This six-week Big Books discussion series will meet every Thursday night from April 13 through May 18. Please note that the discussions will take place in the library's Hammond Room (not on Zoom).

Palace Walk is the first novel in a highly lauded trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize in Literature winner Naguib Mahfouz. Set in Cairo during WWI, the drama takes place inside the house of the Jawad family. Strict and pious father al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad holds his family in a steel grip while he hypocritically indulges in after-hours pleasures of city nightlife. His devoted wife, Amina, is forbidden by her husband to leave the four walls of their house, but longs to know what happens outside them. Daughters Khadija and Aisha desire proper Muslim marriages to respectable men so they can follow in the footsteps of their parents. Sons Yasin, Fahmy, and Kamal all struggle with their father’s harsh demands and yet admire the respect he commands in the community. Al-Sayyid Admad is a staunch guardian of tradition, but there is constant tension from the outside world pushing for change. Ultimately, even this father’s iron will cannot stop the forces of transformation in his country and on his family. Experienced Big Books leader Holly Marihugh, M.A., returns to guide the discussions.

Big Books, our longstanding discussion series around significant works of literature, is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library. Registration is required. Glencoe residents take priority if the class fills up. 

Want to receive the library's email newsletter? Brief-and-breezy GPL Weekly delivers library news--with handy program registration links--to your inbox every Monday morning.

In September 2022, after five years of special research, the Glencoe Historical Society opened its interactive exhibit on Glencoe’s Black heritage. Many community members have already visited this extraordinary gift to the village. This spring, GHS researchers will further enrich the experience through two in-library programs that will go deeper into their findings. Registration is not required for these in-library events: just drop in!

Racism in 1920s Glencoe will seek to answer a question that has permeated many current programs on community diversity: Why aren’t there more Black people living in Glencoe today? The program will explain the use of restrictive covenants, eminent domain and redlining in Glencoe in the 1920s-30s and the overall effect these practices had on what had been a growing Black population.

The GHS exhibit will be on display at the GHS museum at 375 Park Avenue at least through spring 2024. Presented in partnership with the Glencoe Historical Society.

Note: This program follows a related program, Glencoe's Early Black Settlers, which was presented on March 12. It explored how this village became an integrated, culturally active, entrepreneurial community in the late 19th century. The presenters discussed how and why early Glencoe became home to the largest Black population between Evanston and Waukegan and the real estate, education and business opportunities that attracted Black settlement in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Neither the March 12 nor the April 16 programs will be recorded. 

This six-week Big Books discussion series will meet every Thursday night from April 13 through May 18. Please note that the discussions will take place in the library's Hammond Room (not on Zoom).

Palace Walk is the first novel in a highly lauded trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize in Literature winner Naguib Mahfouz. Set in Cairo during WWI, the drama takes place inside the house of the Jawad family. Strict and pious father al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad holds his family in a steel grip while he hypocritically indulges in after-hours pleasures of city nightlife. His devoted wife, Amina, is forbidden by her husband to leave the four walls of their house, but longs to know what happens outside them. Daughters Khadija and Aisha desire proper Muslim marriages to respectable men so they can follow in the footsteps of their parents. Sons Yasin, Fahmy, and Kamal all struggle with their father’s harsh demands and yet admire the respect he commands in the community. Al-Sayyid Admad is a staunch guardian of tradition, but there is constant tension from the outside world pushing for change. Ultimately, even this father’s iron will cannot stop the forces of transformation in his country and on his family. Experienced Big Books leader Holly Marihugh, M.A., returns to guide the discussions.

Big Books, our longstanding discussion series around significant works of literature, is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library. Registration is required. Glencoe residents take priority if the class fills up. 

Want to receive the library's email newsletter? Brief-and-breezy GPL Weekly delivers library news--with handy program registration links--to your inbox every Monday morning.

This six-week Big Books discussion series will meet every Thursday night from April 13 through May 18. Please note that the discussions will take place in the library's Hammond Room (not on Zoom).

