Fergus Falls Public Library

09/06/2026

09/05/2026

Immersive Nonfiction
By Katelyn Boyer, Adult Services Librarian

I love reading books that I can’t put down. These are some of my favorite, immersive nonfiction reads. Even if you aren’t usually a nonfiction reader, I bet that there is a book on this list for you. These are the types of books that while you’re reading them, you can’t help but tell everyone in your life about the fascinating information you are learning.

“Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection” by John Green
Did I think I would find a book about tuberculosis to be essential reading? No, but novelist John Green’s 198-page book about this topic is utterly engrossing. Even better is the audiobook version, which he reads. On a visit to Sierra Leone, Green befriended a boy with tuberculosis, and became obsessed with the disease. Although tuberculosis is curable, over 1 million people still die from it each year. Green gives us a primer on the history of tuberculosis and talks about why so many people are still suffering from this disease, and how that might change. Green’s writing is smart and gripping. He gives a human face to the hard-to-grasp numbers. This book is great for book club discussions. If you’ve already read this one, try “The Girl in Building C: The True Story of a Teenage Tuberculosis Patient”, edited by Mary Krugerud. This book contains the letters of a 16-year-old Minnesota girl living in a sanatorium in 1943.

“We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade” By Elyce Arons
Elyce Arons met Kate Spade, then Katy Brosnahan, in college. They became fast friends, both smart and with a wicked sense of humor. After college they moved to New York City together, and in 1993 launched the company Kate Spade, making affordable, yet stylish nylon bags. Arons details their decades-long friendship, ending tragically in Katy's su***de in 2018. I love the Kate Spade brand, so I thoroughly enjoyed learning the company's history from an insider's perspective. However, you don't have to like Kate Spade products to race through the pages of this book. This is a funny, fast-paced story of two friends coming of age and tackling the world together, through good times and bad, with laughter and a belief in each other.

“Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir” by Ruth Reichl
I thought I'd pick up this book for a few pages and put it back down again, but Reichl hooked me from the first word. This is her captivating story of leaving her job as a New York Times restaurant critic to become Editor in Chief of Gourmet magazine. I was fascinated by this insider’s look into the world of New York City magazine publishing. Reichl was editor of Gourmet for a decade, from 1999 until the magazine suddenly closed in 2009. Her writing is as luscious as the food she critiques, and food is essential in this memoir. This would make for an interesting book club discussion. If you’re looking for more insider perspectives of the magazine world, I’m currently loving “The Vanity Fair Diaries” by Tina Brown, about her time as editor at Vanity Fair magazine, 1983-1992. I feel fully immersed in the 1980s.

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
This is an exhaustively researched, extremely readable account of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I learned so much about the Soviet economy and nuclear reactor #4 leading up to, during and following the meltdown at Chernobyl in April 1986. Higginbotham spent more than 10 years researching this book and it shows. He follows the stories of many different individuals, both in politics, working at the plant, working in the nearby town of Pripyat, working on the cleanup efforts, etc. Highly recommended for fans of narrative nonfiction.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
This is the shocking story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos, written by the journalist who broke the story. Holmes was a Stanford drop out who Silicon Valley investors fawned over, eventually valuing her company at $9 billion. However, the revolutionary medical equipment Theranos had supposedly created didn’t work, and it never had. Read about the lies upon lies of Holmes’ company and how they were discovered. I couldn’t stop turning the pages; this is true crime at its best.

Katelyn Boyer is the Adult Services Librarian at the Fergus Falls Public Library.

09/04/2026

Rooted in Reading: Another Successful Summer at the Library!
By Arielle McCune, Youth Services Librarian

The “Plant a Seed, Read” 2026 Summer Reading Program at the Fergus Falls Public Library is officially over, and what a busy summer it was! Over 1,600 community members registered for the eight-week program that ran from June 8 to July 31. Summer Reading consists of at-home reading and community-based challenges as well as programs and events held at the library. We also offered our Extra Reading at the Library (ERL) tutoring program for students entering 1st through 6th grade.

Upon registering for the free Summer Reading Program, participants took home gameboards. We had a gameboard for different age categories: Early Learning, Children’s, Teen, and Adult. Registration included 583 adults and 1,075 youth. Each gameboard contains a variety of reading and community challenges to complete. Elementary students who wanted to strengthen reading skills, or students where English was a second language, could participate in a free, weekly 30-minute tutoring session. There were 84 tutoring time slots available each week, including some at Kids Kamp, the summer day camp through the City of Fergus Falls. Participation in ERL helps prevent summer reading regression, also known as the summer slide.

Library youth program highlights included a visit with educators from Chahinkapa Zoo, a Harry Potter teen trivia night, a mysterious plant-themed escape room, and a variety of nature-based arts and crafts programs. We also had a record-breaking year for our Lunch Bunch Book Club, with 45 students in 4th through 8th grade who came to the library each week to eat their lunch and listen while I read “The Green Kingdom” by Cornelia Funke.

The library also offered special grant-funded events which included a coach bus trip to the Cities to visit the Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and Minneapolis Institute of Art, and a family-friendly, engaging performance from Schiffelly Puppets. These programs were sponsored by Fergus Falls Public Library and Viking Library System and funded in part or in whole with monies from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Summers are the busiest months at the Fergus Falls Public Library. We had over 31,000 visits to the library in June and July and registered 322 people for new library cards!

