 short-story collections have sold over two billion copies, and she is one of the world's most translated authors.

Known as the "Queen of Mystery," Christie won the first Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award in 1955, and was voted "best crime writer" by the Crime Writers’ Association in 2013.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Christie's first published novel. Her sister Madge dared Christie to try to write a mystery that readers could not solve even though they had all of the same clues as the detective.

Christie wrote the novel in 1916, but it was rejected by 6 publishers before it was finally released in the U.S. in 1920 and the U.K. in 1921. It was also serialized in 18 parts in The Times of London in 1920.

When The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920, The New York Times Book Review said, "Though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie, she betrays the cunning of an old hand . . . you will be kept guessing at its solution and will most certainly never lay down this most entertaining book."

Besides being Christie's first published novel, this was also the first appearance of the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who would become one of the most famous characters in mystery fiction.

Hercule Poirot (pronounced er-cule pwa-roh) appeared in 33 novels, 2 plays, and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975. He was the only fictional character to have an obituary published on the front page of The New York Times.

The character of Poirot was inspired by the Belgian refugees who settled in Christie's hometown of Torquay in Devon, England during World War I, where Christie worked at a hospital dispensary while writing her novel, a setting which also appears in the story.

Christie was also influenced by the English novelist Wilkie Collins, and by the popular Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, with Poirot as the eccentric detective, his clueless friend Arthur Hastings as narrator, and a case that even Scotland Yard cannot solve.

An image from "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" from
the Project Gutenberg eBook at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/863/863-h/863-h.htm

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is an early example of a closed circle mystery which features a limited number of suspects who could have credibly committed a crime. The British country house was a classic setting of such mysteries in the 1920s and 1930s, an era known as "The Golden Age of Detective Fiction."

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is always available to check out as an eBook from Overdrive/Libby collection with your City of Dubuque library card. The eBook is also available for free without a library card at Project Gutenberg.

Carnegie-Stout Public Library’s discussion of The Mysterious Affair at Styles will start on May 18 on Facebook. We hope you will join us for the discussion!

~Mike, Adult Services

C-SPL Reader of the Month Updates, part 3

Since we aren't featuring any new C-SPL Readers of the Month while the library is closed, I've been checking in on past featured readers to see what books they've read recently.  The first post featured Evan Quade and Cynthia Nelms-Byrne and you can view that here. The second post featured Bill Carroll, Heather Gudenkauf, and Tori Stanley and you can see that post here. Today Mary, Abby, and Thea will share their recent reads. 

~Ben, Adult Services


Mary Potter Kenyon

I checked my Goodreads account and since I've been working from home for almost four weeks, I've read 12 books. Some have been spiritually uplifting and related to my job at a spirituality center, but I've also needed to escape into some good fiction. Two new authors I've discovered whose books kept me up past midnight are Katherine Center and Susie Finkbeiner. Susie's historical fiction is amazing and Katherine's How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire certainly took my mind off of our current situation. For laughs, I read actor Louie Anderson's Hey Mom, and then I had to binge-watch the television show where he portrays a woman much like his mother.





Abby Schrup

I’ve been reading a lot during this time and utilizing Overdrive to check out lots of ebooks and audiobooks. I’ve also read a couple from my own bookshelves (Red Clocks by Leni Zumas and In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware) and then placed those books in my neighborhood Little Free Library.
I really enjoyed After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, and then read a couple other post-apocalyptic books, but when I picked up Station Eleven, I only got a couple chapters in before I had to stop. It’s about a really severe flu pandemic—a topic too close to home! That went back into the "To Be Read" pile!

I am looking forward to a couple books that will be released soon: Heather Gudenkauf’s This is How I Lied and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.


Thea Dement

Favorite Overall Pick: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, read by Kate Mulgrew (Audio book)

I decided to take a risk with this book, because I'm not a fan of Stephen King, but I figured it was only fair to give his son a chance. I'm so glad I did! First, my preferred method of reading is not audio book, but let me tell you- in this case I recommend it over the print version. Kate Mulgrew (a native Dubuquer!) goes above and beyond in her rendition of the characters- especially the villain Charlie Manx. If you're looking for the perfect supernatural suspense novel- this is it!

Favorite Picks by Genre:

Thriller/Action-Adventure: The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer
Move over Twilight! Meyer explores a new genre of writing and knocks it out of the park with the story of a former government worker who uses her knowledge to get free from her old life once and for all.

Non-Fiction: Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
This is a detailed, but totally not boring, history of the Chernobyl disaster. I thought I knew about what happened, but it was so much worse than I ever thought possible. A great example of how the failings of Socialism cost hundreds of lives and put the whole world in danger from nuclear fallout.

Favorite new authors by Genre:

Fantasy: Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series)
Science Fiction: Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children series)
Mystery: Ruth Ware


Apply to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!

C-SPL Reader of the Month Updates, part 2

I've checked in on past C-SPL Readers of the Month to see what they've been reading recently. In the previous post Evan Quade and Cynthia Nelms-Byrne shared the books that have been occupying their minds recently. You can see that post here. Today, Bill, Heather, and Tori will share what they've been reading.

~Ben, Adult Services


Bill Carroll

I've been branching out my reading genres and have fully embraced cozy mysteries. I have been flying through the Joanne Fluke series, and have caught up on several other series including the Peggy Lee Garden series by Jim and Joyce Lavene, The Haunted Library series by Allison Brook, and less cozy, but just as fun, the Bernie & Chet Mysteries by Spencer Quinn/Peter Abrahams. Of these, the Joanne Fluke and Spencer Quinn series' are my current two favorites. The Bernie & Chet Mysteries really remind me of the time I lived in Phoenix, and it brings back good memories for me.

