What’s new at Jacksonville Public Library:<\/p>\n
“Happy Ending”<\/strong> by Chloe Liese: Thea and Alex share three things: They love food, hate their town, and are divorced. Otherwise, they\u2019re opposites: She can\u2019t cook, he\u2019s a chef; she feels out of place, he feels stuck; she battles her ex over a dog, he amicably co-parents a daughter. After their exes get together, they pretend to be old friends and former lovers out of spite. Two years later, the lie has turned into a real friendship and maybe more. When they\u2019re invited on a joint beach vacation with their exes, they\u2019re forced to wonder if their fake story has become something real and possibly a shot at a happy ending.<\/p>\n “Joyful Anyway”<\/strong> by Kate Bowler: You can’t always be happy, but you can be joyful anyway. We live in a culture convinced that chasing happiness will optimize our bodies, our minds, our relationships, our lives. In the meantime, bad news usually stays bad \u2014 illness, chronic pain, grief and disappointment don’t obey our timelines or vision boards. We are left wondering why, if we’re doing everything right, life still feels so hard. Honest and bracingly tender, “Joyful, Anyway” proves that experiencing joy does not depend on resolving everything that makes life difficult. Drawing on a decade of living with serious illness and a lifetime of studying America’s obsession with progress, Kate Bowler shows why people so busy chasing happiness miss out on actual joy.<\/p>\n “Is This Thing On?”<\/strong> As their marriage unravels, Alex faces middle age and divorce, seeking new purpose in the New York comedy scene. Meanwhile, his wife, Tess, confronts sacrifices made for their family, forcing them to navigate co-parenting and identities.<\/p>\n “I Survived the California Wildfires, 2018”<\/strong> by Georgia Ball: Still reeling from the life-changing challenges that propelled him and his mother across the country, Josh finds solace in the California wilderness and in a newfound friendship with his cousin Holly. But on a trip into the nearby forest, Josh and Holly suddenly find themselves in the middle of a frighteningly powerful firestorm, one that threatens to burn down everything in its path. Josh needs to confront the family issues burning him up inside, but first he’ll have to survive the flames roaring all around him.<\/p>\n Coming to your living room at 7 p.m. May 20 via Zoom is a discussion with author R.F. Kuang, whose\u00a0genre-bending fiction broaches ordinarily serious topics from a satirical and fantastical perspective. Academic yet approachable, Kuang\u2019s work combines history, magic and classical literary tradition to render powerful critiques of academia, the publishing industry, and even contemporary popular culture. Her most recent novel, “Katabasis,” follows two graduate students as they descend into hell after the death of their professor. Kuang\u2019s other bestselling titles include “Yellowface,” “Babel” and “The Poppy War” trilogy. She is the recipient of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, and the American Book Award. Kelly Jensen, an anti-censorship advocate, a senior editor at Book Riot, and writer who has compiled such anthologies as “Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World” and “(Don\u2019t) Call Me Crazy,” will join Kuang in conversation. This event is intended for adults. Call the library at 217-243-5435 to register.<\/p>\n The library is teaming up with University of Illinois Extension to bring Dementia Friends training to the community at 6 p.m. May 21 in the library meeting\u00a0room. This free training is intended to help the public better understand dementia and its impact on those affected. Participants in the 90-minute session will learn thoughtful and practical skills to engage with and support those living with dementia. A certificate will be awarded to those completing the training. Admission is free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s new at Jacksonville Public Library: “Happy Ending” by Chloe Liese: Thea and Alex share three things: They…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":800011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3095,3188,723,7310,50,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-800010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-features","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116582941057978249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}