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the sponsors of both the Summer Reading Program and the Extra Reading at the Library program. Thank you to the Friends of the Fergus Falls Public Library, Lundeen Foundation, Papa Murphy’s Pizza, West Central Initiative Endowed Funds, ISD 544 Community Education, Service Food, Northern Aire Lanes, FF Noon Kiwanis, Otter Risers Kiwanis, and Otter Cove. Without the generous contributions from these businesses and organizations, our summer programs and events would not be possible. Looking ahead to the future, the 2027 summer theme will be “Reading Expands Our Universe” and will have a focus on space and science fiction.

09/04/2026

We just added some new hands-on activities in the library's Tween Area!
⭐KEVA Planks
⭐Mad Libs
⭐Insect Rubbing Plates & Crayons

The Tween Area is the perfect place for 8 to 12 year-olds to hang out while at the library. More fun things coming soon! Thank you to the Friends of the Fergus Falls Public Library for purchasing these activities!

09/04/2026

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” ~Dolly Parton

Featuring: "Dolly Parton" by DK

Dolly Parton

09/02/2026

September Library Events -

Experience the world of “The Pirate Queen”, Ariel Lawhon’s newest book, publishing September 8, with our immersive book discussion. Book-lover Sarah Thacker will transform our community room into “The Pirate Queen” with themed food and decor. More details coming soon. Registration will be ...

09/01/2026

🍭Our Candy Land board game was missing two of its gingerbread men. We used our 3D printer to make some new ones! Thanks again to the Friends of the Fergus Falls Public Library for purchasing the printer and filament!

09/01/2026

Stop by the library to pick up free wildflower and swamp milkweed seeds for fall planting. Monarchs love milkweed. You may also see a monarch come out of a chrysalis!

08/31/2026

The library will be closed on Monday, September 7 for Labor Day.

08/29/2026

United for Children
by Krista Kugler, Children's Services Librarian

Have you ever heard a story about a hamster riding a crow that flew out a window, never to be seen again? If this seems unbelievable, I agree. However, comedian Shayne Smith shared this story (and many more) at a recent conference I attended. Needless to say, the whole room was laughing as we pictured a hamster and a crow, soaring around and having the time of their lives.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the 22nd Annual Communities Collaborative Brain Development Conference in Mahnomen, Minnesota. This was an “educational conference dedicated to service providers, teachers, professionals, and parents that work with children ages birth through school-age.” The strategies and information shared were given to “better serve children and families in our communities, including Native American Ojibwe Language and Culture opportunities throughout.” This was my first year attending, but it is a conference I hope to join again in the future.

There were four keynote speakers, all of whom shared motivational and relevant information. Raelene Ostberg, founder of Thriving Together, opened the conference with a session on “Finding Joy.” Her message was to focus on self-care to have the energy and ability to work with children. We often wear stress as a banner, as something to define our lives. We were reminded that stress is not a banner; joy is. I resonated with a quote Raelene shared from Ann Voskamp. It says, “Busy is a choice. Stress is a choice. Joy is a choice. Choose well.” We were all encouraged to find what gives us joy and to do more of that in our daily activities.

I attended two breakout sessions the first day. One was about a Native-owned publishing company and the titles the owners have personally written, as well as titles by other Native authors and illustrators. The stories and books they shared were powerful. My second session was about WonderTrek Children’s Museum. Aimee, the director, presented on the importance of children interacting with the outdoor environment in ways that foster friendships, exploration, and positive risk-taking. She opened her session by asking us to think of our favorite childhood play memory. Go ahead, take a moment and do this. I thought back to when my brothers and I would create houses in the woods out of logs and leaves and chop up old vegetables from the garden to make soup. We loved playing outdoors! Did you know that children spend an average of 4-7 minutes of unstructured playtime outside each day? On the other hand, children use technology an average of 7 hours per day. I was inspired by this session to incorporate more open-ended projects into my programming.

Keynote speaker Chase Mielke presented on how we can strengthen our relationships with other professionals to be more connected and purpose-driven. He talked about how exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy lead to burnout in the early childhood profession. We learned that 57% of Americans feel lonely, making Authentic Interactions the most important A.I. in our lives. The session ended with us having an intentional conversation with a partner about someone who had a significant impact on our lives. There were a few tears shed throughout the room as we shared.

Alyssa Blask Campbell, founder of Seed & Sew, kicked off day two by sharing how we need to look beneath a child’s behavior and see it as a form of communication instead of a problem to be fixed. Alyssa encouraged us to ask, “What is this behavior telling us about the child’s nervous system?” Children often act out because they have learned that it gets them attention, when what they really need is connection. We also had an opportunity to take a quiz to learn how we best regulate and connect with others.

My final breakout session taught us how to work with children who are feisty, lively, and tenacious. A child’s temperament is their language communicated through their behavior. Temperament is simply a reaction to stimuli and is wired from birth. We were encouraged to find strategies to help all children succeed, not just those deemed “easy.”

Our closing speaker was Christophe Fox, a magician and mentalist. He truly amazed us with his tricks and inspired us with his storytelling. His mantra was, “You can only quit on your best day,” not when you’re having a bad day. We were left with the message that we are the magic in children’s lives and the difference we make matters.