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Best of 2020

Take a look back at the good stuff from 2020!

2020 Staff Picks: FICTION

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2020 Staff Picks: NONFICTION

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2020 Staff Picks - Fiction

2020 Staff Picks: FICTION

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We all spent a lot of time reading this year, and staff have recommended some of their favorites in 2020 Staff Picks: Fiction.

Mystery Minus Murder

Do you love a good puzzle, but find you’re not in the mood for violence? Cozy mysteries are a popular subgenre of mystery, and typically feature an amateur sleuth in a picturesque setting.  Our list of “Mystery Minus Murder” titles takes the warm feeling one step further by highlighting books that don’t include murder at all! These cozy reads feature historical riddles, blackmail, family mysteries and puzzling antiques. Many are available in a variety of formats, including eBook and eAudio.

Library Reopening on Monday the 11th to Limited Traffic

West Des Moines, IA–At a mid-day meeting of the Library Board of Trustees on January 5, board members decided that The West Des Moines Public Library will reopen to limited walk-in traffic starting at 9am on Monday, January 11.

Book bundles for kids are here!

In late December our new children's book shelves were full to capacity, so we asked our readers via social media to help us get them out into circulation and you responded! We have heard you and your desire for book bundles for kids and we are delighted to roll out this new service. Here's what you need to know:

Welcome to Our New Website!

Welcome, friends!  After months of work, our new West Des Moines Public Library Website is up and running!  

We have reorganized and refreshed our graphics, our information, and our look.  The whole site has been made more mobile-friendly, with easy links to our many wonderful services - some of which may be new to you.   

We hope you like our bright, fresh new look and feel.  We invite you to explore and enjoy!   

Guest book review: SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE

A guest post by our student author Claire: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo is a powerful book that uses Oluo’s personal experiences as a woman of color to cover topics of race- including police brutality, white privilege, and cultural appropriation, among others in a blunt, straightforward tone.

A 9th Grade Project on THE ODYSSEY

Today we are delighted to share with you work from Elvira Hadzic’s ninth-grade English class. Students in this class created literary playlists that capture the essence of the themes and phases of characters from The Odyssey in modern song. Since we are unable to invite you into our building to view these projects in person, we are sharing them here instead. Enjoy!

Progress!

This renovation project probably feels like it has taken a long time–remember October 2019 when the library closed for the first renovation stage and your librarians packed up over 30,000 books for storage? We moved all the stacks around and dove into Phase 1 of our project. That transition took two long weeks and it felt like ages before we were able to welcome you back inside (little did we know what was in store for all of us this year…ha). During Phases 1 and 2 the second floor of the library received its refresh.