2025 Friends of the Library Annual Membership Signup Info
It is once again time to renew your annual membership. Please find attached a letter from our President, Charles Smith, and a 2025 membership form. Membership forms with payment may be mailed to "Friends of the Library, 130 N. Franklin St., Decatur, IL 62523" or brought into our Books & Beyond bookstore during business hours as listed in the letter. Thank you again for supporting your community by supporting Friends of the Library !
2025 FOL Membership Invitation Letter 2025 FOL Membership Form
Books Between Bites – December 4, 2024
Books Between Bites – December 4, 2024 Please join us on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at 12:15 in the Decatur Public Library’s Madden Auditorium for a Books Between Bites.
Book Title: Going Home Author: J.M. Jacob
Presenter: Joy Willett
Copies of Going Home will be available on Dec. 4 for $15 each.
About the Book: Going Home is the story of Izzy, a woman who looks to the past as she faces an uncertain future. Her memories take her to the Virginia plantation where she was born during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. As a youngster, Izzy played in the dirt surrounding the ramshackle cabins where the Jaspers’ slaves lived. Mama, the plantation’s cook, was determined to set Izzy on a path that didn’t include working in the tobacco fields. She did what was needed to get eight-year-old Izzy into the kitchen. Being at Mama’s side was a refuge - one that Izzy, early on, didn’t fully realize she needed. The cruel actions of the Jasper family brought reality into focus. Their brutality, accepted as ordinary on the plantation, threatened Izzy as she matured into a young woman. Although it seemed she was without options, Izzy proved there are choices - if you are willing to take the risk.
About the Author/Presenter: Joy Willett, who writes under the pen name J. M. Jacob, has been in Decatur for three years. She and her husband, David Jacob, have lived in Indiana, Arizona, California, and now Illinois. The couple has fallen in love with the Decatur community, which was not hard given how welcoming everyone has been. Ms. Willett new novella, Going Home, a historical fiction, is the story of Izzy Graham – a woman born into slavery in the 1780s. The book tells of Izzy’s journey away from the Virginia plantation where she was born, and the adventures that give her a new life in freedom.
Currently, Ms. Willett is working on a sequel to Going Home, which brings the Graham family to Central Illinois. She is also a poet and wrote her first poem in middle school. She has self-published several books of poetry including her latest collection, titled A Day Perfect. Originally from Montgomery County, Indiana, Ms. Willett writes for Montgomery Memories, an online historical periodical that is part of the publication “The Paper.” She’s also written three family history books. Going Home is available on Amazon for $15.
Books Between Bites is a free program at the Decatur Public Library, sponsored by the Friends of the Decatur Library
Weekday and Second Saturday Book Sales!
FOL booksales are at the library 3 to 4 days a week! At the new Friends area on the lower level of the library. Every Monday from 10:30am – 2:30pm, Tuesdays from 10:30am – 2:30pm, Thursdays from 3pm – 6:30pm. Second & fourth Saturdays sales are from 9:30am – 12:30pm.