I've been trying to read light, escapist books and less non-fiction and less apocalyptic fiction like I normally do.




Heather Gudenkauf

Like many, I've been seeking out lighter, more humorous reads as of late and have returned to an old favorite: The Spellman series by Lisa Lutz. Be sure to to start with book number one - The Spellman Files. This six book series chronicles the crazy life of the Spellmans, a family of private investigators. To say they are a bit dysfunctional is an understatement. Izzy Spellman,  best described as a cross between Nancy Drew and Dirty Harry, is twenty-eight years old, lives at home with her parents, an impressionable fourteen year old sister and her wayward uncle who tends to disappear on "lost weekends." Izzy also takes great joy in antagonizing her perfect lawyer brother who has escaped the family business. This series is clever, laugh out loud funny and a great escape.



Tori Stanley

During quarantine I’ve been doing a lot of reading! Some new favorites for me would be Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, Ruthless Gods by Emily Duncan, The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, and The Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown. So basically living in the fantasy world! I’ve also been rereading some of my favs during this strange time - Throne of Glass series and The Illuminae Files.







Apply to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!

C-SPL Reader of the Month Updates, part 1

With the library being temporarily closed, I've taken a hiatus with any new C-SPL Readers of the month until we reopen. Instead, now seems like the perfect time to check in on some of the past Readers of the Month. For some, it's been quite some time since they've shared their reading interests. All have plenty of new things to share since they were the featured reader. Today, Evan and Cynthia will share what they've been reading. More will follow in the next couple of days.

~Ben, Adult Services

Evan Quade

Lately I have been reading the Silo series by Hugh Howey. I chose the post-apocalyptic series because it reminds me of what we are dealing with. Imagine living in a civilization in a silo underground, taking shelter from a lethally toxic outside world. Just don't ever say you want out, because you will get your wish.

I have also been reading A Time to Kill by John Grisham. I love thrillers, but this is a new kind of thriller to me. Grisham is the man who owns the term "legal thriller." Check him out for the experience of what it is really like in a firm or courtroom.

If there is something as essential as food and cleaning supplies, it's our shelves full of books. In this unfortunate event, we seek the opportunity to elude this and read a book when we are overwhelmed or anxious. I find it interesting to read apocalyptic stories. If those characters can survive, so can we. Believe in yourself and be vigilant. Be safe everyone!

Cynthia Nelms-Byrne

The Library Book by Susan Orlean: If you want to know truly how valuable libraries are, read this one about the terrible fire that destroyed Los Angeles’ main library and the efforts to bring it back. The author is a specialist at writing about unusual subjects and making them fascinating. If you haven’t read The Orchid Thief by Orlean, that is also incredible.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich: I was sort of snoozing through the first half (probably because I don’t like boxing), but after that things really got exciting. This is a novelization based on the life of Erdrich’s grandfather (Thomas in the book), who is the night watchman in an odd factory, so based on some true happenings.

The Returned by Jason Mott: A futuristic/dystopian novel about people who were dead who now mysteriously come back to life many years (usually) later and disrupt the living. Just the kind of thing we need now to remind us that things could be worse.

Wake, Siren by Nina McLaughlin: This contains the stories of the women in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in their own words - both mythic and modern. I thought it was amazing and it reacquainted me with such mythical creatures such as Medussa. I don’t know much about these storied women, so it was informative as well as fantastical.

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff: A film was made from this, with Eddie Redmayne in the title role! I like the book every bit as much as the film, because it got more deeply into the characters’ feelings and thoughts, which is what a book usually has over a film. It is loosely based on real people.


Apply to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!

Celebrate Earth Day 2020

Earth Dec. 7, 1972, by the crew of Apollo 17 (NASA)

Wednesday, April 22 is the 50th annual celebration of Earth Day! Earth Day is a global day to recognize and support the importance of environmental protection proposed by UNESCO and popularized in the United States by Wisconsin's Gaylord Nelson.

One great way to celebrate, while maintaining appropriate social distancing, is to go for a hike on one of the excellent trails throughout the Dubuque area. Be sure to take the time to check the weather before you hike so you don't get caught in a spring shower! It's also a good idea to check with the appropriate parks agency to see if they have any guidance or restrictions at this time.

• City of Dubuque trails and maps
• City of Dubuque parks
• Dubuque County parks and maps
• State of Iowa parks

If the weather isn't cooperating, or you'd rather celebrate from the comfort of your own couch, you might enjoy using your Dubuque resident Carnegie-Stout Public Library card to watch an Earth Day related documentary on Kanopy. We've gathered together a short list of suggested titles below.

The Island President: Politics in the Maldives

(2011, 102 minutes) Nasheed, who brought democracy to the Maldives after decades of despotic rule, now faces an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives and make them uninhabitable.

Trashed with Jeremy Irons

(2012, 94 minutes) Jeremy Irons sets out to discover the extent and effects of the global waste problem, as he travels around the world to beautiful destinations tainted by pollution.

Plastic China - The Lives of Recycling Plant Workers in China

(2016, 83 minutes) This film documents a plastic recycling facility in a small town dedicated to the business of processing plastic waste and examines global consumption and culture through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse.

My Life as a Turkey

(2011, 53 minutes) PBS Nature tells one man's remarkable experience of raising a group of wild turkey hatchlings to adulthood. After a local farmer left a bowl of eggs on Joe Hutto's front porch, his life was forever changed. Hutto, possessing a broad background in the natural sciences and an interest in imprinting young animals, incubated the eggs and waited for them to hatch. 

Ken Burns: The National Parks - America’s Best Idea

(2009, 697 minutes) This 12-hour, six-part documentary series by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan tells the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone.