Join a book club at Peoria Public Library this month.  New members are always welcome!
Book ‘Em Mystery Book Club will meet on Sunday, August 17 at 2:00 p.m. at Lakeview Branch to discuss Windy City Blues by Sara Paretsky. This is a series of nine short stories about detective V.I. Warshawski. In “Grace Notes,” V.I. has barely finished her morning coffee when she sees an ad in the paper asking for information about her own mother, long dead. What’s the score? Clearly it’s something to kill for… “The Pietro Andromache” finds V.I.’s friend Dr. Lotty Herschel with motive and means to dispatch her professional rival and steal his priceless statue. Lotty didn’t do it–but does she know who did? Summoned by an old high school friend to a race “At the Old Swimming Hole,” V.I. ends up swimming with the sharks–the FBI and a ruthless gambling kingpin–in a pool of blood…. And it’s only “Skin Deep” when a relaxing facial transformation transforms a client into a stiff. V.I.’s pal Sal needs help. Her beautician sister Evangeline is prime suspect–and V.I. has only eighteen hours to crack the case before it’s headline news…” Three-Dot Po” proves there’s nothing like a dog. Especially a dog on the trail of her mistress’s killer, with V.I. in tow… In “Strung Out,” love means nothing and V.I.’s quick to learn the score as her old friend’s tennis-champion daughter is under suspicion for strangling her father with a racket string.
The Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club meets on Monday, August 11 at Lakeview Branch at 6:30 p.m. to discuss  Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo. Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few marines. When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family, Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith, take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope. For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived under a graveyard sky. Call 309-497-2149 for more information.
The Biography and Non-Fiction Book Club will meet on Sunday, August 10 at 3:00 p.m. at North Branch to discuss The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorized the Allies in the Most Epic Voyage of WWI  by Richard Guilliatt.  In this gripping account of an audacious and lethal World War I expedition, Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen depict the Wolf ’s assignment: to terrorize distant ports of the British Empire by laying minefields and sinking freighters, thus hastening Germany’s goal of starving her enemy into submission. Yet to maintain secrecy, she could never pull into port or use her radio, and to comply with the rules of sea warfare, her captain fastidiously tried to avoid killing civilians aboard the merchant ships he attacked, taking their crews and passengers prisoner before sinking the vessels. For more information call 309-497-2186.

Bibliophiles will meet on Tuesday, August 5 at 1:30 p.m. at Lakeview Branch to discuss The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout. Catalyzed by a nephew’s thoughtless prank, a pair of brothers confront painful psychological issues surrounding the freak accident that killed their father when they were boys, a loss linked to a heartbreaking deception that shaped their personal and professional lives.  For more information, call Carol May at (309) 692-1020 or email  HYPERLINK “mailto:cmay1223@comcast.net” \t “_blank” cmay1223@comcast.net.
The Read On Book Club will meet on Tuesday, August 26 at 5:30 p.m. at Lincoln Branch to discuss Private Sins by Brenda Barrett Series – Book 1of the Three Rivers series. Kelly was in deep trouble; her husband was a pastor and she his loyal first lady. Well she was…until she had an affair with Chris; the first elder of their church. And now she was pregnant with his child. Could she keep the secret from her husband and pretend that all was well? Or should she confess her private sin and let the chips fall where they may? Call 497-2601 for more information.
Intercontinental Readers will continue to meet to discuss novels by American and Irish authors via Skype at Main Library LL 1 at 1:00 p.m. once every three months with readers in Ireland. The next meeting will be Tuesday, August 19, 2014 and the group will discuss Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals. In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School.  Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob’s rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down. Call 309-497-2143 for more information.
Club Read will meet on Wednesday, August 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Lakeview Branch to discuss The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. In her stunningly original and haunting debut novel, Amanda Coplin evokes a powerful sense of place, mixing tenderness and violence as she spins an engrossing tale of a solitary orchardist who provides shelter to two runaway teenage girls in the untamed American West, and the dramatic consequences of his actions.
YA for Adults Book Club will meet on the third Tuesday, August 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Lakeview Branch to discuss Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith. Seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd has big plans for her summer without parents. She intends to devote herself to her music and win the Battle of the Bands with her bandmate and best friend, Lukas. Perhaps then, in the excitement of victory, he will finally realize she’s the girl of his dreams. But a phone call from a stranger shatters Kiri’s plans. He says he has her sister Suki’s stuff—her sister Suki, who died five years ago. This call throws Kiri into a spiral of chaos that opens old wounds and new mysteries.