Palace Walk is the first novel in a highly lauded trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize in Literature winner Naguib Mahfouz. Set in Cairo during WWI, the drama takes place inside the house of the Jawad family. Strict and pious father al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad holds his family in a steel grip while he hypocritically indulges in after-hours pleasures of city nightlife. His devoted wife, Amina, is forbidden by her husband to leave the four walls of their house, but longs to know what happens outside them. Daughters Khadija and Aisha desire proper Muslim marriages to respectable men so they can follow in the footsteps of their parents. Sons Yasin, Fahmy, and Kamal all struggle with their father’s harsh demands and yet admire the respect he commands in the community. Al-Sayyid Admad is a staunch guardian of tradition, but there is constant tension from the outside world pushing for change. Ultimately, even this father’s iron will cannot stop the forces of transformation in his country and on his family. Experienced Big Books leader Holly Marihugh, M.A., returns to guide the discussions.

Big Books, our longstanding discussion series around significant works of literature, is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library. Registration is required. Glencoe residents take priority if the class fills up. 

Want to receive the library's email newsletter? Brief-and-breezy GPL Weekly delivers library news--with handy program registration links--to your inbox every Monday morning.

Since the 1950s, massive change has occurred in the lives of LGBTQ people in the United States and in the social and institutional responses to them. This talk will trace the history of LGBTQ activism from its start in the 1950s, when the oppression was most harsh and pervasive, to the early 21st century, when LGBTQ people were more visible and more integrated into society than ever before. It will explore the impact of the 1960s and the Stonewall Uprising that gave birth to a “gay liberation” movement; the dramatic increase in mobilization sparked by the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s; and the growing presence in popular culture that emerged in the 1990s. Presented by John d'Emilio, a professor emeritus of history and of women's and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

REGISTER HERE for this Zoom program.

Want to receive the library's email newsletter? Brief-and-breezy GPL Weekly delivers library news--with handy program registration links--to your inbox every Monday morning.

This six-week Big Books discussion series will meet every Thursday night from April 13 through May 18. Please note that the discussions will take place in the library's Hammond Room (not on Zoom).

Palace Walk is the first novel in a highly lauded trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize in Literature winner Naguib Mahfouz. Set in Cairo during WWI, the drama takes place inside the house of the Jawad family. Strict and pious father al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad holds his family in a steel grip while he hypocritically indulges in after-hours pleasures of city nightlife. His devoted wife, Amina, is forbidden by her husband to leave the four walls of their house, but longs to know what happens outside them. Daughters Khadija and Aisha desire proper Muslim marriages to respectable men so they can follow in the footsteps of their parents. Sons Yasin, Fahmy, and Kamal all struggle with their father’s harsh demands and yet admire the respect he commands in the community. Al-Sayyid Admad is a staunch guardian of tradition, but there is constant tension from the outside world pushing for change. Ultimately, even this father’s iron will cannot stop the forces of transformation in his country and on his family. Experienced Big Books leader Holly Marihugh, M.A., returns to guide the discussions.

Big Books, our longstanding discussion series around significant works of literature, is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library. Registration is required. Glencoe residents take priority if the class fills up. 

Want to receive the library's email newsletter? Brief-and-breezy GPL Weekly delivers library news--with handy program registration links--to your inbox every Monday morning.

This six-week Big Books discussion series will meet every Thursday night from April 13 through May 18. Please note that the discussions will take place in the library's Hammond Room (not on Zoom).

Palace Walk is the first novel in a highly lauded trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize in Literature winner Naguib Mahfouz. Set in Cairo during WWI, the drama takes place inside the house of the Jawad family. Strict and pious father al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad holds his family in a steel grip while he hypocritically indulges in after-hours pleasures of city nightlife. His devoted wife, Amina, is forbidden by her husband to leave the four walls of their house, but longs to know what happens outside them. Daughters Khadija and Aisha desire proper Muslim marriages to respectable men so they can follow in the footsteps of their parents. Sons Yasin, Fahmy, and Kamal all struggle with their father’s harsh demands and yet admire the respect he commands in the community. Al-Sayyid Admad is a staunch guardian of tradition, but there is constant tension from the outside world pushing for change. Ultimately, even this father’s iron will cannot stop the forces of transformation in his country and on his family. Experienced Big Books leader Holly Marihugh, M.A., returns to guide the discussions.

Big Books, our longstanding discussion series around significant works of literature, is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library. Registration is required. Glencoe residents take priority if the class fills up. 

Want to receive the library's email newsletter? Brief-and-breezy GPL Weekly delivers library news--with handy program registration links--to your inbox every Monday morning.