Color Run - Decatur Public Library
Run (or walk) through the historic addresses of the Decatur Public Library The library has had many "homes" over the past 150 years. This 2 mile fun run will begin and end in the library's greenspace. Then take our runners past the locations where the buildings that housed us stand or once stood.
Registration Coming Soon! $10/registration fee per runner
New 2024 and 2025 releases! $5 for Hardbacks and $3 for paperbacks. Most of our other hardbacks are $1 and paperbacks .50. You simply can’t beat these prices! Open tonight-Thursday 3-6:30.
Annual FOL Membership Application 2025 FOL 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.
FOL Phone Number - We do have an extension number you can use to notify us. Call the library at 217-424-2900 ex 6133. Leave a message and someone will return your call as soon as possible.
Book Donations - Reminder: we are still accepting donations of used books. There is a cart located outside the main library entrance where donations can be left. All genres are needed. This is one of our main routes of fundraising. Thank you again for supporting your community by supporting Friends of the Library ! Thanks.
Please join us on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025, at 12:15 in the Decatur Public Library’s Madden Auditorium for a Books Between Bites.
Book Titles: The Lilac Girls, Lost Roses, and Sunflower Sisters
About the Books: “Lilac Girls” is about socialite Caroline Ferriday and her fight to help a group of concentration camp survivor. Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this powerful debut novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption, and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades. In Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly has crafted a remarkable novel of unsung women and their quest for love, happiness, and second chances. It is a story that will keep readers bonded with the characters, searching for the truth, until the final pages.
“Lost Roses” tells the story of Caroline's mother, Eliza Ferriday. It is 1914 and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva. From the turbulent streets of St. Petersburg to the avenues of Paris and the society of fallen Russian emigre's who live there, the lives of Eliza, Sofya, Varinka, their hired domestic helper, will intersect in profound ways, taking readers on a breathtaking ride through a momentous time in history.
“Sunflower Sisters” depicts Caroline’s great grandmother, Georgeanna Woolsey’s life as a Union nurse who joins the war effort during the Civil War, and how her calling leads her to cross paths with Jemma, a young enslaved girl who is sold off and conscripted into the army, and Ann- May Wilson, a southern plantation mistress whose husband enlists. Inspired by true accounts, Sunflower Sisters provides a vivid, detailed look at the Civil War experience, from the barbaric and inhumane plantations, to a war-torn New York City to the horrors of the battlefield. It's a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty, a story still so relevant today.
About the Author: Martha Hall Kelly is a native New Englander, born in Milton, Massachusetts. She has worked as an advertising copywriter and now splits her time between Connecticut and New York City. The Lilac Girls was her first novel and was on the March 2017 New York Times Best Sellers list. You can find more info about the incredible, true stories behind all of her books at her website: http://www.marthahallkelly.com, on Instagram: @marthahakkkelly, Facebook and on her ever-changing Pinterest page.
About the Presenter: Lisa Betzer retired in 2021 after working for 33 in Decatur school district. She taught English. Her passion subjects were Speech/Debate/drama and Creative Writing. Lisa graduated from Western Illinois University and obtained her Master from Olivet Nazarene. She is on the board of Friends of the Library, a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, Beta Sigma chapter, and a member of the Library book club. Lisa has been married for 40 years to her husband Randy, a retired police officer, and have two children, Kristin and Robert. Robert and his wife Chantel are foster parents. The Betzers attend plays, have University of Illinois season tickets for football and basketball, and like to travel and camp.
Books Between Bites is a free program at the Decatur Public Library, sponsored by the Friends of the Decatur Library
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. And second & fourth Saturdays sales are from 9:30am – 12:30pm.
Book Tok Shelf
We have added more books to the Book Tok shelf. Not all of these books are priced up-if they are not marked they are $1.00 or .50. We have a great selection of blind dates in their permanent home in the bookstore. We are adding children's wrapped books which are titled Story Explorers. Come see us this week Monday & Tuesday 10.30-2:30, Thursday 3-6:30 and Saturday 9:30-12:30.